African Sleeping Sickness

Abstract

Within the last fifteen years, especially during and since the World War, great changes have taken place in Central Africa, notably the Belgian Congo. The increasing political occupation, and commercial penetration by the white man has brought about profound changes in every phase of native life. Often this contact has been to the detriment of the native, till more and more the preservation of the already small native population has become a vital issue. Without the native as helper, these vast equatorial possessions are of little value to the white man, for native labor is essential for the exploitation of the great copper mines, diamond mines, for coffee plantations, for the building of railways, steamer routes, and for maintenance of agriculture, cattle industry, roads, and commerce in general. Thousands of miles of auto road have been built recently by native labor in this colony.