Africa and the Africans
THE abolition of slavery in the United States was not an isolated phenomenon. It was an important link in the great chain of events which are leading up to the regeneration of Africa. A Negro writer of the present day on Africa and African questions, therefore, can neither forget American slavery nor the great American Emancipation. He must, ever and anon, like the manumitted Hebrews of old, recall the “ house of bondage,” not only as the fons et origo malorum to a large portion of his race, but as the type and representative of all the oppression which has everywhere afflicted the Negro in the countries of his exile. He must also remember the great deliverance, when the door of his prison-house was forcibly opened, and five millions of his race marched out into the open air of personal freedom, not only as the starting point for a large section of his people on a loftier and nobler career, but as an important step towards the amelioration and reconstruction of his fatherland—as Heaven’s intervention in the solution of a great and intricate problem as the pledge and proof of God’s providential care and beneficent purposes for Africa and the African.
Before the abolition of slavery in the United States, it was generally taken for granted that, as things had been, so far as the Negro was concerned, so they would continue to be; that there was no other destiny for Africa than to be the hunting-ground for unprincipled men of all other countries, and no other destiny for the Negro than to continue in servitude to the man-hunters and their abettors. And many an intelligent Christian thought he saw in the Bible a clear warrant for this view.
But hardly had the Negro come out of the house of bondage in America, when traditional views on the subject of his destiny began to fade away among the unwholesome superstitions of the past. Events began to turn attention to his ancestral home. The emancipation of millions of people of a foreign and uncongenial race, in a country governed by republican institutions, could not but awaken serious reflections in the minds of the thoughtful. Here was a new problem for solution, and one which, to the minds of many, presented terrible contingencies. They could not conceive of five millions of blacks living among thirty millions of whites in any other relation than that of servitude, especially when servitude had been the uniform antecedent relation. But that relation had been abruptly severed. The five millions of slaves were now free men.
There were several proposals made for the disposition of this unwelcome and inconvenient element. Many thought that they should be sent to the Great West, and be formed into a “territory” of the United States. Others held that they should be absorbed into the body politic under reconstruction laws. Others proposed their concentration as free men and independent in the Gulf States. Not a few advocated their deportation to the West Indies, or Central America. A small number contended that an endeavour should be made to return them to the land of their fathers. For several years, this last proposition was ridiculed and contemned, but it could not long be suppressed. It was founded upon a principle inherent in humanity. It appealed to the irresistible instincts and sympathy of race, and it has recently gained an immense popularity among the blacks. Organisations for emigration to Africa, called “ Exodus Associations,” are being formed among them. While we write this, we learn that near two hundred thousand are ready to leave for Africa. Those of the Negroes in the United States who comprehend this movement and aid it, and avail themselves of it, will be elevated, and will save their posterity from perpetual degradation, or, possibly, extinction. Those who ignore it, and fight against it, will be baffled and thwarted in all their attempts at elevation in the land of their former oppressors, if they are not altogether crushed by the odds against them. This is the teaching of all history.
In the meanwhile, events have been co-operating for the opening of Africa. Scarcely had the emancipation proclamation been promulgated, when Livingstone disappeared from the civilised world, and lost himself in the wilds of Africa, just as the intensest interest had been excited in the work of exploration which, as an humble missionary, he had begun. In attempts to ascertain the whereabouts of the lost traveller, more and more of the country was revealed to the outside world; and in the fifteen years which have elapsed since the abolition of slavery in America, more has been learned of Africa by the civilised world than was ever previously known. Explorers from all the leading nations are entering the country from every quarter. One of the Sovereigns of Europe turns aside from the cares of State, and from the great questions now interesting Europe, to give his personal influence to stimulate the work of African exploration and civilisation. The Royal Geographical Society has shown its increased interest and determination in the matter, by instituting an “African Exploration Fund,” to be appropriated “ to the scientific examination of Africa (especially the central part of the continent, in a systematic and organised manner.”[1] A proposition has been laid before the American Congress for a preliminary survey of the countries east of Liberia, with a view to the construction of a railroad from Monrovia to Central Africa. In Africa itself, magnificence and beauty are being disclosed where the most forbidding natural features were expected. More than a dozen lakes have been discovered in regions formerly supposed to contain only “trackless deserts of shifting sand.” The continent has been crossed from east to west by youthful and enthusiastic explorers. So that the exiled African, returning to the land of his ancestors, will not be journeying to a country of which he has no knowledge. The general ignorance of this continent, which only a few years ago prevailed, when it used to be said that “our maps of the moon were more correct and complete than those of interior Africa,” can never again exist.
Before the abolition of slavery in the United States, it was generally taken for granted that, as things had been, so far as the Negro was concerned, so they would continue to be; that there was no other destiny for Africa than to be the hunting-ground for unprincipled men of all other countries, and no other destiny for the Negro than to continue in servitude to the man-hunters and their abettors. And many an intelligent Christian thought he saw in the Bible a clear warrant for this view.
But hardly had the Negro come out of the house of bondage in America, when traditional views on the subject of his destiny began to fade away among the unwholesome superstitions of the past. Events began to turn attention to his ancestral home. The emancipation of millions of people of a foreign and uncongenial race, in a country governed by republican institutions, could not but awaken serious reflections in the minds of the thoughtful. Here was a new problem for solution, and one which, to the minds of many, presented terrible contingencies. They could not conceive of five millions of blacks living among thirty millions of whites in any other relation than that of servitude, especially when servitude had been the uniform antecedent relation. But that relation had been abruptly severed. The five millions of slaves were now free men.
There were several proposals made for the disposition of this unwelcome and inconvenient element. Many thought that they should be sent to the Great West, and be formed into a “territory” of the United States. Others held that they should be absorbed into the body politic under reconstruction laws. Others proposed their concentration as free men and independent in the Gulf States. Not a few advocated their deportation to the West Indies, or Central America. A small number contended that an endeavour should be made to return them to the land of their fathers. For several years, this last proposition was ridiculed and contemned, but it could not long be suppressed. It was founded upon a principle inherent in humanity. It appealed to the irresistible instincts and sympathy of race, and it has recently gained an immense popularity among the blacks. Organisations for emigration to Africa, called “ Exodus Associations,” are being formed among them. While we write this, we learn that near two hundred thousand are ready to leave for Africa. Those of the Negroes in the United States who comprehend this movement and aid it, and avail themselves of it, will be elevated, and will save their posterity from perpetual degradation, or, possibly, extinction. Those who ignore it, and fight against it, will be baffled and thwarted in all their attempts at elevation in the land of their former oppressors, if they are not altogether crushed by the odds against them. This is the teaching of all history.
In the meanwhile, events have been co-operating for the opening of Africa. Scarcely had the emancipation proclamation been promulgated, when Livingstone disappeared from the civilised world, and lost himself in the wilds of Africa, just as the intensest interest had been excited in the work of exploration which, as an humble missionary, he had begun. In attempts to ascertain the whereabouts of the lost traveller, more and more of the country was revealed to the outside world; and in the fifteen years which have elapsed since the abolition of slavery in America, more has been learned of Africa by the civilised world than was ever previously known. Explorers from all the leading nations are entering the country from every quarter. One of the Sovereigns of Europe turns aside from the cares of State, and from the great questions now interesting Europe, to give his personal influence to stimulate the work of African exploration and civilisation. The Royal Geographical Society has shown its increased interest and determination in the matter, by instituting an “African Exploration Fund,” to be appropriated “ to the scientific examination of Africa (especially the central part of the continent, in a systematic and organised manner.”[1] A proposition has been laid before the American Congress for a preliminary survey of the countries east of Liberia, with a view to the construction of a railroad from Monrovia to Central Africa. In Africa itself, magnificence and beauty are being disclosed where the most forbidding natural features were expected. More than a dozen lakes have been discovered in regions formerly supposed to contain only “trackless deserts of shifting sand.” The continent has been crossed from east to west by youthful and enthusiastic explorers. So that the exiled African, returning to the land of his ancestors, will not be journeying to a country of which he has no knowledge. The general ignorance of this continent, which only a few years ago prevailed, when it used to be said that “our maps of the moon were more correct and complete than those of interior Africa,” can never again exist.
Footnotes:
1 Circular issued by the Royal Geographical Society, 1877.
1 Circular issued by the Royal Geographical Society, 1877.
But, while every effort is made to explore and describe the country, very little attempt is made to study the man of Africa. It is very natural that adventurous travellers should deem it the most important part of their mission to describe the country, to spend their time in telling of what the outside world is consciously and confessedly ignorant, and of which, therefore, there is the greatest anxiety to gather information. The geographical problem presses for solution. As to the Man, there is not this anxiety. The outside world thinks it knows the Man of Africa. Has not the Negro been seen as a labourer in every part of the world? Has he not for centuries been on the plantations in all the Western hemisphere? Have not numerous travellers written about him, and has he not been minutely described by scientific men, from his skull to his heels? But it is beginning to be apprehended now by the more thoughtful, that, after all, the Man of Africa is not understood. There is now more thinking, writing, learning, and talking about Africa than ever before. Still the notions of Europeans are extremely vague about the Man, On two points only they seem to be clear, viz., first, as to the irrepressible or inextinguishable character of the Man—that he will not fade away or become extinct before Europeans, as the American and Australian aborigines have done; and, secondly, that in any calculations looking to the material improvement or aggrandisement of his native home, he cannot be wisely ignored. Further than this, all is dark to the European mind. Only the Negro will be able to explain the Negro to the rest of mankind.
We have travellers in Africa belonging to all the principal nations of the world, and all, in a greater or less degree, indulge in strains of disparagement of the Man. And this not as a rule, and not even generally, from a desire to be unfair, but partly from preconceived notions of the Negro, imbibed from reading or hearsay in the course of their preparation for their journey; partly from the influence of their atmospheric surroundings in the field of their investigations; and partly, also, on the principle that it is easier to pull down than to build up; and that there is a sort of fame attached to the great destroyer. The names of the builders of mighty pyramids may be forgotten with the ages, while the name of the destroyer of a magnificent temple has lingered in the memory of generations.
There is no possibility of entering Africa, either from the east or west, without passing through a belt of malarious country by which the strongest constitutions are affected. A pernicious miasma receives strangers at the threshold of the continent. Their whole nervous system becomes disordered—the action of the liver is deranged. They become the prey of melancholy in its literal, etymological sense, and in this abnormal state of mental impressibility they take the most gloomy views of the people, and reproduce their own preconceived or favourite types of the African. In a letter to the New York Herald, Dr. Livingstone says:--
The irritability produced by disease made me pigheaded. The same cause operates with modern travellers, so that they are unable to say a civil word about the natives. Savages seldom deceive you, if put upon their honour; yet men turn up the whites of their eyes, as if deception showed an anomalous character in the African. Modern travellers affect a tone of moral superiority that is nauseous.
And in his works he frequently warns the reader against accepting, without qualification, the statements of some African travellers about the natives. Dr. Johnson says, “Every man is a rascal as soon as he is sick.”
While, therefore, we duly appreciate the geographical or material results of the labours of modern explorers of Africa; while we cannot but admire their gigantic physical and moral courage, the inextinguishable faith in themselves and their destiny which sustained them in their perilous labours, we cannot admit that the philosophical results of their efforts have been satisfactory. When they attempt to transcend the physical or material, there is contradiction and confusion. There is want of clearness in the pictures they draw; and the most skilful and accurate delineator has succeeded in producing but clumsy daguerreotypes or distorted photographs of the superficial life of the people. The European world is, as yet, only in the infancy of its studies in African psychology. No European statesman or philanthropist has, as yet, even attempted to grapple with it. Far more difficult of settlement than the sources of the Nile, the intellectual character and susceptibility of the Negro will probably, for ages yet, elude the grasp and comprehension of the most sagacious European. Livingstone was the first of modern Europeans to approach the source of the Nile and indicate its locality; so, likewise, he has come nearer than any other European to understanding the Man of Africa. And, like all true philosophers, he never dogmatises as to the results of his investigations in that direction. He of all travellers made the Man an object of his study, and the benefit of the man the ultimate aim of his labours. “When one travels,” he said, “with the specific object in view of ameliorating the condition of the natives, every act becomes ennobled.”[2]
In his letter to James Gordon Bennett, under date November, 1871, he says: “If my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together.”
The African is now judged by the specimens in exile and along a coast— more spoilt and debauched than benefited by foreign intercourse—just as the physical character of the interior was inferred, in former times, from the lowlands and swamps seen along the margin of the continent. No Roderick Murchison has arisen yet in the intellectual world to lay down with any definiteness the character of the mental landscape of the Negro. No Professor Hall has yet descried the remote satellite of his genius. Livingstone has come the nearest to fulfilling the office of such a philosopher. He had the first and most important pre-requisite to proficiency in that class of study, viz., sympathy with his subject. He not only loved Africa, but the African. He had an instinctive appreciation of the peculiarities and varieties of African character, and so remarkable a power of blending his observations into a harmonious whole, that he was able, in no little degree, to emancipate himself, notwithstanding his physical sufferings, from the trammels of his race-prejudices, and with that insight and discrimination which a correct sympathy gives, to select the materials for his delineation of African character—dealing with Africans not only in their abnormal and degraded forms, upon which most travellers love to dwell, but studying the deeper aspects and finer capacities of the people. He has thus become the popular and most trustworthy teacher of the best portion of the Christian world with regard to the African.
Nearly all other modern travellers have regarded the Man of Africa with contempt, in comparison with the natural features—the physical grandeur and material resources—of the country. Solum melius populo. Mr. Herbert Spencer, with the aid of his friends, has prepared a basis for a work on African Sociology, in the shape of a classified compilation of materials taken from the works of writers on Africa. But as his facts have been drawn so largely from second-hand sources, and from the writings of travellers whose observations were confined to very small localities, and made under the disturbing influence of disease, we cannot expect that the work, when completed, though it will be one of considerable merit and a monument of industry, will be a trustworthy guide. The author will have relied, to a very large extent, upon isolated cases and ex parte statements.
It has been to us a source of surprise and regret to notice that the Westminster Review, usually so fair and candid in dealing with the Negro, should have allowed itself—chiefly under the guidance of Sir Samuel Baker—to carry on a discussion on Africa and the African in the spirit and temper manifested in its article on ‘Slavery in Africa’ (April, 1877). The Reviewer endorses as correct the superficial and contemptuous estimate of Negro character as given by Sir Samuel Baker. With the writings of Livingstone before him, and with numerous admissions in favour of the African from Sir Samuel Baker himself, the Reviewer yet makes every available use of Baker’s works, not to accept his liberality, but to emphasise the suggestions of what we cannot but characterise as his inveterate prejudices.
We have travellers in Africa belonging to all the principal nations of the world, and all, in a greater or less degree, indulge in strains of disparagement of the Man. And this not as a rule, and not even generally, from a desire to be unfair, but partly from preconceived notions of the Negro, imbibed from reading or hearsay in the course of their preparation for their journey; partly from the influence of their atmospheric surroundings in the field of their investigations; and partly, also, on the principle that it is easier to pull down than to build up; and that there is a sort of fame attached to the great destroyer. The names of the builders of mighty pyramids may be forgotten with the ages, while the name of the destroyer of a magnificent temple has lingered in the memory of generations.
There is no possibility of entering Africa, either from the east or west, without passing through a belt of malarious country by which the strongest constitutions are affected. A pernicious miasma receives strangers at the threshold of the continent. Their whole nervous system becomes disordered—the action of the liver is deranged. They become the prey of melancholy in its literal, etymological sense, and in this abnormal state of mental impressibility they take the most gloomy views of the people, and reproduce their own preconceived or favourite types of the African. In a letter to the New York Herald, Dr. Livingstone says:--
The irritability produced by disease made me pigheaded. The same cause operates with modern travellers, so that they are unable to say a civil word about the natives. Savages seldom deceive you, if put upon their honour; yet men turn up the whites of their eyes, as if deception showed an anomalous character in the African. Modern travellers affect a tone of moral superiority that is nauseous.
And in his works he frequently warns the reader against accepting, without qualification, the statements of some African travellers about the natives. Dr. Johnson says, “Every man is a rascal as soon as he is sick.”
While, therefore, we duly appreciate the geographical or material results of the labours of modern explorers of Africa; while we cannot but admire their gigantic physical and moral courage, the inextinguishable faith in themselves and their destiny which sustained them in their perilous labours, we cannot admit that the philosophical results of their efforts have been satisfactory. When they attempt to transcend the physical or material, there is contradiction and confusion. There is want of clearness in the pictures they draw; and the most skilful and accurate delineator has succeeded in producing but clumsy daguerreotypes or distorted photographs of the superficial life of the people. The European world is, as yet, only in the infancy of its studies in African psychology. No European statesman or philanthropist has, as yet, even attempted to grapple with it. Far more difficult of settlement than the sources of the Nile, the intellectual character and susceptibility of the Negro will probably, for ages yet, elude the grasp and comprehension of the most sagacious European. Livingstone was the first of modern Europeans to approach the source of the Nile and indicate its locality; so, likewise, he has come nearer than any other European to understanding the Man of Africa. And, like all true philosophers, he never dogmatises as to the results of his investigations in that direction. He of all travellers made the Man an object of his study, and the benefit of the man the ultimate aim of his labours. “When one travels,” he said, “with the specific object in view of ameliorating the condition of the natives, every act becomes ennobled.”[2]
In his letter to James Gordon Bennett, under date November, 1871, he says: “If my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together.”
The African is now judged by the specimens in exile and along a coast— more spoilt and debauched than benefited by foreign intercourse—just as the physical character of the interior was inferred, in former times, from the lowlands and swamps seen along the margin of the continent. No Roderick Murchison has arisen yet in the intellectual world to lay down with any definiteness the character of the mental landscape of the Negro. No Professor Hall has yet descried the remote satellite of his genius. Livingstone has come the nearest to fulfilling the office of such a philosopher. He had the first and most important pre-requisite to proficiency in that class of study, viz., sympathy with his subject. He not only loved Africa, but the African. He had an instinctive appreciation of the peculiarities and varieties of African character, and so remarkable a power of blending his observations into a harmonious whole, that he was able, in no little degree, to emancipate himself, notwithstanding his physical sufferings, from the trammels of his race-prejudices, and with that insight and discrimination which a correct sympathy gives, to select the materials for his delineation of African character—dealing with Africans not only in their abnormal and degraded forms, upon which most travellers love to dwell, but studying the deeper aspects and finer capacities of the people. He has thus become the popular and most trustworthy teacher of the best portion of the Christian world with regard to the African.
Nearly all other modern travellers have regarded the Man of Africa with contempt, in comparison with the natural features—the physical grandeur and material resources—of the country. Solum melius populo. Mr. Herbert Spencer, with the aid of his friends, has prepared a basis for a work on African Sociology, in the shape of a classified compilation of materials taken from the works of writers on Africa. But as his facts have been drawn so largely from second-hand sources, and from the writings of travellers whose observations were confined to very small localities, and made under the disturbing influence of disease, we cannot expect that the work, when completed, though it will be one of considerable merit and a monument of industry, will be a trustworthy guide. The author will have relied, to a very large extent, upon isolated cases and ex parte statements.
It has been to us a source of surprise and regret to notice that the Westminster Review, usually so fair and candid in dealing with the Negro, should have allowed itself—chiefly under the guidance of Sir Samuel Baker—to carry on a discussion on Africa and the African in the spirit and temper manifested in its article on ‘Slavery in Africa’ (April, 1877). The Reviewer endorses as correct the superficial and contemptuous estimate of Negro character as given by Sir Samuel Baker. With the writings of Livingstone before him, and with numerous admissions in favour of the African from Sir Samuel Baker himself, the Reviewer yet makes every available use of Baker’s works, not to accept his liberality, but to emphasise the suggestions of what we cannot but characterise as his inveterate prejudices.
Footnotes:
2 Last Journals, vol. i, p. 13.
2 Last Journals, vol. i, p. 13.
The intelligent Negro traveller in foreign lands comes across four classes of Europeans. First, the class who are professionally philanthropic. These, at the sight of the Negro, go into ecstasies over this “man and brother,” and put themselves to all sorts of inconvenience to prove to this unfortunate member of the human race that they believe God hath made of one blood all nations of men, &c. The second class is composed of those who, at the sight of the Negro, have all their feelings of malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness excited, and who adopt every expedient and avail themselves of every occasion to give exhibitions of their vehement antagonism. The third class regard him with contemptuous indifference, and care to exhibit neither favour nor dislike, whatever his merit or demerit. The fourth class consists of those who treat him as they would a white man of the same degree of culture and behaviour, basing their demeanour altogether upon the intellectual or moral qualities of the man. To the cultivated Negro, of course, the last class is the most interesting to meet, and if he had his choice between classes first and second, he would choose the second. Writers on Africa and the African race may be divided into very much the same classes; and the race has scarcely suffered more from the violent antagonism of its foes than from the false and undue admiration of its friends.
Before pointing out some of the errors of the Westminster Reviewer, we will take a brief survey of the past and present history of the African slave trade, and see how far it has introduced waste and disorder into Africa, and prevented the progress of the people. Of course we have no detailed account of the proceedings of the slave-hunters who captured the unfortunate creatures represented on Egyptian monuments; but we have pretty full accounts of the origin and character of the modern slave trade, and we give here a summary from an able and well-informed source:--
Within two centuries after the suppression of slavery in Europe, the Portuguese, in imitation of those piracies which existed in the uncivilised ages of the world, made their descents on Africa, and committing depredations on the coast, first carried the wretched inhabitants into slavery. This practice, thus inconsiderable at its commencement, became general, and our ancestors, together with Spaniards, French, and most of the maritime powers of Europe, soon followed the piratical example; and thus did the Europoans revive a custom which their own ancestors had so lately exploded from a consciousness of its impiety. The unfortunate Africans fled from the coast, and sought, in the interior parts of the country, a retreat from the persecution of their invaders; but the Europeans still pursued them, entered their rivers, sailed up into the heart of the country, surprised the Africans in their recesses, and carried them into slavery. The next step which the Europeans found it necessary to take was that of settling in the country, of securing themselves by fortified posts, of changing their system of force into that of pretended liberality; and of opening by every species of bribery and corruption a communication with the natives. Accordingly they erected their forts and factories, landed their merchandise, and endeavoured by a peaceful deportment, by presents, and by every appearance of munificence, to allure the attachment and confidence of the Africans. Treaties of peace and commerce were concluded with the chiefs of the country, in which it was agreed that the kings on their part should from this period sentenco prisoners of war and convicts to European servitude; and that the Europeans should supply them in return with the luxuries of Europe.[3]
Thus began that horrible traffic which for generations has distracted the African continent. The discovery of America stimulated the traffic and intensified its horrors.
Africans were deported to slaughter virgin forests, to test the capability of virgin soils, and to enrich both hemispheres with sugar, tobacco, cotton and wines. And it is due to the terrors of its harbourless coast, the malaria of its mangrove swamps, its burning deserts, its dangerous beasts and reptiles, its impenetrable jungles, its wary tribes prepared either for fight or flight, that Africa was not entirely depopulated to satisfy the greed of Christian nations for slaves, during the last four centuries.
Though, under the pressure of enlightened Christian sentiment, the traffic has been abandoned by Christian nations, still the continent is made to bleed at almost every pore. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said on this subject, those who have seen anything of the horrors of the traffic— which no pen can adequately describe—are solemnly impressed with the necessity of urging continually upon the public mind, with every possible emphasis and reiteration, the importance of its suppression. Livingstone says:--
When endeavouring to give some account of the slave trade of East Africa it was necessary to keep far within the truth, in order not to be thought guilty of exaggeration; but in sober seriousness the subject does not admit of exaggeration. To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility. The sights I have seen, though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous, that I always strive to drive them from my memory. In the case of most disagreeable recollections I can succeed, in time, in consigning them to oblivion; but the slaving scenes come back unbidden, and make me start up at dead of night, horrified, by their vividness.
Sir Samuel Baker, in bis Albert Nyanza, describes an attack made upon a village for slaves, as follows:--
Marching through the night, guided by their Negro hosts, they bivouac within an hour’s march of the unsuspecting village, doomed to an attack about half an hour before the break of day. Quietly surrounding the sleeping villages, they fire the grass huts in all directions, and pour volleys of musketry through the flaming thatch. Panic-stricken, the unfortunate victims rush from the burning dwellings, the men are shot down like pheasants in a battue, while the women and children are kidnapped and secured, the herds of cattle are driven away, and the human victims lashed together, forming a living chain, while a general plunder of the premises ensues.
In his Ismailia he say:--
It is impossible to know the actual number of slaves taken from Central Africa annually. . . . . The loss of life attendant upon the capture and subsequent treatment of the slaves is frightful. The result of this forced emigration, combined with the insecurity of life and property, is the withdrawal of the population from the infested districts. The natives have the option of submission to every insult, to the violation of their women and the pillage of their crops, or they must either desert their homes or seek independence in distant districts, or they must ally themselves with their oppressors to assist in the oppression of other tribes. Thus the seeds of anarchy are sown throughout Africa. The result is horrible confusion, distrust on all sides, treachery, devastation and ruin.[4]
Graves and numerous skeletons (says Cameron) testified to the numbers whose lives had been sacrificed on this trying march, whilst slave-clogs and forks still attached to some bleached bones, or lying by their side, gave only too convincing a proof that the demon of the slave trade still exerted his influence in this part of Africa.[5]
Schweinfurth, the German traveller, who travelled for some time in charge of the Nile slavers, and witnessed their diabolical proceedings, says that the “ traders of Darfoor and Kordofan are as coarse, unprincipled, and villainous a set as imagination can conceive.”
An avenging Nemesis must surely follow in the footsteps of such unparalleled atrocity and wickedness.
Before pointing out some of the errors of the Westminster Reviewer, we will take a brief survey of the past and present history of the African slave trade, and see how far it has introduced waste and disorder into Africa, and prevented the progress of the people. Of course we have no detailed account of the proceedings of the slave-hunters who captured the unfortunate creatures represented on Egyptian monuments; but we have pretty full accounts of the origin and character of the modern slave trade, and we give here a summary from an able and well-informed source:--
Within two centuries after the suppression of slavery in Europe, the Portuguese, in imitation of those piracies which existed in the uncivilised ages of the world, made their descents on Africa, and committing depredations on the coast, first carried the wretched inhabitants into slavery. This practice, thus inconsiderable at its commencement, became general, and our ancestors, together with Spaniards, French, and most of the maritime powers of Europe, soon followed the piratical example; and thus did the Europoans revive a custom which their own ancestors had so lately exploded from a consciousness of its impiety. The unfortunate Africans fled from the coast, and sought, in the interior parts of the country, a retreat from the persecution of their invaders; but the Europeans still pursued them, entered their rivers, sailed up into the heart of the country, surprised the Africans in their recesses, and carried them into slavery. The next step which the Europeans found it necessary to take was that of settling in the country, of securing themselves by fortified posts, of changing their system of force into that of pretended liberality; and of opening by every species of bribery and corruption a communication with the natives. Accordingly they erected their forts and factories, landed their merchandise, and endeavoured by a peaceful deportment, by presents, and by every appearance of munificence, to allure the attachment and confidence of the Africans. Treaties of peace and commerce were concluded with the chiefs of the country, in which it was agreed that the kings on their part should from this period sentenco prisoners of war and convicts to European servitude; and that the Europeans should supply them in return with the luxuries of Europe.[3]
Thus began that horrible traffic which for generations has distracted the African continent. The discovery of America stimulated the traffic and intensified its horrors.
Africans were deported to slaughter virgin forests, to test the capability of virgin soils, and to enrich both hemispheres with sugar, tobacco, cotton and wines. And it is due to the terrors of its harbourless coast, the malaria of its mangrove swamps, its burning deserts, its dangerous beasts and reptiles, its impenetrable jungles, its wary tribes prepared either for fight or flight, that Africa was not entirely depopulated to satisfy the greed of Christian nations for slaves, during the last four centuries.
Though, under the pressure of enlightened Christian sentiment, the traffic has been abandoned by Christian nations, still the continent is made to bleed at almost every pore. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said on this subject, those who have seen anything of the horrors of the traffic— which no pen can adequately describe—are solemnly impressed with the necessity of urging continually upon the public mind, with every possible emphasis and reiteration, the importance of its suppression. Livingstone says:--
When endeavouring to give some account of the slave trade of East Africa it was necessary to keep far within the truth, in order not to be thought guilty of exaggeration; but in sober seriousness the subject does not admit of exaggeration. To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility. The sights I have seen, though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous, that I always strive to drive them from my memory. In the case of most disagreeable recollections I can succeed, in time, in consigning them to oblivion; but the slaving scenes come back unbidden, and make me start up at dead of night, horrified, by their vividness.
Sir Samuel Baker, in bis Albert Nyanza, describes an attack made upon a village for slaves, as follows:--
Marching through the night, guided by their Negro hosts, they bivouac within an hour’s march of the unsuspecting village, doomed to an attack about half an hour before the break of day. Quietly surrounding the sleeping villages, they fire the grass huts in all directions, and pour volleys of musketry through the flaming thatch. Panic-stricken, the unfortunate victims rush from the burning dwellings, the men are shot down like pheasants in a battue, while the women and children are kidnapped and secured, the herds of cattle are driven away, and the human victims lashed together, forming a living chain, while a general plunder of the premises ensues.
In his Ismailia he say:--
It is impossible to know the actual number of slaves taken from Central Africa annually. . . . . The loss of life attendant upon the capture and subsequent treatment of the slaves is frightful. The result of this forced emigration, combined with the insecurity of life and property, is the withdrawal of the population from the infested districts. The natives have the option of submission to every insult, to the violation of their women and the pillage of their crops, or they must either desert their homes or seek independence in distant districts, or they must ally themselves with their oppressors to assist in the oppression of other tribes. Thus the seeds of anarchy are sown throughout Africa. The result is horrible confusion, distrust on all sides, treachery, devastation and ruin.[4]
Graves and numerous skeletons (says Cameron) testified to the numbers whose lives had been sacrificed on this trying march, whilst slave-clogs and forks still attached to some bleached bones, or lying by their side, gave only too convincing a proof that the demon of the slave trade still exerted his influence in this part of Africa.[5]
Schweinfurth, the German traveller, who travelled for some time in charge of the Nile slavers, and witnessed their diabolical proceedings, says that the “ traders of Darfoor and Kordofan are as coarse, unprincipled, and villainous a set as imagination can conceive.”
An avenging Nemesis must surely follow in the footsteps of such unparalleled atrocity and wickedness.
Footnotes:
3 Ree’s New Cyclopædia;art. ‘Slavery.’
4 Ismailia, vol. i, pp. 4, 5.
5 Across Africa, vol. ii, p. 256
3 Ree’s New Cyclopædia;art. ‘Slavery.’
4 Ismailia, vol. i, pp. 4, 5.
5 Across Africa, vol. ii, p. 256
The Westminster Reviewer, with all these facts before him, and after quoting from Livingstone a statement which justly attributes the backward condition of Africans to the disturbing influence of the slave trade, chooses to select the very lowest tribes upon which to make his unfavourable comments, and from which to infer the character of the whole race, and seems to suppose that he has clenched and riveted his disparaging work by introducing the following sketch of the Negro as furnished to his hand by Sir Samuel Baker:--
Negroes seldom think of the future; they cultivate the ground at various seasons, but they limit their crops to their natural wants; therefore an unexpected bad season reducos them to famine. They grow a variety of cereals, which, with a minimum of labour, yield upon their fertile soil a large return. Nothing would be easier than to double the production, but this would entail the necessity of extra store-room, which means extra labour. Thus, with happy indifference, the native thinks lightly of to-morrow. He eats and drinks while his food lasts, and when famine arrives he endeavours to steal from his neighbours . . . nothing is so distasteful to the Negro as regular daily labour, thus nothing that ho possesses is durable. His dwelling is of straw or wattles, his crops suffice for support from hand to mouth; and as his forefathers worked only for themselves and not for posterity, so also does the Negro of to-day. Thus, without foreign assistance, the Negro a thousand years hence will be no better than the Negro of to-day, as the Negro of to-day is in no superior position to that of his ancestors some thousand years ago.
Such is the indictment against a whole race drawn by an amateur philanthropist, who only saw portions of the people in one corner of the continent, where, by his own account, they are so harassed and persecuted by the slave-traders that progress is impossible. None more eloquently or truthfully than Sir Samuel Baker has described the horrors of the slave trade and its blighting effects upon the country and people. “ What curse,” he asks, “ lies so heavily upon Africa?” He answers:--
It is the internal traffic in slaves. All idea of commerce, improvement, and the advancement of the African race must be discarded until the traffic in slaves shall have ceased to exist.
In a curious paragraph the Reviewer apparently apologises for the slavers by involving the native chiefs who sell slaves in equal, if not greater, guilt; but in the very next sentence he recovers his mental equilibrium and sense of justice, and tells us of--
Crafty slave-dealers, who, under various pretexts, set chief against chief, knowing that whichever wins they will be the gainers, obtaining thereby the numerous slaves they covet.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that, under such circum -stances, Africans sell each other. Who was it that sold those Angles whom Gregory saw in the slave-market at Rome? Is it not well known that Saxon husbands and parents sold their wives and daughters? Did not slavery prevail in every country in Europe?
Now, suppose that during the days of European ignorance and darkness, when the people sold their own children, the large alien populations of Asia had agreed to make constant incursions into Europe and stimulate the traffic in slaves. Suppose the result of the battle of Marathon had been different and Europe had become the vassal of Asia, and Asiatic hordes had entered its territory for the purposes for which both Europeans and Asiatics have entered Africa, and had continued their depredations to this period, what would be the condition of Europe to-day?
It cannot have escaped the most superficial reader of African history that the ravages introduced by the slave trade have had a distinctly marked effect not only on the personal or tribal character of the inhabitants, but on their social organisation—on the whole industrial and economic life of the country. Their condition for centuries has been one of restless anarchy and insecurity.
Both Livingstone and Baker describe regions free from the slave trade, where the people were superior and had many of the elements of progress; but they enjoy only a sort of insular immunity with all the disadvantages of such a position. Their dwelling-places are like islands in piratical seas, kept, as it were, constantly under martial law, with the means of defence always carried about or accessible at a moment’s notice—forever on the alert to hold their own against the traders who menace them from every quarter. These regions the cowardly marauders avoid. Speaking of the warlike Baris, Sir Samuel Baker says:--
I discovered that these people had never had any communication with the slave-traders, who were afraid to molest so powerful a tribe.
Mr, Stanley, in his address at Gape Town in November last, when fresh from his great achievement of the discovery of the course of the Lualaba- Congo River, described certain inaccessible localities as follows:--
I can assure you that on this map—and it will probably be the last part of Africa to bo explored— there is a part close to Zanzibar which every expedition takes good care to avoid. It lies between Mombassa and Lake Victoria, and there lives there the ferocious tribe of the Wahomba. An expedition of a thousand men could go there and penetrate the country, but with an ordinary travelling expedition it would be impossible. Then there is the Somab country; I should like to see what travellers would make of that. And there is another district which would tax the skill of the best explorer. From the north end of Lake Tanganyika to the south end of Lake Albert Nyanza there is a pretty and very interesting district, but it is a country whore you will have to fight if you want to explore it. Hero is another little district close to the West Coast, and yet in two hundred years the Portuguese have been unable to explore it. Between St. Paul and a part called Ambriz, a distance of only sixty miles, there is no communication by land, and yet it is Portuguese territory. There are martial as well as pacific tribes.[6]
Negroes seldom think of the future; they cultivate the ground at various seasons, but they limit their crops to their natural wants; therefore an unexpected bad season reducos them to famine. They grow a variety of cereals, which, with a minimum of labour, yield upon their fertile soil a large return. Nothing would be easier than to double the production, but this would entail the necessity of extra store-room, which means extra labour. Thus, with happy indifference, the native thinks lightly of to-morrow. He eats and drinks while his food lasts, and when famine arrives he endeavours to steal from his neighbours . . . nothing is so distasteful to the Negro as regular daily labour, thus nothing that ho possesses is durable. His dwelling is of straw or wattles, his crops suffice for support from hand to mouth; and as his forefathers worked only for themselves and not for posterity, so also does the Negro of to-day. Thus, without foreign assistance, the Negro a thousand years hence will be no better than the Negro of to-day, as the Negro of to-day is in no superior position to that of his ancestors some thousand years ago.
Such is the indictment against a whole race drawn by an amateur philanthropist, who only saw portions of the people in one corner of the continent, where, by his own account, they are so harassed and persecuted by the slave-traders that progress is impossible. None more eloquently or truthfully than Sir Samuel Baker has described the horrors of the slave trade and its blighting effects upon the country and people. “ What curse,” he asks, “ lies so heavily upon Africa?” He answers:--
It is the internal traffic in slaves. All idea of commerce, improvement, and the advancement of the African race must be discarded until the traffic in slaves shall have ceased to exist.
In a curious paragraph the Reviewer apparently apologises for the slavers by involving the native chiefs who sell slaves in equal, if not greater, guilt; but in the very next sentence he recovers his mental equilibrium and sense of justice, and tells us of--
Crafty slave-dealers, who, under various pretexts, set chief against chief, knowing that whichever wins they will be the gainers, obtaining thereby the numerous slaves they covet.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that, under such circum -stances, Africans sell each other. Who was it that sold those Angles whom Gregory saw in the slave-market at Rome? Is it not well known that Saxon husbands and parents sold their wives and daughters? Did not slavery prevail in every country in Europe?
Now, suppose that during the days of European ignorance and darkness, when the people sold their own children, the large alien populations of Asia had agreed to make constant incursions into Europe and stimulate the traffic in slaves. Suppose the result of the battle of Marathon had been different and Europe had become the vassal of Asia, and Asiatic hordes had entered its territory for the purposes for which both Europeans and Asiatics have entered Africa, and had continued their depredations to this period, what would be the condition of Europe to-day?
It cannot have escaped the most superficial reader of African history that the ravages introduced by the slave trade have had a distinctly marked effect not only on the personal or tribal character of the inhabitants, but on their social organisation—on the whole industrial and economic life of the country. Their condition for centuries has been one of restless anarchy and insecurity.
Both Livingstone and Baker describe regions free from the slave trade, where the people were superior and had many of the elements of progress; but they enjoy only a sort of insular immunity with all the disadvantages of such a position. Their dwelling-places are like islands in piratical seas, kept, as it were, constantly under martial law, with the means of defence always carried about or accessible at a moment’s notice—forever on the alert to hold their own against the traders who menace them from every quarter. These regions the cowardly marauders avoid. Speaking of the warlike Baris, Sir Samuel Baker says:--
I discovered that these people had never had any communication with the slave-traders, who were afraid to molest so powerful a tribe.
Mr, Stanley, in his address at Gape Town in November last, when fresh from his great achievement of the discovery of the course of the Lualaba- Congo River, described certain inaccessible localities as follows:--
I can assure you that on this map—and it will probably be the last part of Africa to bo explored— there is a part close to Zanzibar which every expedition takes good care to avoid. It lies between Mombassa and Lake Victoria, and there lives there the ferocious tribe of the Wahomba. An expedition of a thousand men could go there and penetrate the country, but with an ordinary travelling expedition it would be impossible. Then there is the Somab country; I should like to see what travellers would make of that. And there is another district which would tax the skill of the best explorer. From the north end of Lake Tanganyika to the south end of Lake Albert Nyanza there is a pretty and very interesting district, but it is a country whore you will have to fight if you want to explore it. Hero is another little district close to the West Coast, and yet in two hundred years the Portuguese have been unable to explore it. Between St. Paul and a part called Ambriz, a distance of only sixty miles, there is no communication by land, and yet it is Portuguese territory. There are martial as well as pacific tribes.[6]
Footnotes:
6 Times, November 30, 1877.
6 Times, November 30, 1877.
Still, formidable as are the “martial” tribes, the exigencies of their condition are a perpetual bar to progress.
We can scarcely enter into the feelings (says Livingstone) of those who are harried by marauders. Like Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, harassed by Highland Celts on one side and English Marchmen on the other, and thus kept in the rearward of civilisation, these people have rest neither for many days nor for few.[7]
The Reviewer, after pulling the Negro down to the lowest possible point in the scale of being, to which Sir Samuel Baker in his aggressive dogmatism and satirical humour has reduced him, suggests the uselessness of endeavouring to educate him, in the ordinary sense and by the ordinary methods, we presume, of European education. He says:--
That the Negro is not incapable of civilisation, has indeed been proved, yet the testimony of Dr. Livingstone would tend to show that education with the Negro does not necessarily fit him for helping to elevate his race. “Educated blacks from a distance” (says Livingstone) “are to be avoided; they are expensive, and are too much of gentlemen for your work.”
With regard to the character of the “ education” which the Negro has received, and is now, as a general thing, receiving from his European teacher, and to the estimate which the Negro, as he rises in civilisation, intelligence, and culture, will put upon that “education,” we venture to refer the Reviewer to articles dealing with this subject in Eraser’s Magazine for November, 1875, and May and October, 1876.
Then, as if struck by the injustice of his general line of argument, the Reviewer believes himself to have fallen upon instances which must beyond all cavil substantiate his conclusions. He proceeds:--
If it should be considered unfair to judge of the Negro in his present con dition in his native land, ruined and demoralised as it undoubtedly is by the slave trade, no objection can be raised to an inference drawn from his condition as a free man in our colonies, or in those native free states to which he has been consigned by a freedom-loving people. If we look at the present state of Hayti, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, the attempts of the Negro at self-government are not encouraging; these attempts seem generally to end in anarchy, in a burlesque of everything civilised, and constant revolutions.
Then, as if still conscious of the unfairness of his position, the Reviewer adds:--
It could, perhaps, hardly be otherwise; we can scarcely expect people downtrodden for ages to develop at once, on recovering their freedom, a love of order and an aptitude for civilisation, which have been with us the slow growth of many centuries. All impartial writers are agreed in considering the sudden emancipation of the Negro as a great political blunder.
But the evil in so-called Negro civilised communities lies deeper than anything suggested by the Reviewer—deeper than the downtrodden condition for centuries of the people—deeper, far deeper, than their “sudden emancipation.”
Among the evils wrought by the slave trade, none has been more damaging to Africa and the Negro race than the promiscuous manner in which the tribes have been thrown together and confounded in the lands of their exile. And in dealing with the Negro question European writers overlook this fact altogether. There are Negroes and Negroes. The numerous tribes inhabiting the vast continent of Africa can no more be regarded as in every respect equal than the numerous peoples of Asia or Europe can be so regarded. There are the same tribal or family varieties among Africans as among Europeans. And the Reviewer does not seem to be ignorant of this. He says:--
We must not lose sight of the fact that there are many races in Africa—that the typical Negro with prognathous jaw and woolly hair, who has been so eagerly sought as a slave in all ages, is quite as distinct from the Kaffir, and from many of the races described by travellers in the interior, as from the diminutive Bushman, the feeble remnant of an older race now extinct.
This is true: there are the Foulahs inhabiting the region of the Upper Niger, the Mandingoes, the Housas, the Bornous of Sene-gambia, the Nubas of the Nile region, of Darfoor and Kordofan, the Ashantees, Fantees, Dahomians, Yorubas, and that whole class of tribes occupying the eastern and middle and western portions of the continent north of the equator. Then there are the tribes of Lower Guinea and Angola, so much ridiculed by “Winwood Reade and Monteiro; all these, differing in original bent and traditional instincts, have been carried as slaves to foreign lands and classed as one. And in speaking of them they are frequently characterised in one or two sentences. Now it should be evident that no short description can include all these people; no single definition, however comprehensive, can embrace them all. Yet writers are fond of selecting the prominent traits of single tribes with which they are best acquainted, and applying them to the whole race. So the Reviewer makes a disparaging inference as to the character and capacity of all Africans from the want of success which has attended the efforts of so- called Negro communities in Christian lands, who, under the government of Europeans, show no marked ability; or who, as in the case of Hayti and Liberia, have set up for themselves, as alleged, ill-contrived, unsuitable, or unstable governments.
We can scarcely enter into the feelings (says Livingstone) of those who are harried by marauders. Like Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, harassed by Highland Celts on one side and English Marchmen on the other, and thus kept in the rearward of civilisation, these people have rest neither for many days nor for few.[7]
The Reviewer, after pulling the Negro down to the lowest possible point in the scale of being, to which Sir Samuel Baker in his aggressive dogmatism and satirical humour has reduced him, suggests the uselessness of endeavouring to educate him, in the ordinary sense and by the ordinary methods, we presume, of European education. He says:--
That the Negro is not incapable of civilisation, has indeed been proved, yet the testimony of Dr. Livingstone would tend to show that education with the Negro does not necessarily fit him for helping to elevate his race. “Educated blacks from a distance” (says Livingstone) “are to be avoided; they are expensive, and are too much of gentlemen for your work.”
With regard to the character of the “ education” which the Negro has received, and is now, as a general thing, receiving from his European teacher, and to the estimate which the Negro, as he rises in civilisation, intelligence, and culture, will put upon that “education,” we venture to refer the Reviewer to articles dealing with this subject in Eraser’s Magazine for November, 1875, and May and October, 1876.
Then, as if struck by the injustice of his general line of argument, the Reviewer believes himself to have fallen upon instances which must beyond all cavil substantiate his conclusions. He proceeds:--
If it should be considered unfair to judge of the Negro in his present con dition in his native land, ruined and demoralised as it undoubtedly is by the slave trade, no objection can be raised to an inference drawn from his condition as a free man in our colonies, or in those native free states to which he has been consigned by a freedom-loving people. If we look at the present state of Hayti, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, the attempts of the Negro at self-government are not encouraging; these attempts seem generally to end in anarchy, in a burlesque of everything civilised, and constant revolutions.
Then, as if still conscious of the unfairness of his position, the Reviewer adds:--
It could, perhaps, hardly be otherwise; we can scarcely expect people downtrodden for ages to develop at once, on recovering their freedom, a love of order and an aptitude for civilisation, which have been with us the slow growth of many centuries. All impartial writers are agreed in considering the sudden emancipation of the Negro as a great political blunder.
But the evil in so-called Negro civilised communities lies deeper than anything suggested by the Reviewer—deeper than the downtrodden condition for centuries of the people—deeper, far deeper, than their “sudden emancipation.”
Among the evils wrought by the slave trade, none has been more damaging to Africa and the Negro race than the promiscuous manner in which the tribes have been thrown together and confounded in the lands of their exile. And in dealing with the Negro question European writers overlook this fact altogether. There are Negroes and Negroes. The numerous tribes inhabiting the vast continent of Africa can no more be regarded as in every respect equal than the numerous peoples of Asia or Europe can be so regarded. There are the same tribal or family varieties among Africans as among Europeans. And the Reviewer does not seem to be ignorant of this. He says:--
We must not lose sight of the fact that there are many races in Africa—that the typical Negro with prognathous jaw and woolly hair, who has been so eagerly sought as a slave in all ages, is quite as distinct from the Kaffir, and from many of the races described by travellers in the interior, as from the diminutive Bushman, the feeble remnant of an older race now extinct.
This is true: there are the Foulahs inhabiting the region of the Upper Niger, the Mandingoes, the Housas, the Bornous of Sene-gambia, the Nubas of the Nile region, of Darfoor and Kordofan, the Ashantees, Fantees, Dahomians, Yorubas, and that whole class of tribes occupying the eastern and middle and western portions of the continent north of the equator. Then there are the tribes of Lower Guinea and Angola, so much ridiculed by “Winwood Reade and Monteiro; all these, differing in original bent and traditional instincts, have been carried as slaves to foreign lands and classed as one. And in speaking of them they are frequently characterised in one or two sentences. Now it should be evident that no short description can include all these people; no single definition, however comprehensive, can embrace them all. Yet writers are fond of selecting the prominent traits of single tribes with which they are best acquainted, and applying them to the whole race. So the Reviewer makes a disparaging inference as to the character and capacity of all Africans from the want of success which has attended the efforts of so- called Negro communities in Christian lands, who, under the government of Europeans, show no marked ability; or who, as in the case of Hayti and Liberia, have set up for themselves, as alleged, ill-contrived, unsuitable, or unstable governments.
Footnotes:
7 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 143.
7 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 143.
In the first place, these Negroes, as far as they are purely African, do not represent even the average intellectual or moral qualities of the African at home. The Africans who were carried into slavery were mostly of the lowest orders—of the criminal and servile classes—the latter of whom had lived for generations at home with “ half their worth conveyed away,” and who, it was not to be supposed, would improve in manly qualities under the circumstances to which they were introduced in foreign lands. Only here and there a leading mind—a real Man—was carried into captivity. And where these did not succumb under the new conditions, and become “the foul hyena’s prey,” they invariably took prominent positions among their own people. In the United States and the West Indies there were numbers, whose descendants may be seen to this day wearing the mark of superiority, who were neither criminal nor servile in their antecedents. These inspired the respect, confidence and even admiration of the oppressors of their race; and, for their sakes, the dominant class would have made large concessions to the African; but as no rule could be established to meet exceptional cases, they were obliged to deal with all according to the regulations established for the majority.
And where under the lead of the superior few of the race, as in Hayti, or, under the philanthropic suggestions of the benevolent among their oppressors, they are assisted in the establishment of a separate nationality, as in Liberia, still the specific gravity of the majority has a continual tendency to hamper and thwart the efforts of the minority.
There is a perpetual struggle between the very few who are aiming to forward the interests of the many, and the profanum vulgus, largely in the majority.
If any cannot imagine such differences between Negroes and Negroes, perhaps their imagination may be stimulated if we call their attention to differences equally marked which grew up between white men and white men in a highly civilised country. Travellers in the Southern States of America, before the abolition of slavery, described two classes of whites— the rich, aristocratic planters, and the poor, mean whites—“ white trash”as they were sometimes called. They were described by all writers, especially Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, as
Loafers, squatters, dwellers in the woods, hangers-on among the cities, amounting to several millions, and forming, in fact, a numerical majority, and about as ignorant, squalid and brutal as could well be imagined. The dislike which the planters felt to the neighbourhood of the poor whites on account of their thievish habits and contagious idleness induced them to buy out the poor whites as fast almost as they settled near them.
Yet these people enjoyed equal social and political rights with the wealthiest or best educated whites. Now, suppose, by some means, the comparatively wealthy few had been reduced to an equal pecuniary condition with the “white trash,” the latter retaining the numerical superiority, and they had been required or had undertaken to form an independent state on democratic principles, without extraneous stimulus or repression, what should we naturally expect to be the result?
The cruel accidents of slavery and the slave trade drove all Africans together, and no discrimination was made in the shambles between the Foulah and the Timneh, the Mandingo and the Mendi, the Ashantee and the Fantee, the Eboe and the Congo—between the descendants of nobles and the offspring of slaves, between kings and their subjects—all were placed on the same level, all of black skin and woolly hair were “niggers,” chattels, having no rights that their oppressors were bound to respect. And when, by any course of events, these people attempt to exercise independent government, they start in the eyes of the world as Africans, without the fact being taken into consideration that they belong to tribes and families differing widely in degrees of intelligence and capacity, in original bent and susceptibility.
But the laws affecting other portions of humanity are not supposed by certain writers to affect the Negro. He is an exceptional being, made, if not now by the consent of enlightened men for perpetual servitude, at least for the finger of scorn to point at. Learned reviewers, masters of style, and apparently the ablest minds, do not think it an unworthy amusement to rail at the Negro —to make him the object, if not always of energetic vituperation and invective, of satirical humour and practical jokes. In reading through the African experiences of Sir Samuel Baker, as furnished by himself, especially in his Ismailia, one cannot help noticing that however panegyrical the terms in which a benefactor may be introduced on the stage, he is never dismissed without whatever shortcomings he may have had being brought into prominence. He is sure not to be let go without a parting touch of satirical disparagement. In describing the departure from Khartoum (February 8, 1870), he says with a sneer, “I had had to embrace the governor, then a black pacha, a rara avis in terris.” This habit of indulging in caricature for the sake of amusement easily leads to a. spirit of isrepresentation and calumny.
In speaking of the love of music for which Africans are everywhere noted, Sir Samuel Baker says, with a touch of exaggeration:--
The natives are passionately fond of music. I believe the safest way to travel in these wild countries would be to play the cornet without ceasing, which could insure a safe passage. A London organ- grinder would march through Central Africa followed by an admiring and enthusiastic crowd, who, if his tunes were lively, would form a dancing escort of most untiring materials. . . . A man who, in full Highland dress, could at any time collect an audience by playing a lively air with the bagpipe, would be regarded with great veneration by the natives, and would be listened to when an archbishop by his side would be totally disregarded.
And where under the lead of the superior few of the race, as in Hayti, or, under the philanthropic suggestions of the benevolent among their oppressors, they are assisted in the establishment of a separate nationality, as in Liberia, still the specific gravity of the majority has a continual tendency to hamper and thwart the efforts of the minority.
There is a perpetual struggle between the very few who are aiming to forward the interests of the many, and the profanum vulgus, largely in the majority.
If any cannot imagine such differences between Negroes and Negroes, perhaps their imagination may be stimulated if we call their attention to differences equally marked which grew up between white men and white men in a highly civilised country. Travellers in the Southern States of America, before the abolition of slavery, described two classes of whites— the rich, aristocratic planters, and the poor, mean whites—“ white trash”as they were sometimes called. They were described by all writers, especially Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, as
Loafers, squatters, dwellers in the woods, hangers-on among the cities, amounting to several millions, and forming, in fact, a numerical majority, and about as ignorant, squalid and brutal as could well be imagined. The dislike which the planters felt to the neighbourhood of the poor whites on account of their thievish habits and contagious idleness induced them to buy out the poor whites as fast almost as they settled near them.
Yet these people enjoyed equal social and political rights with the wealthiest or best educated whites. Now, suppose, by some means, the comparatively wealthy few had been reduced to an equal pecuniary condition with the “white trash,” the latter retaining the numerical superiority, and they had been required or had undertaken to form an independent state on democratic principles, without extraneous stimulus or repression, what should we naturally expect to be the result?
The cruel accidents of slavery and the slave trade drove all Africans together, and no discrimination was made in the shambles between the Foulah and the Timneh, the Mandingo and the Mendi, the Ashantee and the Fantee, the Eboe and the Congo—between the descendants of nobles and the offspring of slaves, between kings and their subjects—all were placed on the same level, all of black skin and woolly hair were “niggers,” chattels, having no rights that their oppressors were bound to respect. And when, by any course of events, these people attempt to exercise independent government, they start in the eyes of the world as Africans, without the fact being taken into consideration that they belong to tribes and families differing widely in degrees of intelligence and capacity, in original bent and susceptibility.
But the laws affecting other portions of humanity are not supposed by certain writers to affect the Negro. He is an exceptional being, made, if not now by the consent of enlightened men for perpetual servitude, at least for the finger of scorn to point at. Learned reviewers, masters of style, and apparently the ablest minds, do not think it an unworthy amusement to rail at the Negro —to make him the object, if not always of energetic vituperation and invective, of satirical humour and practical jokes. In reading through the African experiences of Sir Samuel Baker, as furnished by himself, especially in his Ismailia, one cannot help noticing that however panegyrical the terms in which a benefactor may be introduced on the stage, he is never dismissed without whatever shortcomings he may have had being brought into prominence. He is sure not to be let go without a parting touch of satirical disparagement. In describing the departure from Khartoum (February 8, 1870), he says with a sneer, “I had had to embrace the governor, then a black pacha, a rara avis in terris.” This habit of indulging in caricature for the sake of amusement easily leads to a. spirit of isrepresentation and calumny.
In speaking of the love of music for which Africans are everywhere noted, Sir Samuel Baker says, with a touch of exaggeration:--
The natives are passionately fond of music. I believe the safest way to travel in these wild countries would be to play the cornet without ceasing, which could insure a safe passage. A London organ- grinder would march through Central Africa followed by an admiring and enthusiastic crowd, who, if his tunes were lively, would form a dancing escort of most untiring materials. . . . A man who, in full Highland dress, could at any time collect an audience by playing a lively air with the bagpipe, would be regarded with great veneration by the natives, and would be listened to when an archbishop by his side would be totally disregarded.
After quoting this passage, a grave American divine, in an elaborate article on Africa in an American Review, could see nothing from which to infer any noble qualities in the Negro, and could not let the opportunity pass without indulging in the conventional giggle. Continuing Baker’s joke, he still further degrades the impression, in order, apparently, to develop the smile into a “broad grin.” He says:--
An African’s religion finds vent at his heels. Songs and dances form no inconsiderable part of the worship at a Southern coloured camp-meeting. If we were constructing a ritual for the race we should certainly include this Shaker element.[8]
“An African’s religion” is inferred from what takes place at “a Southern coloured camp-meeting.” “A ritual for the whole race” must “include the Shaker element.” We would assure the reverend doctor that such a “ritual” would be an egregious failure. The “ Shaker element “ prevails chiefly, if not entirely, among Negroes or “coloured” people, who have been trained under the influence of the denomination of which Dr. Wentworth himself is a distinguished ornament. But only a comparatively small number of Africans are shouting Methodists. The greater portion of the race who are- not Pagans are either Mohammedans or Roman Catholics, and their “religion” does not “find vent at their heels.” The traveller in Africa will find himself in need of far more solid acquirements when passing through Mohammedan districts, than the ability to play the cornet, organ, or bagpipe. It is due, however, to the qualities whose presence is implied by the African’s love of music that bilious and irritable travellers pass through their country not only with impunity, but receiving the kindest treatment.
Wo man singt, da lass dich ruhig nieder,
Böse Menschen haben keine Lieder.
And here we cannot but call attention to a fact which, in the intelligent negro, undermines his admiration of foreign races, viz., that his race, numerically the weakest, has been through the ages selected for oppression and ridicule by the other branches of the human family. If there are, according to the present estimate, twelve hundred millions of human beings upon the earth, two hundred millions of whom are Africans, we have in the treatment which Africans have received from the rest of mankind one of the remarkable illustrations of the advantage the strong are prone to take of the weak. Ten hundred millions against two hundred millions. Ten persecuting, abusing, ridiculing two. And this has been the case in all the ages, ten against two. And yet, men, apparently thoughtful, affect to wonder that Negroes have appeared in all the historic periods as slaves—have been represented on all the monuments of Egypt as carried in chains in triumphal processions,
But in spite of all, the Negro race has yet its part to play—a distinct part— in the history of humanity, and the continent of Africa will be the principal scene of its activity. The mistake which Europeans often make in considering questions of Negro improvement and the future of Africa, is in supposing that the Negro is the European in embryo—in the undeveloped stage—and that when, bye-and-by, he shall enjoy the advantages of civilisation and culture, he will become like the European; in other words, that the Negro is on the same line of progress, in the same groove, with the European, but infinitely in the rear. The Saturday Review, not long since, in a remarkable leading article on American politics, in which some curious inaccuracies occurred, made the following statement:--
On their own continent, Africans seem to be irreclaimable, but after two or three generations of servitude they begin to resemble inferior Europeans. The slave trade may perhaps eventually prove to have been the first cause of Negro civilisation. The mimetic instinct of the Negro race tends, like the similar faculty in children, to accelerate the progress of unconscious education.[9]
This view proceeds upon the assumption that the two races are called to the same work and are alike in potentiality and ultimate development, the Negro only needing the element of time, under certain circumstances, to become European. But to our mind it is not a question between the two races of inferiority or superiority. There is no absolute or essential superiority on the one side, nor absolute or essential inferiority on the other side. It is a question of difference of endowment and difference of destiny. No amount of training or culture will make the Negro a European; on the other hand, no lack of training or deficiency of culture will make the European a Negro. The two races are not moving in the same groove, with an immeasurable distance between them, but on parallel lines. They will never meet in the plane of their activities so as to coincide in capacity or performance. They are not identical, as some think, but unequal; they are distinct but equal; an idea that is in no way incompatible with the Scripture truth that God hath made of one blood all nations of men.
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.[10]
The African at home needs to be surrounded by influences from abroad, not that he may change his nature, but that he may improve his capacity. Hereditary qualities are fundamental, not to be created or replaced by human agencies, but to be assisted and improved. Nature determines the kind of tree, environments determine the quality and quantity of the fruit. We want the eye and ear of the Negro to be trained by culture that he may see more clearly what he does see, and hear more distinctly what he does hear. We want him to be surrounded by influences from abroad to promote the development of his latent powers, and bring the potentiality of his being into practical or actual operation. He has capacities and aptitudes which the world needs, but which it will never enjoy until he is fairly and normally trained. Bach race is endowed with peculiar talents, and watchful to the last degree is the great Creator over the individuality, the freedom and independence of each. In the music of the universe each shall give a different sound, but necessary to the grand symphony. There are several sounds not yet brought out, and the feeblest of all is that hitherto produced by the Negro; but only he can furnish it. And when he does furnish it in its fulness and perfection, it will be welcomed with delight by the world.
An African’s religion finds vent at his heels. Songs and dances form no inconsiderable part of the worship at a Southern coloured camp-meeting. If we were constructing a ritual for the race we should certainly include this Shaker element.[8]
“An African’s religion” is inferred from what takes place at “a Southern coloured camp-meeting.” “A ritual for the whole race” must “include the Shaker element.” We would assure the reverend doctor that such a “ritual” would be an egregious failure. The “ Shaker element “ prevails chiefly, if not entirely, among Negroes or “coloured” people, who have been trained under the influence of the denomination of which Dr. Wentworth himself is a distinguished ornament. But only a comparatively small number of Africans are shouting Methodists. The greater portion of the race who are- not Pagans are either Mohammedans or Roman Catholics, and their “religion” does not “find vent at their heels.” The traveller in Africa will find himself in need of far more solid acquirements when passing through Mohammedan districts, than the ability to play the cornet, organ, or bagpipe. It is due, however, to the qualities whose presence is implied by the African’s love of music that bilious and irritable travellers pass through their country not only with impunity, but receiving the kindest treatment.
Wo man singt, da lass dich ruhig nieder,
Böse Menschen haben keine Lieder.
And here we cannot but call attention to a fact which, in the intelligent negro, undermines his admiration of foreign races, viz., that his race, numerically the weakest, has been through the ages selected for oppression and ridicule by the other branches of the human family. If there are, according to the present estimate, twelve hundred millions of human beings upon the earth, two hundred millions of whom are Africans, we have in the treatment which Africans have received from the rest of mankind one of the remarkable illustrations of the advantage the strong are prone to take of the weak. Ten hundred millions against two hundred millions. Ten persecuting, abusing, ridiculing two. And this has been the case in all the ages, ten against two. And yet, men, apparently thoughtful, affect to wonder that Negroes have appeared in all the historic periods as slaves—have been represented on all the monuments of Egypt as carried in chains in triumphal processions,
But in spite of all, the Negro race has yet its part to play—a distinct part— in the history of humanity, and the continent of Africa will be the principal scene of its activity. The mistake which Europeans often make in considering questions of Negro improvement and the future of Africa, is in supposing that the Negro is the European in embryo—in the undeveloped stage—and that when, bye-and-by, he shall enjoy the advantages of civilisation and culture, he will become like the European; in other words, that the Negro is on the same line of progress, in the same groove, with the European, but infinitely in the rear. The Saturday Review, not long since, in a remarkable leading article on American politics, in which some curious inaccuracies occurred, made the following statement:--
On their own continent, Africans seem to be irreclaimable, but after two or three generations of servitude they begin to resemble inferior Europeans. The slave trade may perhaps eventually prove to have been the first cause of Negro civilisation. The mimetic instinct of the Negro race tends, like the similar faculty in children, to accelerate the progress of unconscious education.[9]
This view proceeds upon the assumption that the two races are called to the same work and are alike in potentiality and ultimate development, the Negro only needing the element of time, under certain circumstances, to become European. But to our mind it is not a question between the two races of inferiority or superiority. There is no absolute or essential superiority on the one side, nor absolute or essential inferiority on the other side. It is a question of difference of endowment and difference of destiny. No amount of training or culture will make the Negro a European; on the other hand, no lack of training or deficiency of culture will make the European a Negro. The two races are not moving in the same groove, with an immeasurable distance between them, but on parallel lines. They will never meet in the plane of their activities so as to coincide in capacity or performance. They are not identical, as some think, but unequal; they are distinct but equal; an idea that is in no way incompatible with the Scripture truth that God hath made of one blood all nations of men.
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.[10]
The African at home needs to be surrounded by influences from abroad, not that he may change his nature, but that he may improve his capacity. Hereditary qualities are fundamental, not to be created or replaced by human agencies, but to be assisted and improved. Nature determines the kind of tree, environments determine the quality and quantity of the fruit. We want the eye and ear of the Negro to be trained by culture that he may see more clearly what he does see, and hear more distinctly what he does hear. We want him to be surrounded by influences from abroad to promote the development of his latent powers, and bring the potentiality of his being into practical or actual operation. He has capacities and aptitudes which the world needs, but which it will never enjoy until he is fairly and normally trained. Bach race is endowed with peculiar talents, and watchful to the last degree is the great Creator over the individuality, the freedom and independence of each. In the music of the universe each shall give a different sound, but necessary to the grand symphony. There are several sounds not yet brought out, and the feeblest of all is that hitherto produced by the Negro; but only he can furnish it. And when he does furnish it in its fulness and perfection, it will be welcomed with delight by the world.
Footnotes:
8 Methodist Quarterly Review (New York); January, 1876.
9 Saturday Review, March 24, 1877.
10 Longfellow.
8 Methodist Quarterly Review (New York); January, 1876.
9 Saturday Review, March 24, 1877.
10 Longfellow.
When the African shall come forward with his peculiar gifts, he will fill a place never before occupied. But he must have a fair opportunity for his development. Misunderstood and often misrepresented even by his best friends, and persecuted and maligned by his enemies, he is, nevertheless, coming forward, gradually rising under the influences of agencies seen and unseen. It is the fashion of some friends of the African to deplore his past, or lack of a past, and to infer from this fact an “ inferior faculty of self- development” in the race.
But, with the facts before us, we cannot admit the fairness of such an inference as these sympathising critics of the race are disposed to draw. No one who has paid any attention to the subject at all will aver that there is any possibility of development without the interference of a higher type of intelligence or energy, which must either come from without or must be assisted by favourable conditions within, in order to become continuous or general. Mr. Stanley, having become, on a second journey through Africa, better acquainted with the people, takes a far more accurate view of them than he was disposed to do when he passed through the country in his hasty and impatient search for Livingstone.
In his address at Cape Town, he endeavoured to show the kinship in habits, propensity and feeling between the black man and the white man, illustrating this by several comparisons between Central Africa at present and the Homeric age.[11] And in his address in London, before the Royal Geographical Society, in February last, he remarked: “It has been said that the African is unimprovable and irredeemable; but that I wholly and utterly deny.”
It is a fact that a description of the condition of things in portions of Central Africa truthfully given would read like an account of the earlier ages of Greece and Rome. We have ourselves visited remote and sequestered districts about the head-waters of the Niger, where we have found Negro Mohammedan students devoting themselves to literature with an indifference to the outside world which reminded us of the habits of the monks in the middle ages, who, in retirement and seclusion, pursued literature for its own sake;[12] and if the proceedings of chiefs in council which we have witnessed were written down in plain, unadorned style, the account would read like descriptions in Cæsar’s Commentaries of the doings of the Celts in the days of their unsophisticated habitudes. Now, if Greeks, Romans, or Celts had been smothered in the cradle of their civilisation by extraneous violence perpetuated to this time, is it unreasonable to suppose that they would be found at this day in much the same condition that Stanley found some of the African tribes? That these tribes have ever advanced so far is astounding, considering what they have had to contend against.
Through the labours of Mr. Herbert Spencer and other thinkers in that line, it has now come to be regarded as an elementary fact among scientific men that societies are determined in their growth by their environment, whether physical or human. “The self-development of a society is limited by its environment.” In primitive and rudimentary societies there may occur exceptional cases of individual power, where mental energy may introduce changes and begin improvements; but if surrounding circumstances are hostile, the influence will die with the introducer, and the improvements will not be perpetuated. We are told by Mr. Spencer that among the Karens “now and then a little Napoleon arises, who subdues a kingdom to himself and builds up an empire.[13] The dynasties, however, last only with the controlling mind.” There have been similar experiences in Africa. Changes of vast importance have taken place in the interior as a result of internal activity—of individual intelligence and energy; but instead of being perpetuated, they have been destroyed by the hostile influences from without. Dr. Barth tells of the ruins of the ancient capital of Bornou, Ghasreggomo, about 13° N. lat., 22° E. long,, situated in the finest country in Bornou, with a rich alluvial soil; a country which formerly teemed with hundreds of villages and was laid out in cornfields, but which is now (or was when he saw it) almost deserted, and covered with dense forests and impenetrable jungle, and has become the haunt of the monkey and the hog, the elephant and the lion. Barth noticed also the admirable brick structures of the ruins of former towns in this neighbourhood, so much more durable than the frail buildings of the present day. All this is proof that there was a beginning of social advancement and well-being in the days of security; but Negro slaves were wanted for the Caucasians in North Africa and South-eastern Europe; razzias were encouraged, the slave-hunting Tawareks invaded the country, and all progress was checked. And this is only one instance out of thousands which might be recited. Thus the African has gone on from generation to generation furnishing, in remote ages, materials to swell the triumphal processions of Egyptian kings, and, in modern times, strong arms for the plantations of the Western hemisphere, and is taunted by his persecutors (and his friends) with his inability to rise against this pressure.
In no part of Central Africa have any human agencies from without exerted any uplifting power; no planetary influences, according to mediaeaeval theory, have operated to produce any variation from the regular type; and, as we have just seen, there is no internal tendency in any individual or race, as a rule, to vary from the ancestral organism. Africa needs wholesome interference from without. There has been interference, but it has been for the most part an interference of violence which, through the centuries, has prevented the survival of any variation from the original type, which would have pushed forward improvements in the country. And now that the effort of the enlightened portion of humanity is to suppress the violent interference and introduce agencies for the improvement of the people, it is of the greatest possible importance that the people be understood. From the want of appreciation of their capacities and susceptibilities, innumerable are the theories proposed for the amelioration of their condition, Sir Samuel Baker advocates military discipline. He says:--
I believe that if it were possible to convert the greater portion of African •savages into disciplined soldiers, it would be a most rapid stride toward their future civilisation. A savage who has lead a wild and uncontrolled life must first learn to obey authority before any great improvement can be effected.[14]
But, with the facts before us, we cannot admit the fairness of such an inference as these sympathising critics of the race are disposed to draw. No one who has paid any attention to the subject at all will aver that there is any possibility of development without the interference of a higher type of intelligence or energy, which must either come from without or must be assisted by favourable conditions within, in order to become continuous or general. Mr. Stanley, having become, on a second journey through Africa, better acquainted with the people, takes a far more accurate view of them than he was disposed to do when he passed through the country in his hasty and impatient search for Livingstone.
In his address at Cape Town, he endeavoured to show the kinship in habits, propensity and feeling between the black man and the white man, illustrating this by several comparisons between Central Africa at present and the Homeric age.[11] And in his address in London, before the Royal Geographical Society, in February last, he remarked: “It has been said that the African is unimprovable and irredeemable; but that I wholly and utterly deny.”
It is a fact that a description of the condition of things in portions of Central Africa truthfully given would read like an account of the earlier ages of Greece and Rome. We have ourselves visited remote and sequestered districts about the head-waters of the Niger, where we have found Negro Mohammedan students devoting themselves to literature with an indifference to the outside world which reminded us of the habits of the monks in the middle ages, who, in retirement and seclusion, pursued literature for its own sake;[12] and if the proceedings of chiefs in council which we have witnessed were written down in plain, unadorned style, the account would read like descriptions in Cæsar’s Commentaries of the doings of the Celts in the days of their unsophisticated habitudes. Now, if Greeks, Romans, or Celts had been smothered in the cradle of their civilisation by extraneous violence perpetuated to this time, is it unreasonable to suppose that they would be found at this day in much the same condition that Stanley found some of the African tribes? That these tribes have ever advanced so far is astounding, considering what they have had to contend against.
Through the labours of Mr. Herbert Spencer and other thinkers in that line, it has now come to be regarded as an elementary fact among scientific men that societies are determined in their growth by their environment, whether physical or human. “The self-development of a society is limited by its environment.” In primitive and rudimentary societies there may occur exceptional cases of individual power, where mental energy may introduce changes and begin improvements; but if surrounding circumstances are hostile, the influence will die with the introducer, and the improvements will not be perpetuated. We are told by Mr. Spencer that among the Karens “now and then a little Napoleon arises, who subdues a kingdom to himself and builds up an empire.[13] The dynasties, however, last only with the controlling mind.” There have been similar experiences in Africa. Changes of vast importance have taken place in the interior as a result of internal activity—of individual intelligence and energy; but instead of being perpetuated, they have been destroyed by the hostile influences from without. Dr. Barth tells of the ruins of the ancient capital of Bornou, Ghasreggomo, about 13° N. lat., 22° E. long,, situated in the finest country in Bornou, with a rich alluvial soil; a country which formerly teemed with hundreds of villages and was laid out in cornfields, but which is now (or was when he saw it) almost deserted, and covered with dense forests and impenetrable jungle, and has become the haunt of the monkey and the hog, the elephant and the lion. Barth noticed also the admirable brick structures of the ruins of former towns in this neighbourhood, so much more durable than the frail buildings of the present day. All this is proof that there was a beginning of social advancement and well-being in the days of security; but Negro slaves were wanted for the Caucasians in North Africa and South-eastern Europe; razzias were encouraged, the slave-hunting Tawareks invaded the country, and all progress was checked. And this is only one instance out of thousands which might be recited. Thus the African has gone on from generation to generation furnishing, in remote ages, materials to swell the triumphal processions of Egyptian kings, and, in modern times, strong arms for the plantations of the Western hemisphere, and is taunted by his persecutors (and his friends) with his inability to rise against this pressure.
In no part of Central Africa have any human agencies from without exerted any uplifting power; no planetary influences, according to mediaeaeval theory, have operated to produce any variation from the regular type; and, as we have just seen, there is no internal tendency in any individual or race, as a rule, to vary from the ancestral organism. Africa needs wholesome interference from without. There has been interference, but it has been for the most part an interference of violence which, through the centuries, has prevented the survival of any variation from the original type, which would have pushed forward improvements in the country. And now that the effort of the enlightened portion of humanity is to suppress the violent interference and introduce agencies for the improvement of the people, it is of the greatest possible importance that the people be understood. From the want of appreciation of their capacities and susceptibilities, innumerable are the theories proposed for the amelioration of their condition, Sir Samuel Baker advocates military discipline. He says:--
I believe that if it were possible to convert the greater portion of African •savages into disciplined soldiers, it would be a most rapid stride toward their future civilisation. A savage who has lead a wild and uncontrolled life must first learn to obey authority before any great improvement can be effected.[14]
Footnotes:
11 Times, Nov. 30, 1877.
12 See Barth’s Travels in Central Africa; vol. iii, p. 373.
13 Principles of Sociology; p. 485.
14 Ismailia; vol. i, p. 302.
11 Times, Nov. 30, 1877.
12 See Barth’s Travels in Central Africa; vol. iii, p. 373.
13 Principles of Sociology; p. 485.
14 Ismailia; vol. i, p. 302.
He would apply force everywhere. Civilise Africa by force. They must be “regimented” under captains of industry who will compel them to their task. The scourge and the sword must carry out the views which Sir Samuel thinks good. He concludes a glowing account of one of his military expeditions with the following flourish:--
The Bari war was now over; on every side the natives had been thoroughly subdued.[15]
Subdued! yes, possibly, but not brought over to respect and affection, It is surprising that Sir Samuel Baker should not have been able to see that his proceedings among the Baris, judging from his own “unvarnished tale,” were nothing of which to boast. “It is probable,” Livingstone generously says, “that actual experience will correct the fancies which he (Sir Samuel) now puts forth as to the proper mode of dealing with Africans.”[16] We cannot help feeling that the erroneous theories held by travellers as to the African seduce them often into serious blunders and grievous wrongs, making the nationality and religion they represent an opprobrium, and exposing themselves or their successors to needless peril.
It is owing, in a great measure, to the inadequate theories held by those who undertake to deal with the African, whether as friend or foe, that while in the colonies along the coast European influence and teaching furnish new elements of commercial and religious life, they are helpless to raise the people above the “mimetic” stage, and endow them with creative or reproductive power. What we want is, that the foreign information introduced should properly educate the people—that is, should be so assimilated as to develop, and be fertilised by, native energy. We want to see the foreign leaven so introduced as to spread beyond the coast, transcend the malarious regions of the continent, and, taking possession of the healthier and nobler tribes of the interior, leaven the whole lump. In order to bring about these results, those who from abroad assume to be teachers and guides should study the people so as to-be able to deal scientifically and not empirically with them. By this we mean that they should study the laws of growth as they affect or pertain to the Negro race. The present practice of the friends of Africa is to frame laws according to their own notions for the government and improvement of this people, whereas God has already enacted the laws governing in these affairs, which laws should be carefully ascertained, interpreted and applied; for until they are found out and conformed to, all labour will be ineffective and resultless. We may be told that this is a very difficult, if not impossible task, for the European to perform, and that it is very far to look ahead to the time when the Negro shall be able to do this work for himself. This may be so; but what we are aiming to show, is, that in this direction, and this direction only, lies the hope of Africa’s future. Her ultimate usefulness and happiness will be secured, so far as human instrumentality can bring them about, on this line; and this is a subject to be carefully studied, especially by the missionary, if Christianity is to take root at all in Africa, or to be to the native anything more than a form of words. A little common sense will do more for this country than a great deal of moral preaching and the loftiest philanthropic purpose-without that elementary but rare quality.
We do not expect to see this continent, or any large portions of it, under one government, either foreign or indigenous. But we da expect to see, following the extinction of the slave trade, and the-introduction from abroad of facilities for internal communication, the increase of intelligence, the development of wealth, and the growth of free principles. We expect to see the native tribes or communities so evenly balanced among themselves as to bury for ever in oblivion even the tradition of tribal or individual aggression, with a public sentiment so elevated and purified that the general sense against wrong or injustice of any kind will preponderate and render impossible the existence of single malefactors who now have it in their power to distract extensive regions and check the operations of husbandry. And we should expect to see in Africa all the progress we have indicated above as the result of a few years of internal tranquility and order, which the continent has never within the memory of man enjoyed. There will be an exhibition of virtues not dreamt of in the Caucasian world, a sudden development of energies latent for ages. “Ethiopia shall suddenly stretch forth her hands unto God.”
The Bari war was now over; on every side the natives had been thoroughly subdued.[15]
Subdued! yes, possibly, but not brought over to respect and affection, It is surprising that Sir Samuel Baker should not have been able to see that his proceedings among the Baris, judging from his own “unvarnished tale,” were nothing of which to boast. “It is probable,” Livingstone generously says, “that actual experience will correct the fancies which he (Sir Samuel) now puts forth as to the proper mode of dealing with Africans.”[16] We cannot help feeling that the erroneous theories held by travellers as to the African seduce them often into serious blunders and grievous wrongs, making the nationality and religion they represent an opprobrium, and exposing themselves or their successors to needless peril.
It is owing, in a great measure, to the inadequate theories held by those who undertake to deal with the African, whether as friend or foe, that while in the colonies along the coast European influence and teaching furnish new elements of commercial and religious life, they are helpless to raise the people above the “mimetic” stage, and endow them with creative or reproductive power. What we want is, that the foreign information introduced should properly educate the people—that is, should be so assimilated as to develop, and be fertilised by, native energy. We want to see the foreign leaven so introduced as to spread beyond the coast, transcend the malarious regions of the continent, and, taking possession of the healthier and nobler tribes of the interior, leaven the whole lump. In order to bring about these results, those who from abroad assume to be teachers and guides should study the people so as to-be able to deal scientifically and not empirically with them. By this we mean that they should study the laws of growth as they affect or pertain to the Negro race. The present practice of the friends of Africa is to frame laws according to their own notions for the government and improvement of this people, whereas God has already enacted the laws governing in these affairs, which laws should be carefully ascertained, interpreted and applied; for until they are found out and conformed to, all labour will be ineffective and resultless. We may be told that this is a very difficult, if not impossible task, for the European to perform, and that it is very far to look ahead to the time when the Negro shall be able to do this work for himself. This may be so; but what we are aiming to show, is, that in this direction, and this direction only, lies the hope of Africa’s future. Her ultimate usefulness and happiness will be secured, so far as human instrumentality can bring them about, on this line; and this is a subject to be carefully studied, especially by the missionary, if Christianity is to take root at all in Africa, or to be to the native anything more than a form of words. A little common sense will do more for this country than a great deal of moral preaching and the loftiest philanthropic purpose-without that elementary but rare quality.
We do not expect to see this continent, or any large portions of it, under one government, either foreign or indigenous. But we da expect to see, following the extinction of the slave trade, and the-introduction from abroad of facilities for internal communication, the increase of intelligence, the development of wealth, and the growth of free principles. We expect to see the native tribes or communities so evenly balanced among themselves as to bury for ever in oblivion even the tradition of tribal or individual aggression, with a public sentiment so elevated and purified that the general sense against wrong or injustice of any kind will preponderate and render impossible the existence of single malefactors who now have it in their power to distract extensive regions and check the operations of husbandry. And we should expect to see in Africa all the progress we have indicated above as the result of a few years of internal tranquility and order, which the continent has never within the memory of man enjoyed. There will be an exhibition of virtues not dreamt of in the Caucasian world, a sudden development of energies latent for ages. “Ethiopia shall suddenly stretch forth her hands unto God.”
Footnotes:
15 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 428.
16 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 155.
15 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 428.
16 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 155.
Next, then, to the exploration of the country, the most important preliminary to the general civilisation of the African tribes is the suppression of the slave trade. And it is fit that the nations of Europe should unite for the extinction of the horrible traffic. Shem and Japheth have largely participated in the guilt of the enslavement of Ham. Shem, having lagged behind Japheth in the march of enlightenment, persists in the perpetration of the hideous wrong. But, under pressure, the dilatory brother is being urged on to his duty.
Africa has been spoiled by all the races alien to her, and, under their stimulating example, by her own sons. Other races have passed through the baptism of slavery, as a stepping-stone to civilisation and independence, but none has toiled under the crushing weight of a servitude so protracted and inflicted from so many sources. Milleniums mark the period of the bondage and humiliation of Africa’s children. The four quarters of the globe have heard their groans and been sprinkled and stained with their blood. All that passed by have felt at liberty to contemn and plunder. The oppressors of this race have been men with religion, and men without religion—Christians, Mohammedans, and Pagans. Nations with the Bible, and nations with the Koran, and nations without Bible or Koran—all have joined in afflicting this continent. And now the last of her oppressors, tearing from her bosom annually half a million of her children, are nations with the Koran. All travellers tell us that when the Arab traders in East Africa are suppressed the work will be done. This will, no doubt, be accomplished before very long. The Viceroy of Egypt is pledged to England to suppress the traffic, and in a given time to abolish slavery altogether.
It was a long time before the Christian world discovered, or rather admitted, the wrong in the slave trade; and we are persuaded that just as the truth in Christianity produced, though tardily, a Wilberforce and a Clarkson, so the truth in Islam will raise up— is now raising up—Muslim philanthropists and reformers who will give to the Negro the hand of a brother, and perhaps, outstripping their Christian brethren in liberality, accord him an equal share in political and social privileges—a liberality in dealing with weaker races which some Europeans confess themselves unable to exercise.
Dr. Livingstone seems to have thought that there might be some possibility of a Muslim Wilberforce, if we may judge from his immortal prayer, written, according to Mr. Waller, just one year before his death, and recorded on the tablet near his grave in Westminster Abbey, and which, in conclusion, is here most fervently reiterated:--
All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one—American, English, or TURK, who will help to heal the open sore of the world.[17]—AMEN.
Africa has been spoiled by all the races alien to her, and, under their stimulating example, by her own sons. Other races have passed through the baptism of slavery, as a stepping-stone to civilisation and independence, but none has toiled under the crushing weight of a servitude so protracted and inflicted from so many sources. Milleniums mark the period of the bondage and humiliation of Africa’s children. The four quarters of the globe have heard their groans and been sprinkled and stained with their blood. All that passed by have felt at liberty to contemn and plunder. The oppressors of this race have been men with religion, and men without religion—Christians, Mohammedans, and Pagans. Nations with the Bible, and nations with the Koran, and nations without Bible or Koran—all have joined in afflicting this continent. And now the last of her oppressors, tearing from her bosom annually half a million of her children, are nations with the Koran. All travellers tell us that when the Arab traders in East Africa are suppressed the work will be done. This will, no doubt, be accomplished before very long. The Viceroy of Egypt is pledged to England to suppress the traffic, and in a given time to abolish slavery altogether.
It was a long time before the Christian world discovered, or rather admitted, the wrong in the slave trade; and we are persuaded that just as the truth in Christianity produced, though tardily, a Wilberforce and a Clarkson, so the truth in Islam will raise up— is now raising up—Muslim philanthropists and reformers who will give to the Negro the hand of a brother, and perhaps, outstripping their Christian brethren in liberality, accord him an equal share in political and social privileges—a liberality in dealing with weaker races which some Europeans confess themselves unable to exercise.
Dr. Livingstone seems to have thought that there might be some possibility of a Muslim Wilberforce, if we may judge from his immortal prayer, written, according to Mr. Waller, just one year before his death, and recorded on the tablet near his grave in Westminster Abbey, and which, in conclusion, is here most fervently reiterated:--
All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one—American, English, or TURK, who will help to heal the open sore of the world.[17]—AMEN.
Footnotes:
17 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 182,
17 Last Journals, vol. ii, p. 182,
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