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This article focuses on a letter from a colonial administrator in the Belgian Congo, dated June 1910, denouncing the omnipresence of so-called domestic slavery in the Mayombe area. To explain this form of slavery, the writer places at the heart of his understanding the exclusion of slaves from the matrilineal system. Analysis of the letter allows us to examine the gendered forms of servitude in the context of colonial Mayombe and the specific nature of slavery in a matrilineal context. It also reveals the ambiguities and contradictions of Belgian colonial policy in the Congo, while revealing divergences within the administration itself. As a classic source of African and colonial history, administrative documents continue to provide fertile ground for historical analysis.