week, with from twenty to thirty-five hours’ instruction per week,
according to the grade of the several schools. The average length of
holidays for Mission and Government schools was from two to three months
per annum. Unfortunately, no statement of revenue or expenditure is
included in the case of Togoland beyond the fact that the Government
made a yearly grant of £750, distributed among the various schools for
the encouragement of German language-study. In Cameroon, in 1910, the
Basel Mission spent £5,386 on teachers’ salaries, and the Roman
Catholics £1,626. The cost of the Government schools in that year was
£1,963. Generally no school fees were paid except in some of the higher
schools in Togo, where pupils paid 50s. per annum, and at Garna, in
Cameroon, the Government pupils paid 30s. per annum in kind.
THE RESULTS OF GERMAN METHODS.
In Cameroon a Government Proclamation of April 25th, 1910, made school
attendance obligatory for all native children, instruction in German
from the first class was made law, and the punishment for a child who
left school before completing the whole course was fixed at a fine of £2
10s. or a flogging. Although children generally were anxious to attend
school in order to qualify for service with Europeans, truantry appears
to have become more popular after obligatory attendance was introduced,
and the native police were kept busy in bringing back absentees. School
children, who were distinguished by the wearing of brass-buttons and
cockades, showed a tendency to become denationalised: few of them
returned to the family farms when they completed their school course,
which had the effect of causing them to lose touch with their own tribe
and families.
It is impossible, after reading Herr Missions-Inspector Schlunk’s
report, to refuse admiration to the thoroughness of the German system of
instituting these inquiries, or to the care with which the Germans lay
themselves out to Teutonise their native subjects. Their organising
ability, as revealed in their methods of imparting instruction to the
natives and preparing their minds for the reception of _kultur_, is
amazing, but as Hanns Vischer shows in his analysis of this informative
publication, contributed to the _Journal of the African Society_, their
method has its disadvantages. “Little love and scarcely any respect for
the native,” he comments, “are to be found among the various reports. No
mention is ever made of the natives’ national feeling. Natives are
taught German history and the names of the German Emperors, and they can
sing German patriotic songs. From every colony we hear that the boys who
have been to school seldom or never return to their own surroundings,
and although this is regretted, as being detrimental to the interests of
a peasant community, no mention is made of the breaking-up of the native
family and the inevitable harm which must follow. The importance of
practical instruction is everywhere recommended to teach the native to
work, but no mention is made of the natives’ own industry and love for
work which might be developed.”
THE CAMEROON-NIGERIAN BOUNDARY.
The country bordering on the Nigerian boundary from Yola to Obokum on
the Cross River, a distance of 360 miles, and the peoples inhabiting the
several districts it passes through, have been admirably dealt with by
Captain W. V. Nugent, R.A. Captain Nugent, who had been a member of the
Commission under Colonel Whitlock which surveyed this area between 1907
and 1909, was sent out in August, 1912, to mark the boundary between the
Cameroon and the Nigerias along the line which had been previously
settled approximately on the map at a conference between the British and
German Governments. The British Commissioner and his assistants met
Lieut. Detzner, the German Commissioner, on October 8th, 1912, and the
work of demarcation continued without interruption for six months,
during which time 116 pillars were placed in position. Both
Commissioners wrote accounts of this Anglo-German Frontier Demarcation
Expedition, but, while Lieut. Detzner’s official article on the subject,
published in _Deutsches Kolonialblatt_ (1913) is a dull, pedantic and
unsatisfactory document, the paper read by Captain Nugent before the
Royal Geographical Society in March, 1914, is compact of information and
extremely interesting, and it is from his descriptions that I have
derived the following details and extracts.
The frontier line divides the mountains, torrential streams and
sparsely-inhabited areas of the Cameroons form the wide fertile plains,
great navigable waterways and densely populated districts on the
Nigerian side of the border. The fact that Benue River and its three
great southern tributaries, the Teraba, Donga and Katsena Rivers, all
rise on the plateaux of the Central Cameroon, and only become navigable
for canoes upon entering Nigerian territory, explain the unequal
distribution of man over the country; for, while the savage pagan tribes
have withdrawn to the almost inaccessible hilltops, the more civilised
agricultural and trading peoples have kept to the well-watered plains.
THE FULANI REGION.
The boundary line, which commences at Byaaer, a three days’ march from
Yola, crosses the M’Bulo plain and follows the Upper M’Bulo river to its
source in the Shebshi Mountains. “The plain,” to quote from Captain
Nugent’s description, “is covered with thin bush, and dotted with
villages, each with its surrounding patches of cultivation. The
formation is brown laterite, the rocks containing occasional bands and
lumps of ironstone.” The lower slopes of the isolated granite hills,
which rise above the general level, are covered with pagan villages.
“The people inhabiting the plains on both sides of the boundary are
Fulanis, subject to the Emirs of Yola and Nassarawa; but the tops of
isolated mountains, and the narrow valleys between the long spurs
jutting out from the Shebshi group, are inhabited by pagans, offshoots
of the Chamba and Dakka tribes. The habits and customs of the Fulanis
are well known--they are by nature herdsmen, just as the Hausas are born
traders and the pagans agriculturists. The country is rich in flocks and
herds of cattle, sheep and goats. A large trade is also done in horses.
The villages consist of round huts of sun-baked mud, with conical roofs
thatched with dry grass. Sometimes, when the village is only intended to
be temporary, the walls of the huts are made of zana matting, which is
also used to enclose the compounds, or groups of huts inhabited by one
family. Every village has its assembly place, generally under a large
shady tree, where the headman and his advisers sit all day and smoke,
while the slaves work in the fields or drive the cattle to pasture.
Slave-dealing is still carried on in this country, advantage being taken
of the proximity of the boundary, which makes it so easy to evade
justice.... The work of marking the boundary was watched with the
greatest interest by the Fulani population. The ‘kings’ of all the towns
on the English side, and a good many from the German side, came to
salute us, generally bringing a present of a fowl or a basket of limes.
Each ‘king’ carries a long stick, surmounted by a brass crown, the
emblem of his office under the Government. There are first, second and
third class ‘kings’; the size of the crown varies accordingly.”
The line in crossing the Shebshi Mountains passes over the summit of
Mount Dakka, upon which the boundary pillar is 5,388 feet above sea
level. “The view from Dakka is magnificent. On all sides are tumbled
masses of mountain, much cut up by deep ravines and rocky gorges,
through which the many headwaters of the M’Bulo and Kam rivers tear
headlong to the plains. On the German side, Vogel Spitz rises amid
innumerable peaks and valleys to a height of nearly 7,000 feet,
overlooking some hundred square miles of still unknown country. The
northern spurs, projecting into the Cameroons, enclose high table-lands,
extraordinarily fertile and highly cultivated.... The boundary crosses
the plateau near the only practicable pass, the road being entirely on
the German side, so that one result of the demarcation is to close the
direct trade route between M’Bulo and Kam Valleys until a new pass is
discovered. There are plenty of tracks over these mountains, but very
few practicable for animals. A bull which costs £1 at Tibak, in the
M’Bulo Valley, is worth £3 or £4 at Gankita, in the Kam Valley, the
distance as the crow flies between these two places being no more than
twelve miles.”
THE SHEBSHI MOUNTAINEERS.
“The Shebshi Mountains are interesting from the fact that they would
form the principal obstacle, a well-nigh insuperable one, to the
construction of a direct line of railway from Calabar, or a point on the
Cross River, _via_ Takum and Bakundi, to Yola. Yola is one of the few
important points in Nigeria which does not appear likely to be linked up
with the coast by a railway for many years to come. The German railway
from Duala to the north, if it ever does reach Garua, will pass to the
east of the Shebshis, where many obstacles, almost as formidable, will
have to be overcome....
“The people inhabiting the Shebshi Mountains and their foothills are
principally Chamba and Dakka pagans. They have many points in common
with other hill pagans of Northern Nigeria and Adamawa. The effect of
Mohammedan inroads upon these tribes is especially evident. They may be
divided into two classes: firstly, those who are slaves and mingle
freely with the Fulanis, their villages being in the plain; and,
secondly, those who hold themselves aloof on the hill-tops. The former
have copied many things from the Fulanis, such as clothing, houses,
&c.--almost everything, in fact, except their pastoral proclivities. The
pagan will keep goats and fowls, but he will have nothing to do with
horses and cattle.
“It is with the hill-top pagans, however, that we are principally
concerned, as nine-tenths of the whole boundary zone are inhabited by
people of this denomination. The first sign of the lower stage of
civilization is the absence of clothing. A tuft of grass is the national
dress, and even this is often dispensed with.
“The villages consist of little beehive-shaped huts of mud or grass,
perched on apparently inaccessible heights, or cunningly hidden away in
mazes of dense tropical vegetation. The inhabitants bear a great
resemblance to monkeys, being small in stature, but extraordinarily
active. The steepest and most difficult ascent over rocks and ravines is
to them as easy as a straight, broad, level road. In fact, I have often
noticed that these pagans, made to carry a load on the level, are
utterly at a loss. They only come down from their rocky fastnesses to
cultivate their fields, or to make war on their neighbours. They are
armed with bows and poisoned arrows, from which it is never safe for
them to be parted, even when working in the fields. They are almost
invariably at war with a neighbouring village, the probable reason being
that some of their women have been carried off. No regular trade is
indulged in, but they are very fond of salt, which they obtain from
Hausa traders. A bag of salt which costs half-a-crown on the coast has a
purchasing power of at least ten shillings in this country.
“Each village is an independent community under a chief. The inhabitants
are entirely ignorant of the world beyond the next village to their own.
The nominal chief of the village has not, as a rule, as much influence
as the local ju-ju man or witch doctor, whose power over these extremely
superstitious people is directly proportionate to his success in
imposing upon their credulity. Any calamity, such as an epidemic of
sickness or a sudden death, is always attributed to the evil eye, and
some member of the community is at once suspected, and either killed or
sold to passing Hausa traders. If a chief dies, the village always moves
to another site. This partly accounts for the number of deserted
villages and ruins found in the Shebshi Mountains.
“The Chambas are industrious agriculturists, and keep large numbers of
goats and fowls in their villages. The farms are generally at the foot
of the hills. After the harvest the people brew large supplies of spirit
from the grain, and get drunk for several days together. These orgies
generally result in fighting among themselves. The principal industry,
besides agriculture, is working in iron. They make their own farm
implements, spear and arrow heads, and pipe-stems.”
THE TERABA VALLEY.
From Dakka the boundary line follows the Kam for about a dozen miles,
and then, leaving the river, it runs over a block of hills which form
the fringe of a vast unknown tract of the Cameroon country. Here the
hill-top villages are few, the inhabitants are wilder and more squalid
than the Dakka natives, and the land is the haunt of the elephant, the
lion, the bush-cow and the leopard. From these hills the boundary
descends into the valley of the River Lumen, which runs for twenty or
thirty miles under a dark arch of overhanging trees. The water of the
Lumen is very cold, even in the heat of the day, and the sands of the
river are full of iron. The line crosses the Lumen and mounts a high
ridge, called Shina, to descend again into the vast plain of the River
Teraba. Along the banks of the Teraba are numerous Hausa and Jukum
villages, situated on important trade roads between Northern Nigeria and
Cameroon, the principal trade being in rubber, kola nuts, sheep, and
goats. There are no cattle, as many kinds of biting fly, including the
tsetse, have their breeding places in this area. As the Teraba is
typical of all the great southern tributaries of the Benue, the
following short description, which Captain Nugent gives of one of the
upper reaches, will be read with interest:--
“Fifteen miles above Karbabi the river bends sharply at right angles,
forming noisy rapids. Above the rapids the bed is rocky with deep pools.
Under the tall trees along the banks are open glades like an English
beech wood, entirely free from undergrowth, the ground being carpeted
with soft moss. There are the feeding-grounds of huge herds of
hippopotami, who live in the pools in the daytime. The river is here 200
to 300 yards wide, with high banks; the channel winds among huge
boulders, forming a chain of pools, but leaving a narrow deep waterway
among the larger rocks. The pools are like dark mirrors, silent and
stagnant, yet bright and clear, reflecting the trees on the opposite
bank in full detail. Wild geese and ibis fly overhead, whilst large
alligators move about like torpedoes, with their noses out of the water,
leaving long trails of bubbles on the surface.
“There is no village within many miles of this place, and it was only
with the greatest difficulty that we could obtain guides, as there are
no tracks except those made by the larger game. The inhabitants of the
pools were thoroughly startled at our approach. There seemed to be a
sort of collusion between the different birds and beasts. The shrieking
ibis warned the alligators asleep on the rocks in the sun, they, in
alarm, slid into the water and warned the river-horse that something was
amiss; the river-horse in his turn went pounding up-stream, under water,
coming up to breathe at intervals behind the rocks and branches. The
snorting was terrific. We estimated that there were between thirty and
forty hippopotami in the largest pool. I have never seen a
wilder-looking place; it seemed to be alive with everything except
humanity.
IN THE CANNIBAL COUNTRY.
“The boundary after crossing the Gazuba River, a tributary of the
Teraba, again ascends into an unexplored continuation of the Banjo
highlands, and drops into the plain of the Donga Valley. The inhabitants
here are a mixture of Jukums and Zumperis, but there are numerous
settlements of Hausas, whose trade consists of smuggling rubber and kola
nuts into Nigeria without paying the German tax. The pagans, who live in
‘swallow-nest’ villages on the heights, cultivate guinea-corn and root
crops, while yams, cassava and sweet potatoes grow in abundance in the
interstices between the huts. The boundary reaches the Donga, and after
following the river for fifteen miles and crossing the plateau of the
Wanya Mountains, reaches the plain of the Bamana Valley, in which oil
palms are first encountered.
“The country between the Gamana and Katsena Rivers is inhabited by
Zumperi pagans, who are cannibals and live on hill-tops. They are of
small stature and of remarkably repulsive appearance. Every other man
appeared to be suffering from goitre or elephantiasis--whether the
legacy of cannibalism, or the effect of drinking infected water, it is
difficult to say. The people are industrious, and besides corn, grow
large quantities of cotton and tobacco on the hillsides. They breed dogs
for eating purposes, and all the villages are full of yelping curs,
covered with sores like their owners. In one village a large deposit of
human skulls was seen. The villages are well built and surrounded by mud
walls and ditches. Among the numerous ‘ju-jus’ found in the deserted
huts was a grotesque mask, which was apparently kept to frighten the
women. Any woman seeing it must die at once. When the community is short
of meat, the local witch doctor puts on the mask and runs about the
hills until he meets a likely looking victim, who is then killed and
eaten. The Zumperis are great hunters, and have killed off nearly all
the game in their country except leopards.”
MUNCHI CIVILISATION.
From the Zumperi country the Commission traversed the undulating plain
that connects it with the valley of the Katsena, the last of the three
great tributaries of the Benue, and ascending this valley reached the
Agara or Misa Munchis district. The branch of the large and powerful
Munchi tribe which inhabits this area have preserved themselves from
contamination with the neighbouring tribes, by whom they are greatly
feared. The Munchis of the plains, who are of good physique and very
intelligent, are supposed to have come originally from a country called
Para, somewhere north of Yola, and they still call themselves Para among
themselves. Many of their customs are similar to the Zulus, with whom
they have often been compared, and the majority of their laws are
identical with those of Leviticus. Their villages are well built and
clean, and the men are brave in war and industrious in peace. Their
marriage customs, in addition to the payment of a dowry, include
exchanges of sisters, daughters and sometimes wives. Polygamy is rife,
and the value of a dowry varies from two cows in the case of a young
girl, to one cow or less in the case of a widow or elderly woman.
“The Munchis are of striking appearance. Those near the boundary are
poor and wear few clothes. They go in for extravagant hairdressing, the
most popular coiffure being a shaven head with one or two balls of hair
left growing. Others wear their hair in beaded strands, falling over the
side of the face. The tribal markings are a number of raised tattoo
marks, in the form of a crescent, on both sides of the temple. These are
universal, and are compulsory for both sexes, but the marks disappear in
old age. Other markings are tattoed stars and rings on the forehead,
chest and back, but these are all optional. The two front teeth of the
upper jaw are filed into V-shape.
“The Munchis are excellent farmers, and grow guinea-corn, yams, millet,
beniseed, maize, and ground-nuts in large quantities. They also
cultivate cotton, from which they weave good cloth, dyeing is with
indigo, which is grown round every compound. Each village has at least
one public dye-pit. Tobacco is also grown, and is either used as snuff
or smoked in large pipes with bowls of clay and stems of smelted brass.
“They are clever workers in wood and iron, making chairs and stools, in
the carving of which they display some art and much ingenuity. The iron
ore found locally used to be smelted in large quantities, and the
remains of old workings can be seen in many places, but trade iron bars
are now more generally used: from these spears and arrow-heads, hoes,
knives, and daggers are constructed. The small knives are curious in
shape, the handles being iron loops, which fit over the palm of the
hand. The hoes have broad, heavy blades, fitted with short, crooked
wooded handles, and are most effective agricultural implements. The
principal weapons of offence are bows and arrows, the arrows being
poisoned with a compound of crushed and boiled strophanthus seeds,
snakes’ heads, and poisonous plants, &c., which when freshly made is
very potent, the slightest scratch causing a man to die in agony in
twenty minutes. The fumes from this poison, when it is being boiled, are
very deadly, even in the open air. The mixing is always done by one of
the numerous ju-ju men, who profess to have antidotes, both external and
internal, but there is no authenticated case of a cure having been seen
by any European up to date.
“In every village there is a large war-drum, constructed from a
hollowed-out log, over which is stretched a hide. The Munchis are expert
in the use of these drums for signalling purposes, and messages are
sent in code from village to village throughout their country with great
rapidity and accuracy.
“They are very fond of dances and plays, which, accompanied by songs,
are held on the occasion of the death of a chief or the headman of a
compound, also at births and marriages. These dances are often kept up
for several days when the host is rich enough to supply the food and
drink, the latter being an intoxicating liquid distilled from
guinea-corn.
THE GRASS LAND REGION.
“Leaving the Munchis’ country, the Commission came to the junction of
the Amiri and Mahana Rivers--whose steep banks are lined with
magnificent trees, from which hang long ribbon orchids over a series of
deep clear pools full of large fish--in a region of open grass land. The
road up the Amiri Valley passes through extensive yam fields and Olitti
and Atcho villages, composed of roomy, massive houses in small
stone-walled compounds, protected with loop-holed thorn palisades. Grass
land is reached at a height of 4,000 feet, and the path after crossing
five separate peaks of 2,000 feet reaches the main ridge about 5,000
feet above sea level. To the north and east, as far as the eye can see,
stretches open grass land, with range upon range of blue mountains in
the distance. Across the plain sweep parallel shining rivers,
disappearing through gaps in the hills to the north. To the south and
west, the great forest-clad plain extends to the Cross River, whose
valley forty miles away is marked by a long bank of clouds. All around
is high tableland, cut up into small plateaux by numerous ravines, down
which countless streams tear headlong to the plains.”
Descending from the main plateau, which is covered with thick short
grass and appears to be an ideal district for cattle raising, the
Commission came to the first villages of the Anyangs, who are almost
invariably at war with the grass land people. “Their villages are hidden
away in the forest, and consist of long, low, rectangular mud houses
with roofs of palm-leaves, on either side of a squalid street. The
people are very poor, and live almost entirely on plantains, their farms
being in small clearings, widely separated. Pigs are kept in large
numbers in the villages. Further south, the people met with are Bokis,
who extend to the Cross River.... The village boundaries, although in
dense forest, are well known to the natives, who are extremely jealous
of their rubber-collecting rights.”