It is impossible to prophesy the future of any country, much less that
of Africa, where the physical features have left so marked an
impression upon its inhabitants, and where the animal life is so
different from that of the other continents. It is rather by
differentiating Africa from other countries that we obtain any data
from which to form an opinion of its future.
Africa, as we have seen, is surrounded by a fringe of European
settlements. What effect will these settlements have upon Africa? Will
the European population penetrate the interior, and colonize Africa?
Will it subjugate or expel the Africans, or will they fade away like
the Indians of our country? If colonization by Europeans fail, will the
African remain the sole inhabitant of the country as barbarian or
civilized?
Egypt is now controlled by the English, but its climate is too
unhealthy, and its surrounding too unfavorable, for Englishmen; and we
may safely assume that their occupation will be temporary, or, if
permanent, not as colonists. They will remain, as in India, foreigners
and rulers, until the subjugated people rise in their power and expel
them, and return to their old life. The English rule, though possibly
beneficial to Egypt, is hated by the natives, who demand Egypt for the
Egyptians.
Leaving Egypt, we pass an uninhabitable coast, until we come to the
French colonies of Algiers. It is nearly sixty years since the French
took possession of Algiers. There has been a large emigration from
France; but the climate, while excellent as a winter climate for
invalids and others, is unfavorable for a permanent habitation,
especially for infants. The births in one year have never equalled the
deaths. When Algeria was first conquered by the French, it was a
wilderness, but is now a garden. The cultivation of the grape has been
most successful, and extensive iron-mines have been opened. The French
are gradually pushing their way from Algiers across the desert to
Timbuctu, and also from Senegambia to Timbuctu. The expense of
maintaining Algeria has greatly exceeded any revenue derived from it.
Though many doubt the political wisdom of retaining it, yet the French
have too much pride to acknowledge that the enterprise has been in any
way a failure; and they will undoubtedly hold it, and perhaps found an
empire. Senegambia and the coast of Guinea, claimed by the French and
English, are low and moist, filled with swamps and lagoons, which will
prevent any European colonization.
South of the Kongo, the Portuguese claim a wide section of country
running across Africa. They have occupied this country over two hundred
years. They have done little towards colonizing, and only hold a few
trading-posts on the coast and in the interior, dealing principally in
slaves, ivory, and gold; and it may well be doubted whether they have
the stamina or ability to colonize this country, or to produce any
permanent impression upon it.
The south portion of Africa, from the 18th parallel on the Atlantic to
the 26th parallel on the Indian Ocean, is generally fertile; and the
climate is favorable to Europeans, and is capable of sustaining a large
population. The growth of Cape Colony has been very slow, but a more
rapid growth is anticipated. We believe it will be permanently occupied
by the English, who will dispossess the aborigines, and form a great
and permanent English State. The coast of Zanzibar, occupied by the
Germans and English, is rich and fertile, the climate unhealthy; but
when the mountain-ranges are crossed, and the elevated plateaus and
lake regions are reached, the interior resembles the Kongo region.
Massaua and Suakin, on the Red Sea, are unhealthy and worthless, unless
connected by railroad with the upper Nile.
There remains equatorial Africa, including the French settlements on
the Ogowe, the region about Lake Chad, the Kongo and its tributaries,
and the lake region. The more we learn of equatorial Africa, the
greater its natural advantages appear to be. The rivers open up the
country in a favorable manner for trade and settlement. Its elevation
from 2,000 to 3,000 feet will render it healthy, though this elevation
is only equal to from ten degrees to fourteen degrees of north
latitude. Here all the fruits of the torrid zone, the fruits and most
of the grains of the temperate zone, cotton, India-rubber, and
sugar-cane, are found.
The country has been unhealthy, a great many Europeans have died, and
few have been able to remain more than two or three years without
returning to Europe to recuperate. These facts seem to show that the
climate is not healthy for Europeans. But the mortality has been much
greater than it will be when the country is settled and the unhealthy
stations have been exchanged for healthier localities. Every new
country has its peculiar dangers, which must be discovered. When these
obstacles are understood and overcome, Europeans will probably occupy
all this region, and it will become a European colony.
If European colonization is successful, European civilization will come
into contact with African barbarism. Where such a contest is carried on
in a country where the climate is equally favorable to the two races,
it can only result in the subjugation or destruction of the inferior
race. If the climate is unfavorable to the white population, then,
unless the inferior is subjected to the superior, the white population
will fail in colonizing the country, and the Negro will either slowly
emerge from barbarism, or return to his original condition.
The Negro has never developed any high degree of civilization; and even
if, when brought into contact with civilization, he has made
considerable progress, when that contact ceased he has deteriorated
into barbarism. But, on the other hand, he has never faded away and
disappeared, like the Indian of America and the natives of the Southern
Archipelago.
Nature has spread a bountiful and never-ending harvest before the
Negro, and given to him a climate where neither labor of body or mind,
neither clothing nor a house, is essential to his comfort. All nature
invites to an idle life; and it is only through compulsion, and contact
with a life from without, that his condition can be improved.
In Africa a contest is going on between civilization and barbarism,
Christianity and Mohammedanism, freedom and slavery, such as the world
has never seen. Who can fail to be interested in the results of this
conflict? We know that Africa is capable of the very highest
civilization, for it was the birthplace of all civilization. To it we
are indebted for the origin of all our arts and sciences, and it
possesses to-day the most wonderful works of man. Let us hope that
Africa, whose morning was so bright, and whose night has been so dark,
will yet live to see the light of another and higher civilization.
[Illustration: APPROPRIATION OF AFRICA BY EUROPEANS. 1. British. 2.
French. 3. German. 4. Spanish. 5. Italian. 6. Portuguese. 7. Kongo Free
State. 8. Liberia. 9. South African and Orange Free States.]