LONDON
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
New York: The Macmillan Co.
1921
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PREFACE
It is hoped that this book and its companion volume dealing with
non-African peoples will be the beginning of a series of simple,
readable accounts for Africans of some of the various objects of
general interest in the world of to-day. There are many such works
published for the use of English and American children. But the
native African has a totally different experience of life, and much
that is taken for granted by a child of a Northern civilized land
needs explanation to one used to tropical uncivilized surroundings.
Again, the African knows the essential operations of everyday life in
their simplest form, whereas the European knows them disguised by an
elaborate industrial system. All this makes books written for English
children almost unintelligible to a member of a primitive race.
These two volumes are far from perfect, but it has been difficult to
know always how to select wisely from the mass of material at hand.
They will have served, however, a useful purpose if they form a basis
for adaptations into the various African vernaculars, and afford an
inspiration for other works of a similar nature. Thanks are due to
Miss K. Nixon Smith, of the Universities Mission to Central Africa,
for her kindness in criticizing the MSS. from her long experience of
the African outlook.
EDITH A. HOW
_June_, 1920.
I
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INTRODUCTION
In this book we are going to read about some of the other people who
live in our own great country--Africa. Africa is very, very large, so
big that no one would be able to go to all the places in it. But
different people have been to different parts, and have told what they
saw where they went. Wherever our home in Africa may be, if we walked
towards the sunrise--that is, towards the east--day after day, at last
we should reach the great salt sea. Again, if we walked towards the
sunset in the west, we should at last get to the sea. To the north,
again, is the sea, and to the south, the sea. Whichever way we
walked, at last, after many months, we should be stopped by the sea.
But on our journey we should have met many different kinds of people,
and have seen many different customs. In some places there would be
rivers, in some mountains, in some deserts, with no trees or grass to
be seen. In these, people must make their homes in many ways, and
have many kinds of food and clothes. Because we live in Africa, we
want to know about Africa and the people in it. They are men and
women and children like ourselves, though the colour of their skins
may be lighter or darker than ours, and their languages quite
different. But they, too, build houses and eat food and wear some
kind of dress, and it is interesting to know about their customs. So
in this book we shall read about some of them and of how they live;
and, to help us to understand, we shall find with each part a picture
of the people we are reading about. All the time we must remember
that we could get to see them for ourselves if we were strong enough
to walk so far, because they are all our own brothers and sisters in
Africa.
Long ago most African peoples were shut off from the other people of
the world by the sea and the great sandy desert. Only the people of
Egypt could meet and learn from the people of Europe and Asia. So
while the Egyptians grew wise and clever, all the other Africans,
south of the desert, knew nothing except what they had learnt by
themselves. Then Arabs began to cross the desert to get gold and
slaves from the dark-skinned Africans. These Arabs taught them a
little. But, later still, Europeans began to come in great ships over
the sea. These came at first like the Arabs to trade, and afterwards
began to plant great fields of cotton and tobacco, which will not grow
in their own lands. But they found the dark-skinned Africans were
still ignorant, and afraid of people of other races. They were always
fighting among themselves, and no one could settle among them until
there was peace and safety. At last the European nations made
agreements with the chiefs, so that now in nearly every part of Africa
there is a European governor to prevent wars and fighting. Thus in
North Africa the governors are sent by France, in the Congo lands by
Belgium, in East Africa by England, in some other parts by Portugal.
These are different European nations who send men to keep peace, and
to make it possible to carry on trade. Of course, the coming of the
Europeans has made great changes in the lives of the Africans. In the
old times all the men were busy fighting, and often whole villages of
people were killed or made slaves. Now there is no fighting, but
there is more need to work than before. There are more people, and
less land for each family. Europeans want workmen to help on their
great fields. The Africans want many things now, which they did not
know about before, and they must have money to buy them. So work for
money has taken the place of fighting. Again, in some ways the
Europeans, enforcing peace and making many quick ways of travel, such
as good roads and bridges, have helped to weaken the power of the
chiefs. Nobody likes changes to come, and the old people are always
sorry when their children begin new customs; but on the whole it is
good for Africans that other nations came to their country, because
they have brought peace in the place of war, and safety and freedom
instead of the old fear of death or slavery.
II
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EGYPT