a large reed with a triangular stalk and a head like guinea-corn, and
the ‘ngalle’, a smaller reed and flat. The canoes have long curved prows
like a gondola, only turned backwards. For illustration vid. Tilho,
_Royal Geographical Society’s Journal_ for September, 1910, and Tilho,
_Doc. sc._, ii. 335 and 338; cf. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p.
50. Canoes of the same kind are also made from ‘ambach’ branches. Cf.
Tilho, _Doc. sc._, i. 29.]]
[Footnote 408: [For illustration vid. Macleod, p. 232.]]
[Footnote 409: The Kuri also trap the crocodile for the sake of its
meat, Nachtigal, ii. 374. The same food is also relished by the dwellers
on the Shari, Barth, iii. 324.]
[Footnote 410: [They, however, maintained more or less friendly
relations with the sovereign of Bornu. The principal Budduma chiefs used
to go every two or three years to pay him a visit of courtesy, and
brought him presents which were evidence of goodwill rather than
tribute, consisting of a few cows and a little butter. In return they
received embroidered gowns. Shehu Ashimi offered Kachella Koremi, chief
of the Gurias, authority over all the west bank of Chad, if he would
stop the Budduma raids on the Kanuris of the mainland. The Kachella
accepted the country lying south of Kauwa and Ngornu, but in the
following year Bornu was invaded by Rabeh, vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii.
332 and 318.]]
[Footnote 411: Denham, ii. 65; Barth, iii. 405 and 408 (German edition);
Rohlfs, i. 291 ff.; Nachtigal, ii. 371, 485, 487, 489.]
[Footnote 412: Barth, iii. 192; Nachtigal, ii. 531; Kund, _loc. cit._,
p. 24. Cf. also Passarge, p. 440 ff. [The ‘ngalio’.]]
[Footnote 413: Among the Kamerun Protectorate troops the Musgu are
nicknamed the Calabashes.]
[Footnote 414: Denham, i. 361; Barth, iii. 237; Rohlfs, i. 344; Lenfant,
p. 145; Bauer, p. 114; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82. Cf. also Harry Alis,
_Nos Africains_, p. 111 ff.; Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii.
992.]
[Footnote 415: Barth, iii. 201; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 85 ff.]
[Footnote 416: According to Stieber the sores are not produced
artificially but are caused by the friction of the rider’s bare limbs,
Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82.]
[Footnote 417: Barth, iii. 198; cf. also iv. 35 and Nachtigal, ii. 584.]
[Footnote 418: Here and there the chiefs wear Mohammedan clothing.]
[Footnote 419: Barth, iii. 174 and 249, and illustrations on p. 208;
Lenfant, p. 149; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82.]
[Footnote 420: Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 83 ff.; Map, _Der deutsche
Logone_, in _Mitteil. a. d. deutsch. Schutzgeb._, vol. xviii.]
[Footnote 421: Barth, iii. 211-12 and 229; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 84;
Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 29.]
[Footnote 422: Barth, iii. 190, 240, 274; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 85.]
[Footnote 423: Barth, ii. 383.]
[Footnote 424: Barth, ii. 468 and 646 (German edition). [Cf. Benton,
_Notes on Some Languages_, where Barth’s Vocabulary is printed.]]
[Footnote 425: The use of poisoned arrows is very widespread. Besides
the Fulani and most of the pagan hill-tribes, the travelling Hausas also
use them as a means of defence. Nachtigal found them even in Southern
Kanem (ii. 260), and Foureau in Zinder (_D’Alger au Congo_, p. 561). It
is especially as a protection against them that the cotton-wadded armour
is intended. For the terrible effects of the arrow poison cf. Denham, i.
182 ff. [Cf. article on arrow-poison in _Journal of the African Society_
for October, 1905, by L. W. La Chard.]]
[Footnote 426: According to Barth these ornaments come from Mandara (ii.
534).]
[Footnote 427: Cf. Barth, ii. 384.]
[Footnote 428: Cf. Barth, ii. 380, 391, 535.]
[Footnote 429: Nachtigal, ii. 431.]
[Footnote 430: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 943 ff.]
[Footnote 431: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 910 ff., and
_D’Alger au Congo_, p. 516.]
[Footnote 432: [Passarge calls them ‘the African Parsees’.]]
[Footnote 433: [Incorrect. With the exception of the three Government
stations of Maiduguri, Geidam, and Gujba, and the Customs post of
Mongonu, there are practically no Hausas in Bornu Proper.]]
[Footnote 434: Barth, ii. 272; iv. 4.]
[Footnote 435: Barth, ii. 203, 220, 234; iii. 42 and 48 (German
edition); Nachtigal, i. 564, 572; Monteil, p. 298 ff. [The Tuareg raids
have now ceased.]]
[Footnote 436: Barth estimated the Shuwa Arabs in Bornu at
200,000-250,000 souls (ii. 356).]
[Footnote 437: Barth, ii. 355.]
[Footnote 438: Barth, ii. 356; Nachtigal, i. 687, ii. 436; Rohlfs, ii.
30. [Cf. Appendix XIV and XIV A.]]
[Footnote 439: Nachtigal, i. 686; ii. 439.]
[Footnote 440: Barth, iii. 284; Nachtigal, ii. 439, 511.]
[Footnote 441: [The Shuwas roof their huts with corn-stalks, apparently
thrown on haphazard; the Kanuris use grass.]]
[Footnote 442: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 651, ii. 491; Lenfant, p. 153; Dominik,
p. 197.]
[Footnote 443: This has since been adopted by the other tribes of the
Sudan.]
[Footnote 444: Barth, iv. 143.]
[Footnote 445: Rohlfs, ii. 132.]
[Footnote 446: [Called in Bornu ‘Abore Fellata’.] It is a proof of the
intelligence of the Borroro that it is owing to this seclusion that they
are able to protect their cattle against contagious disorders. Their
herds provide the Borroro with everything. The milk, which amongst them
is not mixed with cow’s urine, is their chief food.]
[Footnote 447: Cf. Barth, ii. 229, iii. 257, iv. 143; Passarge, pp. 69,
167 ff., 424 ff., 509; Harry Alis, _Nos Africains_, p. 311; Bauer, p.
133; Chudeau, _loc. cit._, p. 331; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 87. [Cf.
Appendix XIV.]]
VIII
COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS
Bauer says very appropriately in his book, when treating of commerce,
that ‘the treasures of the Northern Kameruns consist in fertility and
capacity for labour’.[448] This statement holds good in a still higher
degree for German Bornu, the northernmost part of the Northern Kameruns,
and for the whole of Bornu in general; for there does not seem to be the
slightest prospect of finding useful minerals here, as far as one can
judge from geological conditions. All the more urgent, therefore, is the
duty of the Colonial Power interested in the commercial opening-up of
the country to devote the most assiduous attention to the numerous and
comparatively civilized population. In a climate like this, quite
unsuited to Europeans, the natives alone can extract the full market
value from the natural fertility of the soil, and they are already to a
large extent prepared to receive the products of European industry.
How prodigiously full of vitality the population of Bornu is, is proved
by the high figure at which it has been able to maintain itself, in
spite of the fact that before the beginning of the anti-slavery movement
it was yearly decimated over wide districts. How destructive were the
military expeditions, which generally started from Kukawa and penetrated
into the heart of Adamawa,[449] expeditions which were only undertaken
because ‘the treasure-chests and slave-huts were empty and must be
filled’,[450] we know well enough from the descriptions of Denham,
Barth, Vogel, Rohlfs, and Nachtigal. Not only the Shehus, but all their
vassal chiefs also, undertook razzias on their own account into the
thickly populated districts. Everything that the slave-raiders had no
use for—and this was the larger part—was destroyed on the spot; in spite
of this, slave caravans of over 4.000 slaves were dispatched from
Kukawa, of whom naturally only a very small proportion lived to reach
their final goal, Murzuk and Tripoli.[451] This inhuman, senseless, and
aimless traffic, dealing in the most valuable goods which the Central
Sudan possesses, viz. its numerous and industrious population, has now
ceased, since the Colonial Powers have paved the way for an orderly
state of affairs. But it would not be less wrong, and like throwing the
helve after the hatchet, were one now, considering the present state of
the Sudan peoples, to forcibly free all so-called slaves, especially as
the marriages of free-born women in the Sudan are often nothing more
than a purchase on the part of the man and an entry into a kind of
slavery on the part of the woman; yet this is the object actually aimed
at by a false philanthropy, utterly unacquainted with the conditions
prevailing in these regions. One must entirely approve, therefore, when
Passarge, at present the best authority on, and the most faithful
delineator of, conditions in the Central Sudan, states that: ‘The
abolition of slavery, even supposing it were generally successful, would
mean the ruin of agriculture and the creation of a state of chaos.’[452]
People at home often take offence at the mere word ‘slave’, and connect
it in their thoughts with such a state of things as was described in
_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. The entire opposite was rather the case. The
‘slave’ experiences, once he has found a master, an almost invariably
mild treatment on the part of his owner, who is dependent on him in many
respects. The ‘slaves’ often enjoy a comparatively large amount of
personal freedom, dwell in their own villages, and live under far better
conditions than many free men, whilst in general the difference between
free men and slaves is by no means obvious. Generally speaking, the term
‘serfdom’, as proposed by Passarge, would be much more suitable to this
condition than ‘slavery’; but even this term is not altogether accurate
for the Chad countries, seeing that in Germany, for example, the serfs,
not so very long ago, could seldom emerge from their subordinate
condition. Very different was the case in the Sudan. Many slaves have
risen here to wealth and great influence—such as one or other of the
eunuchs of the court of Bornu or this or that kachella, who was
originally a slave—and, indeed, as a foreign and therefore invigorating
element, have played a not unimportant rôle in politics.[453]
The last great events which had a definite bearing on the social
condition of the population, were the conquest of Bornu by Rabeh and his
final overthrow; these occurred only a decade ago. The result of these
events was, owing to the facile character of the Kanuri, less a
destructive than a transforming, perhaps even a stimulating one—thanks
to the new elements introduced into the country. A few years after these
events, the thickly inhabited districts of Bornu—if one excepts Kukawa
or Dikoa—nowhere give the impression of being countries which a short
time ago were ravaged by the furies of war. Besides, one should take
into consideration that the traces of devastation and destruction are
soon effaced in these latitudes. What is more important is the fact that
very soon after the overthrow of Rabeh, the chief hindrance to the
development of prosperity in this part of the Sudan—that is to say,
slave-raiding—also ceased to exist.
The districts from which originated practically all the slaves who in
former days reached the markets of Mourzuk or Tripoli—that is to say,
the rich Musgu country—are still at the present day the best populated
part of Bornu, nay, even of the Interior of Africa, and may indeed
compare in this respect with the centres of population of many European
industrial districts.[454] But many other tracts of Bornu, with its
fertile lowlands, afford the same delightful prospect. Under this
category, for example, falls village after village on the right bank of
the Yedseram between Isga and Malematari. In all this district there is
no poverty or difficulty in supporting life; everywhere there is
prosperity and the unmistakable traces of a comfortable existence. Even
the hills on the border are everywhere thickly inhabited, however
inhospitable and inaccessible they may appear.[455]
Nachtigal attempted to ascertain the population of Bornu on the same
basis as Barth’s estimate, and, like his predecessor, fixed the numbers
at 5,000,000 for the whole of Bornu.[456] It is evident, however, that
in this estimate the majority of the Musgu were not included in the
reckoning, for the traveller’s route only allowed him to perceive the
small part which at that time had yet been explored. Bearing this fact
in mind and, further, taking into consideration the peaceful development
of the country during the last ten years, one may certainly add to-day
half a million to the figures of Barth and Nachtigal. Of the numbers
thus obtained, at least one-third come from the specially thickly
populated portion of Bornu that belongs to Germany.[457]
To watch over the peaceful development of the country, to keep an eye on
anything that affects it, and to suggest the policy to be followed, is
the business of the Residents appointed by the Colonial Powers; they are
merely the advisers of the native chiefs, to whom must be left the
direct jurisdiction over these territories according to the degree of
civilization prevailing in each. It should be the prime duty of the
European officials under all circumstances to prevent a return to the
former state of affairs, i.e. mutual hostility between the pagans and
Mohammedans—which would immediately degenerate again into slave-
raiding—to make skilful use of existing divisions, but wherever possible
to bridge them over. But this is all the more difficult since the pagan
natives, remembering the former slave-raids, regard as an enemy any one
of a different colour to themselves. Only a many years’ acquaintance
with the peculiarities of the country can supply a key to a political
system which is full of pitfalls. Though one cannot suppose that the
Europeans responsible for the administration will possess the same
intimate knowledge of native languages and customs as was displayed by
Barth and Nachtigal, nevertheless the mastery of at least one of the
locally spoken idioms, whether Arabic, Kanuri, Hausa, or Fulani, is
absolutely necessary if their efforts are to be really useful. If
anywhere, this holds good of the Central Sudan, where so many threads of
North African tribal life are interwoven, and where all conditions and
events are under the fixed control of the particularly well-organized
sect of the Senussi,[458] which, though they hardly reach so far, are
the moving spirit of the Pan-Islamic movement in North-East Africa, and
whose activity was already noticed by Nachtigal.[459] It is this last
circumstance especially that prescribes rules for the other colonizing
factor which brings the native into touch with European culture, i.e.
for the missionaries, rules which must differ from those which hold good
for the rest of Africa. In spite of unmistakable religious tolerance, at
least on the part of the Kanuri, the dominant race, it must not be
forgotten that Islam, to which the country owes its ancient pre-eminence
in the Sudan, has lost no ground to speak of, but on the contrary is
engaged in steadily advancing. Only the very greatest patience on the
part of Christian missionaries, careful conduct and a systematic advance
from an assured base on the coast, can enable them to conquer this
country. The slightest precipitancy would not only for ever put in
question the results of missionary labour, but would have a most fatal
effect on the whole political state of the country. This is especially
true to-day of places where lack of suitable international arrangements
has given the European Powers no opportunity of showing the great
development of authority lately established in these distant
regions.[460]
The chief industry of Bornu is agriculture, for which the necessary
conditions exist to a degree they scarcely do elsewhere in tropical
countries. The unstinted praise which Barth assigns to the Southern
Musgu country as ‘the most fruitful and most richly watered tract in the
world’,[461] holds equally true of many other districts of the
Sultanate. No district is really bad, for even the ‘firki’ regions
which, owing to the quickness with which they dry up, are to-day almost
useless,[462] could certainly be made productive by the employment of a
more highly developed system of husbandry. There are wide tracts in the
lowlands of Bornu that present a field for agriculture of unparalleled
extent. What an abundance of all the necessaries of life are to-day
wrung from the soil by means of the primitive hoe, and what might not be
produced by the mere introduction of the plough! It cannot be doubted
that the intelligent and industrious natives, who exhibit such an
exemplary system of horticulture with the most primitive implements, and
who have long been aware of the value of artificial manuring, would soon
grasp the advantages of the plough.[463] A suitable draught animal, the
humped ox, is everywhere available, and that it is suited to use with
the plough has been sufficiently proved by experiments undertaken in the
Southern Kameruns.[464]
Pretty well every agricultural product of the Sudan is produced in Bornu
in abundance, and certainly far cheaper than almost anywhere else in
Central Africa, a circumstance to which Barth drew especial
attention.[465] Of greater significance is the fact that the plant which
at the present day has the greatest importance in world-commerce, i.e.
cotton, has for ages been cultivated in Bornu. The good cotton produced
in the country, which is manufactured in large quantities by the natives
of the Sudan, proves as a matter of fact to be far superior to the cheap
cotton goods imported from Europe.[466] And yet it is all produced by
the primitive means of a native loom. Barth repeatedly emphasizes the
fact that far from all of the soil of Bornu suited to the production of
cotton is thus utilized.[467] What possibilities, therefore, are
disclosed for this branch of agriculture by the utilization of all
cotton soils after the introduction of better quality seed, and, above
all, of a more intensive method of cultivation. Bornu, with its regular
climate, is in a far more favourable position than many other cotton
centres—such, for example, as the Southern States of North America, with
their weather conditions which are never to be depended upon—and
doubtless has a future before it so far as this product is
concerned.[468]
Although the other vegetable products of Bornu cannot compete in
importance with cotton, still the cultivation of many valuable
agricultural products, which to-day play an important part in the export
statistics of other African countries, could likewise experience an
important increase. To this category belong especially ground-nuts and
sesame.
Stock-raising has always received the same attention in Bornu as
agriculture. The principal branch of this is cattle-breeding. One gets
an idea of the enormous wealth of Bornu in cattle when one reads the
descriptions of the Musgu country. Kund estimates that in these
districts, where village joins village, a single place of some 100 farms
possesses from 200 to 250 head of cattle.[469] Even if one takes into
consideration that all districts are not suited for stock-raising,
especially those where large stretches of forest make cattle-keeping
difficult, still one may assume that Bornu is one of the richest
countries in cattle of the whole of the Dark Continent. Flocks of sheep
and goats are in places by no means inconsiderable, but they are
generally met with in districts of Bornu less favoured by nature.[470]
From the proximity of the Sahara it is only natural that camel- and
horse-breeding should have been undertaken in Bornu from early times.
Although the prospects of camel-breeding have proved to be poor owing to
reasons already mentioned, horse-breeding still flourishes, encouraged
as it is by the possibility of always importing fresh stock from the
North to reinvigorate the breed.[471] Nevertheless, it appears that this
branch of industry has not attained the development since Denham and
Barth’s times that one might have expected from the descriptions of
these travellers. At a review Barth saw 10,000 horses at one spot—this,
indeed, comprised the entire mounted force of the country—but it is
doubtful whether at the present day this number could be again
assembled, though one must also take into consideration that the
occasion for such an assembly has disappeared for ever.
The existence of such a high development of agriculture, including the
important occupations of cotton-growing and stock-raising, is bound to
entail among a numerous population many forms of industry. It is not
necessary to recapitulate here the industrial productions of the
country; they have already been mentioned in the description of the
various tribes. This much is certain, that everything which the
industries of Bornu have accomplished—not only in the production of
textile and leather goods—shows that the task of the European merchant
here of creating wants and finding markets for native manufactures has
already to a great extent been fulfilled. In this connexion it is to be
remembered that Bornu was perhaps the first of the Mohammedan countries
of Central Africa to enter into commercial relations with foreign
nations, and thus came early into touch with Western products.[472]
A further proof of the commercial spirit of the population of Bornu is
the comparatively highly developed form of currency which Barth found
already in existence. Besides the very common system of barter,
purchases for cash were at that time usual everywhere. The oldest medium
for reckoning was a fixed weight of copper, the ‘Rottl’, a term which
has remained even to-day as the unit of computation even after the
introduction of other and commoner forms of currency. To these forms of
currency belong the cotton-strips called ‘gabaga’, four of which go to
one ‘Rottl’. At that time and until quite lately the Maria Theresa
dollar,[473] a medium of reckoning which is very widely distributed in
the Mohammedan world, was also current as well as that peculiar
substitute for coin, the cowry-shell; in Barth’s and Nachtigal’s time
the exchange was 3,000 to 4,000 cowries to the dollar and 32 to the
‘Rottl’.[474] Although the rate of exchange was fixed, still important
fluctuations took place and always made cash transactions somewhat
complicated.[475] It is only quite recently that European currency has
been officially introduced and made available by the Colonial Powers,
but naturally it is only able to supersede very gradually the medium of
reckoning hitherto customary.
According to Rohlfs, the reason of the high development of trade in
Bornu is the ‘absolute freedom of trade and industry’ and the freedom of
all goods from tolls.[476] Nachtigal, however, mentions a kind of river-
toll on the Logone, and similar arrangements of a more local nature may
even still be found.[477]
How these trade relations—which naturally depend on the interchange of
goods by the Sudan peoples among themselves—will shape in the future it
is not yet possible to foresee. But this much is certain, that the chief
objects of export and the lines which they take will have quite changed
within a few years. Both certainly depend on the same causes.