AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY.
In trying to settle whether tribes are of the same race the Ethnologist
turns his attention to such points as (1) their language, (2) their
customs and beliefs, and (3) their physical characteristics. Though in
this chapter we refer only to the second of these particulars, we may
remark that on the evidence of language alone we can decide that the
Wayao, Walolo, Anyasa, Achikunda, Machinga, Mangoni, Makua, and others
in their neighbourhood, are sprung from common ancestors, and that all
these tribes are of the same race as the majority of the tribes found
south of the Equator, which have been grouped together as the Bantu.[12]
The other important inhabitants of South Africa besides the Bantu are the
Hottentots and Bushmen, who again have been often classed together. The
Hottentots and Bushmen seem to have been first in the Continent. Then the
Bantu came into the middle of them, and split them into two sections.
One section (Hottentots and Bushmen) is found in the South, the other
section (represented by tribes like the Akka) is found in the North. As
to the time when the Bantu established themselves in South Africa there
is little to guide us. It is said that the Kafirs were forcing their way
down by the West Coast at the time when the Portuguese were settling on
the East Coast. It seems clear that Santos on one side of Africa and
Merolla on the other both mingled with this great people.
African Ethnology is a vast subject, and in treating it some have been
led to maintain that there was once a continent to the east of Africa,
which has become submerged. The traditions common among these African
tribes to the effect that the Bantu came from the North tempt us to look
northward along the map of Africa with the view of discovering whence
they came. On examining the tribes of Northern Africa, we find that one
obstacle has been put before the Ethnologist by Mahommedanism, which,
pressing into the country by the seventh century, changed the ancient
tribal customs. On the other hand, the customs of certain ancient races
like the Egyptians have been preserved by history.
Putting aside language for the present, we shall note the customs of
various African races. This besides pointing to certain ethnological
conclusions, will throw light on the customs that have been laid before
the reader, and may increase the interest in those tribes. Taking our
stand in the Nyassa region, we shall, after glancing at customs of
Eastern Africa supplied by earlier missionaries, look towards the South,
the West, and the North in succession; and then conclude the chapter
with notes on ancient races that might have had contact with the African
Bantu.
EAST CENTRAL AFRICA.
_Santos_[13] (1586) remarks: “The people bewail their dead by dint of
drumming, and desist from leaping and dancing only when fatigue obliges
them to cease (33). They regard their king as the favourite of the souls
of the dead, and think that he learns from them all that passes in his
dominions (1). The Portuguese delivered from their dreadful slavery a
number of women and children whom this wretch kept with a number of men
in pens for the purpose of killing and eating them in succession (79,
106). They acknowledge a God who, both in this world and in the world
to come, measures retribution for the good or evil done in this.” [This
looks, I fear, somewhat like reading our ideas into their language.
Still, natives might easily fancy that the old chief to whom they go at
death will treat his subjects much as he did in this life.]
The Rev. H. Rowley, of the Magomero Mission, gives an account of a public
supplication for rain amongst the Anyasa (20). In conducting war, “The
Yao,” he says, “left their camp before daybreak, marched direct to the
principal village, destroyed that, and fired the others which lay in
their line of march home. The difficulty was to get messengers to the
Yao.... When we asked our own men to be the messengers, they put their
hands instinctively to their throats” (101).
In a case of accidental death “it was difficult to convince one party
that it was an accident, and both that witchcraft had nothing to do with
it” (86).
SOUTH AFRICA.
The Zulu and Kafir have customs so similar to the Yao that I refer only
to a few, some of which are quoted on account of the difference.
They do not eat fowls, ducks, or eggs, lest they should be barren
(D). They conceal birth-names (52). A man must not see the face of
his mother-in-law. The eldest son succeeds his father. They bury in a
circular hole, placing the body in a sitting posture. On returning from
a funeral they get a charm administered to them. A spirit may come back
as a snake (5). Their Witch-doctors and Fetishmen are more set apart from
the people than those in Eastern Central Africa. Feathers, claws, teeth,
pieces of wood, &c., are charms. Prophets smell a person to see whether
he speaks the truth. The witch is believed not to eat the body taken from
the grave, but to use it as a charm.
A recent account of one of the southern Bantu tribes, the _Amandebele_,
which was formed of 30 or 40 smaller tribes, is given by Thomas, from
which we take the following customs:—
The first to “bleed” a field with his pick possesses it (48). Soldiers
going to war charm themselves before and after the expedition (14, &c.).
An invalid is removed from the village to a field (19). At funerals
there is an offering of cattle, and the deceased is introduced to his
father, grandfather, and others. In cases where the spirit of a deceased
friend enters an invalid, this spirit gets a sacrifice: sometimes the
particular animal wanted by the spirit is named. The dead may be changed
into elephants, buck, lions, snakes, &c. Hence offerings are given to
such animals.
Mr. Thomas carefully distinguishes two classes of professional men that
are often put together: one is the class of diviners, each of whom is
trained by an older diviner. The other class is the common _izinyanga_,
and includes self-taught physicians and those doctors that are priests
as well as physicians (I). Witchcraft is carried on and punished in ways
similar to what we have described (107), and yet with important points of
difference. Their traditions on cosmology state that when men came out
of the earth they found the animal and vegetable kingdoms prepared for
them, and that they received the opposite messages of life and death.
This last statement refers to the chameleon legend common among the Bantu
(_Appendix_, Tale 15).
WEST CENTRAL AFRICA.
_Merolla_ (1682) says:—“The people ate serpents. They had an oath by
which a person’s limbs were bound tighter or looser to force out the
truth. [In § 104, we saw this principle applied to the head]. They did
not approve of marrying in _facie ecclesiæ_, for they must be satisfied
before marriage whether their wife will have children, and whether she
will prove diligent in her work and obedient. When the fault proceeds
from the wife’s side, the present that was made by the husband is
restored; when the fault is on his side, he recovers nothing (59). When
the father receives the present he complains not even if it should be
small—for that would look like selling his daughter; but he asks in
public beforehand how much the man will give. [This is more like the
Kafir custom than the Yao (48)]. Sometimes a man leaves a concubine to
his kinsman (54, 43). The wife waits at table on her husband; after he
is satisfied he gives the rest of the food to her, and she shares it
with her children (67). Whilst children are young they are bound with
superstitious cords made by the wizards (45). They are put down naked on
the ground; when they can move, a bell is tied to them, to show where
they have gone. The fields are planted round with stakes, which being
bound with bundles of herbs by the wizards, will kill any thief (K). When
they have private quarrels, they do not decide them singly, but each man
gets as many friends as he can. The parties meet, begin to argue quietly,
proceed to invectives, and lastly they fall to it ‘helter-skelter’. [We
could give no better account of many native trials in Eastern Africa.]
On a death, the kindred collect: hens are killed; they besprinkle the
house of the deceased with the blood, and throw the carcases on the top
of the house, to prevent the soul of the dead from coming to give Zumbi
to any future inhabitants (40). The dead person is believed to summon
others out of this world (41). They weep over the dead, if not naturally
they hold Indian pepper to their noses, which causes the tears to flow
plentifully. When they have howled and wept for some time, all of a
sudden they pass to mirth, feasting at the expense of the person that is
nearest akin to the deceased (43). Many abominations take place after
these feasts. The Giaghi offer human sacrifices to the dead (28). Burial
places are in the fields, and have something placed over them—_e.g._,
horns or earthen pots (39). The poorer people wrap their dead in straw
mats. All are given to ‘idolatry’ and the eating of man’s flesh (106).
If any person whatsoever pass by where the guests are eating, he or she
thrusts into the ring and has an equal share with the rest (D). Their
wives work in the fields till noon, and must get their husbands’ food
ready, and wait till he finish” (57).
_Battel_ (1590—Angola and adjoining countries) writes:—“The Gagas ate
their captives, except those under fourteen years of age. The women draw
out two teeth above and two below (A). A dead man has his hair dressed,
and is put on a seat in a vault dug in the ground. Two of his wives are
put by him with their arms broken, then the vault is covered up. The
greatest part of his goods is buried with him (39). Every month there is
a meeting of his kindred, who mourn and kill goats and pour the blood and
palm-tree wine on the grave. [The Yao have dances every month, when the
moon is full; on other occasions there would be difficulty in lighting
their great ball-room.] They suffer no white man to be buried in the
land. The body is thrown into the sea about two miles from the coast.
[Unless where the English possess land, or are well known, this custom
can be traced in East Africa. On Lake Nyassa, at least one English body
had difficulty in obtaining a grave. In the same way some of the deceased
Magomero missionaries were exhumed. In keeping with this is the custom of
carrying about bodies for long distances, as in the case of Livingstone
and some Portuguese.] If a person denies a charge, he drinks a root
(Imbando), which kills him if he is guilty. _No one on any account dies
but they kill another for him._ They believe that some one bewitched the
deceased (106). Many times 500 men and women come to drink Imbando” (104).
_Bosman_ (1700—Bosman’s Guinea) mentions 5 classes of people: (1) kings,
(2) chief men who take care of a city or village, (3) those that have
got riches, (4) the common people, (5) slaves. [This exactly applies to
the Eastern tribes.] In their salutations the first question is, “How
did you sleep?” to which the reply is, “Very well” (G). At Fida, if any
visit his superior, he falls on his knees, kisses the earth, claps his
hands. [Here we find kneeling and clapping the hands.] The women suckle
the infants for two or three years. Child-bearing is not troublesome;
here is no long lying-in nor expensive gossiping or groaning feasts
(44). The chief handiwork is smithery. They have no notion of steel.
A hard stone is their anvil, and they have a pair of tongs, a small
pair of bellows, and three or more pipes (H). When they begin a war,
drive a bargain, travel, or attempt anything of importance, their first
business is to consult their false god by means of their priest, who may
tell them to offer sheep, &c. [14. Another resemblance to the Zulu and
Kafirs. Among the simpler Yao, a man may be his own priest.] Questions
may be put to the idol, which are answered in this way:—About 20 bits of
leather are shuffled by the priest; if those indicating success come much
together, success is announced (I). Public general religious exercises
are customary on account of great drought (20). They kill a cock or a
sheep to their god in words alone: for when it is dead they immediately
fall upon it, tearing it to pieces with their fingers (27). Most of them
believe that after death they live in another world in the same character
as here; but they have no idea of future rewards or punishments (10).
They drive devils out of villages (107). Children don’t inherit their
father’s goods (97). If a woman is with child for the first time, rich
offerings are made to the false god to obtain her safe delivery (53).
They call in medicine men when sick, who prescribe offerings to deities.
They have medicaments of the roots, branches, and gum of trees, and about
30 different herbs (I).
From various other writers on Western Central Africa we gather the
following facts:—
When a child is 7 days old, the parents make a small feast, imagining
that the infant is past its greatest dangers; and in order to prevent
evil spirits from doing it any mischief, they strew all the ways with
dressed victuals to appease them (44).
If a man like a virgin, he tells the most considerable among her
relations, who goes to her house and asks her of her relations, who, if
she is not before promised, seldom deny the request: then the bridegroom
clothes his future bride with a rich suit of clothes and ornaments (48).
A man contracts with his wife when she is under age (48), and afterwards
carries her forcibly to his home amidst her struggles and shrieks. A
dower is reserved for her, so that, in case of widowhood, she may be able
to buy a husband (59). When a present is paid to her parents, the bride
is led to her husband’s hut, and he sends her for water, wood, and other
necessaries. One of the wives is the superior (55). Adultery is punished
by selling both offenders. The husband may turn off an unfaithful wife at
pleasure; he makes her take all her children with her, unless he want to
keep any himself (59). Wives do all the hard work, do not eat with their
husbands, and are in great subjection. They name the child by shaving
its head and rubbing it with oil (46). The women carry the children on
their back as they go about their ordinary work. Many writers “impute
the flat noses and pot bellies to this mode of carriage”. As soon as a
person dies the neighbours are collected by loud cries and lamentations.
They cry over the dead for several days. They give the deceased about
a twelvemonth’s provisions, and make a point of securing the body from
carrion-eaters (38). The brothers, sisters, and relations take possession
of the goods of the dead man, and leave little to his children (97). If
the deceased be a man, his wives shave their heads. [40, 43. All the Yao
shave the head for any deceased relative.] If they drink liquor belonging
to a European that they do not know, they ask him to drink first that
they may see that there is no poison (98). They use no bread, but eat
the flour of their various grains. They use the Indian corn when green,
roasting it on the coals—or make flour by pounding in mortars. The
houses are like beehives, and have pointed roofs: persons of quality
have palisades round them. The domestic utensils are only earthen pots,
calabashes, and baskets (C). They use bows, poisoned arrows and assagais.
[Illustration: WOMAN OF WESTERN AFRICA POUNDING MEAL.]
The Mahommedan negroes of the West Coast practise circumcision in some
place remote from a village (52).
The above customs of the Western African are taken from the older writers
on the subject. After coming into contact with Europeans the natives are
apt to change their more primitive manners. They are fond of discarding
round huts in favour of square. The above illustration shows a basket
very different from the East African ones, all of which are carried on
the head.
NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICA.
The BONGO believe that evil and not good comes from spirits. Old people
procure roots in the forest glades at night to destroy others. The
Nubians, besides having superstitions of their own, confirm them in all
this. Old women are compared to hyenas, and believed to enter their
bodies by night. The dead are put in a crouching form—as prescribed in
the law of Islam (_Schweinfurth_). Among the NYAM-NYAM no bodies are
rejected as unfit for food except those that died of a cutaneous disease.
The eldest son of a chief succeeds his father. Chieftains rarely lead
their armies (98). A man that wishes a wife goes to a chief or sub-chief,
who endeavours to procure one (48). The women eat alone in their own
huts. The game “mungala” is played sometimes on a board, sometimes with
holes in the ground (51, 5).
The BALONDA (Livingstone) ratify friendship by partaking of each other’s
blood. They believe in a kind of supreme deity. When they take a poison
ordeal they hold up their hands, as if to appeal to a great judge above.
[It will be observed that the last clause is an inference.] They have
idols, and a cross-road is considered sacred (40).
The WANYAMWESI have also a ceremony of making “blood-brothers”.
The WAGANDA have a stringent code of etiquette. A man that makes any
mistake in saluting the king is executed at once. The account given
by Speke of the chief of Uganda shows what a terrible curse a strong
government may become (104). A powerful chief kills scores of people in
cold blood, till the thing becomes an established custom, and ceases to
be wondered at. Stanley’s details are equally instructive. When a warlike
expedition is thought of, the sorcerer flays a child, and lays its body
on the path as the soldiers pass forth to battle.
The GANI go quite naked, but instead of sitting on the ground as most
natives do, they carry a small stool. In this district mothers wash their
children and then lick them dry with their tongues as cats do. Towels are
no part of native appliances.
Among the OBBO, when a man dies, his relatives take off his hair and wear
it in his memory.
The DJOUR country resembles the Yao in being infested by the
_tsetse-fly_, which kills cattle; consequently the people, though with a
taste for agriculture, have nothing except goats.
In many tribes the women wear no clothing till marriage. The birth of
twins is often considered unlucky; among the Ishogo the mother of twins
is forbidden to speak to any but relatives for six years.
The APINGI offered Du Chaillu a “tender and fat” slave for his “evening
meal”.
Among the FANS (Ba-Fan) the executed wizards (_cf._ 107) are eaten, and
cannibalism (according to Reade) is made no secret.
Among ABYSSINIANS (like the Gallas, Samali, &c.) we find customs like the
following:—
Children are circumcised the eighth day. The baptismal name is concealed,
to prevent an evil spirit from taking possession of the party. They have
civil marriages which are readily dissolved. On a death the relatives
of the deceased shave their heads. There is much “wailing,” for which
professionals attend, and a funeral banquet.
Lobo, the Abyssinian missionary, was cupped by a native by three cups of
horn about half-a-foot long (I).
The GALLAS have a god called Wak. Their priests divine by the fat of
goats and intestines. It is honourable to kill an alien, to kill a
countryman is criminal. On death the relatives feast on the cattle. Wood
that has been burning a little is put on the grave. If the wood grow the
man is happy in the world beyond (_Krapf_).
The ARABS are found everywhere in Northern Africa, and their customs are
better known: still I shall note a few for the sake of comparison.
Boys are named at the ceremony of circumcision. This is about their
seventh year among the Turks. Some make it the 13th after the analogy
of Ishmael (compare 52). Whatever is touched by a corpse is defiled
(34). They pay visits to the graves of the dead; pilgrimages are a great
feature in their religion. There are a few superstitions connected with
the use of salt, _e.g._, when an infant is named, some may be put into
its mouth. An assemblage of families all from a common stock forms a
tribe—the government is paternal (62).
RACES OF ANTIQUITY.
It would be interesting to determine to which of the ancient nations
known to history these Bantu tribes are most related. For light on this
question we must look at the great nations of antiquity that had most to
do with Africa.
The first race that we find in African history is the ANCIENT EGYPTIANS,
whose country, Mizraim, is named after one of the sons of Ham. Whether
they pressed farther south at an early date it is difficult to determine.
It would have been strange if they had not: they had enterprise enough to
build the pyramids. As dynasty succeeded dynasty, many that were driven
before invaders in those barbarous times may have discovered that the
world was wide. It is agreed, however, that in the 18th dynasty, about
1400 B.C., Sesostris found tribes in Nubia, Abyssinia, Senaar, &c., and
subdued them. It is instructive to note that about 718 B.C. Egypt had a
dynasty of Ethiopian kings; and that about 600 B.C. Necho, an Egyptian
king, sent a Phenician fleet down the Red Sea, which appeared in the
Mediterranean three years after—having sailed round Africa.
The next of the ancient races that may be mentioned in connection with
Africa is the PHENICIANS or CANAANITES. Before Homer’s time they had the
commerce of the Mediterranean. By the time of Solomon they were making
voyages down the Red Sea to a place called Ophir, regarding which there
have been many theories. In connection with one of these, we quote the
following from Baines. Speaking of the long-sought ruins in the land
of Ophir, he says:—“They are extensive, and one collection covers a
considerable portion of a gentle rise, while another, apparently a fort,
stands upon a bold granite hill. The walls are still thirty feet in
height, and are built of granite hewn into small blocks about the size
of our bricks, and put together without mortar. The most remarkable of
these walls is situated on the very edge of a precipitous cliff, and is
in perfect preservation to the height of thirty feet. The walls are about
ten feet thick at the base, and seven or eight at the top. In many places
there remain beams of stone, eight or ten feet in length, projecting from
the walls, in which they must be inserted to a depth of several feet,
for they can scarcely be stirred.” This explorer finds Ophir in Southern
Africa.
The JEWS had contact with most of the nations of antiquity, and it is
said that the kings of Abyssinia were descended from Solomon, through the
Queen of Sheba, who on her return was accompanied by many Jews. It is
also maintained that numbers of Jews found refuge in Abyssinia at various
periods. The Abyssinians, as their name implies, are a mixed race.
Herodotus mentions a party of young men that travelled through the desert
and went on till they came to a black people who lived by a large river
which flowed westwards.
On comparing the customs of the modern tribes of Africa with those of
the Ancient Egyptians, the Phenicians, or the Jews, we find many points
of difference. Still there are points of similarity also. In describing
African manners we have already noted many agreements with old Jewish
customs. The customs of the Canaanites need not detain us long. Even in
the time of the Patriarchs this race could make seals and graven images,
had silver money, and could dye purple. It may be mentioned, however,
that they believed themselves to have sprung from slime; while the
worship of Ashtaroth involved the pollution of the young of both sexes,
and Moloch demanded sacrifices of children. Divination was also practised.
It is interesting to note the following particulars regarding Ancient
Egypt:—
The civilisation of Egypt did not come down the Nile—the black people
from the land of Cush being represented on Egyptian monuments as
Pharoah’s servants. The Egyptians are akin in customs to the Asiatics.
Some say the Egyptians and Indians are of the same origin (_cf._
Prichard).
_Weapons, Tools, &c._—The old Egyptians had bows, shields, javelins,
and slings. [The latter we have not seen among Eastern Central African
tribes, but their hoes and wooden pillows resemble the Egyptian.] The old
Egyptians pounded in stone mortars with metal pestles, and knew something
of glass-blowing 3500 years ago—a trade which our African pupils
considered “too wonderful”. Young children were carried at their mother’s
breast, rarely at her back as in Central Africa.
_Offerings, &c._—The people inquired whether the deceased deserved the
rites of burial Weapons, &c., were buried with him (39). When mourning,
they abstained from “the bath, wine, delicacies of the table, or rich
clothing” (49). (The priests in their purifications excluded _salt_ from
their meals, ... shaved the head and the whole body every third day.)
They called on the deceased according to the degree of relationship, as
“O my father”. A dirge was chanted to the sound of a tambourine. Mummies
were kept in their houses in order that relations might have their
deceased with them. (So the Romans gave funeral oblations to their dead,
flowers, libations, and victims.) The offerings to the dead were similar
to the ordinary oblations in honour of the gods. Offerings were made to
Osiris in name of the deceased after the burial.
The first fruits of the lentils was placed on the altars of the Egyptian
gods (20). The offering of first fruits was an offering of obligation.
Offerings of wine (24), oil, bread (21), salt, were offerings of
devotion. Ears of new corn were parched at the fire. There is some
testimony to the effect that human beings were sacrificed.
_Mysteries._—Circumcision was practised from the earliest times, and when
it was administered instruction was given in the mysteries. One part of
the initiation was to see the figure of the god (53).
_Oracles_ were consulted on all important occasions (14). Dreams were
regarded with religious reverence (15), and thus the gods told the proper
remedies for disease (Diodorus). But it was known that most diseases
proceed from “indigestion and excess of eating”. Bodies were examined to
find the causes of death (Pliny).
Women suspected of infidelity drank a cup of bitter water to prove
innocence or guilt (107). The king was the chief of the church and of the
state (7).
On studying tribal customs we find that much similarity arises from the
very constitution of human nature. Circumstances also exert a great
influence. Races are so modified when they obtain cows, horses, or
even the rudiments of a calendar, that we are at once puzzled by the
difference between them and the rest of their clan. Besides, we must
ever remember the enormous influence of the individual. A whole tribe
like the Ovambo derived the habit of squirting water in the face to
prevent witchcraft from one king. If a stray man settled in Negroland
with two or three wives 3000 years ago, the descendents of this person
would now count by millions on millions! What are now large African
tribes evidently descended from an ancestor that lived not so many
centuries ago. The whole tribe naturally follows and develops certain
characteristics of this ancestor, and as it keeps aloof from other
tribes, it soon has distinct peculiarities in speech and customs. Even in
England almost each county has certain peculiarities, a fact which will
illustrate to what a great extent such developments may grow among tribes
that have no written literature, and no means of keeping up communication
with their neighbours. Often have I wondered, as I gazed on these African
mountains and valleys, what tales they could tell, if they only found
a tongue. Much, I believe, may be yet learned by the study of native
legends and mythologies, which frequently condescend on names; but after
all, there are many secrets which will remain undisclosed until those
mountains and valleys give up their dead.