The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-06-11
WILL STOP SLAVE RAIDING.
Great Britain Makes War Upon the
OverShadOwing EVIL of the
Central Soudan.

Within the past three months Brit
| ish troops under Sir Francis Lugard
| have put an end to the supremacy of
| the sultan Of SokotO, east of the Niger
| river, in the central Soudan. They
! have also occupied the famous town of
kano and subjected its sultan. The
| British flag is now supreme in the
great country of the Hausa tribes be-
| tween the Niger and Lake Tchad, says
! the New York Sun.
One of the most significant announce
ments in long time relating to At
| rica is the statement in the London
| Times that the British now propose to
make an end, once for all, to slave raid
ing and the slave traffic throughout
| the Hausa country.
| The overshadowing evil Of the CEN
| tral Soudan is slave raiding and the
traffic in slaves. Up to this year, the
| evil has been entirely unchecked by
any Caucasian influence; and there is
! probably no other part of Africa of
! equal size where the slave trade in
| recent years has flourished as in the
| Hausa country.
Most of the slaves are obtained. not
/ from outside of Hausaland, but from
/ Hausa villages and towns. The cap
| tors belong to the same tribe and race
/ as the persons they enslaye. The re-
/ suit is that the country has practically
/ been in a condition of perpetual civil
! war.
y petty sultan at any time is likely
| to receive message from his superior
! lord ordering him % send at once Ger
tain number of slaves on pain of hav-
! in his own towns raided. He accord
/ ingly selects some village within his
territory or outside of it, against which
/ he quietly sends a force large enough
/ to overcome all resistance, attacks
| the town, and carries off the inhabit-
| ants.
| Those who resist are killed on the
| spot, and the remainder are marched
away in letters. Many of them have
been included in the annual tribute
| payable TO the sultan Of Solloto, while
| others are sent to some central slave
market TO be sold or taken back to the
| town of their captors.
When c. H. Robinson travelled in
Hausaland a few years ago he said
| that about 1000 slaves were brought
into Kano on a single occasion, as re-
suit of a slaye-raiding expedition. Be
tween Kano and Bida he passed
| large number of towns and villages
! that had recently been destroyed, and
whose inhabitants had been sold as
slaves. This was done not by foreign
| invaders, but by the sultan in whose
| territory the towns were included.
He found that slaves are to a large
extent the currency OF the country. A
native who is about TO travel usually
takes with him slaves proportionate in
| number to the length Of his journey.
After travelling perhaps ECO miles, he
will sell slave and then travel another
100 miles, when he will sell a second,
and thus by the time he returns home
he will have sold all his slaves and de-
voted the money to paying the ex-
pense Of his journey.
! The maximum price for 14-year-Cld
| girl in Kano is about $35 to $50 A
| young man of IS brings about $50, a
man of 80 about $20-the price decreas.
ing as the age advances
This is one of the more thickly peo-
pied parts of Africa, and it will be
great blessing to the hundreds of thou
sands when the terrible evil of slave
raiding is thoroughly suppressed. Life
! is not secure in Hausaland. Few per-
sons know whether they will continue
! to have a home, a family and liberty
! from one weeks end to another.
The certainty tina. the British have
the power and the intention to sup
press this terrible evil betokens bet
| ter days and more prosperous and
peaceful times for this region, which,
in spite of the barbarism from which
it has suffered, is in many respects
more highly developed than most parts
of tropical Africa.