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26 chapters
DAWN IN DARKEST AFRICA
DAWN IN DARKEST AFRICA
MUSHAMALENGI, “A ROYAL PRINCE” OF THE BAKUBA KINGDOM IN THE UPPER KASAI. Frontispiece. DAWN IN DARKEST AFRICA BY JOHN H. HARRIS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CROMER O.M., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., K.C.S.I. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE 1912 All rights reserved PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED LONDON AND BECCLES By the Earl of Cromer...
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
I have been asked to write a short introduction to this book, and I have no hesitation in complying with the request. Although the high motives and disinterested devotion which inspire missionary and philanthropic effort are very generally recognized, there is often a predisposition—more frequently felt than expressed—not only amongst responsible officials but also in the minds of no inconsiderable portion of the public to accept with some reserve both the accuracy of the facts and the soundness
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
It has become the custom in recent years for writers, particularly those recording their travels in semi-civilized regions, to disclaim in advance any title to literary merit. I do not propose to make any exception to this rule and would plead in lieu of literary style a sincerity of purpose, which I beg my literary critics and superiors to accept. If they feel that the facts and incidents set forth suffer from any lack of literary ability, I can only hope that they will take the information sup
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FOREWORD WEST AFRICA
FOREWORD WEST AFRICA
West Africa, as some of us have known her, is rapidly changing. Within the memory of most men, there were deserts uncrossed, forests unexplored, tribes of people unknown. To-day every desert has been traversed; to-day we know not only the forests, but nearly every species of tree they contain; we know, and can locate, almost every African tribe, and almost every foot of territory has passed under the control, for the time being at least, of some alien Power. At the present moment political bound
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I THE AFRICAN “PORTER”
I THE AFRICAN “PORTER”
It is almost impossible to exaggerate the part which the African “porter” or carrier, plays in the history of the Dark Continent. The hinterland of the vast tropical regions—a death-trap to every beast of burden—has been opened up by the carrier together with his brother transport worker—the paddler. The heavier burden has, beyond question, been borne by the former, by the countless thousands of hard woolly heads which have sweated under the weight of innumerable bales and cases too often receiv
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II THE PADDLER AND HIS CANOE
II THE PADDLER AND HIS CANOE
Central Africa, the unexplored land of our childhood, is vested with a charm that never ceases to allure, and reveals her deepest secrets only to those who dig deep and risk much to discover them. The rivers with their shifting sandbanks, their treacherous rapids and whirlpools, entice again and again those whom the miasma has threatened to slay, as the rushing current threatens the unwary navigator. The native alone is in any degree immune to the former, and it is he who, with his simple knowle
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III THE AFRICAN FOREST
III THE AFRICAN FOREST
There can hardly be any experience more exquisitely luxurious than that of wandering on through the primeval forests of Central Africa. The traveller whose daily round confines him to the great cities of a hustling civilization finds himself in perfect solitude, perhaps for the first time in his life. Every step he takes brings before him some new wonder in nature’s garden; every hour in the day is alive with fresh experiences. Surely there is no language which aptly befits the transcendent beau
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IV A MEDLEY OF CUSTOMS
IV A MEDLEY OF CUSTOMS
A lifetime spent amongst a single African tribe would scarcely exhaust its folklore and customs. Awaiting scientific investigation there is throughout the African continent a wealth of lore and superstition. To him who would discover the hidden life of the African infinite patience is essential. It is useless to force information; the best plan is to wait until the “spirit moves” the old woman or chief to tell you something of the inner life of the tribe. Perhaps the time and conditions which mo
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V THE NATIVE AS A MONEY MAKER
V THE NATIVE AS A MONEY MAKER
If the African woman is a prudent banker, the man is the money maker. The range of remuneration they receive for their labour is no less divergent than one finds in Europe. The Sierra Leone native will obligingly row you ashore to Freetown in fifteen minutes “for two bob, Sah”; but his brother paddler on the Chiloango, or the Congo, will paddle for you throughout a week for 5 d. a day, coupled with a plump bat or the leg of a monkey by way of rations. There is one form of money making which is f
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VI THE AFRICAN WOMAN
VI THE AFRICAN WOMAN
There is assuredly no country whose women are more interesting than those of Central Africa. Certainly there can be no place on the habitable globe where women are so continuously industrious. Amongst African women there are no unemployed and no unemployables. In all the hinterland, the women are the agriculturists. In the early morning, often before sunrise, they file out of the village to their plots, perhaps a mile away from the town, where there is always something to do; weeding and plantin
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I THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
I THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
There is a type of African traveller who, hurrying to the coast and back again, returns with all the assurance of a long experienced person to pontifically declare that the unhealthiness of West Africa is all moonshine, that if a man dies it is due to his excesses rather than to the climate. There is, of course, a grain of truth in this assertion; cocktails, midnight oil and habits of a worse type, undermine the constitution in a manner which leave little resistance to the climatic diseases. Yet
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II LIGHTENING THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
II LIGHTENING THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
Thanks to Mr. Chamberlain, a great stimulus was given to the work of rendering the burden of West Africa somewhat lighter. At his inspiration men began to study more seriously the question of dwelling houses, the use of medicines, and the supply of fresh food. Sir Alfred Jones, Messrs. John Holt and Messrs. Burroughs & Wellcome, have each in their respective spheres spent large sums of money experimenting in various directions, in the hope that science applied to the practical side of da
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III GOVERNMENTS AND COMMERCE
III GOVERNMENTS AND COMMERCE
Nothing in West Africa is more striking than the attitude adopted by the several colonizing Powers towards commerce. At present, Germany is easily in the front rank; her policy towards business men is the most enlightened of any Power, and it is therefore to be the more regretted that her treatment of the natives is not equally far-sighted. Were it so, all students of African questions could view with equanimity her gradual absorption of the whole of Equatorial Africa. The British merchant knows
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IV THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC
IV THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC
It is useless to close our eyes to the fact that an evil of fearful potentiality is being introduced and fostered all down the West Coast of Africa. I have not always found it possible to agree with the much-criticized Native Races and Liquor Traffic United Committee, but it must not be overlooked that some of their critics have made errors, in judgment at least, not one whit less extraordinary than those which have been brought against that Committee of highminded and unselfish men. The greates
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V THE EDUCATED NATIVE
V THE EDUCATED NATIVE
The man who would understand the African must get beneath the surface, otherwise he will never know the real sentiments of the native races. By confining himself to the hospitality of the whites, he will learn a great deal about the natives, and will also learn to appreciate the position of the merchant and the administrator, but if he would probe the mind and thought of the African, he will find no better way than that of living with him. It is of course more congenial—to many essential—to acce
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VI JUSTICE AND THE AFRICAN
VI JUSTICE AND THE AFRICAN
The Powers of Europe—and Great Britain in particular—boast of the “justice” with which they treat native races. Happily the native tribes, as a whole, fully share this complacent belief in European rule, and this no doubt arises from the fact that before the Powers of Europe divided Central Africa between them, justice, as compared with might, had but a small place. This belief, however, is perceptibly passing away, and in many of the West African colonies the natives are not now prepared to acc
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VII RACE PREJUDICE
VII RACE PREJUDICE
The most lamentable feature which confronts the traveller in British West African colonies to-day is that with the growth of commerce on the one hand, and with the spread of Christian thought on the other, race prejudice is rapidly increasing its hold not only through an ever widening area, but in an intensity which must before many years have passed precipitate a grave condition in the relationship of the two races. The decks of West African liners provide an incomparable mirror for reflecting
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I LABOUR—SUPPLY AND DEMAND
I LABOUR—SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Everywhere in West Africa the cry goes up, “Give us more labour.” The British, German, Portuguese and French merchants all declare that if only they could get the labour, they might put a different face on the whole of the problems of production in West Africa. The principal reason for this shortage is unquestionably the fact that West Africa is sparsely populated, but this one fact does not, by any means, explain the situation. In Liberia alone does there appear to be any appreciable quantity o
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II LAND AND ITS RELATION TO LABOUR
II LAND AND ITS RELATION TO LABOUR
It will not, I think, be contested that throughout West Africa there is no native conception of private ownership of land. This is almost an article of religious faith amongst the African races generally. Let one tribe murder a member of another community and a palaver will be called and compensation paid. If wife-stealing or kidnapping of boys takes place, the tribes involved will remain calm and settle their dispute by making peaceful and honourable amends. Let one tribe exploit the palm, or w
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III PORTUGUESE SLAVERY
III PORTUGUESE SLAVERY
In Portuguese West Africa one sees the best and the worst treatment of native races. The best for the free native, the best for the educated coloured man and the best for the coloured woman. In every other colony—and in this respect British colonies are becoming the worst—race prejudice not only prevails but is on the increase. In the Portuguese colonies there is a pleasing absence of race prejudice; natives of equal social status are as freely admitted to Portuguese institutions as white men; t
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IV THE FUTURE OF BELGIAN CONGO
IV THE FUTURE OF BELGIAN CONGO
Belgium for the time being is in the saddle, but for how long? Will she prove strong enough, wise enough, great enough to bring order out of the chaotic state of affairs into which her late ruler plunged the Congo territories? It would require a bold man to give an unqualified affirmative to this question. Cover several thousand miles of that territory, live for months with the aboriginal tribes, discuss administrative problems with Congo officials, watch the operations, and listen to the conver
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I THE PRODUCTS OF THE OIL PALM
I THE PRODUCTS OF THE OIL PALM
With the date palm we have been long familiar, the cocoa-nut palm likewise, and those too which decorate our ball-rooms, galleries and banqueting halls, we greet as delightsome friends, but what is the oil palm—the Eloesis Guineensis of West Africa? It is said that five thousand years ago its sap was used by the Egyptians for the purpose of embalming the bodies of their great dead. To-day by its aid we travel thousands of miles at express rate; it has been so handled by modern science that it en
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II THE PRODUCTION OF RUBBER
II THE PRODUCTION OF RUBBER
Rubber has been known for the last four hundred years, but it is only within the last century, or little more, that it has been put to practical use. Civilization was for nearly three hundred years content with the historical fact of Pincon’s Indians of Brazil playing “ball” with crude lumps of rubber, and then it awoke to the fact that rubber could be used to erase pencil marks. In our boyhood Charles Macintosh had established its use as a protective from rain, but in our manhood the annual dem
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III THE PRODUCTION OF COCOA
III THE PRODUCTION OF COCOA
Cocoa to most individuals is suggestive of carefully and tastefully packed tins, or in chocolate form, of delightful little packages done up in neat silver paper and prettily tied with bows of silk ribbon. To others it means a welcome and fragrant breakfast or supper beverage. To few, indeed, does it represent anything else. The man in the street, if he thinks at all upon investing his savings in cocoa, argues that after all there is a limit to human digestion, particularly where sweetmeats are
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IV THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
IV THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
The day has gone by when the world could dismiss Christian missions in West Africa with a contemptuous sneer, for Christian missionary effort with its eloquent facts, definitely established, can no longer be ignored. Of all the forces which have made for real progress in West Africa, Christianity stands some say first, others second, but none can place it last. To it belongs primarily in point of time at least, the economic prosperity of the Gold Coast. To it belongs, almost entirely, the credit
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I THE MAP OF AFRICA RE-ARRANGED
I THE MAP OF AFRICA RE-ARRANGED
For some months past eminent publicists in Europe have been busily engaged in rearranging the map of Africa in the interests first of one Power, then of another, but the unfortunate native has found scant place in these arguments. The only question which seems of any significance is the “price” this or that Power will pay for a given slice of the African continent. It would be rather interesting surely to know what the natives themselves think of the proposed change. Some of them have strong vie
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