ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with soldiers in Belgian service, those who served in the indigenous militia, the Force Publique or 'Public Army.' The first soldier-workers of the Congo Free State were men from other parts of Africa, Zanzibari figuring most importantly at the beginning, these being supplemented and then replaced by others. As more and more stations and posts were established in the Congo State, as work increased, and as the Belgians competed with other Europeans for the scarce labor on the west coast, they had to rely on indigenous personnel. Workers were recruited in British territory under agreement with the British government. For example, slaves were purchased at Lagos in 1889, it being understood that they became free on arriving on State territory. The remarkable thing is that central African natives were in the service at all, these whom whites considered savages and cannibals, who had to be subjected to the discipline of military order and manual labor under supervision.
