Kazeh. According to the former computation, a total march of about 156
geo. miles would place the southern frontier of Karagwah in S. lat. 2°
40′. The road in several parts discloses a view of the Nyanza Lake. Usui
is described as a kind of neutral ground between the rolling plateau of
Unyamwezi and the highlands of Karagwah: it is broken by ridges in two
places--Nyakasene the fourth, and Ruhembe the seventh stage, where
mention is also made of a small stream. From this part of the country a
wild nutmeg is brought to Kazeh by caravans: the Arabs declare that it
grows upon the well-wooded hills, and the only specimen shown was heavy
and well flavoured, presenting a marked contrast to the poor produce of
Zanzibar island.
The Wasúí, according to the Arabs, are not Wanyamwezi. They are
considered dangerous, and they have frequently cut off the route to
caravans from Karagwah. Their principal sultan, a Muhinda named
Suwarora, demands exorbitant blackmail, and is described as troublesome
and overbearing: his bad example has been imitated by his minor chiefs.
The kingdom of Karagwah, which is limited on the north by the Kitangure
or Kitangule River, a great western influent of the Nyanza Lake,
occupies twelve days in traversing. The usual estimate would thus give
it a depth of 72, and place the northern limit about 228 rectilinear
geo. miles from Kazeh, or in S. lat. 1° 40′. But the Kitangure River,
according to the Arabs, falls into the Nyanza diagonally from south-west
to north-east. Its embouchure will, therefore, not be distant from the
equator. The line of road is thus described: After ascending the hills
of Ruhembe the route, deflecting eastward, pursues for three days the
lacustrine plain of the Nyanza. At Tenga, the fourth station, the first
gradient of the Karagwah mountains is crossed, probably at low levels,
where the spurs fall towards the lake. Kafuro is a large district where
merchants halt to trade, in the vicinity of Weranhánjá, the royal
settlement, which commands a distant view of the Nyanza. Nyakahanga, the
eighth stage, is a gradient similar to that of Tenga; and Magugi, the
tenth station, conducts the traveller to the northernmost ridge of
Karagwah. The mountains are described as abrupt and difficult, but not
impracticable for laden asses: they are compared by the Arabs to the
Rubeho chain of Usagara. This would raise them about 4000 feet above the
mean level of the Unyamwezi plateau and the Nyanza water, and about 8000
feet above this sea. Their surface, according to the Arabs, is
alternately earth and stone, the former covered with plantains and huge
timber-trees, the latter bare, probably by reason of their altitude.
There are no plains, bush, or jungle, but the deep ravines and the
valleys intersecting the various ridges drain the surface of the hills,
and are the sites of luxuriant cultivation. The people of Karagwah,
averse to the labour of felling the patriarchs of the forest, burn
“_bois de vache_,” like the natives of Usukuma. North of Magugi, at
Katanda, a broad flat extends eastwards: the path thence descends the
northern counterslope, and falls into the alluvial plain of the
Kitungure River.
Karagwah is thus a mass of highlands, bounded on the north by dependent
Unyoro, on the south by Usui, eastward by the tribes of Wahayya and
Wapororo, upon the lacustrine plain of the Nyanza; on the south-west it
inosculates with Urundi, which has been described as extending from the
north-eastern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake. Its equatorial position
and its altitude enable it to represent the Central African prolongation
of the Lunar Mountains. Ptolemy describes this range, which he supposes
to send forth the White Nile, as stretching across the continent for a
distance of 10° of longitude. For many years this traditional feature
has somewhat fallen into discredit: some geographers have changed the
direction of the line, which, like the Himalayas, forms the base of the
South African triangle from east and west to north and south, thus
converting it into a formation akin to the ghauts or lateral ranges of
the Indian peninsula; whilst others have not hesitated to cast ridicule
upon the mythus. From the explorations of the “Mombas Mission” in
Usumbara, Chhaga, and Kitui, and from the accounts of Arab visitors to
the lands of Umasai and the kingdom of Karagwah, it appears that from
the fifth parallel of S. lat. to the equator, an elevated mass of
granite and sandstone formation crosses from the shores of the Indian
Ocean to the centre of Tropical Africa. The vast limestone band which
extends from the banks of the Burramputra to those of the Tagus appears
to be prolonged as far south as the Eastern Horn, and near the equator
to give place to sandstone formations. The line is not, however, as
might be expected from analogy with the Himalayan, a continuous unbroken
chain; it consists of insulated mountains, apparently volcanic, rising
from elevated plains, and sometimes connected by barren and broken
ridges. The south-eastern threshold of the Lunar cordillera is the
highland region of Usumbara, which may attain the height of 3000 or 4000
feet above sea-level. It leads by a succession of mountain and valley to
Chhaga, whose apex is the “Æthiopian Olympus,” Kilima-Ngao. From this
corner-pillar the line trends westward, and the route to Burkene passes
along the base of the principal elevations, Doengo Engai and Endia
Siriani. Beyond Burkene lies the Nyanza Lake, in a huge gap which,
breaking the continuity of the line, drains the regions westward of
Kilima-Ngao, whilst those to the eastward, the Pangani and other similar
streams, discharge their waters to the south-east into the Indian Ocean.
The kingdom of Karagwah prolongs the line to Urundi, upon the Tanganyika
Lake, where the south-western spurs of the Lunar Mountains form a high
continuous belt. Mr. Petherick, of Khartum, travelling twenty-five
marches, each of twenty miles (?), in a south-south-western and
due-southerly direction from the Bahr el Ghazal, found a granitic ridge
rising, he supposes 2000 to 2500 feet above the plain, near the equator,
and lying nearly upon the same parallel of latitude, and in about 27° E.
long. Beyond that point the land is still unexplored. Thence the
mountains may sink into the great Depression of Central Africa, or,
deflected northwards of the kingdom of Uropua, they may inosculate with
the ridge which, separating the northern negroid races of Islamised
Africa from their negro brethren to the south, is popularly known,
according to Denham and Clapperton, as el-Gibel Gumhr,--Jebel Kamar,--or
Mons Lunæ.
The high woody hills of Karagwah attract a quantity of rain. The long
and copious wet monsoon divides the year into two seasons--a winter of
seven or eight, and a summer of four or five months. The Vuli, or lesser
rains, commence, as at Zanzibar, with the Nayruz (29th of August); and
they continue with little intermission till the burst of the Masika,
which lasts in Karagwah from October to May or June. The winds, as in
Unyamwezi, are the Kaskazi, or north and north-east gales, which shift
during the heavier falls of rain to the Kosi, the west and south-west.
Storms of thunder and lightning are frequent, and the Arabs compare the
down-pour rather to that of Zanzibar island than to the scanty showers
of Unyamwezi. The sowing season at Karagwah, as at Msene and Ujiji,
begins with the Vuli, when maize and millet, the voandzeia, various
kinds of beans and pulse, are committed to the well-hoed ground. Rice
being unknown, the people depend much upon holcus: this cereal, which is
sown in October to prepare for the Masika in November, has, in the
mountains, a short cane and a poor insipid grain of the red variety. The
people convert it into pombe; and they make the wine called mawa from
the plantains, which in several districts are more abundant than the
cereals. Karagwah grows according to some, according to others imports
from the northern countries, along the western margin of the Nyanza
Lake, a small wild coffee, locally called mwámí. Like all wild
productions, it is stunted and undeveloped, and the bean, which, when
perfect, is about the size of a corking-pin’s head, is never drunk in
decoction. The berry gathered unripe is thrown into hot water to defend
it from rot, or to prevent its drying too rapidly--an operation which
converts the husk to a dark chocolate colour--the people of this country
chew it like tobacco, and, during visits, a handful is invariably
presented to the guest. According to the Arabs, it has, like the kishr
of Yemen, stimulating properties, affects the head, prevents somnolency,
renders water sweet to the taste, and forms a pleasant refreshing
beverage, which the palate, however, never confounds with the taste of
the Mocha-berry. In Karagwah a single khete of beads purchases a kubabah
(from 1 lb. to 2 lbs.) of this coffee; at Kazeh and Msene, where it is
sometimes brought by caravans, it sells at fancy prices. Another
well-known production of all these regions is the mt’hípít’hípí, or
Abrus precatorius, whose scarlet seeds are converted into ornaments for
the head.
The cattle is a fine variety, with small humps and large horns, like
that of Ujiji and Uviva. The herds are reckoned by Gundu, or stallions,
in the proportion of 1 to 100 cows. The late Sultan Ndagara is said to
have owned 200 Gundu, or 20,000 cows, which late civil wars have reduced
to 12,000 or 13,000. In Karagwah cattle forms wealth, and everywhere in
Africa wealth, and wealth only, secures defenders and dependants. The
surplus males are killed for beef; this meat, with milk in its various
preparations, and a little of the fine white hill-honey, forms the food
of the higher classes.
The people of Karagwah, who are not, according to South African fashion,
called Wakaragwah, are divided into two orders--Wahuma and Wanyambo--who
seem to bear to each other the relation of patron and client, patrician
and plebeian. The Wahuma comprises the rich, who sometimes possess 1000
head of cattle, and the warriors, a militia paid in the milk of cows
allotted to their temporary use by the king. The Wanyambo--Fellahs or
Ryots--are, it is said, treated by the nobles as slaves. The men of
Karagwah are a tall stout race, doubtless from the effect of pure
mountain-air and animal food. Corpulence is a beauty: girls are fattened
to a vast bulk by drenches of curds and cream thickened with flour, and
are duly disciplined when they refuse. The Arabs describe them as
frequently growing to a monstrous size, like some specimens of female
Boers mentioned by early travellers in Southern Africa. Fresh milk is
the male, sour the female beverage. The complexion is a brown yellow,
like that of the Warundi. The dress of the people, and even of the
chiefs, is an apron of close-grained mbugu, or bark-cloth, softened with
oil, and crimped with fine longitudinal lines made with a batten or
pounding club. In shape it resembles the flap of an English saddle, tied
by a prolongation of the upper corners round the waist. To this scarcely
decent article the chiefs add a languti, or Indian-T-bandage of goat’s
skin. Nudity is not uncommon, and nubile girls assume the veriest
apology for clothing, which is exchanged after marriage for short kilts
and breast coverings of skin. Both sexes wear tiara-shaped and
cravat-formed ornaments of the crimson abrus-seed, pierced and strung
upon mondo, the fine fibre of the mwale or raphia-palm. The weapons are
bows and arrows, spears, knobsticks, and knives; the ornaments are beads
and coil-bracelets, which, with cattle, form the marriage settlement.
The huts are of the conical and circular African shape, with walls of
stakes and roofs so carefully thatched that no rain can penetrate them:
the villages, as in Usagara, are scattered upon the crests and ridges of
the hills.
The Mkámá, or Sultan of Karagwah, in 1858, was Armanika, son of Ndagara,
who, although the dignity is in these lands hereditary, was opposed by
his younger brother Rumanika. The rebel, after an obstinate attack, was
routed by Suna, the late despot of Uganda, who, bribed by the large
present of ivory, which was advanced by Musa Mzuri of Kazeh, then
trading with Armanika, threw a large force into the field. Rumanika was
blinded and pensioned, and about four years ago peace was restored.
Armanika resides in the central district, Weranhanja, and his
settlement, inhabited only by the royal family, contains from forty to
fifty huts. He is described as a man about thirty to thirty-five years
old, tall, sturdy, and sinewy-limbed, resembling the Somal. His dress
is, by preference, the mbugu, or bark-cloth, but he has a large store of
fine raiment presented by his Arab visitors: in ornaments he is
distinguished by tight gaiters of beads extending from knee to ankle.
His diet is meat and milk, with sometimes a little honey, plantains, and
grain: unlike his subjects, he eschews mawa and pombe. He has about a
dozen wives, an unusually moderate allowance for an African chief, and
they have borne him ten or eleven children. The royal family is said to
be a race of centagenarians; they are buried in their garments, sitting
and holding their weapons: when the king dies there is a funeral feast.
Under the Mkama is a single minister, who takes the title of Muhinda,
and presides over the Wakungu, elders and headmen, whose duty it is to
collect and to transmit to the monarch once every month his revenues,
in the shape of slaves and ivory, cattle and provisions. Milk must be
forwarded by proprietors of cows and herds even from a distance of three
days’ march. Armanika is an absolute ruler, and he governs without
squeamishness. Adulterers are punished by heavy fines in cattle,
murderers are speared and beheaded, rebels and thieves are blinded by
gouging out the eyes with the finger-joints of the right-hand, and
severing the muscles. Subjects are forbidden to sell milk to those who
eat beans or salt, for fear of bewitching the animals. The Mkama, who
lives without state or splendour, receives travellers with courtesy.
Hearing of their approach, he orders his slaves to erect four or five
tents for shelter, and he greets them with a large present of
provisions. He demands no blackmail, but the offerer is valued according
to his offerings: the return gifts are carefully proportioned, and for
beads which suit his taste he has sent back an acknowledgment of fifty
slaves and forty cows. The price of adult male slaves varies from eight
to ten fundo of white, green, or blue porcelain-beads: a woman in her
prime costs two kitindi (each equal to one dollar on the coast), and
five or six fundo of mixed beasts. Some of these girls, being
light-coloured and well favoured, sell for sixty dollars at Zanzibar.
The merchants agree in stating that a European would receive in Karagwah
the kindest welcome, but that to support the dignity of the white face a
considerable sum would be required. Arabs still visit Armanika to
purchase slaves, cattle, and ivory, the whitest and softest, the largest
and heaviest in this part of Central Africa. The land is rich in iron,
and the spears of Karagwah, which are, to some extent, tempered, are
preferred to the rude work of the Wafyoma. Sulphur is found, according
to the Arabs, near hot springs amongst the mountains. A species of
manatus (?) supplies a fine skin used for clothing. The simbi, or cowrie
(Cypræa), is the minor currency of the country: it is brought from the
coast by return caravans of Wanyamwezi.
The country of Karagwah is at present the head-quarters of the Watosi, a
pastoral people who are scattered throughout these Lake Regions. They
came, according to tradition, from Usingo, a mountain district lying to
the north of Uhha. They refuse to carry loads, to cultivate the ground,
or to sell one another. Harmless, and therefore unarmed, they are often
plundered, though rarely slain, by other tribes, and they protect
themselves by paying fees in cattle to the chiefs. When the Wahinda are
sultans, the Watosi appear as councillors and elders; but whether this
rank is derived from a foreign and superior origin, or is merely the
price of their presents, cannot be determined. In appearance they are a
tall, comely, and comparatively fair people; hence in some parts every
“distinguished foreigner” is complimented by being addressed as “Mtosi.”
They are said to derive themselves from a single ancestor, and to
consider the surrounding tribes as serviles, from whom they will take
concubines, but to whom they refuse their daughters. Some lodges of this
people were seen about Unyanyembe and Msene, where they live by selling
cattle, milk, and butter. Their villages are poor, dirty, and
unpalisaded; mere scatters of ragged round huts. They have some curious
practices: never eat out of their own houses, and, after returning from
abroad, test, by a peculiar process, the fidelity of their wives before
anointing themselves and entering their houses. The Arabs declare that
they are known by their black gums, which they consider a beauty.
The last feature of importance in Karagwah is the Kitangure River on its
northern frontier. This stream, deriving its name from a large
settlement on its banks, according to some travellers flows through a
rocky trough, according to others it traverses a plain. Some, again,
make it thirty yards, others 600, and even half a mile, in breadth. All
these statements are reconcileable. The river issues from Higher Urundi,
not far from the Malagarazi; but whilst the latter, engaged in the
Depression of Central Africa, is drawn towards the Tanganyika, the
former, falling into the counterslope, is directed to the north-east
into the Nyanza Lake. Its course would thus lie through a
mountain-valley, from which it issues into a lacustrine plain, the
lowlands of Unyoro and Uganda. The dark and swift stream must be crossed
in canoes even during the dry season, but, like the Malagarazi, about
June or at the end of the rains, it debords over the swampy lands of its
lower course.
From the Kitangure River fifteen stations conduct the traveller to
Kibuga, the capital district of Uganda, and the residence of its
powerful despot. The maximum of these marches would be six daily, or a
total of ninety rectilinear geographical miles. Though there are no
hills, the rivers and rivulets--said to be upwards of a hundred in
number--offer serious obstacles to rapid travelling. Assuming then, the
point where the Kitangure River is crossed to be in S. lat. 1° 14′,
Kibuga may be placed in S. lat. 0° 10′. Beyond Weranhanja no traveller
with claims to credibility has seen the Nyanza water. North of Kibuga
all is uncertain; the Arabs were not permitted by Suna, the last despot,
to penetrate farther north.
The two first marches from the Kitangure River traverse the territory
of “dependent Unyoro,” so called because it has lately become subject to
the Sultan of Uganda. In former times Unyoro in crescent-shape, with the
cusps fronting eastwards and westwards, almost encompassed Uganda. From
dependent Unyoro the path, crossing a tract of low jungle, enters Uganda
in the concave of the crescent. The tributary Wahayya, under Gaetawa,
their sultan, still extend to the eastward. North of the Wahayya, of
whose territory little is known, lies “Kittara,” in Kinyoro (or
Kiganda?), a word interpreted to mean “mart,” or “meeting-place.” This
is the region which supplies Karagwah with coffee. The shrub is
propagated by sowing the bean. It attains the height of five feet,
branching out about half-way; it gives fruit after the third, and is in
full vigour after the fifth year. Before almost every hut-door there is
a plantation, forming an effective feature in the landscape of rolling
and wavy hill, intersected by a network of rivers and streams: the
foliage is compared to a green tapestry veiling the ground; and at
times, when the leaves are stripped off by wind and rain, the plant
appears decked with brilliant crimson cherry-like berries. The Katonga
River, crossed at Kitutu, is supposed to fall into the Nyanza, the
general recipient of the network of streams about Karagwah. This
diagonality may result from the compound incline produced by the
northern counterslope of the mountains of Karagwah and the
south-westward depression necessary to form and to supply the lake. The
Katonga is a sluggish and almost stagnant body of considerable breadth,
and when swollen it arrests the progress of caravans. Some portions of
the river are crossed, according to the Arabs, over a thick growth of
aquatic vegetation, which forms a kind of matwork, capable of
supporting a man’s weight, and cattle are towed over in the more open
parts by cords attached to their horns. Four stations lead from the
Katonga River to Kibuga, the capital district of Uganda.
Kibuga is the residence of the great Mkámá or chief of Uganda.
Concerning its population and peculiarities the Arabs must be allowed to
tell their own tale. “Kibuga, the settlement, is not less than a day’s
journey in length; the buildings are of cane and rattan. The sultan’s
palace is at least a mile long, and the circular huts, neatly ranged in
line, are surrounded by a strong fence which has only four gates. Bells
at the several entrances announce the approach of strangers, and guards
in hundreds attend there at all hours. They are commanded by four
chiefs, who are relieved every second day: these men pass the night
under hides raised upon uprights, and their heads are forfeited if they
neglect to attend to the summons of the king. The harem contains about
3000 souls--concubines, slaves, and children. No male nor adult animal
may penetrate, under pain of death, beyond the Barzah, a large vestibule
or hall of audience where the king dispenses justice and receives his
customs. This palace has often been burned down by lightning: on these
occasions the warriors must assemble and extinguish the fire by rolling
over it. The chief of Uganda has but two wants with which he troubles
his visitors--one, a medicine against death; the other, a charm to avert
the thunderbolt: and immense wealth would reward the man who could
supply either of these desiderata.”
Suna, the great despot of Uganda, a warlike chief, who wrested dependent
Unyoro from its former possessor, reigned till 1857. He perished in the
prime of life and suddenly, as the Arabs say, like Namrud, whilst
riding “pickaback”--the state carriage of Central Africa--upon a
minister’s shoulders, he was struck by the shaft of the destroyer in the
midst of his mighty host. As is the custom of barbarous and despotic
races, the event was concealed for some months. When the usual time had
expired, one of his many sons, exchanging his heir-elective name
“Sámunjú” for Mtesa, became king. The court usage compels the newly
elected chief to pass two years in retirement, committing state affairs
to his ministers; little, therefore, is yet known of him. As he will
certainly tread in the footsteps of his sire, the Arabs may again be
allowed to describe the state and grandeur of the defunct Suna; and as
Suna was in fact the whole kingdom of Uganda, the description will
elucidate the condition of the people in general.