Ernest Baert
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Ernest Baert | |
|---|---|
 Baert and Camille Van den Plas from Camille Coquilhat, Sur le Haut Congo 1882–1886, Paris, 1888 | |
| Born | 12 August 1860 Brussels, Belgium |
| Died | 15 August 1894 (aged 34) Dungu, Congo Free State |
| Occupations | Soldier, explorer and colonial administrator |
Ernest Baert (12 August 1860 – 15 August 1894) was a Belgian soldier, explorer and colonial administrator who was active in the Congo Free State.
Ernest Baert was born in Brussels on 12 August 1860. His parents were Polydore Baert and Emilie-Bernardine Duvieusart. He entered the Ecole Militaire on 4 December 1876. He was appointed second lieutenant on 22 December 1878 and assigned on 19 April 1881 to the 5th artillery regiment. He was seconded to the Military Cartographic Institute, and entered service with the International Association of the Congo on 16 June 1885.[1]
First Congo term (1885–1888)
Baert embarked on 29 June 1885 at Antwerp on the Baltimore and arrived at Banana on 28 July 1885 He reached Vivi on 2 August 1885. He was assigned to the study of the Bas-Congo railway line, then assigned to the topographic brigade. He spent the first part of his term in the Bas-Congo. He was appointed to replace Willem Frans Van Kerckhoven at the Bangalas station, which he reached on 28 April 1886.[1]
The former station head, Camille Coquilhat, was fairly diplomatic and had relied on agreements with the local people and the protection of the chief Mata-Boike, with whom he had exchanged blood.[2]After Mata-Boike's death in 1886, the inhabitants of the station felt threatened and began to use force against the neighboring villages. The European leaders at the time, Baert and Van Kerckhoven, were no longer bound by blood pacts. They set out to bring the local population into total submission. Baert attacked the Bapoto of Lisala on the pretext of the release of the soldiers captured by the Bapoto. Van Kerckhoven subdued the villages in the South to end the slave trade on the Lulonga River.[3]
Baert undertook two explorations of the Mongala River despite the hostility of the local people, who attempted to capture the steamers. He left Bangala on 23 November 1886 and ascended the Mongala on the A.I.A. for 66 hours to the furthest point reached by his predecessors George Grenfell and Camille Coquilhat. The large local population became increasingly hostile as the expedition advanced, and attacked it several times. He reached Mongwandi (Businga) and the Ebola-Dua confluence on 1 December 1886, and founded a station at Moboika before returning to Bangalas. He had shown that the Mongala could be used as a route to reach the Ubangi and Uele rivers. Baert made many improvements to the post of Bangalas. He set up sites for the manufacture of tiles and paving stones, and increased the cultivation of coffee and cotton. He was replaced at Bangalas by Hubert Lothaire.[1]
Accompanied by Tippu Tip Baert traveled by land, in a particularly marshy region, from Yambuya on the Aruwimi River to Yangambi on the Congo River in four stages of 8–11 hours of walking. He reached Yangambi on 17 January 1888. At the end of his term of service he went down to Boma, then to Banana on 20 June 1888, where he embarked for Europe. On his return to Belgium he was received by the king and queen, who congratulated him on his explorations.[1]
Second Congo term (1889–1892)
Albert
Baert was appointed a district commissioner, left Antwerp on 18 May 1889 on the Lualaba and reached Boma on 19 June 1889.[1] He took over the Bangalas district from Van Kerkhoven on 8 October 1889. He continued his predecessor's system of using rivers to expand power into the interior. At the start of 1890 he went up the Lulonga River to the Maringa River, ascended the Maringa and founded a post in Bauru "to combat and prevent incursions by bands of slavers."[4] He founded the Basankusu post at the confluence of the Maringa and the Lopori in May 1890 to stop the Arab raids and put an end to cannibalism and the slave trade. He left Lothaire in command of the post. At first the local people fully supported the pacification of the region, but later the Belgians began a policy of oppression and terror against villages that did not harvest the required amount of rubber.[5]
In 1890 he founded the post of Mongwandi at Businga on the Mongala.[6] During an exploration of the Itimbiri River, below the Go Rapids Baert met Jérôme Becker and Sultan Djabir who were going to Djabir's residence on the Zagiri River, a tributary of the Uele River. Baert explored the Lopori River and founded a station at the confluence of this river and the Maringa, at Basankusu. He then handed over command to Lieutenant Lothaire at the end of his second term, and returned to Europe on 30 April 1892.[1]