An Investigation into the Mortality among Scandinavian Emigrants to the Congo

Abstract

In September 1905, at the request of Director Sven Palme, 1 began an investigation into the mortality among Scandinavian emigrants to the Congo, based upon a portion of the Statistical Reports contained in a work entitled “Scandinavians in the Congo”, published in the summer of 1905 by the Danish Lieut.-Colonel H. Jenssen-Tusch. I submit herewith the following account of the manner in which the investigation in question was carried out.The material is gathered from the “Chronological Record” respecting 922 Scandinavian Congo Emigrants 1878-1904” contained in “Supplement No. 1” to “Scandinavians in the Congo.” This record gives the number, nationality, name, occupation and date of entry for all Scandinavians emigrating to the Congo in each of the years from 1878 to 1904. The records as to date of birth and date of exit from the material for observation have been obtained partly, and to the greater extent, from “Scandinavians in the Congo”, further from the “Swedish Mission Society's” Register of Missionaries sent out, and, finally, from official statements prepared ministerially by the General Secretariat of the Congo State.The whole material is thus constituted of 922 persons, of whom 236 died during the period of observation—of these, 24 during the journey home from the Congo or later on as a result of residence in the Congo. From this material the whole number of entrants in the year 1904 has been separated-altogether 60 persons—because for these, with the exception of information as to the date of entry, the other necessary data were wanting in nearly every case.