difficulty of learning the actual extent of immoral practices. The
prostitute class, as we proceed from the pure savage to the highest
point of civilization, becomes more and more distinct--being more
conspicuous because more isolated. This is accompanied by another
process, which is a superior standard by which to measure the social
elevation of a people. Women respect themselves in proportion as
men respect them. Where locks and bolts, scourges and cudgels, are
the guardians of female chastity, it is only preserved when there
is no opportunity to lose it. When the protecting influence springs
from within, the woman moves a virtuous being, defended even from a
licentious glance by the impenetrable cloud which her native modesty
and virtue diffuse around her.
OF PROSTITUTION AMONG AFRICAN NATIONS.
In the wide field of inquiry presented by the barbarian races of our
own time, Africa occupies a prominent place. Some of the most wild
and savage tribes of the human family are to be found on that immense
peninsula. Many degrees in the inferior scale of civilization are
represented, from the uncouth Hottentots of the south to the wandering
Arabs of the desert, in whose blameless lives we have a picture of
original simplicity--not far removed from the real refinement, though
very far from the vices, of the most polished among the communities
of Europe. The inquiry we have made into the condition of women and
the state of manners in Africa, has confirmed us in our opinion, which
is supported also by many circumstances observed among other races of
men. The medium of refinement is accompanied by the least immorality.
As in our own, among other civilized states, the ratio of profligacy
is greatest at the opposite poles of society--the wealthiest and the
most indigent--so in Africa it is among the basest savages and among
the most highly polished communities that immorality prevails to the
greatest extent. The brutal hordes on the western coast, with the
populations of the half-civilized cities of the north, abound in vices,
while the barbarian though innocent communities, with the wandering
dwellers in the desert, are characterised by manners far more pure.
In ranging over Africa in search of facts to complete the present
inquiry, we meet with numerous tribes belonging to seven separate
races of mankind: the Hottentot, the Kaffir, the Negro, the Moor, the
Abyssinian, the Arab, and the Copts or descendants of the true Egyptian
stock. Among each of these we perceive some varieties of manners;
but everywhere in Africa one circumstance is prominent--the degraded
condition of the female sex. The women of Cairo and Algiers are in
comparison treated with little more refinement than those of some
purely savage states; but we shall not include such communities among
the barbarian races, reserving Egypt and some of the other countries
characterised by a mongrel civilization for separate notices. We may,
as far as our present inquiry goes, present the subject clearly and
without confusion by making a geographical arrangement, and, commencing
from the south, pass over the continent, until we encounter a form of
civilization in the valley of the Lower Nile.
The condition of women generally in heathen countries is degraded. As
we proceed through Africa this truth will be strongly illustrated.
Commencing with the Hottentots of the south, we find them a dissolute
profligate race, who have been so from the earliest period. It was
remarked in 1655 by Van Riebeck, when the chiefs, departing on a
distant expedition, were urged to leave their women behind, they
replied “that their wives must be with them everywhere so as to be kept
from the other men.” It was remarked also in 1840 by Colonel Napier,
who describes them as proverbially unchaste. Polygamy, at the early
period referred to, was prevalent. Men bought their wives--sometimes
from their wealthier, sometimes from their poorer, neighbours; but
all alliances between persons of near kindred were held in utter
abhorrence. Indecency and lewdness are their characteristics, for
though now accustomed to clothing, it is no uncommon thing for them,
when drunk at their festivals, to strip naked and perform lascivious
dances, to music of the rudest harmony. Many among them appear to
prostitute themselves readily to strangers, some from inclination,
others for money, many for a gift of finery; but in what numbers this
disreputable class exists we have no means of knowing[42]. A superior
order, however, is scattered among these degraded creatures, and many
lively, intelligent, and well-conducted women have attracted the notice
of travellers.
[Illustration: WOMAN OF THE BOSJES RACE.
[_From a Daguerreotype by_ BEARD.]]
The pastoral Kaffirs are perhaps a more moral though a more ferocious
people than the Hottentots. They are, indeed, superior in mental and
physical characteristics, being more addicted to arms, and less to
debauch. They also, however, practise polygamy, and buy their wives for
so many head of cattle. Among them, as well as among the Bechuanas,
the girls undergo a probation before marriage, during which they live
apart, and hold no intercourse with their tribe except through an old
woman. Sichele, king of the Bechuanas, had numerous wives, of whom
one was a favourite; but he granted each a separate hut, so that his
palace was a kind of village surrounded by a fence. They punish theft
in a woman by twisting dry grass round her fingers and burning them to
the bone. Wandering from place to place in tent-shaped temporary huts,
they carry their women with them, and condemn them to domestic labour.
Even the chief’s wives assist in grinding the corn, and tending their
husband’s nomade household. Divorce is easy, on very slight grounds.
We occasionally hear of women committing what is termed fornication,
but no professed class of prostitutes has been described. As among all
nations practising polygamy, marriage is not held as a sacred tie; but
adultery on the wife’s part is severely punished as an infraction of
the social law. The bonds of natural affection appear extremely weak
among the Kaffir tribes. Men are inspired by an inclination, not an
attachment, to their wives, and mothers possess less affection for
their children than is observed even in the Australian savage. The weak
and sickly are sometimes abandoned, to save the expense or trouble
of their support. Mrs. Ward knew of a woman who, having a little
daughter in a decline, buried it alive, to be rid of the burden. The
little creature, imperfectly interred, burst from its grave and ran
home. Again it was forced into the hole, again it escaped, and a third
time it was removed to the earth; once more, however, it struggled
till free, and, flying to its mother’s hut, was at last received,
and ultimately recovered. Such instances of inhumanity are not rare
among the Kaffir tribes, whose passion for blood and war seems to have
blunted some of their natural sentiments. Husbands, when their wives
are sick, frequently drag them into a neighbouring thicket, where they
are left to die, and women continually do the same with their poor
offspring. It is important, however, to mention, that in the instances
of Kaffirs converted to Christianity their manners undergo a most
favourable modification. One of them was known to Mrs. Ward who had
refused to take a second wife, in deference to the moral law laid down
by the interpreters of his adopted religion; and, where the conversion
is sincere, they always manifest an inclination to practise the
manners of the white men[43].
In the rude maritime region extending from the countries on the border
of the Cape territory as far as the Senegal, a set of characteristic
features is universally marked on the people, varied though their
nationality be. Differences, of course, prevail among the numerous
tribes in the several states; but the impress of African civilization
is there all but uniform.
Those between the tropics, especially, are absorbed in licentiousness.
Morality is a strange idea to them. Polygamy is universally practised,
and in most places without limitation; while nowhere is a man
restrained by the social law from intercourse with any number of
females he chooses. The result is that women are, for the most part,
looked upon as a marketable commodity; that the pure and exalted
sentiment of love is utterly unknown; and that even the commonest
feelings of humanity appear absent from among them. Husbands, for
instance, on the Gold Coast, are known to prostitute their wives to
others for a sum of money. This is an open transaction. In other
places, however, where the adulterer pays a fine to the husband he
has injured, we find men allowing their wives an opportunity to be
unfaithful, in order to obtain the price of the crime. Throughout,
indeed, the gloomy and savage states, sheltered by the woods bordering
the Niger, and over the whole western coast, mankind appears in its
uncouthest form. Human nature, degraded by perpetual war against
itself, rots at the feet of a gross superstition. As we have said, the
result is developed in various modifications of barbarian manners.
When Laird, in 1832, visited the Niger, he found the condition of the
female sex upon its borders most humiliating. In the dominions of King
Boy polygamy was unlimited, and the wives reduced to slavery in their
own homes. The people dwelling on the banks of the Lower Niger may be
described, in fact, as among the most idle, ignorant, and profligate
in Africa. The prince himself set the example to his subjects. He
possessed 140 wives and concubines, of whom one was no more than
thirteen years of age, whom he had purchased for a few muskets and a
piece of cloth. Half a dozen enjoyed the distinction of favourites;
one of them was more than 25 stones in weight. The mother of this
pluralist was maintained in her son’s palace, where she amused the
court by dances of the most revolting and obscene description. No
care was, in any respect, taken to preserve a sense of virtue in the
king’s harem; but adultery was, nevertheless, punished with death.
This appears the case in most countries where shame holds no check on
immorality; it may, indeed, be taken in some measure as an index to
the state of manners where crimes against chastity are visited with
public infamy alone, or with legal penalties. In the dominions of Boy,
one wife, at least, was expected to attend her husband, even when
dead. The chosen victim was bound and thrown into the river; a mode
of death preferable to that practised at Calabar, on the coast, where
the miserable woman is buried alive. In the kingdom of Fundals, when a
chief died leaving fifteen women in his harem, the king selected one
to be hung over the tomb, and transferred the rest to his own palace;
nevertheless, a few of these enjoyed an independent existence. One
lively intelligent woman possessed an estate of land and 200 slaves,
whom she employed in trade. Industry flourished, there being small
competition, as a more idle demoralized people than the dwellers on the
Niger as far as Ebo cannot be imagined.
Above that place, where the land is less marshy and more favourable
to cultivation, the natives are more intelligent, more addicted to
agriculture, more manly in their habits, and in proportion more kind
and respectful to their women. Polygamy, it is true, prevails, as it
does all over Western Africa, but the sex is somewhat raised above a
mere instrument of sensual gratification. In other directions the old
features are resumed. The Bambarras, a Pagan people, marry as many
wives as they can support; and the Mandingoes, who are only allowed
four, treat them as slaves, though they love their children.
The native of Western Africa, in most cases, looks upon his wife, in
one respect as a source of pleasure, in another as a source of gain,
reckoning her as property to the amount she can earn by labour. In the
institution of marriage, therefore, it may easily be conceived that
no sacred tie is acknowledged. It is merely a civil contract, to be
dissolved at will. The man sends a present to the woman’s father; if
a virgin, she exchanges her leathern girdle for a cloth wrapped about
the loins, and a little merry-making consummates the transaction. This
account applies especially to the Tilatates. In Yarriba and Bughor,
when a woman finds herself _enceinte_, she is obliged to inform her
husband, or suffer a public whipping when the discovery is made. This
custom refers, there is no doubt, to a feature in the morals of the
people. Mothers, also, are forced to suckle their children until three
years old, and punished if, during that period, they cohabit with a man.
Strange inconsistencies occasionally display themselves in the manners
of these unintellectual barbarians. They have introduced a feature
of Asiatic luxury, by having eunuchs to guard their seraglios, while
instances occur in which the uncouth savage professes a sentiment of
attachment. The King of Attah told Lander that he loved him as he loved
the wife who shared his bed. Yet he was a polygamist, and a sensualist.
In Abookir the prince was continually multiplying the inmates of his
harem, and having many daughters, had numbers of wives younger than
they. Girls of eleven years old are there considered marriageable.
Regarded as a mere social contract, temporary or otherwise, marriage,
in this region, is held among the most ordinary occurrences of life.
A man arriving at the age of 20 takes one wife, and then another,
increasing the number from four to 100, as his circumstances allow.
Many women, even under this system, cannot procure husbands. This,
however, we must not ascribe so much to a vast preponderance of the
female sex over the male, as to the fact that thousands of men take no
permanent partners at all. It may, perhaps, be safe to assert that,
of the single men, none remain without intercourse with women, and of
the unmarried women, that not one preserves her chastity. The idea
of that virtue appears foreign to those races. Adultery, indeed, is
held a crime, but not so much against morals as against the husband.
A wife suspected of it is compelled to drink a decoction called Sassy
water, which poisons her, unless she bribes the priest to render it
harmless by dilution, in which case she is pronounced innocent. The
widow, even, who has been known to live on bad terms with her husband
is forced, among the tribes on the banks of the Lower Niger, to undergo
this ordeal. An illicit connection with the king’s wife, however, is
punished with death to both parties, while among the chiefs the fine
of a slave is exacted. Every woman, except the consort of royalty,
has thus her market value, which is greatly increased if her friends
fatten her up to a colossal size. Men frequently buy slender girls at
a cheap rate, and feed them to a proper obesity before taking them as
companions. Marriage, or concubinage, may be entered on at the age of
thirteen, and so universal is the system in this part of Africa, that
the sex seems absolutely wedded to its degradation.
Among the people of Ibu a singular custom exists. When twins are born
they are immediately exposed to wild beasts. The mother, compelled to
go through a long course of purification and penance, is thenceforward
an outlaw, disgraced among the women, who hold up two fingers as she
passes, to remind her of the misfortune:--she is at once divorced from
her husband.
Though thus reduced to slavery by the other sex, women, among these
tribes, enjoy a certain degree of freedom, which is a mitigation of
their miserable state. Married without their own consent, they are sold
to a husband for from 26_s._ and upwards, and thenceforward become his
servants. Yet the favourite wives of the rich, exempt from toil, are
allowed to amuse themselves in various ways, and even to walk about
unveiled, under the guard of an eunuch. Men never eat with their wives,
and often treat them brutally, bewailing the loss of a slave far more
than the death of a wife, unless she happens to please the caprice
of the hour. It is among the poorest that most freedom is allowed,
and among those tribes who have intercourse with Europeans that most
ferocity prevails. Some dig the soil, some attend to the household,
some support their husbands by the profits of a petty retail trade,
while others, kept for his gratification, are allowed to idle. These
favoured ones are often slaves. A handsome young one often sells for
from 60,000 to 120,000 cowries (from 3_l._ 15_s._ to 7_l._ 10_s._[44]),
while the price of a common wife is only 20,000 cowries (25_s._).
Frequently, the man’s inclination changes its direction, and he sells
one girl to purchase another. With many of the kings and chiefs a
continual trade in women is common. King Bell, of the Cameroons, for
instance, had more than 100 wives, and his wealth was increased by
their numbers. In his dominions the young maidens had considerable
liberty, sporting in the fields, and enjoying, for a few years,
comparative independence of the men[45].
In the kingdom of Dahomey, on the Guinea Coast, we find some of the
most remarkable institutions with respect to women which exist in
the world. It has been the centre of the slave trade. Few of the
comparatively fair aboriginal race exist, but in their place has been
gathered a mixed population, incontestably one of the most profligate
in Africa. Entering its seaport town the traveller is at once struck
by the remarkable immodesty of the female population. Throughout the
country the same characteristic is observable, though in a modified
degree. Sir John Malcolm observed of the subjects of the Imaum of
Muscat--manners they have none, and their habits are disgusting. The
same description has been judiciously applied to the people of Dahomey.
They are profligates, from the highest to the lowest--a bloody-minded
savage race, delighting in human suffering, and finding their national
pleasure in customs the most revolting and cruel that ever obtained in
the world.
The king practises all these, and is superior in brutality and
filthiness to any of his subjects. This has been a characteristic of
the throne in Dahomey. He has thousands of wives, while his chiefs
have hundreds, and the common people tens. The royal favourites are
considered too sacred to be looked upon by vulgar eyes. Whenever they
proceed along the public road, a bell is rung to warn all passengers of
their approach, and every one must then turn aside or hide his face. If
one of them commits adultery, she is, with her paramour, put to death.
The harem is sacred against strangers, but the privileged nobility
attend the royal feasts, where the king’s wives sit, attired in showy
costumes of the reign of Charles II., drinking rum and leading the
debauch. Those of an inferior class, or the concubines, are employed
in trade, the profits of which accrue to their master. Every unmarried
woman in Dahomey is virtually the property of the sovereign, who makes
his choice among them. No one dares to dispute his will, or to claim a
maiden towards whom he has signified his inclination.
When the king desires to confer honour on any favourite, he chooses a
wife for him, and presents her publicly. In this case she performs the
ceremony of handing to her husband a cup of rum, which is a sign of
union. Otherwise no rite or ceremony whatever is essential. However,
the man must finally take his wife or concubine, in the usual business
manner, for if he seduces a maiden he must marry her, or pay to her
parent or master 160,000 cowries (equal to 7_l._ 10_s._ of our money).
Failing in this, he may be sold as a slave. This punishment also is
inflicted on those who commit adultery with a common person’s wife.
The rich often buy a number of concubines, live with them for a short
time, and then sell them at a profit. It is in Dahomey, too, that
the practice prevails of throwing a wife in the way of committing
adultery for the sake of the penalty which her husband may exact from
the criminal. It is commonly known that the king of Dahomey supports
an army of several thousand Amazonian soldiers. These women dress
in male attire, and are not allowed to marry, or supposed to hold
intercourse with the other sex. They declare themselves, indeed, to
have changed their nature. “We are men,” they say, “and no women.” In
all things--courage and ferocity among the rest--they seek to preserve
the character. They dwell in barracks, under the care of eunuchs; they
practise wild war-dances, and, officered by their own sex, scorn the
allurements of any weaker passion; they are, therefore, for the most
part chaste. Vanity and superstition combine to guard their virtue.
They boast of never encountering a man except in the field of battle.
Thus their pride is enlisted in the service of their chastity. A charm
is placed under the threshold of their common dwelling, as it is under
that of the palace harem, which is supposed to strike with disease the
bowels of any guilty woman who may cross it. So strong is this belief,
that many incontinent Amazons have voluntarily revealed their crime,
though well aware that the punishment of death will be, without mercy,
dealt upon them as well as their lovers[46].
Most men have a favourite wife, and her privilege is valuable so
long as her husband lives; but on his decease it entails a terrible
obligation. The dying chief invites one or more of his principal wives
to die with him, and these, with a number of slaves, varying according
to his rank, are sacrificed at his tomb.
In consequence of the immense number of wives and concubines kept by
the king and his wealthier subjects, numbers of the common people are
forced to be content with the company of prostitutes, who are licensed
in Dahomey, and subject to a particular tax. There is a band of them,
according to Dalzel, who appears worthy of belief, in every village,
though confined to a certain quarter, and they prostitute themselves
to any who desire it, at a moderate fixed price. The profits thus
obtained are often insufficient for their support, and they eke out
their gains by breeding fowls, and other industrial occupations. Women
also hire themselves out to carry heavy burdens, and they no doubt
belong to the prostitute class. Norris saw 250 of these unfortunate
women collected in a troop on a public occasion. The object of this
institution, according to the king, was to save the respectable people
from seduction. There were many men who could not get wives, and,
unless prostitutes existed, they would seduce the wives or daughters
of others. At Whyddah, on the coast, Mr. John Duncan was assailed by
numbers of women who offered to “become his wives,” or, in other words,
to prostitute themselves to him, for a drop of rum. Many of the poorer
class strolled about naked, ready to accept any one for a miserable
gratuity. In that city it was the custom when a man committed adultery,
to press him into the king’s army. Formerly he was sacrificed, but
the practice was abolished--prisoners of war furnishing “the annual
customs” with victims. Whatever the punishment was, however, it was
ineffectual to suppress the crime, as depravity was the general
characteristic of the people. At Zapoorah, beyond Dahomey, a chief
offered one of his wives for sale, and parents asked a price for their
children; while at Gaffa, still further, the men are more jealous, and
the women more modest. Adultery with the king’s wife was punished by
impalement on a red-hot stake.