Though the publications on the Cape colony are already so numerous, and
they all more or less profess to describe the native inhabitants, it is
certain that we yet know very little of their real character; more
especially of the character of the Kaffirs. These are often painted as
an aboriginal race, "a pastoral and gentle people." They are neither
the one nor the other. They are intruders on the lands that they
occupy; their habits are the most savage imaginable; [see Note 1] their
treachery is well-known to all who have been unfortunate enough to come
in contact with them, and the conversions among them in ninety-nine
cases out of the hundred have no other existence than in the warm
imaginations of the well-meaning but ill-informed members of Missionary
Societies. What converts there are, are principally from the despised
slaves of the haughty Kaffirs, the Fingoes.
There are some missionary stations within a ride of Fort Peddie,--one of
them, D'Urban, being scarcely a mile from the post. I rode over there
one day, to see a Fingo congregation. Among them, indeed, were some
Kaffirs; in foot, it was composed of many shades of colour, the
pale-faced Englishman, the dingy children of fair-haired mothers and
dusky fathers, the sallow, stunted Hottentot, the merry-eyed Fingo, and
the more dignified Kaffir. On our approach to the building, we
distinguished a loud monotonous voice holding forth in the Kaffir
language, without the smallest attention to intonation, or emphasis.
This was the interpreter. In the missionary's absence, an assistant
preached in Dutch, which was translated, sentence by sentence, into
Kaffir. The unconcerned air of the interpreter, and his reckless bawl,
were much at variance with the wrapt air of attention bestowed on the
exhortations by the congregation. Some of the Kaffirs and Fingoes were
well-dressed, in homely costume, indeed, but clean and neat, consisting
of moleskin or fustian jackets and trousers, felt hats, like those worn
by English waggoners, and strong shoes. Others reclined on the floor,
with their blankets, or karosses, draped round them, and ornamented with
strings of beads, whose gaudy colours contrasted finely with their dark
skins. Another day, I witnessed the baptism of fourteen Fingoes. Both
men and women seemed to feel the solemnity of their position, the women
particularly evinced extraordinary emotion. Some were unable to
restrain their sobs, and one aged being affected me much by the manner
in which she sought to subdue her feelings, wiping the tears quietly
away as they followed each other down her dark cheek. All were decently
clothed, and particularly intelligent in their appearance.
At the close of the service, the missionary permits any of his
congregation to ask questions concerning such sacred matters as they may
at first find difficult to understand. Some of their arguments evince a
singular disposition to subtle reasoning, and prove how arduous a task
is undertaken by those who endeavour to convert these poor savages to
Christianity. One day, after the missionary had dwelt on the misery
arising from sin, and had expatiated on the natural proneness of man to
vice rather than virtue, and on the dreadful consequences of
disobedience manifested in the fall of our first parents, and its
terrible results, ameliorated only by the hope of heaven through the
merits of a Redeemer, in whose power to save and mediate we alone can
trust, a Kaffir, who had given his whole attention to the discussion,
begged leave to ask a few questions. It was granted, and he began.
"You tell us," said he, in the measured and gentle tone peculiar to his
language, "that all the world is wicked--dreadfully wicked; that man is
condemned to punishment, except he be redeemed by faith. You tell us
that every one is wrong, and God alone is right?"
"Certainly," replied the missionary; "except we believe in and obey God,
we cannot be saved."
"And you are sure," continued the Kaffir, "that man is very wicked, and
God alone is good?"
"Quite sure," replied the missionary.
"And there have been thousands--millions of men, and many, many
countries far away and beyond the waters," pursued the savage, "full of
sin, who cannot be saved, except they love and fear God, and believe in
him and in all these mysteries which none of us can understand, and
which you yourself even cannot explain?"
"It is but too true," said the missionary.
"And there is but one God?" pursued the Kaffir, in a tone of inquiry.
"But one God," was the solemn answer.
The savage pondered some minutes, and then observed, "What proof have
you that God is right, and men are wrong? Has no one ever doubted that
One being wise and the other being weak and sinful? How strange that
the word of your One God should be allowed to weigh against the will and
inclination of the whole world! Your cause is hardly a good one, when
hundreds and millions are opposed in deed and opinion to one! I must
consider your arguments on Christianity well before I decide on adopting
your creed."
Another remark of one of these natural logicians equally illustrates
their determination not to be persuaded to anything without having their
own reasons for it. Wherever their inclination leads them, they possess
such an art of defending themselves as would be an invaluable addition
to the talents of a special pleader in a criminal court. One Kaffir who
had become a Christian, at least apparently so (for I doubt the decided
conversion of any, except the Chief, Kama)--was striving, for reasons of
his own, to bring others to the creed he had adopted. After much
argument, one, who grew tired of it, closed it by observing that "since
such punishments were in reserve for those who neglected the laws of the
Master whom they engaged to serve, he preferred enjoying the world as
much as he could while living, rather than becoming a subject of one
whose laws were irksome, and whose punishments were so terrible."
This art of reasoning, however it may lead them into discussions as full
of sophistry as ingenuity, may be the means of converting some of them
to Christianity. It makes them keen listeners; and, since the Word of
God is so plain, that "he who runs may read," may not these poor people
be persuaded to that which must teach them that wisdom and power, and
mercy, and unbounded benevolence, are the attributes of that God whom
they are invited to worship? Sometimes, I hope this, and then some
proof of Kaffir treachery makes me wonder how I can ever form such a
hope.
I should say, with Fingoes, Kaffirs and Hottentots, persuasion and quiet
reasoning would work the will of God before all the threats relative to
that dreadful world where sinners are described as in everlasting
torment. This is hardly the place for such discussion, but I cannot
help saying, that I think the creed of many who profess to explain the
Word of God, a fearful one: instead of holding up our beneficent Creator
as a Being worthy to be served for love, they dwell too much on the
punishment of sin, rather than on the reward of virtue. It is by some
deemed wiser to frighten the ignorant into serving God, than to lead
them by gentle means to love Him, to honour and to put their whole trust
in Him. What a mistake! I have often pondered on the difference (if I
may so express it) of the two sources of religion--the one proceeding
from fear of our great spiritual enemy (and which, after all, is a
fallacious kind of worship)--and the other from love of the Almighty!
Tell the savage that God is infinitely wise and powerful, and good to
those who serve Him, and he will at least listen further; by which means
much may be done. Talk to him of a dreadful place of punishment, he
will turn his back on you, and refuse to enlist under the banners of
those whose chief arguments are based on such threats. Begin with
reference to God as merciful, as well as just, and the savage will soon
acknowledge the necessity of punishment for evil deeds in an equal
degree with rewards for virtue. It is right he should know that eternal
suffering awaits the sinner, but, before he is thus threatened, teach
him "the beauty of holiness," and "praise God as one worthy to be
praised."
On my journey into Kaffirland, our road one day lay through a pleasant
country, where the grass was green, and the mimosas bright with their
golden clusters of flowers. At the spot where we outspanned, a waggon,
driven by Fingoes, had halted: it was drawn close up to a bush, and the
party in charge of it, consisting of two men, three women, and their
children, were seated in the shade. To our surprise, we observed that
one man was reading aloud to the party; and, anxious to hear the
language, which is peculiarly soft and liquid, we walked up to the
group. Our surprise was increased when we found that the book occupying
their attention was the Bible, translated into the Kaffir language,
which, by the way, scarcely differs from the Fingo. The sight of this
dusky group so employed, had a strange effect, and the flowing ease and
beauty of the language in which the Word of God was explained to the
attentive listeners, increased the interest we felt in the scene. None
of them could speak English; but the reader, pointing to the book,
uttered the single word "Good" impressively.
It is singular enough that Barrow and other travellers do not allude to
the race of Fingoes; this oversight is probably owing to their having
been, till of late years, the slaves of the Kaffirs. [See Note 2.] The
following account of them I have gathered from a work compiled by the
editor of the "Graham's Town Journal," and published in 1836:--
"It appears that the term `Fingo' is not their national appellation, but
a reproachful epithet, denoting extreme poverty or misery,--person
having no claim to justice, mercy, or even life. They are the remnants
of eight powerful nations, which have been destroyed or driven out of
their country by the destructive wars carried on amongst the natives of
the interior. Five of these nations were destroyed by the cruel
Matawana, and the rest by the notorious Zoola Chief, Chaka, or some of
the tribes tributary to them. The names of these nations were:
"1. The Amalubi,--signifying a people who tear and pull off.
"2. The Amazizi,--a people who bring. About twenty years ago, they, as
a powerful nation, inhabited the country on the north-east of Natal.
"3. The Amabile,--people of mercy.
"4. The Amazabizembi,--axe-vendors.
"5. The Abasaekunene,--right-hand people.
"6. The Amantozakive,--people whose things are their own.
"7. The Amarelidwani,--no definite meaning.
"8. Abashwawo,--revilers or reproachers.
"These nations being broken up and dispersed, many of those who escaped
flew westward, and thus came into collision with the Amakosa Kaffirs,
but principally with the tribes of the late Hintza, whose death is
graphically described by Sir James Alexander, 14th regiment, in his
account of the last Kaffir irruption in 1834 and 1835. They became
slaves, herds, `hewers of wood, and drawers of water,' as well as
tillers of the ground. They were oppressed in every way; when by
industry they had gathered together a few head of cattle, they were
either forcibly taken away from them, or, being accused of witchcraft,
their property was confiscated. In short, their lives and property were
held on the same precarious tenure, the mere will of their capricious,
cruel and avaricious taskmasters.
"This state of bondage at last became utterly intolerable, and its
victims only looked for an opportunity to throw off the yoke. Their
attention had been anxiously turned towards the colony, and
communications had been made to the frontier authorities long before the
irruption in 1834, urgently praying for an asylum within our boundary:
but this application was kept a profound secret, from a conviction that
were their intentions known to the Kaffirs, the indiscriminate massacre
of the poor Fingoes would be the consequence."
The war, of which many histories are given, delivered these poor
creatures from their bondage, and they are now a happy people, with
their own independent possessions of cattle, Sir James Alexander
supplies an interesting description of their deliverance from captivity.
They are a fine muscular race, bearing a great resemblance to the
Kaffirs, yet easily distinguishable from them: unlike the Kaffirs, they
are a cheerful race. The moonlight nights seem their seasons of
festivity; and their wild chant, now rising loud and shrill, from the
huts opposite Fort Peddie, and now felling into a low muttered chorus,
now led by a single voice, and again sinking into indistinctness, has a
singular effect on civilised ears, not the less extraordinary from its
being sometimes united with a running accompaniment of wolves howling
about the cattle-kraals, and dogs yelling after them. At such times,
the wild chorus generally ceases, lights are carried to and fro in the
kraal [see Note 3], or hamlet, and there is a sound of a hunt, such as
one might fancy would be ably illustrated by Retzsch's wondrous pencil.
After successive shouts from the Fingoes, and yells from the dogs, the
yelp of the wolf is heard further off, and changes to a smothered whine,
till it ceases altogether. The dogs continue barking for some time, the
torches are extinguished, and, as all again becomes quiet, the strange
chant recommences. Sometimes the noise of clapping of hands,
resembling, from the distance at which it is heard, the sound of the
tom-tom, or rude drum, may be distinguished, marking time probably to
the steps of the untiring dancers, for their revelry generally lasts
till morning's dawn.
Neither Fingoes nor Kaffirs seem to take much note of time: they sing
and dance when they are merry, sleep when fatigued, eat and drink when
hungry and thirsty. Days, weeks, months, and years pass by unnoticed,
and uncounted. If in want of comforts which must be purchased, they
work to earn money; if well provided, they will do nothing. In cold
weather, they will not leave their huts even to milk their cows.
One of the most interesting anecdotes I have heard, was told me one day,
relative to a Fingo man, tallying well with the scene I have alluded to
of the group reading the Bible under the shade of the mimosa-bush. A
poor Fingo had made several applications, from Graham's Town, to a
missionary nearly fifty miles off, for a Bible; but for some time there
had not been a sufficient number printed to meet the devout wishes of
those "who would become Christians." Two years elapsed from the time
this man first asked for the Bible. At last one day, he suddenly
appeared at the station, and asked the missionary for one. The latter
replied, that he was afraid he yet had none to spare; "but," said he to
the Fingo, "if you will do what business you may have on hand in the
neighbourhood, and come to me before you leave it, I will endeavour to
procure you one, if such a thing is to be had;" but the poor traveller
surprised the missionary when he said he had no business to transact
there, save the one thing which had brought him so far. He had come all
the way from Graham's Town, on foot, for the Bible; he would wait till
one was found, or even printed for him. So the missionary was
constrained to seek for one immediately, which he succeeded in
obtaining; and the Fingo then offering 2 shillings 6 pence (the price of
the book being 1 shilling 6 pence), the missionary offered the 1
shilling in change, but the traveller waited not. With the precious
book which had cost him so much toil to obtain, in one hand, and his
knob-kiurrie (war-club) in the other, away he trudged, light of foot,
and certainly light of heart. He evidently considered his prize as more
to be "desired than gold, yea than fine gold." Such instances of
sincere conversion are very rare.
There seems little doubt that Barrow's idea of the origin of the Kaffir
tribes in this country is a just one. He imagines them to be the
descendants of those Arabs known to us by the name Bedouin. "These
people" says he, "penetrated into every part of Africa. Colonies of
them have found their way into the islands of Southern Africa, where
more difficulties would occur than in an overland journey to the Cape of
Good Hope. By skirting the Red Sea, and turning to the southward, the
great desert of sand, which divides Africa into two parts, would be
avoided, and the passage lies over a country inhabited, as far as is
known, in every part." The circumstance of their having short hair,
would seem to militate against their Arabic origin; but their
intermixture with the Hottentots and other nations along the coast may
have produced this. Barrow adds, "Their skill in music is not above the
level of the Hottentots."
The latter have a most perfect ear for music, and cannot resist dancing
and chorussing to a tune that pleases them. I have never heard the
Kaffirs evince any disposition to sing, unless I except the monotonous
drawl which the women utter for the men to dance to. Of the Fingo
evensong, I shall have occasion to speak by and by.
It is already well-known that the Bosjemen and Hottentots are the
aborigines of the whole of this part of South Africa. As one great
proof of this, we find the names of the rivers are in the Hottentot
language, between which and the Kaffir there is no affinity. It may, by
the bye, be observed, that the Bosjeman and Kaffir languages have one
thing in common,--a singular click, varying in its sound according to
the letter pronounced: thus, C, T, R, and Q, appear to be the letters
uttered in clicks--T is uttered between the teeth, like _teh_; the R
also resembles T in its pronunciation; Q is produced by a click nearer
the front of the teeth than is requisite for the pronunciation of the C,
which in its turn resembles the noise made in imitation of drawing a
cork, and when two Kaffirs, Fingoes, or Bushmen, are conversing together
on any subject that excites them to unusual rapidity of speech or
gesticulation, the effect is extraordinary.
I desire not to lengthen my work with long quotations from other
writers, though to do so with that experience which a residence in the
country must give, would be to compile a useful and entertaining
chapter; but by here and there comparing what I see of these wild people
with what I have read, much may be gathered together that will throw a
light on matters connected with them in their present domestic state, if
such a term may be applied to a who are not yet tamed, and who, I doubt,
never will be so. Like the lion, the tiger, the panther, and all the
roaming tenants of the bush, the mountain, or the kloof, the Kaffir has
become identified with the country to which he now belongs; and, though
here and there one or two may be brought to understand the meaning of
good principle, as a body, the Kaffirs will fulfil the destiny of their
great progenitor, Ishmael, of whom it has been decreed by God, that his
descendants shall "have their hands against every man, and every man's
hand against them." Even though a man be brought up among Christians
from his youth, and accustomed to his dress by day, and his bed by
night, in manhood he will most joyfully return to his kraal, his kaross,
and his mat. The daughter of Cobus Congo (Konky) is a striking instance
of this. Educated in the house of an excellent missionary, taught the
value of principle, Konky is now married to a chief who has many other
wives; she wears the kaross, and rides an unsaddled horse, after the
same fashion as her husband and his cortege. If, however, the
missionaries fail generally in the one grand object of converting the
Kaffirs and Fingoes to Christianity, many among them may be brought to
some degree of civilisation. Already those who have been prevailed upon
to learn to read (the difficulty lies in getting them to learn at all,)
are diligent, and thirst for knowledge; as they progress in this, their
communion with Europeans becomes more intimate, gradually they may
acquire a wish to be clothed, and this may be of consequence to our
manufactories. Already the English blanket, greased till it becomes the
colour of ochre, begins to supersede the skin kaross; and the common
brown coverlid is another favourite drapery of the Kaffir. A printing
press is established at D'Urban [a missionary station near Fort Peddie];
and, besides the translation of the Bible, a periodical is published
monthly, containing articles suited to the taste, comprehension, and
habits of the native.
I have imagined that if some profitable employment were set on foot
among them it would have a beneficial effect; but I understand that
wool-combing was tried, which would have added to their cattle flocks of
sheep, besides promoting habits of industry; but this failed,--their
idleness is incorrigible. The principal articles of our manufacture
coveted by them are fire-arms. There was before the late war some
ill-devised and worse-executed law for the prevention of the sale of
these, but it was of small effect. Even assegais made in England have
been sent out here, but the Kaffirs object to our manufacture of iron,
as being too malleable, preferring that prepared at their own primitive
forges. I have heard it remarked that the bellows they use in forging
are proof of their having sprung from a race more skilled in the arts of
civilisation than themselves. Two pieces of hide are sown together in
the form of a pointed bag; the wide part at top is stretched open by two
sticks; in the point at the bottom, also open, is inserted a bullock's
horn, filed at the point, through which passes the air, which is
admitted by opening and shutting the bellows at the wide end.
To enter upon a minute description of Kaffir habits, customs,
ceremonials, and superstitions, would be to exceed my limits. I prefer
confining myself to the results of my personal observations, which,
however, from my long residence in Kaffirland, will embrace many points
left unnoticed by writers who have merely travelled through the country.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. Even in their hunting expeditions, the Kaffirs exhibit a
peculiarity which goes far to prove that the sight of blood renders them
unnaturally ferocious. At the death of a jackal, a buck, or any large
game which, they have run down, each hunter presses on to give a last
stab at the victim, even after death. I observed this also among the
Fingoes, in their war-dance, as afterwards described. Captain Harris
alludes to it in his "Sporting Expedition in Africa," when he so
graphically describes the death of a young eland. "The savages came
up," he says, "and in spite of my remonstrances, proceeded with
cold-blooded ferocity to stab the unfortunate animal, stirring up the
blood, and shouting with barbarous exultation as it issued from each
newly-inflicted wound."
Note 2. The term "Kaffir," is by no means recognised by the Kaffirs
themselves. It was bestowed on them by the Portuguese. The word is
from the Arabic, and signifies "Infidel."
Note 3. The word "kraal" applies either to the group of huts forming a
village, to a single hut, or the fold for the cattle.