THE DARK CONTINENT
Africa has been called the Dark Continent, and the name is suitable
in more ways than one. To the European people it was for ages a dark
continent, because it was unknown, that is, unexplored by them. The
name is also appropriate because Africa is the home of millions of
dark-skinned people. But from a Christian point of view Africa is the
dark continent, because over most of its inhabitants there still hangs
a black cloud of heathen darkness that shuts out the glorious rays of
the Gospel of Light and Love.
Of course you must know that Africa has not all been an unknown land.
The northern part of it, which borders the Mediterranean Sea, has been
known from ancient times. And is not Egypt the land of the Nile and the
home of the Pharaohs in Africa, although we sometimes do not realise
it? But it is not so much of these northern lands that I want to tell
you as about the far greater portion that stretches away south over
the Equator right down to the Cape. This part was until not so long
ago the dark unknown continent, the land of those teeming millions of
dark-skinned people who lived out their lives without ever hearing the
Gospel story and without knowing the love of God for the children of
men.
For hundreds of years very, very little was known of this vast land
lying away to the south. The ancient peoples must have been afraid to
explore it, and it is no wonder, for Africa is a land full of dangers
and difficulties that must have appeared overwhelming to the ancients.
Here is a description of part of a voyage along the African Coast made
in the old days. I read it the other day in a nice book about Central
Africa. “Having taken in water we sailed thence straight forwards until
we came to a great gulf which the interpreter said was called the Horn
of the West. In it was a large island, and in the island a lake like a
sea, and in this another island on which we landed; and by day we saw
nothing but woods, but by night we saw many fires burning, and heard
the sounds of flutes and cymbals, and the beating of drums, and an
immense shouting. Fear came upon us, and the soothsayers bade us quit
the island. Having speedily set sail, we passed by a burning country
full of incense, and from it huge streams of fire flowed into the
sea; and the land could not be walked upon because of the heat. Being
alarmed we speedily sailed away thence also, and going along four days
we saw by night the land full of flame, and in the midst was a lofty
fire, greater than the rest, and seeming to touch the stars. This by
day appeared as a vast mountain called the Chariot of the Gods. On the
third day from this, sailing by fiery streams, we came to a gulf called
the Horn of the South.”
After reading such a description do you wonder that the ancients left
the land to the south severely alone? We to-day can give a very simple
explanation for the above fiery exhibition. These ancient mariners had
evidently visited that part of Africa at the time of the bush fires and
were consequently appalled.
In the year 1486 a Portuguese navigator, called Diaz, sighted the Cape
of Good Hope; and a fellow countryman, Vasco da Gama, a few years
later, discovered Natal and the Cape route to India. But of inland
exploration there was little or none till men like James Bruce and
Mungo Park made their famous journeys in the interior, the one on the
Blue Nile, and the other on the Niger. Then bit by bit our knowledge
of the interior of Africa was added to by such brave men of whom Dr
Livingstone is the most famous.
If you ever get the opportunity of looking at an old map of Africa
you will find that most of the interior is blank. But now the map of
Africa is filled with names and features that are known to us through
exploration. Mighty rivers and great lakes have been discovered, and
mountains of which the ancients only dreamed are familiar to us. All
honour to the brave men who have laid us so heavily under their debt,
and to no one more than to David Livingstone, whose noble example was
as an inspiration, and who as missionary and explorer laid down his
life for the Dark Continent.
But for many years the European nations only looked upon Africa as
a land whence slaves were to be taken for their plantations in the
New World. And this part of the history of Africa is a dark blot upon
their fair fame. What with the European slave-buying in the West, the
Arab slave-hunting in the East, and the chiefs perpetually at war and
enslaving one another’s people, the lives of countless numbers of these
ignorant people were made miserable in the extreme.
The village lies slumbering peacefully in the hollow in the midst of
its gardens of maize and sweet potatoes. It is silently surrounded
before dawn by the cruel Arab and his men. Shots ring out. The startled
inhabitants rush forth into the grey morning with shouts of “Nkondo!”
(“War!”) “Nkondo!” (“War!”) The men who resist or try to flee are
ruthlessly shot down. Houses and gardens are burned and destroyed, the
dead and dying are left where they fall, round the necks of the living
is riveted the hateful slave stick, and the gang is on its way to the
coast leaving behind only the abomination of desolation. Too often,
alas! have the children of Africa tasted of this bitter cup.
And now that the European people know the sin from which they were
freed by the mercy of God, it behoves them to try their best to make up
to the black people for the injury they formerly did them. That much is
being done we know for the whole continent is marked out as belonging
to the different European nations and is ruled by them. So the days of
the old tribal wars are over and the slave-hunter has disappeared from
the land.
The future of the Dark Continent you will then see lies now to a large
extent in the hands of the people of Europe. The old rule of the native
chiefs has in most places passed away, and in others is rapidly
passing. The power has gone into the hands of the white man. Pray God
he may use it wisely and guide his black brother towards the green
pastures as becomes a follower of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.