people “cloths with names:” of these, many kinds are imported by every
caravan. In some regions, Ugogo for instance, the people will not sell
their goats and more valuable provisions for plain piece-goods; their
gross and gaudy tastes lead them to despise sober and uniform colours.
The sultans invariably demand for themselves and their wives showy
goods, and complete their honga or blackmail with domestics and
indigo-dyed cottons, which they divide amongst their followers. Often,
too, a bit of scarlet broadcloth, thrown in at the end of a lengthened
haggle, opens a road and renders impossibilities possible.
The coloured cloths may be divided into three kinds,--woollens, cottons,
and silks mixed with cotton. Of the former, the principal varieties now
imported are Joho or broadcloth; of the second, beginning with the
cheapest, are Barsati, Dabwani, Jamdani, Bandira, Shít (chintz),
Khuzarangi, Ukaya, Sohari, Shali, Taujiri, Msutu, Kikoi, and Shazar or
Mukunguru; the mixed and most expensive varieties are the Subai, Dewli,
Sabuni, Khesi, and Masnafu. Travelling Arabs usually take a piece of
baftah or white calico as kafan or shrouds for themselves or their
companions in case of accidents. At Zanzibar the value of a piece of 24
yds. is 1 dollar 25 cents. Blankets were at first imported by the Arabs,
but being unsuited to the climate and to the habits of the people they
soon became a drug in the market.
Joho (a corruption of the Arabic Johh) is a coarse article, either blue
or scarlet. As a rule, even Asiatics ignore the value of broadcloth,
estimating it, as they do guns and watches, by the shine of the
exterior: the African looks only at the length of the pile and the depth
of the tint. The Zanzibar valuation of the cheap English article is
usually 50 cents (2_s._ 1_d._) per yard; in the interior rising rapidly
through double and treble to four times that price, it becomes a present
for a prince. At Ujiji and other great ivory-marts there is a demand for
this article, blue as well as red; it is worn, like the shukkah merkani,
round the loins by men and round the bosom by women, who, therefore,
require a tobe or double length. At Unyanyembe there are generally
pauper Arabs or Wasawahili artisans who can fashion the merchants’
supplies into the kizbao or waistcoats affected by the African chiefs in
imitation of their more civilised visitors.
Of the second division the cheapest is the Barsati, called by the
Africans kitambi; it is a blue cotton cloth, with a broad red stripe
extending along one quarter of the depth, the other three-quarters being
dark blue; the red is either of European or Cutch dye. The former is
preferred upon the coast for the purchase of copal. Of this Indian stuff
there are three kinds, varying in size, colour, and quality; the
cheapest is worth at Zanzibar (where, however, like dabwani, it is
usually sold by the gorah of two uzar or loin-cloths) from 5 to 7
dollars per score; the second 10 dollars 50 cents; and the best 14 to 15
dollars. The barsati in the interior represents the doti or tobe of
Merkani. On the coast it is a favourite article of wear with the poorer
freemen, slaves, and women. Beyond the maritime regions the chiefs will
often refuse a barsati, if of small dimensions and flimsy texture.
Formerly, the barsati was made of silk, and cost 7 dollars per
loin-cloth. Of late years the Wanyamwezi have taken into favour the
barsati or kitambi banyani; it is a thin white long cloth, called in
Bombay kora (Corah, or cotton piece-goods), with a narrow reddish border
of madder or other dye stamped in India or at Zanzibar. The piece of 39
yards, which is divided into 20 shukkah, costs at Bombay 4·50 Co.’s rs.;
at Zanzibar 2 dollars 50 cents; and the price of printing the edge is 1
dollar 75 cents.
The dabwani is a kind of small blue and white check made at Maskat; one
fourth of its breadth is a red stripe, edged with white and yellow. This
stuff, which from its peculiar stiffening of gum appears rather like
grass-cloth than cotton, is of three kinds: the cheapest, dyed with
Cutch colours, is much used in the far interior; it costs at Zanzibar 12
dols. 50 cents per score of pieces, each two and a half yards long;--the
medium quality, employed in the copal trade of the coast, is stained
with European dye, and superior in work; the score of pieces, each 3
yards long, costs 30 dols.;--and the best, which is almost confined to
the island of Zanzibar, ranges from 40 to 45 dols. per kori. The dabwani
is considered in the interior nearly double the value of the barsati,
and it is rarely rejected unless stained or injured.
The jamdani is a sprigged or worked muslin imported from India: though
much prized for turbans by the dignitaries of the maritime races, it is
rarely carried far up the country. At Zanzibar the price of 10 yards is
1 dol., and the piece of 20 lengths, each sufficient for a turban, may
be purchased for 15 dols.
The bandira (flag stuff) is a red cotton bunting imported from Bombay.
It is prized in the interior by women. At Zanzibar the price of this
stuff greatly varies; when cheap the piece of 28 yards may be obtained
for 2 dols. 50 cents, when dear it rises to 3 dols. 50 cents. It is sold
by gorah of 7½ shukkahs.
Shít, or chintz, is of many different kinds. The common English is a red
cotton, striped yellow and dark green; it fetches from 1 dol. 50 cents
to 2 dols. per piece of 28 yards, and is little prized in the interior.
Those preferred, especially in Unyamwezi and Ujiji, are the French and
Hamburg; the former is worth at Zanzibar from 4 dols. 50 cents per piece
of 35 yards, to 5 dols. 50 cents per gorah of 10 shukkahs, and the
latter from 5 dols. to 5 dols. 50 cents. The most expensive is the
“ajemi,” that used by the Persians as lining for their lambswool caps;
the price is from 50 cents to 1 dol. per yard, which renders it a scarce
article even in Zanzibar island.
The khuzarangi, a European cotton dyed a reddish nankeen, with
pomegranate rind and other colouring matters, at Maskat, is almost
confined to the Arabs, who make of it their normal garment, the long and
sleeved shirt called el dishdashah, or in Kisawahili khanzu. It is the
test of foreign respectability and decorum when appearing amongst the
half-clad African races, and the poorest of pedlars will always carry
with him one of these nightgown-like robes. The price of the ready-made
dishdashah ranges from 50 cents to 2 dols. 50 cents, and the uncut piece
of 16 yards costs from 2 dols. to 2 dols. 50 cents.
The ukaya somewhat resembles the kaniki, but it is finer and thinner.
This jaconnet, manufactured in Europe and dyed in Bombay, is much used
by female slaves and concubines as head veils. The price of the piece of
20 yards, when of inferior quality, is 2 dollars 50 cents; it ranges as
high as 12 dollars.
The sohari, or ridia, made at Maskat, is a blue and white check with a
red border about 5 inches broad, with smaller stripes of red, blue, and
yellow; the ends of the piece are checks of a larger pattern, with red
introduced. There are many varieties of this cloth, which, considered as
superior to the dabwani as the latter is superior to the barsati, forms
an acceptable present to a chief. The cheapest kind, much used in
Unyamwezi, costs 16 dollars 25 cents per kori, or score. The higher
sorts, of which however only 1 to 40 of the inferior is imported into
the country, ranges from 22 to 30 dollars.
The shali, a corruption of the Indian shal (shawl), is a common English
imitation shawl pattern of the poorest cotton. Bright yellow or red
grounds, with the pear pattern and similar ornaments, are much prized by
the chiefs of Unyamwezi. The price of the kori, or score, is 25 dollars.
The taujiri (from the Indian taujír burá) is a dark blue cotton stuff,
with a gaudy border of madder-red or tumeric-yellow, the former colour
preferred by the Wahiao, the latter by the Wanyamwezi. The price per
score varies from 8 to 17 dollars.
The msutu is a European cotton dyed at Surat, indigo blue upon a
madder-red ground, spotted with white. This print is much worn by Arab
and Wasawahili women as a nightdress and morning wrapper; in the
interior it becomes a robe of ceremony. At Zanzibar the piece of 20
lengths, each 2·25 yards long and 40 inches broad (two breadths being
sown together), costs 19 dollars. The kisutu, an inferior variety,
fetches, per kori of pieces 2·50 yards long, 13 dollars.
The kikoi is a white cotton, made at Surat, coarse and thick, with a
broad border of parallel stripes, red, yellow, and indigo blue: per kori
of pieces 2 yards long, and sewn in double breadths, the price is 5
dollars. A superior variety is made principally for the use of women,
with a silk border, which costs from 1 to 4 dollars.
The shazar, called throughout the interior mukunguru, is a Cutch-made
cotton plaid, with large or small squares, red and white, or black and
blue; this cloth is an especial favourite with the Wamasai tribes. The
score of pieces, each 2 yards, costs 6 dollars 25 cents. There is a
dearer variety, of which each piece is 3 yards long, costing 16 dollars
per kori, and therefore rarely sold.
Of the last division of “cloths with names,” namely those of silk and
cotton mixed, the most popular is the subaí. It is a striped stuff, with
small checks between the lines, and with a half-breadth of border, a
complicated pattern of red, black, and yellow. This cloth is used as an
uzar, or loin-cloth, by the middle classes of Arabs; the tambua, taraza,
or fringe, is applied to the cloth with a band of gold thread at
Zanzibar, by Wasawahili. The subai, made at Maskat of Cutch cotton,
varies greatly in price: the cheapest, of cotton only, may be obtained
for 2 dollars; the medium, generally preferred for presents to great
chiefs, is about 5 dollars 50 cents; whilst the most expensive, inwoven
with gold thread, ranges from 8 to 30 dollars.
The dewli is the Indian lungi, a Surat silk, garnished with a border of
gold thread and a fringe at Zanzibar. It is a red, yellow, or green
ground, striped in various ways, and much prized for uzar. The price of
the cheap piece of 3·50 yards is 7 dollars, besides the fringe, which is
2 dollars more; the best, when adorned with gold, rise to 80 dollars.
The sabuni uzar, made in Maskat, is a silk-bordered cotton, a small blue
and white check; the red and yellow edging which gives it its value is
about one-fifth of its breadth. The score of pieces, each 2·50 yards
long, varies from 25 to 50 dollars; the more expensive, however, rarely
find their way into the interior.
The khesi is a rare importation from Bombay, a scarlet silk, made at
Tannah; the piece sold at Bombay for 10 Co.’s rs. fetches at Zanzibar 5
dols. 50 cents to 6 dollars; this kind is preferred by the Wanyamwezi
chiefs; when larger, and adorned with gold stripes, it rises to 35 Co.’s
rs., or 19 dollars, and is prized by the Banyans and Hindis of Zanzibar.
The masnafu is rare like the khesi; it is a mixed silk and cotton cloth,
of striped pattern, made at Maskat. The cheapest is a piece of 1·75
yards, costing from 2 to 5 dollars, and highly regarded in Unyamwezi;
the larger kinds, of 2·50 yards, rise from 5 to 6 dollars, and the Arabs
will pay from 20 to 25 dollars for those worked with gold thread.
These notes upon the prices of importations into Central Africa rest
upon the authority of the Hindus, and principally of Ladha Damha, the
collector of customs at Zanzibar. Specimens of the cloths were deposited
with the Royal Geographical Society of London, and were described by the
kindness of Mr. Alderman Botterill, F.R.G.S.
Remain for consideration the minor and local items of traffic.
The skull-caps are of two kinds. One is a little fez, locally called
kummah. It is made in France, rarely at Bagdad, and sells at Zanzibar
for 5 dols. 50 cents to 9 dollars per dozen. The cheaper kind is
preferred in Unyamwezi; it is carried up from the coast by Arab slaves
and Wasawahili merchants, and is a favourite wear with the sultan and
the mtongi. At Unyanyembe the price of the fez rises to 1 dollar. The
“alfiyyah” is the common Surat cap, worked with silk upon a cotton
ground; it is affected by the Diwans and Shomwis of the coasts. The
“vis-gol,” or 20-stitch, preferred for importation, cost 8 dollars per
score; the “tris-gol,” or 30-stitch, 13 dollars; and the “chalis-gol,”
or 40-stitch, 18 dollars.
Besides these articles, a little hardware finds its way into the
country. Knives, razors, fish-hooks, and needles are useful, especially
in the transit of Uzaramo. As an investment they are useless; the
people, who make for themselves an article which satisfies their wants,
will not part with valuables to secure one a little better. They have
small axes and sharp spears, consequently they will not buy dear
cutlery; they have gourds, and therefore they care little for glass and
china. The Birmingham trinkets and knicknacks, of which travellers take
large outfits to savage and barbarous countries, would in East Africa be
accepted by women and children as presents, but unless in exceptional
cases they would not procure a pound of grain; mirrors are cheap and
abundant at Zanzibar, yet they are rarely imported into the interior.
The people will devise new bijouterie for themselves, but they will not
borrow it from strangers. In the maritime regions, where the tribes are
more civilised, they will covet such foreign contrivances, as dollars,
blankets, snuff-boxes, and tin cylinders which can be converted into
tobacco pouches: the Wanyamwezi would not regard them. Similarly in
Somaliland, a case of Birmingham goods carried through the country
returned to Aden almost full.
Coffee, sugar, and soap may generally be obtained in small quantities
from the Arabs of Unyanyembe. At Zanzibar the price of common coffee is
3 dollars 75 cents, and of Mocha 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah. Sugar
is of three kinds: the buluji, or loaf-sugar, imported from America,
averages 6 annas; sukkari za mawe, or sugar-candy, fetches upon the
island 5 dollars 50 cents per frasilah; and the bungálá, or sukkari za
mchanga (brown Bengal sugar), costs 3 dollars 50 cents; gur, or
molasses, sells at Zanzibar for 1 dollar 25 cents per frasilah. Soap is
brought to Zanzibar island by the Americans, French, and India
merchants.
The other articles of importation into Zanzibar, which, however, so
rarely find their way into the interior, that they do not merit detailed
notice, are--rice and other cereals from Bombay and Western India;
shipping materials, canvas, rigging, hempen cord, planks and boards,
paint, pitch, turpentine, linseed-oil, bees’-wax, and tar, from America
and India; metals from Europe and India; furniture from Europe and
America, China and Bombay; carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia; mats
from Madagascar; made-up clothes from Maskat and Yemen; glassware from
Europe and America; pottery, paper, and candles from Europe and Bombay;
kuzah (water-jars) from the Persian Gulf; woods and timber from
Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the coast as far north as Mombasah;
skins and hides from the Banadir; salt-fish (shark and others) from
Oman, Hazramaut, and the Benadir; brandy, rum, peppermint, eau de
Cologne, syrups and pickles, tobacco, cigars, and tea, from Bombay,
France, and the Mauritius; rose-water from the Gulf; attar of rose and
of sandal from Bombay; dates, almonds, and raisins from Arabia and the
Gulf; gums and ambergris from Madagascar, the Mozambique, and the
“Sayf-Tawil” (the long low coast extending from Ras Awath, in N. lat. 5°
33′, to Ras el-Khayl, N. lat. 7° 44′); aloes and dragon’s-blood from
Socotra; incense, gum Arabic, and myrrh from the Somali country and the
Benadir; turmeric, opium, ginger, nutmegs, colombo-root, cardamoms,
cinnamon, aniseed, camphor, benzoin, assafœtida, saltpetre, potash, blue
vitriol, alum, soda, saffron, garlic, fenugreek, and other drugs and
spices from Bombay and Western India.
The staple articles of the internal trade throughout the regions
extending from the coast of the Indian Ocean to the lakes of Central
Africa are comprised in slaves and cattle, salt, iron, tobacco, mats and
strainers, and tree-barks and ropes. Of these, all except salt have been
noticed in detail in the preceding pages.
Salt is brought down during the season from East Arabia to Zanzibar by
Arab dows, and is heaped up for sale on a strip of clear ground under
the eastern face of the gurayza or fort. It is of two kinds: the fine
rock salt sells at 6 annas per frasilah, and the inferior, which is
dark and sandy, at about half that price. On the coast the principal
ports and towns supply themselves with sea-salt evaporated in the rudest
way. Pits sunk near the numerous lagoons and backwaters allow the saline
particles to infiltrate; the contents, then placed in a pierced earthen
pot, are allowed to strain into a second beneath. They are inspissated
by boiling, and are finally dried in the sun, when the mass assumes the
form of sand. This coarse salt is sold after the rains, when it abounds,
for its weight of holcus; when dear, the price is doubled. In the
interior there are two great markets, and the regularity of
communication enables the people to fare better as regards the luxury
than the more civilised races of Abyssinia and Harar, where of a
millionnaire it is said, “he eateth salt.” An inferior article is
exported from Ugogo, about half-way between the East Coast and the
Tanganyika Lake. A superior quality is extracted from the pits near the
Rusugi River in Western Uvinza, distant but a few days from Ujiji. For
the prices and other conditions of sale the reader is referred to
Chapters V. and VII.
The subject of exports will be treated of at some length; it is not only
interesting from its intrinsic value, but it is capable of considerable
development, and it also offers a ready entrance for civilisation. The
African will never allow the roads to be permanently closed--none but
the highly refined amongst mankind can contemplate with satisfaction a
life of utter savagery. The Arab is too wise to despise “protection,”
but he will not refuse to avail himself of assistance offered by
foreigners when they appear as capitalists. Hitherto British interests
have been neglected in this portion of the African continent, and the
name of England is unknown in the interior. Upon the island of Zanzibar,
in 1857-8, there was not an English firm; no line of steamers connected
it with India or the Cape, and, during the dead season, nine months have
elapsed before the answer to a letter has been received from home.
The reader is warned that amongst the East Africans the “bay o
shara”--barter or round trade--is an extensive subject, of which only
the broad outlines and general indications can be traced. At present,
the worthlessness of time enables both buyer and seller to haggle _ad
libitum_, and the superior craft of the Arab, the Banyan, the Msawahili,
and the more civilised slave, has encumbered with a host of difficulties
the simplest transactions. It is easy to be a merchant and to buy
wholesale at Zanzibar, but a lengthened period of linguistic study and
of conversancy with the habits and customs of the people must be spent
by the stranger who would engage in the task of retail-buying in the
interior.
The principal article of export from the Zanzibar coast is copal, from
the interior ivory. The minor items are hippopotamus teeth, rhinoceros
horns, cattle, skins, hides, and horns, the cereals, timbers, and
cowries. Concerning the slaves, who in East Africa still form a
considerable item of export, details have been given in the preceding
pages. The articles which might be exploited, were means of carriage
supplied to the people, are wax and honey, orchella-weed, fibrous
substances, and a variety of gums.
The copal of Zanzibar, which differs materially from that of the Western
Coast of Mexico and the cowaee (Australian dammar?) of New Zealand, is
the only article convertible into the fine varnishes now so extensively
used throughout the civilised world.
As the attention of the Expedition was particularly directed to the
supplies of copal in East Africa by Dr. G. Buist, LL.D., Secretary to
the Bombay branch of the R. G. Society, many inquiries and visits to the
copal diggings were made. In the early part of 1857 specimens of the
soils and subsoils, and of the tree itself, were forwarded to the
Society.
The copal-tree is called by the Arabs shajar el sandarús, from the
Hindostani chhandarus; by the Wasawahili msandarusi; and by the Wazaramo
and other maritime races mnángú. The tree still lingers on the island
and the mainland of Zanzibar. It was observed at Mombasah, Saadani,
Muhonyera, and Mzegera of Uzaramo; and was heard of at Bagamoyo,
Mbuamaji, and Kilwa. It is by no means, as some have supposed, a shrubby
thorn; its towering bole has formed canoes 60 feet long, and a single
tree has sufficed for the kelson of a brig. The average size, however,
is about half that height, with from 3 to 6 feet girth near the ground;
the bark is smooth, the lower branches are often within reach of a man’s
hand, and the tree frequently emerges from a natural ring-fence of dense
vegetation. The trunk is of a yellow-whitish tinge, rendering the tree
conspicuous amid the dark African jungle-growths; it is dotted with
exudations of raw gum, which is found scattered in bits about the base;
and it is infested by ants, especially by a long ginger-coloured and
semi-transparent variety, called by the people maji-m’oto, or “boiling
water,” from its fiery bite. The copal wood is yellow tinted, and the
saw collects from it large flakes; when dried and polished it darkens to
a honey-brown, and, being well veined, it is used for the panels of
doors. The small and pliable branches, freshly cut, form favourite
“bakur,” the kurbaj or bastinadoing instrument of these regions; after
long keeping they become brittle. The modern habitat of the tree is the
alluvial sea-plain and the anciently raised beach: though extending over
the crest of the latter formation, it ceases to be found at any distance
beyond the landward counterslope, and it is unknown in the interior.
The gum copal is called by the Arabs and Hindus sandarus, by the
Wasawahili sandarusi, and by the Wanyamwezi--who employ it like the
people of Mexico and Yucatan as incense in incantations and
medicinings--sirokko and mámnángu. This semi-fossil is not “washed out
by streams and torrents,” but “crowed” or dug up by the coast clans and
the barbarians of the maritime region. In places it is found when
sinking piles for huts, and at times it is picked up in spots overflowed
by the high tides. The East African seaboard, from Ras Gomani in S. lat.
3° to Ras Delgado in 10° 41′, with a medium depth of 30 miles, may
indeed be called the “copal coast;” every part supplies more or less the
gum of commerce. Even a section of this line, from the mouth of the
Pangani River to Ngao (Monghou), would, if properly exploited, suffice
to supply all our present wants.
The Arabs and Africans divide the gum into two different kinds. The raw
copal (copal vert of the French market) is called sandarusi za miti,
“tree copal,” or chakází, corrupted by the Zanzibar merchant to
“jackass” copal. This chakazi is either picked from the tree or is
found, as in the island of Zanzibar, shallowly imbedded in the loose
soil, where it has not remained long enough to attain the phase of
bitumenisation. To the eye it is smoky or clouded inside, it feels soft,
it becomes like putty when exposed to the action of alcohol, and it
viscidises in the solution used for washing the true copal. Little
valued in European technology, it is exported to Bombay, where it is
converted into an inferior varnish for carriages and palanquins, and to
China, where the people have discovered, it is said, for utilising it, a
process which, like the manufacture of rice paper and of Indian ink,
they keep secret. The price of chakazi varies from 4 to 9 dollars per
frasilah.