This Is
Not Open To The Criticism That The Stuff Was Too Bad For The
Togolanders To Eat, As Was
Once said to me by a philanthropic German
who had never been to the Coast, because the Duallas are a
Rich
tribe, perfectly free traders in the matter, able to go to the river
factories and buy provisions there had they wished to, and so would
not have bought the Government rations unless they were worth
having. The great point that has brought the Germans into disrepute
with the natives employed by them is their military spirit, which
gives rise to a desire to regulate everything; and that other
attribute of the military spirit, nagging. You should never nag an
African, it only makes him bothered and then sulky, and when he's
sulky he'll lie down and die to spite you. But in spite of the
Germans being over-given to this unpleasant habit of military
regularity and so on, the natives from the Kru Coast and from Bassa
and the French Ivory Coast return to them time after time for spells
of work, so there must be grave exaggeration regarding their bad
treatment, for these natives are perfectly free in the matter.
The French use Loango boys for factory hands, and these people are
very bright and intelligent, but as a M'pongwe, who knew them well,
said: "They are much too likely to be devils to be good too much"
and are undoubtedly given to poisoning, which is an unpleasant habit
in a house servant.
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