The population of Africa is roughly estimated at 200,000,000,--about 18
to a square mile, as against 88 in Europe. It is supposed that Africa
was originally inhabited by the Hottentots, or Bushmen, who are now
found only in south-western Africa, and by the Pygmies or Dwarfs
scattered about Central Africa, who, some say, belong to the same
group. This group is noted for its dwarfed stature, generally under
five feet; but whether their size is natural, or due to privation and
scanty food, is not certainly known. The Hottentot language is distinct
from any other known form of speech. The Bantu occupy the greater part
of Africa south of the equator. They probably formerly inhabited
north-eastern Africa, but were driven from their homes by the Hamites.
The Bantu resemble the Negro in their general character, color, and
physique, but their language shows essential differences. There are
countless tribes of Bantu, each tribe having its own language, yet
there was originally a primeval Bantu mother-tongue, from which all the
dialects of this immense region are undoubtedly derived. The idioms of
this family are generally known as the alliteral class of languages.
North of the Bantu are the Negroes proper, occupying the greater part
of Africa between 5° and 15° north latitude. The negro tribes are
multitudinous, and, though alike in their main physical features, are
diverse in their speech.
North of the Negro are the Nuba Fulah group, apparently indigenous to
Africa, but without any thing in common with the other indigenous
groups. Their name, "Pullo," or "Fulah," means "yellow," and their
color serves to distinguish them from the Negro. The Hottentot, Bantu,
Negro, and Fulah, though distinct, have each of them the agglutinative
forms of speech. The Hamites are found along the valley of the Nile, in
Abyssinia, and portions of the Sudan. The Shemitic tribes occupy the
larger part of the Sudan, bounded on the east by the Nile, and on the
north by the Mediterranean and North Atlantic.
About one-half of the population are Negroes proper, one-fourth Bantu,
one-fourth Shemites and Hamites, a few Nuba Fulahs and Hottentots. The
Negroes and Bantu are Pagans; the Shemites and Hamites, Mohammedans.
There are, almost, innumerable tribes, speaking different languages or
different dialects. Over six hundred tribes and languages have been
classified by Shilo, yet each is generally unintelligible to the other.
Practically speaking, there are but two great divisions,--the Negroes
and Bantu, occupying equatorial and southern Africa; and the Hamites
and Shemites, northern Africa. But there is no clear-cut line even
between the Mohammedan and Negro. For many hundred years the Negroes
have been taken as slaves, and carried into the north of Africa, and
have furnished the harems with wives, and the families with servants.
The servants are often adopted into the families, so that the Negro
blood now largely predominates even among the Shemites and Hamites.
A broader and more practical distinction than that of language or blood
is made by the religion of the African. The Mohammedan religion was
probably brought from Arabia by the Shemites. They conquered the
country along the coast, and exterminated or pushed to the south the
former inhabitants. Then, more slowly but steadily, Mohammedanism
forced its way south by the sword or by proselyting. Within the last
thirty years it has re-assumed its proselyting character, and is now
more rapidly extending than at any previous time.
Its missionaries are of a race nearly allied to the Negro. They live
among them, adopting their customs, and often intermarrying with them.
They teach of one God, whom all must worship and obey, and of a future
life whose rewards the Negro can comprehend. They forbid the sacrifice
of human victims to appease the wrath of an offended deity. They forbid
drunkenness. They give freedom to the slave who becomes a Moslem, and
thus elevate and civilize those among whom they dwell. The Christian
missionary is of a race too far above him. He is a white man, his lord
and master. He teaches of things his mind cannot reach, of a future of
which he can form no conception; he brings a faith too spiritual; he
labors with earnestness and devotion, even to the laying-down of his
life. Yet the fact remains that Christianity has produced but little
impression in civilizing and elevating the people, while the influence
of Mohammedanism is spreading on every side.
In passing from the equator south, the tribes become more degraded. Sir
Henry Maine enunciated the theory of the evolution of civilization from
the lowest state of the savage. In Africa he could have found all
stages of civilization; in the lowest scale, man and his mate, living
entirely on the fruits of the earth, in a nude condition, his only
house pieces of bark hung from the trees to protect him from the
prevailing wind; the vulture his guide to where, the previous night,
the lion had fallen on his prey, leaving to him the great marrow-bones
of the elephant or the giraffe; his only arms a stick; belonging to no
tribe, with no connection with his fellow-men, his hand against every
man, the family relation scarcely recognized. It is the land of the
gorilla, and there seems to be little difference between the man and
the ape, and both are hunted and shot by the Boers. In ascending the
scale, the family and tribal relation appears,--a house built of cane
and grass or the bark of the tree; a few flocks; skill in setting traps
for game; the weapon a round stone, bored through, and a pointed stick
fastened in the hole. Then come tribes of a low order of civilization,
that cultivate a little ground, having a despotic king, who has wives
without limit, numbering in some cases, it is said, 3,000; wives and
slaves slaughtered at his death, to keep him company and serve him in
another life. With them, cannibalism is common. Then come tribes of a
higher civilization, where the power of the chief is limited, where
iron, copper, and gold are manufactured, and trade is carried on with
foreigners, where fire-arms have been substituted for the bow and
spear; next the Mohammedan; and last of all, on the shores of the
Mediterranean, the civilization of the French and English.
It is a curious fact that many tribes that had made considerable
advance in manufacturing iron and copper, have for some time ceased
manufacturing; that others have retrograded, and have lost some of the
arts they formerly possessed. This decline apparently took place after
the Mohammedans had conquered North Africa, and sent their traders
among the Negro tribes, who sold the few articles the Negro needed
cheaper than they could manufacture them, and therefore compelled them
to give up their own manufactures. Such was the effect of free trade on
interior Africa. The Mohammedans also manufacture less than formerly,
depending more and more upon European manufactures. The enterprise of
the white race defies native competition, and stifles attempts at
native manufactures: there is therefore among the natives a great
falling-off in the progress of outward culture, and the last traces of
home industries are rapidly disappearing.