The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-16
SLAVERY In AFRICA.
SIR GEORGE oOLoE HAS ENDED 1T IN
WESTERN SUDAN.


man Beings No Longer Countenanced.
Crushing the Tyrants Of Benin and
Nupe-Africa's Finest Race.
Amid all the evil and the good that
men are doing in Africa-and they are
doing much of both-amid the wrangles
Of states and the clash of powers, one
achievement of vast benefioence has
been performed so unostentatiously that
it is actually in danger of being over
looked and ignored by the world. A
British army advances few leagues
up the Nile, and Europe is copvulsed. a
tributary Boer colony defies its suzerain
power, and the world looks on breath
less. The titular sultan of Zanzibar
emancipates the slaves held in his own
palace and the few roods of land adJoin-
ing still left TO him of his domain, and
long dispatches are cabled and leading
articles written about it. But when a
quiet matter of fact administrator who,
as Kipling sang of "Bobs," does not
advertise, abolishes slavery among the
millions of the finest native race III the
whole continent and cuts up by the
roots one of the greatest slave trading
organizations in the world, belated ref
erence is made to the fact in an obscure
line or two. The name of Sir George
Goldie is not the most familiar in the
world, and the statement that he has
abolished the slave system imposed by
the Foulahs upon the Houssas may not
convey striking significance to the av-
erage ear. Yet there has not for many
day come out of Africa worthier bit
of news.
The western Sudan-that is, the Nj
ger country, extending from the shores
of the gulf of Guinea to the famous and
mysterious city of Timbuktu-is one of
the richest and most populous regions OF
all Africa and is occupied by the best
of all the native tribes. Among these
latter first place must be given to the
Houssas. Physically and intellectually
they show a magnificent development.
They are at once brave and docile and
have an industrial capacity of very
high order. There are not many finer
troops in the world than the Houssa
regiments Of the British army. But
these people and the neighboring tribes
were long ago conquered in a "holy
war; by the Mohammedan Foulahs, a
semi-Arab tribe led by one Gilman
Dan Fodio, and they have since been
held in subsection to them, largely
! through religious superstition. The sue
cessors of Fodio, the present emperor
being the eleventh, have thus reigned
| over vast empire of incalculable
wealth. Kano, in SoIoto, is its capital,
| Of which place the commercial impor-
lance may be reckoned from the fact
that its central market place Is thronged
/ by daily average of from 20, 900 to
80, 600 traders from all parts of the
continent-Marocco, Egypt, Zanzibar,
the Kongo, Angola and the Cape-and
its cloth factories clothe more than one
half the people of the whole western
and central Sudan.
The curse of this region has been the
slave system imposed by the Foulahs,
( not only upon the Houssas, but upon
all neighboring tribes and even extend
ing to remote parts of the continent.
s The raiding and the trafficking in slaves
| mas. tanned by the emperor OF SokotO
has for years amounted to more than
that of all the rest of Africa put to-
gether. The system has been responsible
for countless horrible excuses, such as
those of Nupe and Benin, and has
served more than all else to prevent the
progress of that part of Africa toward
high civilization.
Now. happily. it is ended. The Brit
ish administrator in Nigeria, Sir George
Goldie, has ended it once and forever.
He has crushed the bloody tyrants OF
Benin and Nupe with a strong hand
and has sent forth an edirt, which will
be obeyed, that there shall be no more
slave raiding or trading in all that land
The Foulahs, who form scarcely one
sixth of the population. will no longer
be allowed to tyrannize over the Hous
sas. The latter, some 1900, 900 strong
will enjoy the blessings Of freedom ano
good government and may confidently
be expected to attain fine degree OF
civilization. There has not been great
er work done for humanity in the darl
continent since the achievements o.
Gordon and Baker in the eastern Sudai
than that done in Nigeria by Sir Georg'
Goldie. New York Tribune.