RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
/Ancient Inhabitants of Africa/--Succession of races on the “dark
continent”--/Present Inhabitants of Africa/--/I/. _Arabo-Berber
or Semito-Hamite Group_: Populations of Mediterranean Africa
and Egypt--/II/. _Ethiopian or Kushito-Hamite Group_: Bejas,
Gallas, Abyssinians, etc.--/III/. _Fulah-Zandeh Group_: The
Zandeh, Masai, Niam-Niam populations of the Ubangi-Shari, etc.,
Fulbé or Fulahs--/IV/. _Nigritian Group_: Nilotic Negroes or
Negroes of eastern Sudan--Negroes of central Sudan--Negroes of
western Sudan and the Senegal--Negroes of the coast or Guinean
Negroes, Kru, Agni, Tshi, Vei, Yoruba, etc.--/V/. _Negrillo
Group_: Differences of the Pygmies and the Bushmen--/VI/. _Bantu
Group_: Western Bantus of French, German, Portuguese, and Belgian
equatorial Africa--Eastern Bantus of German, English, and
Portuguese equatorial Africa--Southern Bantus: Zulus, etc.--/VII/.
_Hottentot-Bushman Group_: The Namans and the Sans--/VIII/.
_Populations of Madagascar_: Hovas, Malagasi, Sakalavas.
The term “Black Continent” is often applied to Africa, but it must
not therefore be supposed that it is peopled solely by Negroes.
Without taking into account the white Arabo-Berbers and the yellow
Bushmen-Hottentots, which have long been known, it may now be shown,
after a half-century of discovery, that the population of Africa
presents a very much greater variety of types and races than was
formerly imagined.
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF AFRICA.
We are only just beginning to know something about prehistoric Africa.
Egypt, that classic land of the oldest historic monuments of the earth,
has yielded in late years, thanks to the excavations of Flinders
Petrie, D’Amelineau, and above all, of De Morgan, a large quantity of
wrought stone objects, similar in character to those of Europe, and if
certain objections may still be raised in regard to the palæolithic
period of Egypt, which is not dated by a fauna, we can scarcely deny
the existence of the _neolithic_ period in this country, the period
which preceded or was contemporaneous with the earliest dynasties of
which monuments have yet been discovered.[480]
Hatchets, knives, and scrapers of very rude palæolithic and neolithic
types have been discovered in Cape Colony (W. Gooch, J. Sanderson);
flint arrow-heads and implements of the Chellean type in the country of
the Somalis, in the Congo Free State;[481] ironstone arrow-heads in the
country of the Monbuttus (Emin Pacha). Numerous stone implements and
weapons of various palæolithic types, much finer than the preceding, as
well as neolithic hatchets, have been found in Algeria (at Tlemcen), in
South Algeria (at El-Golea, etc.), and as far as Timbuctoo (Weisgerber,
Lenz, Collignon, etc.). Lastly, Tunis presents a progressive series
of palæolithic implements absolutely similar to those of Europe in
several stations (at Gafsa and, in a general way, west from the Gulf of
Gabes).[482] But all these finds are very isolated and too far removed
one from another to enable us to infer from them the existence of one
and the same primitive industry over the whole continent.[483] Numerous
facts on the contrary, particularly the absence of stone implements
among the most primitive of the existing tribes of Africa (with the
exception of the perforated round stone with which the digging-stick
is weighted, as well as the stone pestles met with among some Negro
tribes), and the rarity of superstitions associated with stone
implements, lead us to suppose that the stone age only existed on the
dark continent in a sporadic state and in virtue of local and isolated
civilisations. Further, the absence of bronze implements, outside of
Egypt, leads us to suppose that the majority of the peoples of Africa,
with the exception of the inhabitants of Egypt and the Mediterranean
coast, passed from the age of bone and wood to that of iron almost
without transition.
Several palæethnologists go so far as to think that the iron industry
was imported into Europe from Africa. At all events skilful smiths
(Fig. 135) are found in the centre of Africa among Negro tribes
somewhat backward in other respects.
Historic data are lacking in regard to most of the peoples of Africa,
especially for remote periods, except in Egypt. However, combining the
various historic facts known to us with the recent data of philology
and those, still more recent, of anthropology, we may assume with
sufficient probability the following superposition of races and peoples
in Africa.
The primitive substratum of the population is formed of Negroes, very
tall and very black, in the north; of Negrilloes, brown-skinned dwarfs,
in the centre; of Bushmen, short, yellow, and steatopygous, in the
south. On this substratum was deposited at a distant but indefinite
period the so-called Hamitic element of European or Asiatic origin, the
supposed continuators of the Cro-Magnon race.[484] This element has
been preserved in a comparatively pure state among the Berbers, and
perhaps has been transformed by interminglings with the Negroes, into
a new race, analogous to the Ethiopian, with which we must probably
connect the ancient Egyptians. The Berbers drove back the Negroes
towards the south, while the Ethiopians, a little later, filtered
through the Negroid mass from east to west. This infiltration continues
at the present day.
A new wave of migration followed that of the Hamites. These were the
southern Semites or Himyarites who crossed from the other side of the
Red Sea. Probably as far back as the Egyptian neolithic period they
began the slow but sure process of modifying the Berbers, Ethiopians,
and Negroes of the north-east of Africa.
The Negro populations driven back towards the south were obliged
to intermingle with the Negrillo pygmies, the Ethiopians, and
Hottentot-Bushmen, and gave birth to the Negro tribes composing
to-day the great linguistic family called _Bantu_. Bantu migrations,
at first from the north to the south, then in the opposite direction
and towards the west, have been authenticated.[485] As a consequence
of the interminglings due to these migrations, the Negrilloes and
the Hottentots have been absorbed to a great extent by the Bantus,
and the rare representatives of these races, still existing in a
state of relative purity, are to-day driven back into the most
unhealthy and inhospitable regions of Central and Southern Africa.
The last important invasion of alien peoples into Africa was that of
the Northern Semites or Arabs. It was, rather, a series of invasions,
ranging from the first century /B.C./ to the fifteenth century,
when the climax was reached. The Arab tribes have profoundly modified
certain Berber and Ethiopian populations from the somatic point of
view as well as the ethnic. Moreover, the Arab influence under the
form of Islamism continues to the present time its onward march over
the dark continent, making from the north-east to the south-west. The
Guinea coast, the basin of the Congo, and Southern Africa alone have
as yet remained untouched by this influence. Let us note in conclusion
the Malay-Indonesian migration towards Madagascar, and the European
colonisation begun in the seventeenth century.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 135.--Arts and crafts among the Kafirs. To the
left, pottery making (coiling method); to the right, smiths and a
breaker of iron ore; in the middle, woman playing a harp.
(_Drawing by P. Moutet, partly after Wood._)]
EXISTING POPULATIONS OF AFRICA.
Putting on one side the Madagascar islanders and the European and
other colonists,[486] the thousands of peoples and tribes of the
“dark continent” may be grouped, going from north to south, into six
great geographical, linguistic, and, in part, anthropological units:
1st, the Arabo-Berbers or Semito-Hamites; 2nd, the Ethiopians or
Kushito-Hamites; 3rd, the Fulah-Zandeh; 4th, the Negrilloes or Pygmies;
5th, the Nigritians or Sudanese-Guinea Negroes; 6th, the Bantus; 7th,
the Hottentot-Bushmen.[487]
I. The _Arabo-Berber_ or _Semito-Hamitic_ group occupies the north of
Africa as far as about the 15th degree of lat. N., and is composed, as
its name indicates, of peoples having as a base the Arab and Berber
races. Under the name of _Berbers_ are included populations varying
very much in type and manners and customs, speaking either Arabic
(Semitic language) or Berberese (Hamitic language). Three-fourths
of the “Arabs” of Northern Africa are only Berbers speaking Arabic,
and are the more “Arabised” in regard to manners and customs as they
are nearer to Asia. The nomads of the Libyan desert and Tripoli have
preserved fairly well the Berber type, but they have become Arabs in
language and usages. In Tunis and Algeria the Arab influence is still
very much felt in the south; in Morocco it is very trifling. From the
social point of view, the contrast is great between the settled Berber
and the nomadic Arab. To give but one example, the democratic _régime_
of the former, based on private property, bears no resemblance whatever
to the autocratic _régime_ of the latter, founded on collective
property. But all the Berbers are not of settled habits (example: the
Tuaregs), and several tribes have adopted the Arab mode of life.[488]
Physically, the Algero-Tunisian Berber also differs from the Arab.
His height is scarcely above the average (1 m. 67), while the Arab
is distinguished by his lofty stature. The Berber head is, generally
speaking, not so long as the Arab, although both are dolichocephalic.
The face is a regular oval in the Arab, almost quadrangular in the
pure Berber. The nose is aquiline in the former, straight or concave
in the latter, and moreover, the Berbers have a sort of transverse
depression on the brow, above the glabella, which is not seen in the
Arabs; on the other hand, they have not so prominent an occiput as the
latter. This characterisation is quite general; in reality, among the
Arabs, and especially among the Berbers, there is a very great variety
of type. According to Collignon,[489] four Berber sub-races or types
must be recognised. (1) The _Djerba_ sub-race, characterised by short
stature, globular head (ceph. ind. on the living sub. 78 to 81.7), is
well represented in the populations of the south-east and the east
Tunisian coast, as well as by certain _Kabyles_, by the _Mzabs_,[490]
and the _Shawias_ of the Aures. (2) The _Elles type_, dolichocephalic,
with broad face, occupies the centre of Tunis and the east of Kabylia.
(3) The _dolichocephalic Berber sub-race_, with narrow face and stature
above the average, forms the present type in Algeria-Tunisia. (4) The
_Jerid_ or _Oasis type_ (Fig. 136), of somewhat lofty stature and dark
complexion, is well represented around the Tunisian “Shotts.”
[Illustration: /Fig./ 136.--Tunisian Berber, Oasis type. Ceph. ind. 70.
(_After Collignon._)]
Among the nomadic Berbers we must mention separately the _Tuaregs_ or
_Imoshagh_, as they call themselves,[491] with their manifold divisions
(_Azjars_, _Haggars_, etc.) spread over the western Sahara. Very
characteristic of their costume is the black veil which covers the head
leaving only the eyes free, the stone rings on the arms forming also
a very national ornament. They employ certain characters in writing
peculiar to themselves. In the _Maghrebi_, who roam over the plateaus
situated to the west of the Nile, the Arab strain is very strongly
marked.[492] On the other side of the great African river, towards the
Red Sea, the Berbers have entirely disappeared and the population is
formed of Arabs more or less unmixed. The Bedouins of Egypt (237,000
in 1894) are Berber-Arabs divided into numerous tribes (_Aulad-Ali_,
_Gavazi_, _Eleikat_, etc.).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 137.--Trarza-Moor of the Senegal.
(_Phot. Collignon._)]
The nomadic or settled _Moors_ (Fig. 137) of the western Sahara,
extending from Morocco to the Senegal (the _Trarza_, the _Brakna_,
etc.), speak Arabic and “Zenagha,” which is a Berber dialect. These
are Berbers more or less crossed with Negro blood. It must further
be observed that the name of Moors is very wrongly applied to the
Mussulman inhabitants of the towns of Algeria and Tunis and to the
_Riffians_ of Morocco.[493]
The _Fellaheen_, Mussulmans (635,600 in 1894) of the lower valley of
the Nile (as far as the first cataract), mixed descendants of the
ancient Egyptians, must be included among the Arabo-Berbers because
they have abandoned the speech of their ancestors, adopting that of the
Arabs, but many of them have preserved intact the type of the primitive
Egyptians, fundamentally Ethiopian, so well represented on various
monuments in the valley of the Nile.[494] The ancient Egyptian language
is preserved, however, under the form of the _Coptic_ dialect which,
until quite recent times, served as the liturgical language to the
Christian section of the inhabitants of Lower Egypt, known by the name
of _Copts_ (500,000 in 1894; cephalic index 76, according to Chantre).
We must likewise add to the Arabo-Berber group the _Barabra_ (in the
singular _Berberi_) inhabiting to the number of about 180,000 the part
of the Nile valley situated between the first and the fourth cataract.
It is a people sprung from the intermingling of Ethiopians, Egyptian
Fellaheen, and Arabs (ceph. ind. 76). One of the most commercial tribes
of this ethnic group is that of the _Danagla_ inhabiting the country of
Dongola.
II. The _Ethiopians_ or _Kushito-Hamites_, who are sometimes called
_Nuba_ or _Nubians_,[495] inhabit the north-east of Africa, from the
25th degree lat. N. to the 4th degree lat. S. They occupy almost all
the coast land of the Red Sea, and that of the Indian Ocean from the
Gulf of Aden to Port Durnford or Wubashi. Their territory is bounded
on the west by the Nile, the Bahr-el-Azrek, the western edge of the
Abyssinian plateau, Lake Rudolf and Mount Kenia.[496]
In the northern part of this territory dwell the _Bejas_ or _Nubians_,
the different tribes of which, _Bejas_ or _Bisharin_, _Hamrans_ (Fig.
138), _Hadendowas_, _Hallengas_, etc., are stationed one after another
between the Red Sea and the Nile, from the first cataract to the
Abyssinian plateau. Certain Beja tribes, like the _Ababdeh_ (19,500),
to the north in Upper Egypt, partly of settled habits, the _Beni-Amer_
to the east, the _Jalin_ to the west, are in a large measure Arabised,
but still speak a Hamitic language, while side by side with them dwell
Semitised Ethiopian tribes, speaking only Arabic like the _Habab_ and
the _Hassanieh_ of the Bayuda steppe or the _Abu-Rof_ and _Shukrieh_
of the lower basin of the Blue Nile.[497] It is in the same category
of Semitised Ethiopians, but speaking the _Amharinga_ and _Tigrenga_
dialects, etc., which have sprung from a different Semitic language,
_Ghéez_, that we must place the inhabitants of the north and east of
Abyssinia, as well as the natives of Kaffa and the east of Shoa, who
have sprung from the intermingling of the _Gallas_ (see below) with the
Arabs.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 138.--Hamran Beja of Daghil tribe; height,
1 m. 79, 25 years old. Hair arrangement characteristic of Ethiopians.
(_Author’s coll._)]
The _Amharinga_ language is spoken in Amhara and Godjam; the _Tigrenga_
farther to the north, in Tigre; the _Curagheh_, derived from the
ancient Amharinga, to the west of Lake Zuwai and to the south of
Shoa, and the sources of the Hawash. The term “Abyssinian” has only a
political signification, like that of “Austrian” for example; it is a
corruption of the word “Habeshi” (“mixed”), which the Arabs formerly
gave in derision to the inhabitants of the Abyssinian plateau united
together into a Christian state. The substratum of the population
of the Abyssinian plateau is formed by the _Agaw_, Ethiopian in
type, Hamitic in language, but the Abyssinians of the higher classes
are strongly Semitised. The national religion of the Abyssinians is
monophysite Christianity, closely allied to the Coptic religion, but
impregnated with Mussulman, Judaic, and indigenous animist elements.
To the south of the Abyssinian plateau, from the neighbourhood of Lake
Tsana to the extreme limits of the extension of the Ethiopian peoples
to the south and west is the territory of the _Gallas_ or _Oroma_,
representing the purest Ethiopian type. To the east of the Gallas, from
about the 42nd degree long. east of Greenwich, dwell the _Somalis_,
probably only Gallas more or less intermingled with the Arabs, who
for several centuries have overrun the country. They occupy the whole
of the seaboard from Cape Jibuti (at the southern extremity of Obok)
to the mouth of the Jeb, or Jubba, and the plain of Aji-Fiddah, which
extends below the equator, but in the interior of their country,
especially in the north, numerous Galla tribes are found.
To the north of the Gallas, between Abyssinia and the coast (from
Cape Jibuti to Hamfila Bay), are the _Afar_ (in the plural _Afara_)
or _Danakil_ (_Dankali_ is in the singular), who form the bulk of
the population of the French colony of Obok-Tajura. Physically they
resemble the Somalis, but they are less Arabised. To the north of
the Danakil there is a population akin, it is said, to the Agaw, or
aborigines of Abyssinia, and known by the name of _Saho_ or _Shaho_.
It occupies the southern part of the country of Massowah, the northern
being taken by the Ethiopian tribes known by the collective name of
Massowans.[498]
From the somatological point of view, the Ethiopians are characterised
by a rather high stature (1 m. 67 on the average), a brownish or
chocolate-coloured complexion with a reddish tinge, by an elongated
head (average ceph. ind., 75.7 to 78.1 on the living subject,
according to Chantre), frizzy hair, intermediate between the curly
hair of the Arabs and the woolly hair of the Negroes, and lastly by
the face elongated to a perfect oval, and the prominent, straight or
convex, very narrow nose.[499] Thin and slender, the Ethiopians have
fine ankles and wrists, long and very sinewy limbs (especially the
fore-arm), broad shoulders, and conical-shaped trunk like the ancient
statues of Egypt. In short, they are good representatives of the
Ethiopian race.
III. _Fulah-Zandeh Group._--Under this term we include the whole series
of populations resulting from the intermingling of the Ethiopians and
the Nigritians (or Sudanese Negroes), and extending from east to west
across the whole of Africa, over a belt of 5 to 6 degrees in width.
This belt passes through the following regions, starting from the
east: The country of the Masai (between Lake Rudolf and the 6th degree
of latitude S.); the region comprised between the upper valleys of
the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Arab on the one hand and
the basin of the Ubangi-Welle on the other; Darfur, Dar-Runga, Wadai,
Baghirmi, and Bornu; Dar Banda and the upper basin of the Shari; a good
part of the basin of the Niger-Benue and the whole of the basin of the
Senegal. This territorial zone may be divided from the ethnographical
point of view into two distinct portions by the line of the watershed
between the basins of the Nile and Congo on the one hand and the
basins of the Chad, Niger, and Senegal on the other. To the east of
this line dwell, in compact groups, the Zandeh or Niam-Niam, Masai,
and other populations who have sprung from the intermingling of the
Ethiopians with the Negroes of the eastern Sudan (Nilotic Negroes), and
in some rarer cases with the Negrilloes and Bantus. To the west, on the
contrary, we find, scattered over an immense tract, isolated groups of
one population only, that of the _Fulahs_ or _Peuls_, sprung from the
crossings of Ethiopians with the Negroes of the central and western
Sudan, and further impregnated with a strain of Arabo-Berber blood.
In the eastern group, which I propose to call provisionally the Zandeh
group, we find the _Masai_ and the _Wakuafi_ peoples of an Ethiopian
type modified by intermingling with the Nilotic Negroes of the north,
with the Bantus and perhaps with the Bushmen of the south, to judge by
the photographs published by Luschan. The Masai speak a Nilotic-Negro
language. On the north-east they touch the habitat of the Gallas, and
are surrounded on every other side by Bantu tribes, except on the
north-west, where, between Lake Rudolf and the upper Bahr-el-Jebel,
exist populations still imperfectly known, the _Latukas_, the _Turkan_,
the _Lurems_, who are probably half-breeds in various degrees of
Ethiopians and Nilotic Negroes,[500] as are the _Drugu_ and the
_Lendu_ of the region of the sources of the Ituri, the _Loggos_ and
the _Momvus_ or _Mombuttus_ (who must not be confounded with the
_Mangbattus_) of the upper valley of the Kibali.[501]
To the west of these tribes, in the basin of the Ubangi-Welle, we find
a compact group of several peoples who, under various names, have
however a certain family likeness in their physical type, manners and
customs, and language. These are, in the first place, the _Niam-Niam_
or _Zandeh_, who with their congeners the _Banja_ dwell to the north
of the Welle. They extend beyond the ridge which divides this river
from the White Nile, in the upper valleys of the Sere, the Jubé, and
other tributaries of the great river. We also find a few isolated
Zandeh groups to the south of the Welle, but the greater part of the
country watered by the left tributaries of this waterway is the domain
of the _Ababuas_, the _Abarmbos_, and the _Mangbattus_ or _Monbuttus_,
remarkable for their light skin, as well as the lighter shade of their
hair compared with that of the other Zandehs (fair hair in five per
cent.). The Niam-Niam extend to the eastward to the country of the
Makaraka (tribes of _Bombeh_, _Idio_, etc.), where they intermingle
with the _Mundus_ and the _Babukurs_. On the north-west the Zandeh
are in contact with tribes still little known, like the _Krej_ (basin
of the upper Bahr-el-Arab), the _Bandas_, and the _N’Sakkaras_, who,
however, seem to be closely related.[502]
The Niam-Niam and the Mangbattus, who may be taken as types of
Zandeh populations, suggest physically the Ethiopians; however,
strains of Nilotic-Negro blood are manifest among them. They have a
civilisation well characterised by several traits in their material
life: anthropophagy (see p. 147), garments of bast (p. 183), ornaments
worn in the nostrils and in the lips perforated for the purpose,
spiral-shaped bracelets, weapons of a particular kind (pp. 259 and
269), partly borrowed from the Egyptians, as were perhaps their harp,
bolster, and so many other objects. They are cultivators using the hoe
(p. 192), fetichists partly converted to Islamism and forming little
despotic states.[503]
The populations encountered by the travellers Crampel, Dybowski, and
Maistre westward of the countries peopled by the Zandeh, between
the Ubangi and the Grinbingi (one of the principal branches of the
Shari), must also be connected with the Zandeh group. These are, going
from south to north, the _Bandziri_, the _Ndris_, the _Togbo_, the
_Languassi_, the _Dakoa_, the _Ngapu_, the _Wia-Wia_, the _Mandjo_, the
_Awaka_, and the _Akunga_. The physical type of these tribes suggests
that of the Niam-Niam, except the stature, which is higher, (1 m.
73, according to Maistre). The language common to all these peoples,
_Ndris_, differs from the Bantu dialects spoken on the Congo, and
appears to approximate to the Zandeh language. As to their material
culture and civilisation, these are almost the same as among the Zandeh
tribes.[504]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 139.--Yoro Combo, fairly pure Fulah of Kayor
(Futa-Jallon); height, 1 m. 72; ceph. ind., 68.3; nas. ind., 81.2.
(_Phot. Collignon._)]
The _western group_ of the great Fulah-Zandeh division, of which I
have spoken above, is formed of a population more homogeneous in
type and language than the Zandeh, but dispersed in isolated groups
in the midst of the Negroes. These are the _Fulbés_ or _Fulahs_[505]
speaking the Fulah tongue, their true name being _Pul-bé_ (in the
singular _Pul-o_, which means “red” or “light-brown” in the Fulah
tongue). The Mandingans call them _Fulbé_, the Hausas _Fellani_, the
Kanuri _Fellata_. It is a mixed population, the substratum of which is
Ethiopian but with a predominance either of Arab and Berber, or Negro
elements.[506]
The favourite occupations of the Fulahs, stock-breeding and war, lead
them away on more or less distant migratory journeys and expeditions;
thus it happens that they are found dispersed among the Nigritian
populations over a large tract of country comprised between the lower
Senegal and 10° latitude N. on the one part, and from Darfur to the
hinterland of the Cameroons on the other part. A fact to be noted in
regard to their geographical distribution is that they have not yet
reached any point on the coast of the Atlantic. They are especially
numerous in the valleys of the Senegal and the Niger-Benue, as well as
in Futa-Jallon and Darfur. The latter country is probably the primitive
country of the Fulahs, whence they set out towards the west and the
south; their migrations from the Senegal towards the east are of recent
date and continue to the present day.
IV. _The Nigritians._--We include under this name all the Negro
populations who do not speak the Bantu dialects; these populations
exhibit as a rule the classic traits of the Negro: lofty stature (from
1 m. 70 among the Mandingans to 1 m. 73 among the Furs and the Wolofs,
according to Collignon, Deniker, Felkin, Verneau, etc.), very marked
dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. reaching from 73.8 among
the Toucouleurs to 76.9 among the Ashantis, according to the same
authors), black skin, woolly hair in a continuous mat, large and flat
nose (nas. ind. varying from 96.3 among the Negroes of Tunis to 107.5
among the Ashantis), forehead bulging on the median line and often
retreating, thick lips projecting outward, frequent prognathism. The
territory of the various peoples composing the Nigritian group may
be defined as follows: on the north, a wavy line which at first,
going from the mouth of the Senegal to the great bend of the Niger,
then deviates little from the fourteenth parallel going to the
Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Nile; on the south, the coast of the Gulf of
Guinea to the Cameroons, then the mountain ranges of Adamawa and the
seventh degree of latitude N., to the countries occupied by the peoples
of the Fulah-Zandeh group, and farther to the east to the basin of the
upper Nile. The latter constitutes the eastern limit, while to the west
this limit is clearly indicated by the Atlantic Ocean.[507]
Among the Nigritians we also class the _Tibus_ or _Tedas_ of the
country of Tibesti, which extends in the midst of the Sahara between
the encampments of the Tuareg on the west and the Libyan desert on the
east. But it is a population already much mixed with Berber and Arab
elements.[508]
The Nigritian group maybe divided into four great sections: _a_,
the Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian) or Nilotic
Negroes; _b_, those of the Central Sudan (French), that is to say the
Hausa-Wadai group, with the Tibu already mentioned; _c_, the Nigritians
of the Western Sudan (French) and the Senegal; lastly, _d_, the
Nigritians of the coast or _Negroes of Guinea_.
_a._ The _Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan_ or _Nilotic Negroes_ speak
various dialects having a certain relationship, and brought together
under the name of “Nilotic” languages. These populations are Negroes in
every acceptation of the word, except the not uncommon instances where
they are intermingled with the Ethiopians (chiefly in the east) or
with the Arabo-Berbers (principally in the north). Thus the _Nuba_ and
the _Funje of Fazokl_ are connected by several facial characteristics
to the Ethiopians; they have besides even adopted a Hamitic dialect,
just as the Negroes of Kordofan, intermixed with the Arabs, have
exchanged their language for the Semitic mode of speech. The Negroes
of Darfur (the _Furs_ or _Furava_ and the _Dajo_), of high stature,
and very black (Nachtigal), are much purer; they speak a Nilotic-Negro
dialect. In the west of the country they are mixed with the Fulahs,
and Arab tribes surround them on all sides. The predominant race is
descended from pure Arabs established first in Tunis, who achieved
the conquest of Darfur only in the nineteenth century.[509] To the
south-east of Darfur, separated from this country by the encampments
of the _Bahr-el-Huer_ or _Bagarra_, Arabised Nilotes, dwell other
Nilotics of a well-marked negro type. These are, first, the _Nuers_
of the right bank, and the _Shilluks_ (about a million) of the left
bank of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from Mechra-et-Reg to Fashoda; then the
_Dinka_, _Denka_, or _Jangha_ (about a million) of the low country
watered by the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and by the
Bahr-el-Jebel or Upper Nile. All these tribes are shepherds, sometimes
also fishers or husbandmen.
The upper valleys of the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
are occupied by the _Bongo_ Negroes, divided into several tribes:
_Moru_, _Mittu_, _Bongo_ (said to be steatopygous). Slightly blent
with the Ethiopians, they have an almost red skin, of the colour of
the soil of their country, impregnated with ore. They are accomplished
smiths and good agriculturists. Between the Bongo of the west, the
Dinkas of the north, and the Niloto-Ethiopian tribes like the _Latuka_
of the east, there are established in the country traversed by the
Bahr-el-Jebel the Nilotic Negroes called _Bari_. As to the upper
basin of the Bahr-el-Jebel, it is occupied by the _Madi_ (not to be
confounded with the _A-Madi_ of the Welle), the _Shueli_ or _Shuli_
(whose speech connects them with the Shilluks), and the _Luri_, who
are, like the Dinka and Shilluks, true representatives of the Negro
race. Very tall and slim, they resemble, with their long limbs, the
wading birds of the marshes whose approaches they inhabit; for the
most part their head is elongated and compressed, the forehead
retreating, their skin is black, and they are blubber-lipped; the face
is the prognathous face of the Negroes, such as, in accordance with
convention, they used generally to be represented. They are settled
cattle-breeders and tillers of the soil.[510]
_b._ The _Nigritians of Central Sudan_ present almost the same type as
the Nilotes. Such, for instance, are the Negroes of Wadai (the Tama,
the Massalits) and of Baghirmi (the Barmaghé), or at least those among
them who have remained free from intermixture, either with the Fulahs
or the Arabs. As much cannot be said of the nomadic Tibu or Teda of
Tibesti (p. 444), nor of their neighbours the Kanem, to the north of
Lake Chad, and the Kanuri of Bornu and of the north of Adamawa, who
closely resemble them, but who are tillers of the soil. The great
nation of the Hausas prevails in the region situated between the Benue,
Bornu, the middle course of the Niger, and Sahara (Sokoto, etc.); it
extends even farther, into Adamawa. Their language has become the
language of commerce in those parts of the country limited by the bend
of the Niger, into which Fulah has not yet penetrated; it extends
also into Bornu and Adamawa to the east, and into the country of the
Mossi and the Kong to the west. The Hausa nation comprises a large
number of peoples and tribes, with a greater or lesser Arab and Fulah
intermixture, among whom also should probably be classed the Sara and
their near relatives the Tumok between the Shari and the Logone. The
Sara are distinguished by tall stature (average 1 m. 77, according to
Maistre), very dark colour, and globular head (average cephalic index
on the living subject, 82).[511]
_c. The Nigritians of Western Sudan and of Senegal._--This group,
going from east to west, comprises: 1st, various mixed tribes, dwelling
between the Niger and the basin of the upper Black Volta; 2nd, the
Mandé or Mandingan peoples; 3rd, the Toucouleur; and, 4th, the Wolofs.
1st. The peoples living between the Hausa on the east and the
Mandingans on the west are still little known, and seem to be much
mixed. Quite to the north, in the bend of the Niger, below Timbuctoo,
are found the Songhai or Sonrhays, who speak a language apart, and in
the north are mixed with the Ruma “Moors,” emigrants from Morocco,
and in the south with the Fulahs. To the south of their territory
live the Tombo, partly speaking Mandé, and the Mossi, whose language
also has affinities with Mandé. To the north of Wagadugu, the Mossi,
interblent with the Fulahs, speak their language, while south of this
town, they are of purer type and have a knowledge of the Hausa dialect.
To the east of the Mossi, in the region of the sources of the White
Volta, live the Gurma; while the upper basin of this river, as well
as that of the Red Volta, is occupied by the Gurunga who previously
formed the Grussi (or Gurunssi?)[512] state. Farther to the south, in
the territory made neutral by a treaty between Germany and England,
are found the Dagomba, the Mampursi, and their congeners the Gonja;
these last, whose centre is at Salaga, have exchanged their primitive
language for “Guang,” which appears to be a dialect of the Ashanti
tongue (Binger). In commercial relations they employ also the Hausa and
sometimes the Mandé and Fulah languages, just as do the Dagomba and the
Gurunga. The _Bariba_, natives of Borgu, the hinterland of Dahomey,
have affinities with peoples we have just enumerated.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 140.--Bonna M’Bané, Mandingan-Sossé; height, 1 m.
74; ceph. ind., 74.7; nasal index, 102.
(_Phot. Collignon._)]
2nd. The Mandé, Mandingan,[513] or better Mandénké (the word _nké_
signifying “people” in the Mandé language) form a compact linguistic
group whose domain extends from the Senegal and Upper Niger to that
portion of the West African coast comprised between Saint Louis and
Monrovia. The domain of the Mandé language extends much farther to the
east than the territory of the Mandénké peoples properly so called; it
encircles Timbuctoo, the countries of the Gurma and the Diumma, where
it competes with the dialect of the Fulahs, and encroaches even on the
domain of the Dogomba and the Gonja (to the north of Salaga), where the
Hausa speech prevails. The Mandénké properly so called includes a large
number of tribes, which may be divided into two great clans: the Bamma
or Bambara, whose “tenné” or totem is the crocodile, and the Malinké
(hippopotamus totem). The Mandénké are Mussulmans, except the clan
Bamma or Bambara of the basin of the upper Niger, which has remained
fetichist. Related to the Mandénké, according to their dialects, are
the _Soninké_ of the interior and many other populations of the coast
of Senegal. The Soninké or Sarakolés[514] inhabit the right bank of
the Senegal, above Matam and the margins of the Niger, and below the
Bamako as far as the vicinity of Timbuctoo; they are crossed with the
Torodo, Bambaras, and Fulahs. As to the populations of the coasts, the
following, proceeding from north to south, are the chief.[515] First,
the Diola,[516] between Casamanze and the Gambia, who have remained
fetichist. They are tall (1 m. 70) and dolichocephalic (cephalic index,
74.5 according to Collignon and Deniker). The principal tribe, that of
the Felups, has imposed its dialect on all the others. To the south of
the Diola are the Balantes and the Bagnoris, a bellicose and turbulent
people; the Papels, one of the tribes of which, the Mandjacks, is the
most in harmony with its masters, the Portuguese; the Bujagos of the
Bissagos islands; the Biafares, the Nalus, the Landumans, fetichists
of Rio Nunez, having affinities with the Hausa; finally, the Baga
of the Compong delta, half-savage fishers, fetichist like the two
preceding, but of much fairer skin and more pacific.[517] To the south
of the Pongo river are met the Sussus or Sossé (Fig. 140), driven
from Futa-Jallon by the Fulahs. Their language is spoken fluently in
French Guinea, and even among the Nalus and Landumans. To the south of
Mellacory, in Sierra Leone, the Timni take the place of the Sussus;
then come the Vei or Way, who extend as far as Monrovia; alone among
Negroes, they appear to possess a special mode of writing. All the
Mandé peoples bear a strong likeness to each other in physical type
(high stature, 1 m. 70, dolichocephalic, colour black, etc.), and the
different tribes are only to be distinguished by tattooings and other
signs of an ethnographic kind, and by their dialects.[518]
3rd. The Toucouleur or Torodo, regarded by some as Fulahs intermixed
with Wolofs (see below), inhabit the left bank of the Senegal, from
Dagana to Medine. They are to be found also in the Segu Sikoro country
and in the basin of the upper Niger, in the midst of the Soninké and
Fulah shepherds, to whom these agricultural populations are subject.
The Toucouleur are tall (1 m. 73), and very dolichocephalic (ceph. ind.
on living subject, 73.8).
4th. The Yolofs, Wolofs, or Jolofs of Lower Senegal, with their
congeners the Leybu and the Serers of Lower Gambia, are perhaps the
most black of all Negroes; these are distinguished by tall stature (1
m. 73, according to Collignon, Deniker, and Verneau), and by moderate
dolichocephaly (index on the living sub., 75.2). Their language is very
widespread in Senegal and Guinea, for they are good merchants as well
as tillers of the soil.[519]
_d._ The Littoral Nigritians or Guineans occupy all the coast of
Guinea from Monrovia to the Cameroons, and exhibit a great uniformity
of physical type. Less tall, in general, than the Senegalese and the
western Sudanese, the head is more elongated and the complexion fairer.
Notwithstanding this uniformity, they are divided into several tribes,
which, according to their linguistic affinities, may be grouped into
five great sections.
1. First, the tribes speaking the various dialects of the Kru
language--that is to say, Kru properly so called or Krumen, Bassa in
Liberia, and Grebo in French Guinea (to the east of Cape Palmas).
The Kru are less tall (1 m. 69), less dark, but more hairy than the
Senegalese; the head barely dolichocephalic (75.1 ceph. index on living
subject).[520] Of all Negroes these are the best factory workers, the
best man-of-war’s men and ordinary seamen. They are obedient, faithful,
and courageous; they enter readily into engagements, and make a fair
bargain. They retain in their hands a good part of the trade of their
country.[521]
2. To the east of the Grebo, between San Pedro and Apollonia, live
people speaking different dialects of the Agni language. These are the
Assinians or Okin (stature, 1 m. 75), the Agni of Krinjabo or Sanwy
(Fig. 9), the Apollonians or Zemma, the handsomest of the Negroes, who
formerly furnished to Brazil its thousands of slaves; finally, the
Pai-pi-bri, between San Pedro and Lahu, whom Admiral Fleuriot de Langle
took for a white race. These Negroes are really of a bronzed tint, much
fairer than, for example, the Okin. Other somatic traits (projecting
nose, lips not thrust out, etc.), as well as ethnic traits (bark
clothing, etc.), together with the recent arrival in the country of the
Pai-pi-bri, have led it to be thought that they have a kinship with
the Zandeh peoples.[522] Their neighbours to the east, the Jack-Jack
or Jacks, live opposite Dabu, on a narrow tongue of land separating
the lagoon from the sea; they call themselves Awekwom, and speak, like
their Ebrié and Attié neighbours, a dialect of the Tshi language. They
are excellent traders, nearly all knowing English.
3. But the Awekwom and their congeners form only a linguistic parish
in the Agni country. The true domain of the populations speaking
the languages of the Tshi or Ochi family begins only on the east
of Apollonia. In the interior are encountered the Ashanti and Ton
shepherds and tillers--that is to say in the ancient kingdom of Ashanti
(now an English possession),--and the Fanti traders on the coast, in
the region of Elmina.[523]
The Accredians of the coast, between the town of Accra and the mouth of
the Volta, formed a mixed population whose language is not yet classed.
4. The Volta provides the approximate limit between the Tshi tongues
and the Evé or Ewe dialects. The bulk of the people speaking Ewe occupy
the German colony of Togo and the west of the French colony of Dahomey.
In this group are distinguished six dialectic families: The Anlo or
Anglo of the coast between the Volta and Togo, whose dialect is the
best known; the Krépis, mountaineers of the Akposso, to the north of
the preceding, who speak the Anfueh language; the Ana, of Atakpamé; the
Fon or Fawins, better known as Dahomese, to the east of the Anlo and
Krépis, who speak the Jeji or Jege dialect; the Ewe properly so called,
or Henhué, to the north of the preceding, especially around the town of
Wida (Glé-ewé, “land of the Ewes”); lastly, the Mahi or Maki, entirely
to the north, speaking the purest Ewe dialect, and coming, as they say,
from the banks of the Niger.[524]
_e._ The River Wami separates in the east the Ewes from the peoples
speaking the Yoruba tongues, and who are, from west to east: the Egba
or Ikba of the Abeokuta country, the Nago of Porto Novo, the Ikelu
and the Jebu of Lagos. The Yoruba originally occupied all the region
comprised between the Slave Coast and to about the ninth latitude N.;
but they have been driven back towards the coast and into the east by
the Ewe peoples, who, towards the beginning of the eighteenth century,
invaded the present country of the Dahomese, and later (in 1772), the
Togo and the ancient kingdoms of Porto Novo and Wida (formerly Juida).
In this last the Jege or Fon (of Ewe stock) have imposed their dominion
on the Nagos (of Yoruba stock). Most of the Nagos have been reduced
to slavery; they, together with the Mina, emigrants from Ashanti,
formed, while the slave-trade flourished, the bulk of the black cargoes
consigned to Brazil.[525]
The Ewes and the Yorubas are shorter in stature (1 m. 64 and 1 m.
65) than Nigritians in general, and are often brachycephalic or
mesocephalic. These two characters, combined with the comparatively
fair colour of the skin, observed by all travellers, and the great
development of the pilous system, are, I consider, sufficiently
indicative of the presence in these people of Negrillo elements, of
which I shall presently speak.[526]
The Protectorate of the Niger coast and the delta of this river are
occupied by populations related to the Yorubas, but much intermixed.
The Benin, in the interior, whose kingdom, where human sacrifices were
much in vogue, has lately been destroyed by the English; then on the
coast the active-trading Jakris tribe, the Bonky and the Calabaris,
who formerly furnished so many slaves; finally, the Idzo or Ijos, of
the delta of the Niger, divided into several tribes--Brass, Patani,
etc., good ship-builders, but very turbulent,--who have attacked time
after time the settlements of the Niger Company.[527] In the interior
of the territory of this Company are found the Igbera, mountaineers,
forming several independent little states (about a million and a half
individuals) between Adimpa on the lower Niger and Sakun on the middle
Niger, as well as on the Benue, and sub-divided into “Sima” of the
towns and “Panda” of the forests. Their neighbours the Igara, speaking
Yoruba, occupy the left bank of the Niger and lower Benue, where they
are more or less subdued, while in the interior they remain wild
hunters. In the Cameroons, the Bantu, like the Dualas and the Bakokos,
have driven into hinterland the Bobondi, Buyala, and other Nigritian
tribes.
V. _The Negrilloes._[528]--The pigmy black populations are dispersed
over a large zone extending from three degrees north and south of
the equator, across the entire African continent, from Uganda to the
Gabun. The Akkas or Tiky-Tiky of the upper Nile and of the country
of the Niam-Niam, the Afiffi of the country of the Momfu (between
Kibali and Ituri), the Wambutti of the Ituri, the Watwa or Batua
living to the south of the great curve of the Congo and the valleys of
its tributaries on the right, the Chuapa-Bussera and the Lomami, the
O-Bongo (plural Ba-Bongo), the Akua, the Achango of the French Congo,
the Boyaeli and Bayago of the Cameroons, the Ba-Bengaye of Sanga, are
the principal rings of this chain of dwarf peoples stretched between
the region of the great lakes and the Atlantic ocean. But Negrilloes
have also been noted outside these limits. Without stopping to consider
the evidence of the traveller Mollien (1818), who speaks of dwarfs in
the Tenda-Maië country, near the sources of the Niger, where modern
explorers have never met with anything of the kind, we may, however,
bring together a certain amount of serious testimony to the existence
of dwarfs in the basin of the upper Kasai, as well as more to the
east, as far as Lake Tanganyika, and lastly to the north of the
Lakes Stefanie and Rudolf (English East Africa), near the borders of
Kaffa, 7° latitude north, where pigmies have been described by older
travellers under the name of Dogbo, and where, in 1896, they were
indeed discovered by D. Smith. They call themselves Dumes, are about
1 m. 50 (4 ft. 11 in.) in height, and resemble other pigmy tribes.
According to Schlichter, other tribes of short stature live more to
the north, in Kaffa and Shoa: the Bonno, the Aro, and the Mala; these
last two are probably the same tribes as those spoken of by the old
explorers, D’Abadie and L. des Avranches, under the name of Areya and
Maléa.
According to Stuhlmann, the populations of the upper basin of the Ituri
are a blend of Pigmies with Bantus (the Vambuba, the Vallessi), or with
Nilotes (the Momfu).
Several authors confound in one group of Pigmies the Negrilloes and
the Bushmen. Nothing, however, justifies their unification. The colour
of the skin in Bushmen is a fawn yellow, while in Negrilloes it is
that of a chocolate tablet or of coffee slightly roasted; the hair of
the former is black and tufted, while the hair of the latter is like
extended fleece and often of a more or less light brown. The face
of the Bushman is lozenge-shaped, the cheeks are prominent, and the
eyes are often narrowed and oblique, which traits are not met with
at all in Pigmies. Steatopygy (see p. 40-41), a special trait of the
Bushman race, has not been noted among Negrilloes, except in individual
cases among the women, and to a less degree than among Bushmen, as,
for example, is proved by the two portraits of Akka women published
by Stuhlmann. At the same time the profile of the sub-nasal space,
always convex in the Akkas according to Stuhlmann, is often to be
observed among Bushmen. Thus, therefore, a slight degree of steatopygy
in individual cases and the profile of the sub-nasal space would be
the sole characters connecting the two races. In support of this
connection, shortness of stature has also been adduced.
At first sight this last appears feasible, but rigorous measurements
on a sufficient number of subjects are still lacking. In the various
series of Bushmen the figures vary from 1 m. 37 to 1 m. 57, and in
those of Negrilloes from 1 m. 36 to 1 m. 51. These figures, however,
are based on only from 3 to 6 individuals, except in three cases: a
series of 50 Bushmen of Kalahari, measured by Schinz, which gives the
average height as 1 m. 57--that is to say, the same as the Japanese
or Annamese; another series of 30 Akkas (by Emin Pasha) giving an
average height of 1 m. 36; and a third series of 98 Watwas (by Wolff)
giving an average of 1 m. 42.[529] On comparing these three large
series, the only ones deserving attention, a difference of 0 m. 18 (7
inches) in height in favour of Bushmen is shown. As to the cranial
form, it varies also. Notwithstanding the paucity of documents, it may
be said that the Negrilloes are, in general, sub-dolichocephalic or
mesocephalic (average index of 9 living subjects, 79.7); while Bushmen
are undoubtedly dolichocephalic (average index of 11 living men,
75.8). Let me add in conclusion that the Negrilloes are covered with a
fairly thick down over the entire body (Emin Pasha, Yunker, Stanley,
Stuhlmann), and that nothing analogous has been noted in Bushmen.
The Negrilloes live in the midst of other peoples (Bantus, Nilotes,
etc.), either as isolated individuals (for the most part slaves) or
in little groups (up to about 800 individuals), hidden in the deepest
thickets. These little hunters have established a sort of _modus
vivendi_ with the agricultural populations surrounding them: they
exchange with them the produce of their chase, or of their gathering,
for foods and objects in metal; they also pay for the protection of
their powerful neighbours by doing service, for the benefit of the
latter, as clearers of the forest, where it is a critical matter to
meet them on account of their arrows, poisoned with the juice of a
certain _Aroidea_, or with certain putrid animal matters derived
especially from the ant. The bow and arrows which they use are the same
as those of their protectors, only proportioned to their stature.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 141.--Catrai, Ganguela-Bantu; height, 1 m. 73;
ceph. ind., 75.8; nasal index, 107.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
VI. The _Bantu group_ comprises the numerous peoples of Central and
Southern Africa whose dialects form the Bantu linguistic family,
without having any analogy with the Nigritian languages. They have all
an agglutinative structure, and are especially characterised by the
exclusive use of prefixes. Each principal prefix indicates an entire
category of objects or ideas; such a prefix is _M’_, _Um_, or _Umon_
(according to dialect), denoting the singular; _Ba_, _Wa_, or _Va_,
denoting the plural. Thus the root _Ntu_ (man) united to the prefix
_Umon_ means “a man” (_Umon-Ntu_) and with the prefix _Ba_ “men”
(_Ba-Ntu_). It is superfluous to say that physically the Bantus present
a great variety of types. This is due especially to intermixture
with the Negrilloes and Ethiopians to the north, and with the
Bushmen-Hottentots to the south. Nevertheless, there may be discerned
a probably primitive type, which, while being fundamentally Negro, yet
is distinguishable from the Nigritian type. In this type the stature
is generally not so high, the head less elongated, and prognathism also
less; the median convexity of the brow often disappears, and the nose
is more prominent and narrower.
We may divide the Bantus, according to their ethnographic and
linguistic characters, into three large sections: western, eastern, and
southern.
1. The territory occupied by the _Western Group_[530] covers almost
exactly the south-east of the Cameroons, French Congo, Angola, and
Belgian Congo, except those parts of these states situated to the
north of the Congo. The Dwala (28,000 individuals, stature 1 m. 69;
ceph. ind. 76.2, according to Zintgraff) and the Bakunda of the
Cameroons, relatively civilised, are found up to the point of junction
of the Bantu and Nigritian peoples, where the African coast changes
its westerly direction and becomes nearly north by south. Like their
neighbours of the south, the Mungos or Minihé of the north-west, and
the Balongs, who live in large phalansteries, they are intermixed with
Nigritian elements. East of the Dwala are found the Basas and the
Bakoris; these last are notable for their spirit of solidarity, for the
practice of the taboo and worship of ancestors. From the somatic point
of view, a great difference is to be observed among them in the stature
of men and women. Like the _Dwala_, they use the drum language (see
p. 134). The _M’Fan_ or _Fang_, called _Pahuins_[531] by the Negroes
of the Gabun, occupy the country situated between the 3rd degree of
N. latitude and the Ogowe, and its right tributary the Ivindo. But it
is probable that their habitat extends farther to the east, for the
_Botu_, whom Mizon had met with in the basin of the Sanga, appeared to
be of the same race. The Fans touch the sea-board of the Atlantic only
at a few points. With the _Gabunese_ (_Benga_, _Kumbé_, etc.) and the
_M’Pongwes_ of the coast (whose language, which is very rich, has been
adopted by other tribes), they form almost the whole of the population
of French Congo to the north of the Ogowe. It is supposed that the
Fans, certain traits and manners and customs of whom recall the Zandeh,
have immigrated quite recently, perhaps at the end of the last century,
into their present region, coming from Upper Ubangi, where the Zandeh
tribes live (see p. 441).
In the valley itself of Low Ogowe are found the _Baloa_ or _Galois_,
and, farther to the south, between the Muni and Sette Camma, the
_Bakalai_ or _Bahélé_ (about 100,000 according to Wilson), former
nomads, who have become carriers and merchants. Ascending the Ogowe
are met successively the _Apingi_, the _Okanda_, the _Aduma_, the
_Okota_, etc. All these tribes speak the same language as the islanders
of Corisco, and are for the most part very tall and dolichocephalic
(average stature of the Okandas 1 m. 70, and ceph. ind. on the living
sub., 74.2, according to Deniker and Laloy). But there are met with
also among them tribes like the Aduma, who on the contrary are short (1
m. 59) and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 80.8, according to the same
authorities), which indicates intermixtures with the Negrillo race,
represented in the vicinity by the Obongos or Ashangos to the east (Du
Chaillu), and by the Akoas to the west (Touchard and Dybowski). The
Adumas, who are slave merchants (Guiral), are good boatmen. To the
south of Bakel, in the basins of the coast rivers, Rembo, Nyanga, etc.,
are found the _Balumbo_, the _Bavili_, on the coast, and the _Ashira_
in the interior. The basin of the lower Kuilu or Niari is occupied
partly by _Mayombé_ and the _Loango_ (height 1 m. 65, ceph. ind. 77.5),
mixed tribes, who are dispersed equally over the coast from the river
Nyanga to the north to Landana to the south.
As to the upper basin of the Niari, it is inhabited by the _Bakuni_
or _Bakunghé_ to the north, and by the _Bakamba_ (height 1 m. 69,
according to Maistre) to the south. These populations resemble the
Loangos and somewhat also the _Kacongo_ (height 1 m. 65, ceph. ind.
75.6, according to Zintgraff). Farther to the south are the _Basundo_,
savages with, it is said, red hair, and the _Babembé_ (height 1 m. 72,
according to Maistre) and the _Babuendi_, recognisable by the tattoo
of a crocodile on the breast, who people the right bank of the Congo
from the mouth to Brazzaville. Among their neighbours the _Bacongo_ or
_Bafyot_, who thickly populate the opposite bank, the influence of the
old Portuguese Christians is still to be recognised in many spots by
processions with the crucifix, but the supreme god has become feminine,
having relation both to the Virgin Mary and to the “Earthmother of
All.”[532] This goddess, called Nzambi, is the principal personage of
a trinity, the other members of which are a son, and a third spirit,
Deisos. The Bacongo have also as an institution popular guardians of
justice (p. 253), whom they call _pagasarios_. Above Brazzaville,
on the right bank of the Congo, as far as Bolobo, are met various
_Bateke_ tribes, distinguished by their short stature (1 m. 64), marked
dolichocephaly (73.6, according to Mense), powerful trunk, and tattoo
marks of several rows of parallel strokes on the cheeks. They extend
to the west as far as 10° long. E, and occupy to the north all the
basin of the upper Alima. The _Batekes_, who, with their neighbours the
_Baboma_ and the anthropophagous _Ballali_, were the first to submit to
French dominion, are travellers and, though practising anthropophagy,
a temperate people. The _Ashikuya_ of the region of the sources of the
Nkheni, neighbours of the _Batekes_, are celebrated as the best weavers
of the Congo. The lower valley of the Alima, as well as the right bank
of the Congo as far as the mouth of the Ubangi and even above, are
occupied by the _Bangi_, _Bubangis_, or _Bapfuru_ (height, 1 m. 73,
according to Maistre), differing from other tribes by their mode of
head-dress and their tattoo: a large swelling of flesh on each temple
and on the middle of the brow. Their number is estimated at about a
million.[533] North of the Bangis, between the Congo and the Ubangi,
live their congeners the _Baloi_ and the _Bonjos_, veritable athletes
and proved to be cannibals (Dybowski). The river M’Poko, which enters
the Congo opposite the town of Bangi, marks to the north the limit of
the Bonjos, as of the Bantus generally of this part of Africa. Their
immediate neighbours to the north, the Bandziris, are more like the
Zandeh than the Bantus.
To the south of the Congo the various Bantu tribes are still little
known.[534] On the coast, between the mouth of the Congo and
the Kunene, the collective name of Angolese is given to various
much-intermingled tribes: _Mushikongo_ (1 m. 66, ceph. ind. 72.5),
_Kiamba_, _Kissama_, _Mondombé_ (plural, _Bandombé_; 1 m. 67, ceph.
ind. 76.8), _Bakissé_ (1.66, 75.5), etc. The mountainous region
situated more to the east--that is to say, Bangala, the basin of
the Kulu, the left tributaries of the Kasai (ancient kingdom of
Muata-Yamvo), the region of the source of the Zambesi--is inhabited
by populations who have preserved the Bantu type in purer form. These
are, starting from the south, the _Ganguela_, occupying the table-land
bordered on the east by the upper valley of the Kwando, on the south by
the right tributaries of the Zambesi, and on the west by the Mubungo
tributary of Lake Ngami; they are excellent smiths, supplying articles
in iron to their neighbours, who are the _Amboella_, the _Kimbandé_,
and the _Kioko_ or _Akioko_. These last, scarcely thirty-five years
ago, taking up a position to the east of the Ganguelas, have to-day
advanced to the 10th degree of S. latitude, into the western part of
Muata-Yamvo. But the basis of the population of this ancient kingdom
is constituted by the _Lunda_ tribes, whose territory extends from
the Kwango (affluent of the Kasai) to lakes Bangweolo and Moero.
They occupy the basin of the Kasai (_Kalunda_), the swampy plains to
the east of the upper Zambesi (the _Balunda_, the _Lobalé_), and are
distinguished by their peaceable habits and hospitality. Their women
enjoy a certain freedom.
The _Baluba_, who form an important nation, occupy the territory
between the Kasai, the chain of the Mitumba mountains and the 6th
degree of S. latitude. They appear to have many analogies with the
Lunda. Of tall stature (1 m. 70), their head is more globular and
complexion less dark than with most Negroes (ceph. ind. 79, according
to Wolff). The original country of these tribes is the upper basin
of the Congo. Many of the Baluba are mixed with the _Bashilange_
aborigines who dwell between the middle valley of the Kasai and that
of its right affluent, the Lulua, and form a separate population,
relatively civilised, who emigrate as far as the Congo, where they
become engaged as carriers. These are a lively people; the head is
slightly elongated (stature, 1 m. 68, cephalic index 76.9, according
to Maistre). About 1870 they underwent a politico-religious revolution
and introduced the hemp or “Riamba” cult, in accordance with which all
the smokers of Riamba declare themselves friends, the duty of mutual
hospitality is acknowledged, the sale of girls interdicted, etc. Crimes
are punished by excessive administrations of the drug, which in the end
stupefy the criminal (Pogge, Wolff). Their neighbours to the north,
the Bakuba of the great bend of the Sankuru, who speak a different
language, are more sedentary and busy themselves in trade and the
cultivation of their fields, with the assistance of Negrilloes who live
among them. The Basongo, their neighbours to the north, are redoubtable
man-eaters.
All these populations, who, as we have seen, are characterised
by stature above the average and by moderate dolichocephaly, are
distinguished also by fairer complexion than their neighbours the
Bantus of the Congo (Maistre, Serpa Pinto, Deniker and Laloy). The
region they hold has frequently (from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
century) been invaded by the “Djaga,” armed bands in the service of
certain families of the Balunda people. The invaders intermingled
with the aboriginal race, which is probably allied to the Bushmen and
Hottentots; at least, there are till now to be met with in the country
individuals of very pure Bushman type, above all among the Kiokos.
The populations to be found between the great bend of the Congo and
the 5th degree of south latitude, known collectively as the Mongo or
Balolo, and Bayombe, seem to possess traits intermediate between the
Lunda and the natives of French Congo. They are degenerate tribes.
Such cannot be said of the Bayanzi of the right bank of the Congo,
between Bolobo and Lake Tumba, nor of the Banga, between the Congo and
the Ubangi, who are very alert, active, and intelligent. Their mode
of head-dress, in which the hair is plaited into horns, is entirely
characteristic.
Most of the western Bantu of French Congo and Congo Free State wear
ornaments in the lips, file or pull out the incisor teeth, tattoo, and
build small square dwellings.[535]
_b._ The group of _Eastern Bantus_ includes numerous tribes often
having an intermixture of Ethiopian blood, and ranging from the region
of the sources of the Nile to 15° S. latitude, between the east coast
of Africa and the great lakes. German ethnographers distinguish among
them the _ancient_ and _modern_ Bantus, according to their immigration
from the south or north (see p. 429). On the coast, between Cape
Delgado and Port Durnford, the Bantus are interblent with the Arabs
and form a compound population speaking the Kiswahili language.[536]
This Bantu dialect has, owing to the simplicity of its structure,
become the _lingua franca_ of almost the entire region occupied by the
eastern Bantus. To the west of the Swahili live, in Unyamwesi and the
surrounding countries, the Usambara and the Unyamwesi, belonging to the
“ancient Bantus,” and having, like them, migratory tendencies towards
the north.
As to the _Bantus of the Lake Region_, the tribes of which are
dispersed between the south of Unyoro and Lake Tanganyika, they are not
more free from intermixture. But they speak the dialect derived from
that primitive Bantu language, “Kirundi,” or “Kikonjo,” which to-day is
preserved in its original purity only in a narrow tract of some fifty
kilometres, extending from the foot of Mount Ruwenzori to the northern
extremity of Lake Tanganyika. Mixed with Nilotes in Unyoro, with Wahuma
Hamites elsewhere, the language of these “ancient Bantus” was adopted
by their conquerors. The most southern tribe of this group is that of
the Makua, who extend to 16° S. latitude. The tribes who people Uganda
(to the north-west of Lake Victoria Nyanza) have probably sprung from
the same stock, but speak a different language.
The peoples speaking Bantu to be met with south of Kilima Njaro, on the
Iramba table-land, the Wakamba, Wataita, Wakaguru, and Wagogo, are
Hamito-Bantus who have adopted the manners and customs of the Masai.
These “Bantus of recent immigration” have come from the north-east,
from the country of the Gallas, where their remaining fellows are
still to be found under the name of Wapokompo in the upper valley of
the Tsana, and Watakosho, speaking Galla, near Lake Rudolf. Among the
eastern Bantus are provisionally classed the Wavira, who perforate the
lips like the western Bantus; the Wahuma, who are of Ethiopian type;
and the other tribes who dwell between the middle Congo and the lakes,
from the equator to 5° lat. S., who are also called Waregga (People of
the Forest). These are cannibals who have come from the south-west;
their language differs from that of their neighbours, the Manyuema,
who are of Ethiopian type. The tribes living to the south of the Ituri
valley, the Wambuba, the Wallessi, etc., appear to be a hybrid of
Negrilloes and Bantus.
The group of _Southern Bantus_[537] is composed of Kafir-Zulus to the
east, of Bechuana to the centre, and of Herrero to the west. The Zulus
(Fig. 47), of which the most southern tribe or “Ama,” the Amaxosa or
Kafirs (Fig. 135), live in the eastern part of Cape Colony, and have
of recent times advanced towards the north, far from the country of
their origin, up to the region of Usagara. Among the chief Zulu tribes
should be noted the Banyai, the Bakalaka, the Baronga, the Swazi (Fig.
142), and the Tonga, between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal; the “Ama”
Mpondo of Pondo, the “Ama” Tembu of Kafirland; the Makong, neighbours
of the Shinia (Foa) on the banks of the middle Zambesi, etc. Except
these Kafirs, who have a special language, all the other Zulus speak
the Takesa tongue.
The Bechuana, separated from the Zulus by the chain of the Drakensberg
Mountains, are infused more or less with Hottentot blood; they are
divided into _Eastern Bechuana_ or _Basuto_, among whom Bantu traits
predominate, and the _Western Bechuana_ or _Bakalahari_, who show
a more marked intermixture of Hottentot elements. To the north of
the Bechuanas, in the upper basin of the Zambesi, live the Barotsé,
a people related to the Zulus, of which one tribe is known as the
Mashona. Finally, two other Bantu tribes extend to the south of the
Kunene, surrounding the table-land inhabited by the Hill Damaras or
Haw-Koîn (see below); these are the Ovambo or Ovampo, tillers of the
soil (over 100,000), to the north between 16.30° and 20° lat. S., and
the Ova-Herrero or Damara shepherds, of a fine Bantu type, to the west
and south.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 142.--Swazi-Bantu woman and girl.
(_Coll. Anthr. Inst. Great Britain._)]
Physically the Zulus are of high stature (1 m. 72, according to
Fritsch) and dolichocephalic (average ceph. ind. of 86 skulls 73.2,
according to Fritsch, Hamy, and Shrubsall). They have these traits
in common with the Nigritians,[538] but they are not so dark as the
latter, and are less prognathous. The face also is square and the nose
prominent, although somewhat coarse.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 143.--N’Kon-yui, Bushman of the region of Lake
Ngami; 40 years old; height, 1 m. 44; ceph. ind., 77.2; nas. ind., 97.5.
(_Phot. Coll. Anthr. Soc., Paris._)]
VII. The Bushmen-Hottentots[539] probably occupied formerly the whole
of South Africa from the 15th degree of south latitude to the Cape of
Good Hope. Hardly pressed for three centuries by Bantus in the east and
north, and for a century by Europeans in the south, they are reduced
to-day to a few thousands of families, wandering or sedentary, in the
uncultivated country of Namaqualand, in the desert of Kalahari, and
in some points of the hinterland of the Cape. To the north of 18° S.
latitude are found only a few islets of Hottentots, and towards the
south they are no longer met with in compact groups within sixty miles
from the coast. To the east, their habitat is limited at about 23°
longitude E. of Greenwich. And further, we must gather within these
limits the territory between the Herrero country and 18° S. lat. of the
Hill Damaras or Haw-Koin, who, although speaking a Hottentot dialect,
possess a quite special physical type; they are notably much darker
than the Hottentots, and recall rather the Negroes of Guinea. They are
miserable savages who live by hunting and plunder.
In addition to the Hill Damaras there are to be noted in the group of
which we are treating: 1st, the Naman, called Hottentots by Europeans
(modification of the Dutch word “hüttentüt,” meaning of little
sense, stupid), inhabiting the west of the territory we have just
defined (Fig. 24); 2nd, the San (“Sab” in the masculine singular),
called “Bosjesmen” or “Bushmen” by Europeans, in the east of this
territory (Fig. 143). It should be remarked, however, that the word
Bosjesman (in Dutch, “man of the bush”) is often applied to Hottentot
populations, or to Hottentot-Bushmen like, for instance, the mixed
breeds of Namaqualand who speak a Hottentot dialect. In certain works
the name Koi-Koin is applied to the whole group before us. This is
incorrect, for the Koi-Koin, or better, the Hau-Khoin, are no other
than a Hottentot tribe, just as are the Nama, Gorana, and others (about
20,000).
There are numerous likenesses between the San and the Naman, who are
both representatives of the Bushman race[540] (see pp. 287 and 455),
but there are also numerous differences. The Hottentot language is of
the same stock as that of the Bushmen; and both are characterised
by the presence of certain articulations known as “clicks.” But the
Hottentot dialects, which closely resemble each other, possess four
palato-dental clicks, while the Bushmen dialects, differing much from
each other, have besides these four clicks another guttural click, as
well as a certain articulation which is not effected by inhalation
as are the clicks proper, but by rapid and repeated expirations made
between the two half-opened rows of teeth.
The two peoples differ equally in manners and customs. Let it suffice
to recall that the Bushmen live in the woods and are nomadic hunters,
who do not practise circumcision, but whose custom it is to cut the
finger-joints in sign of mourning. (See pp. 181, 204, 211, and 228
for other particulars.) The Hottentots, on the contrary, are nomadic
shepherds; they live in the steppes, practise circumcision, and are
unacquainted with the custom of ablation of the phalanges. Besides,
they have lost all ethnic individuality; they dress in the European
fashion, speak Dutch or English, and live like the white colonists.
Children born of marriages between Hottentots and Europeans are called
“Bastards,” a title which in Africa is not regarded as discreditable.
VIII. The population of the island of Madagascar[541] may be divided
into three great groups: the Hovas in the middle, the Malagasies of
the east coast, and the Sakalavas of the rest of the island. There is
further to be noted the Arab infusion, especially on the north-east and
south-east coast.
The Hovas, or better, Huves, who occupy the high table-land of
Imerina (from which comes their true name, “Anta-Imerina”[542]) are
Indonesians more or less intermixed with Malay stock; their skin
is olive-yellow, their hair straight or slightly wavy, their eyes
sometimes narrow; their stature is short, their head globular, the
nose prominent and somewhat sharp (Fig. 144).[543] They preserve many
manners and customs Indonesian in character--their square houses on
piles, sarong, instruments of music, _fadi_ or _taboo_ for diet,
infanticide, polygamy, canoe with balance-pole, cylindrical forge
bellows, form of sepulture, etc. A half-civilised people, they are
tillers of the soil, shepherds, and traders. The Sakalavas, on the
contrary, are almost pure Bantu Negroes, black, dolichocephalic, of
high stature, with frizzy hair and flat noses. They have preserved
some features of Negro life (palavers, fetichism, etc.), but are
adopting more and more the mode of life of the Hovas or the Malagasies.
These last present traits intermediate between the two groups; of
chocolate-brown complexion, with frizzy hair, of medium height, they
have other features so modified as to recall sometimes the Hovas,
sometimes the Sakalavas.
The Hovas arrived in Madagascar only seven or eight centuries ago
(Grandidier), and succeeded in subjugating the Sakalavas and the mixed
populations. Up to the period of the French occupation (1896) they were
masters of the island, with the exception of the west coast and some
points in the south. They have imposed their language on the subjugated
populations, and all the peoples of the island, notwithstanding their
diversity of origin, of type, and of manners and customs, speak
Malagasy, which is a dialect of the Maleo-Polynesian linguistic family
with some intermixture of Bantu elements.
It is supposed that before the advent of the Hovas other Malay and
Indonesian incursions took place in the island, though nothing
certain is known in regard to this; that the arrival of the Negroes
was due to their own action is problematical, notwithstanding the
relative nearness (250 miles) of the coast of Mozambique, the notorious
incapacity of the Negroes as navigators being taken into account. It
is possible that the Negroes were introduced into the island entirely
by the Maleo-Indonesians, who have always been good seamen. The Arab
invasions date back hardly five or six centuries.
The constitution of Hova society up till recently was divided into
nobles (_Andriana_), freemen (_Hovas_), and slaves (_Andevo_). The
abolition of Royalty and slavery, after the French occupation, have to
a certain extent modified this hierarchy. For thirty years converts to
Protestantism, at bottom the Hovas are very indifferent in religious
matters, but cling to their ancient animistic beliefs. To the Hovas
should be joined the Betsileo, who live to the south of the Imerina
table-land; they are not of such pure race as the Hovas, while they are
less intermixed than are the Malagasies.
Among these last must first be distinguished the populations of the
coast: the Betsimasaraka and the Antambahoaka to the north of the 20th
degree of S. latitude; the Antaimoro, the Antaifasina, the Antaisaka,
and the Antanosi to the south of this latitude; then the population of
the interior: the Antsihanaka to the north of Imerina, the Bezanozano
in the centre of the island, the Antanala or Tanala, and the Bara and
Antaisara to the south.
The Betsimasaraka are dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. 76.3, according to
Collignon and Deniker), and of stature below the average (1 m. 64).
The Antambahoaka and the Antaimoro claim an Arab origin, but they
hardly differ from the other Malagasies; they are rather backward
in culture and emigrate from their country readily, but with the
idea of returning. The Antaifasina (who number about 200,000) have
close affinities with the Antaisaka, their warlike neighbours on the
coast, in closer proximity to Vangaindrano; both have many customs of
Arab-Mussulman origin, and are connected, according to all probability,
with the Bara tribe. This last lives inland, to the south of Betsileo,
side by side with the Antaisara, said to be true savages, but among
whom are nevertheless observed signs of Arab blood (Scott Eliott). The
Antanosi are grouped round Fort Dauphin, but some of this tribe has
emigrated to the interior, extending as far as the neighbourhood of the
west coast, where it has assimilated the customs of the Bara people.
As a race the Antanosi are less negroid than the other Malagasies, and
recall rather the Betsimasaraka. They have curly or almost smooth hair
(Catat), and complexion of light chestnut. They are a peaceable and
intelligent people, of cleaner habits than the other Malagasies. Like
most of the tribes of the south of Madagascar, even the Sakalavas (as,
for example, the Antavandroi), they wear garments of matting plaited
with straw, except on the coast, where European fabrics have now
replaced the native garments.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 144.--Hova of Tananarivo; 21 years old; height, 1
m. 62; ceph. ind., 79.3.
(_Phot. Collignon._)]
The Sakalava tribes are numerous. The best known are the Menabe,
Milaka, Ronondra, and Mahafali. In the north of the island the
Sakalavas are mixed with the Betsimasaraka, and form the Antankar or
Antankara people, wild shepherds and tillers of the soil, recalling the
Bantus; their centre is at Diego-Suarez. In the south, blended with
the Bara, they enter into the composition of the Antandroy population
(about 20,000), almost savage, who depend largely for sustenance on the
cactus berries of their sterile country, live by cattle-raising, and
have many manners and customs borrowed from the Bara.