There is a large mass of mankind occupying an intermediate position
between the savage and the civilised nations of the world. These have no
literature of their own, yet they have received some amount of knowledge
by tradition or communication with other people. They know little or
nothing of science, yet they are skilled in some of the useful arts of
life. They have no regular legislation nor codes of civil law, yet they
have forms of government and unwritten laws to which they steadfastly
adhere, and about which they can plead as eloquently as a Chancery
barrister or an advocate in the Courts of Session. While they cultivate
the ground, keep cattle, and live upon the lawful products of the soil,
they have none of the culinary dainties of life; whilst they plant the
cotton-tree, and weave and dye cloth to make their garments, their
clothing is scant, and devoid of all excellence in the manufacture. As
far removed from the polite European on the one hand, as from the savage
Indian or the rude Hottentot on the other, they may be rightly termed
the semi-barbarous portion of mankind. It is a curious question how they
came to occupy this middle state of civilisation, which they have
retained for so many centuries. We know that the wandering tribes of
Asia, and some of the kingdoms of that continent which partake of the
characteristics now described, in former ages enjoyed seasons of
national splendour and gleams of civilisation, the twilight of which has
not yet passed away; but we know nothing of the history of Central
Africa, a large part of which is composed of semi-barbarous nations.
We now specially refer to that portion of the African continent which
lies between the Great Desert and the Kong Mountains, with a
continuation toward Lake Tchad--comprising a tract of country about 300
miles in length and 2000 in breadth. South of this latitude the people
are more barbarous and cruel, and the deserts of the west are inhabited
by tribes more purely negro and ignorant. Moors, Mandingoes, Foolahs,
and Jaloofs, principally dwell in this vast region of West-Central
Africa. All these peoples are more or less European in their form and
countenance; the pure negroes occasionally mixed with them being
probably imported slaves or their descendants. These nations differ from
each other in their languages, and in some of their customs and manners;
but there is a similarity in their mode of living, if we except the
Moors, which makes it as unnecessary as it would be tedious to describe
each of them separately. We wish to make our readers acquainted with the
forms and habits of semi-barbarous life, whatever local name or
geographical appearance it may assume.
The first and most important feature of observation is the position of
the female sex. This regulates the size of the houses and the towns, the
nature of agriculture, and the whole social economy. In Africa the women
are emphatically the working-class of the community, and hold an
intermediate station between wife and slave, occupying the rank and
employments of both. A wife is usually bought for so many head of cattle
or such a number of slaves, and then becomes the property of her
husband. There is no limit to the number of wives. Even the Mohammedan
negroes do not conform to the Koran in its restriction to the number of
four. One chief boasted that he had eighty wives; and upon the
Englishman answering that his countrymen thought one woman quite enough
to manage, the African flourished a whip, with which he said he kept
them in order. In some countries one of these wives is recognised as
head-wife, and enjoys certain prerogatives appertaining to this place.
Being desirous of obtaining an insight into the minutiae of African
life, we accepted the invitation of a negro who traded on the Gambia to
pay him a visit, and spend a day in his town, especially as there would
be a dance in the evening. We left our vessel in the morning, and having
rowed for some miles up a tributary stream, landed in an open place.
Here we met the horses which Samba had sent for us, as the town lay at a
considerable distance. They were fine animals, of a small breed, but
very spirited, and apparently only half-trained. Their accoutrements
were in some respects novel; for the saddle was an unwieldy article,
with a high pommel in front, and an elevation behind, so that we were
fairly wedged in the seat, and had many thumps before we learned to sit
correctly in these stocks. We therefore had no wish, as we had little
opportunity, of trying the speed of our beasts, the road lying through a
vast forest. The men who accompanied us were armed with muskets, and
kept a sharp look-out among the bushes, though there was not much fear
of being attacked in this place by wild beasts in the day-time, as it
was a frequented route and had been often visited by the hunter. By and
by we came, to a stream, which was fordable in the dry season.
Senegambia abounds with rivers and creeks; indeed it seems to be one of
the best-watered regions of the earth, and has excellent means of
communication for trade. These waters are full of fish, which form an
important article of food for the people.
After crossing the river, we saw the place of our destination on a
rising ground surrounded with fields. The town was surrounded with a low
mud-wall and stockade to keep off wild beasts, and as a slight
protection against roving freebooters. Larger towns, especially those
belonging to warrior chiefs, have high mud-walls, sometimes with
loopholes and bastions, and are capable of standing a siege where the
enemy has neither cannon nor battering-rams. The gate was made of planks
shaped with the axe, for the natives have no saws. The appearance of the
place from a distance was very singular, for it consisted of 400 or 500
huts, all built in the same manner, with conical roofs thatched with
grass. No chimneys, spires, nor windows relieved the monotony of the
scene. Upon entering, we threaded our way through narrow passages,
between high fences, as through the mazes of a labyrinth, where we might
have wandered all day without finding an exit. At last our guides
brought us to a wicket-door, through which we passed, and found
ourselves in Samba's enclosure. He welcomed us with great cordiality,
and led us towards his dwelling through a group of inquisitive women and
children. It was a circular hut, rather larger than the others, and
constructed with a little more care. The wall was composed of large
lumps of clay in square blocks, laid upon each other while still wet;
these speedily dry and harden in the sun, forming a substantial support,
of about four feet high, for the roof. The roof is a conical frame of
bamboo-cane thatched with long grass, having long eaves to protect the
walls from the deluging rains of Africa. The most substantial of these
dwellings are liable to be undermined by wet, if the ground be level, or
to be penetrated by rain, if the roof be not kept in good repair; in
which case the sides can no longer support its weight. For this, reason,
deserted towns soon become heaps of mud ruins, and finally a mound of
clay.
The interior of Samba's dwelling was as simple as the outside. On one
side was a platform or hurdle of cane, raised about two feet from the
ground upon stakes. This served for a bedstead, and the bedding was
composed of a simple skin or mat. Being rich, Samba had other mats for
himself and his friends to sit upon, and two or three low stools. His
gun, spear, leathern bottle, and other accoutrements, lay in a
convenient place: and we observed a couple of boxes, one of which
contained clothes, and the other a heterogeneous mass of trifling
valuables received from Europeans. Of course such boxes and their
contents are not of frequent occurrence in these lowly dwellings. Near
this hut was another small one which served for a kitchen: it contained
some earthen pots, wooden bowls, and calabashes, with iron pots and neat
baskets as articles of distinction. Here was also the large pestle and
mortar, the use of which will be presently described.
Samba was dressed in the usual garb of a negro gentleman. He wore large
cotton drawers, which reached half-way down the leg, and a loose smock
with wide sleeves. On his feet were sandals, fastened with leathern
straps over his toes, the legs being bare. His head was covered with a
white cap encircled with a Paisley shawl--which I had formerly given
him--and which was worn in the manner of a turban. Two large _greegrees_
or amulets--being leathern purses, containing some holy words or sacred
scraps--depended from his neck by silken cords. This costume was
pleasing, and set off his manly form to advantage. One of his wives
immediately presented us with a calabash of sour milk, and some cakes of
rice of pounded nuts and honey. The Africans have in general only two
meals a day; but some, who can afford it, take lunch about two o'clock.
Strict Mohammedans profess not to drink intoxicating liquors; but looser
religionists cannot resist the temptation of rum, of which the pagan
negroes drink to excess. Samba brought out a bottle of this liquor, and
presented it with evident glee, himself doing justice to its contents.
We then proceeded to view the rest of the premises. Samba had six wives,
each of whom had a separate hut. Their dwellings resembled that of their
lord, but were of smaller size, and the doors were very low, so as to
require considerable stooping to enter. These apertures for admitting
light, air, and human beings, and for letting out the smoke, always look
towards the west, for the easterly wind brings clouds of sand; and if
the tornadoes which blow from the same quarter are allowed an inlet to a
hut, they speedily make an outlet for themselves by whirling the roof
into the air. The women were dressed in their best style on the occasion
of our visit. One cloth, or _pang_, was fastened round their waist, and
hung down to the ankles: another was thrown loosely over the bosom and
shoulders. Their hair was plaited with ribbons, and decorated with
beads, coral, and pieces of gold. Their legs were bare; but they had
neat sandals on their feet. They were loaded with necklaces, bracelets,
armlets, and anklets, composed of coral, amber, and fine glass-beads,
interspersed with beads of gold and silver. These are their wealth and
their pride. Some had little children, whose only covering was strings
of beads round the waist, neck, ankles, and wrists: an elder girl of
about ten years had a small cloth about her loins. We saw no furniture
in their huts except a few bowls and calabashes, a rude distaff for
spinning cotton, and the usual bed-hurdle covered with mats. The ladies
were very garrulous and inquisitive, narrowly inspecting our skin and
dress, and asking many questions about European females. They wondered
how a rich man could do with only one wife, but thought monogamy was a
good thing for the women. These mothers never carry their children in
their arms, but infants are borne in a _pang_ upon the back.
Another hut served for Samba's store, where he kept his merchandise;
another was occupied by some female slaves, and another by male slaves.
These poor creatures wore only a cloth round their loins, hanging as far
as the knees; the females had each a necklace of common beads given by
their mistresses. At night they lie down upon a mat or skin, and light a
fire in the middle of the hut. This serves both for warmth and to keep
away noxious insects. Their furniture consisted of working
instruments--hoes, calabashes, rush-baskets, and the redoubtable
_paloon_. The last-mentioned instrument is a large wooden mortar made by
the Loubles, a wandering class of Foolahs, one of the most stunted and
ugly of African races, and quite different from the pastoral and warrior
tribes. These roving gipsies work in wood, and may be called the coopers
of Africa. When they find a convenient spot of ground furnished with the
proper kind of trees, they immediately proceed to cut them down: the
branches are formed into temporary huts, and the trunks are made into
canoes, bowls, pestles and mortars, and other wooden utensils. Their
chief implements are an axe and a knife, which they use with great
dexterity.
The freemen are very indolent, and, with the exception of the Foolahs,
seldom engage in any useful work. The time not occupied in hunting,
fishing, travelling, or public business, is usually spent in indolent
smoking, gossipping, or revelling. The male slaves are employed in
felling timber, weaving, drawing water, collecting grass for horses, and
helping the women in the fields; but as all this, excepting the first,
can be done by females, the slaveholders do not care to keep many male
slaves. Women generally attend to field-work. Before the rains set in,
they make holes in the ground with a hoe, and, after dropping in seeds,
cover in the earth with their feet. In case of rice, the surface of the
ground is turned up with a narrow spade. After the rains the grain is
ripe, and the tops are cut off. When the natives have not separate
store-huts of their own, they keep their corn in large rush-baskets
raised upon stakes outside the village; and these stores are not
violated by their fellow-townsmen. The grain is beaten or trodden out of
the husks, and then winnowed in the wind. The women pound it into meal
or flour with a pestle nearly five feet long, the ordinary mortar
containing about two gallons. This is a most laborious process, and
occupies many hours of the day or night.
After gratifying, if not satisfying, the curiosity of Samba's wives, we
thought it right that a return should be made by their explaining to us
their mode of dressing food, especially the celebrated _kooskoos_. This
was cheerfully done, the more so as we presented them with small
articles of tinselled finery. The flour is moistened with water, then
shaken and stirred in a calabash until it forms into small hard granules
like peppercorns, which will keep good for a long time if preserved in a
dry place. The poorer class wet this prepared grain with hot water until
it swells like rice; others steam it in an earthen pot with holes, which
is placed above another containing flesh and water, so that the flavour
of the meat makes the kooskoos savoury. We saw a dish of this kind in
preparation for our dinner, along with other stews of a daintier kind,
made of rice boiled with milk and dried fish, or with butter and meat,
not forgetting vegetables and condiments. Some, of these stews, when
well prepared, are not to be despised.
After inspecting the kitchen and its contents, our host conducted us to
the _bentang_ or _palaver_ house, which answers the purpose of a
town-hall and assembly-room. It is a large building, without side-walls,
being a roof supported upon strong posts, and having a bank of mud to
form a seat or lounging-bench. It is generally erected under the shade
of a large tabba-tree, which is the pride of the town. Here all public
business is transacted, trials are conducted, strangers are received,
and hither the idle resort for the news of the day. As Africans are
interminable speakers, they make excellent lawyers, and know how to spin
out a case or involve it in a labyrinth of figures of speech. Mungo
Park, who frequently heard these special pleaders, says that in the
forensic qualifications of procrastination and cavil, and the arts of
confounding and perplexing a cause, they are not easily surpassed by the
ablest pleaders in Europe. The following may serve as an example of
their talent:--An ass had got loose and broken into a field of corn,
much of which it destroyed. The proprietor of the corn caught the beast
in his field, and immediately cut its throat. The owner of the ass then
brought an action to recover damages for the loss of the ass, on which
he set a high value. The other acknowledged having killed it, but
pleaded as a set-off that the value of the corn destroyed was quite
equal to that of the beast which he had killed. The law recognised the
validity of both claims--that the ass should be paid for, and so should
the corn; for the proprietor had no right to kill the beast, and it had
no right to damage the field. The glorious uncertainty was therefore
displayed in ascertaining the relative value of each; and the learned
gentlemen managed so to puzzle the cause, that after a hearing of three
days the court broke up without coming to any decision, and the cause
was adjourned for a future hearing.
Another _palaver_ which lasted four days was on the following
occasion:--A slave-merchant had married a woman of Tambacunda, by whom
he had two children. He subsequently absented himself for eight years
without giving any account of himself to his deserted wife, who, seeing
no prospect of his return, at the end of three years married another
man, to whom she likewise bore two children. The _slatee_ now returned
and claimed his wife; but the second husband refused to surrender her,
insisting that, by the usage of Africa, when a man has been three years
absent from his wife without giving notice of his being alive, the woman
is at liberty to marry again. This, however, proved a puzzling question,
and all the circumstances on both sides had to be investigated. At last
it was determined that the differing claims were so nicely balanced that
the court could not pronounce on the side of either, but allowed the
woman to make her choice of the husbands. She took time to consider; and
it is said that, having ascertained that her first husband, though older
than the second, was much richer, she allowed her first love to carry
the day.
These lawsuits afford much amusement to the freemen of African towns,
who have little employment, and to whom time seems to be a matter of no
importance. Whether a journey occupies a week, a month, or a year, is of
little moment, provided they can obtain victuals and find amusement in
the place they visit. African labourers are quite surprised at the
bustle and impatience of Englishmen; and when urged to make haste in
finishing a job, will innocently exclaim--'No hurry, master: there be
plenty of time: to-morrow, comes after to-day.'
We went to see the blacksmith and saddler of the town. These are the
only professional persons, and they are held in high esteem. The
blacksmith is a worker in all kinds of metal, and combines the
avocations of goldsmith, silversmith, jeweller, nailer, and gunsmith. In
the interior, he also manufactures native iron by smelting the stone in
furnaces with charcoal, which process converts it at once into steel:
but as this operation is rudely performed, it is attended with a great
waste of metal, which is also very hard and difficult to be worked; so
that English iron is used when it can be obtained, and bars of iron form
a considerable article of commerce. The blacksmith's utensils consist of
a hammer, anvil, forceps, and a pair of double bellows made of two
goat-skins. When we saw him he and his slaves were making stirrups, but
the operation was very tedious.
The saddler tans and dresses leather, and can make a very beautiful and
soft material by repeatedly rubbing and beating the hides. The thick
skins are converted into sandals; those of sheep and goats are dyed and
made into sheaths of various kinds, purses for greegrees, covers for
quivers and saddles, and a variety of ornaments, which are neatly sewn,
as all negro lads can use the needle. These arts, with those of weaving,
working in rushes, soap-making, and a rude pottery, constitute the
native crafts. The Africans evidently understand the principles of many
useful arts, and evince considerable ingenuity in the execution,
considering the rudeness of their instruments, their want of capital,
and the total absence of hired labour.
Suspended on a tree near the entrance of the town we saw the strange
dress of bark called Mumbo Jumbo. This is a device used by the men to
keep their wives in awe when the husband's authority is not sufficient
to prevent family feuds and maintain proper subordination. It may be
called the pillory of Africa, and is thus employed: Mumbo Jumbo
announces his approach by loud cries in the woods, and at night enters
the town and proceeds to the bentang, where all the inhabitants are
obliged to assemble. The ceremony begins with songs and dances, which
last till midnight, by which time Mumbo Jumbo has fixed upon his
unfortunate victim. She is immediately seized, stripped, tied to a post,
and scourged with Mumbo's rod, amid the shouts and derision of the whole
assembly. No wonder that Mumbo Jumbo is held in great awe by the women!
When we had finished our walks about town, the day was far spent, and
the setting sun bade us hasten to our lodging; for here there is no
twilight, so that in a few minutes after the orb of day has disappeared
night supervenes, and the moon rules the heavens. The few cattle which
belonged to the inhabitants were brought into a pen at the town-wall,
where they are watched at night by armed men. We found a fire of blazing
wood in Samba's hut, and sat down on mats to gossip and smoke till
dinner should be served. The ladies brought in the kooskoos, and other
viands already described, in wooden bowls, and laid them on the floor;
they then retired, as they never eat with the men. Each guest is
expected to help himself with his fingers, and Samba hoped to play us a
little trick in return for one played upon himself. When he visited us
on board ship we provided only knives and forks, which all were expected
to use. Poor Samba could hardly get a mouthful, and was the
laughing-stock of the company, till in mercy a spoon was brought to him.
He now ordered the stews to be made thin, and the meat to be cut up in
small morsels, hoping to see us very awkward in using our fingers; when
suddenly we produced pocket spoons and knives, which turned the joke
against him and his negro friends, for the food was too watery for
themselves to manage well with their hands.
After our repast we went out to see the dancing. This favourite
amusement of the Africans takes place in the open air when the weather
is fine; in wet weather it is held in the bentang, and when it is dark
large fires are kindled to give light to the performers. They have two
or three musical instruments, the chief of which is a drum. When this is
beat, all the young folks become animated, and dance to the sound,
clapping their hands, and performing a number of evolutions, some of
which are not the most seemly. They keep up this exercise through a
great part of the night; so that we left them in the midst of their
sport, and retired to rest. Our preparations for sleep were soon made,
by simply lying down upon the mats placed upon the hurdle. The negroes
are very susceptible of cold, and complain of it when we are panting
with heat; but the fire in their huts keeps up the desired temperature.
They sleep very soundly, and cannot be easily aroused till after
sun-rise. In the morning we made a slight repast of gruel, to which a
kind of hasty-pudding with shea-butter was added for our peculiar
gratification. This butter is made of the fruit of the shea-tree, which
is not unlike a Spanish olive, and has a kernel from which the butter is
extracted by boiling. It is in great repute, having a richer taste than
the butter of milk, and keeping for a long time without salt, which is
very expensive in Africa. After breakfast we took leave of our kind host
and his family, and returned in the same way we came.
The foregoing description of semi-barbarous life may seem to portray it
in some attractive colours, so that indolent and licentious persons
might ask: Is it not preferable to our sophisticated state of society?
We are not judges of other people's taste, but we can see in it nothing
desirable. Its evils are numerous and very great. It is a dearth or
death of the soul, and of all that which truly constitutes man an
intelligent being, aiming at mental progress. Again, it is intimately
connected with a state of slavery, with the degradation of females, and
with polygamy--three great moral evils, the sources of endless rapine,
injustice, and misery. Famine also frequently prevails, and is a
dreadful scourge, even compelling mothers to sell some of their children
that they may save the rest. For in such an uncertain state of society,
no one cares to lay up for the future, as his hordes would only incur
the greater risk of being pillaged and destroyed.