Chapter XI: Races and Peoples of Africa (1)

/Ancient Inhabitants of Africa/--Succession of races on the “dark
continent”--/Present Inhabitants of Africa/--/I/. _Arabo-Berber
or Semito-Hamite Group_: Populations of Mediterranean Africa
and Egypt--/II/. _Ethiopian or Kushito-Hamite Group_: Bejas,
Gallas, Abyssinians, etc.--/III/. _Fulah-Zandeh Group_: The
Zandeh, Masai, Niam-Niam populations of the Ubangi-Shari, etc.,
Fulbé or Fulahs--/IV/. _Nigritian Group_: Nilotic Negroes or
Negroes of eastern Sudan--Negroes of central Sudan--Negroes of
western Sudan and the Senegal--Negroes of the coast or Guinean
Negroes, Kru, Agni, Tshi, Vei, Yoruba, etc.--/V/. _Negrillo
Group_: Differences of the Pygmies and the Bushmen--/VI/. _Bantu
Group_: Western Bantus of French, German, Portuguese, and Belgian
equatorial Africa--Eastern Bantus of German, English, and
Portuguese equatorial Africa--Southern Bantus: Zulus, etc.--/VII/.
_Hottentot-Bushman Group_: The Namans and the Sans--/VIII/.
_Populations of Madagascar_: Hovas, Malagasi, Sakalavas.

The term “Black Continent” is often applied to Africa, but it must not therefore be supposed that it is peopled solely by Negroes. Without taking into account the white Arabo-Berbers and the yellow Bushmen-Hottentots, which have long been known, it may now be shown, after a half-century of discovery, that the population of Africa presents a very much greater variety of types and races than was formerly imagined.

ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF AFRICA.

We are only just beginning to know something about prehistoric Africa. Egypt, that classic land of the oldest historic monuments of the earth, has yielded in late years, thanks to the excavations of Flinders Petrie, D’Amelineau, and above all, of De Morgan, a large quantity of wrought stone objects, similar in character to those of Europe, and if certain objections may still be raised in regard to the palæolithic period of Egypt, which is not dated by a fauna, we can scarcely deny the existence of the _neolithic_ period in this country, the period which preceded or was contemporaneous with the earliest dynasties of which monuments have yet been discovered.[480]

Hatchets, knives, and scrapers of very rude palæolithic and neolithic types have been discovered in Cape Colony (W. Gooch, J. Sanderson); flint arrow-heads and implements of the Chellean type in the country of the Somalis, in the Congo Free State;[481] ironstone arrow-heads in the country of the Monbuttus (Emin Pacha). Numerous stone implements and weapons of various palæolithic types, much finer than the preceding, as well as neolithic hatchets, have been found in Algeria (at Tlemcen), in South Algeria (at El-Golea, etc.), and as far as Timbuctoo (Weisgerber, Lenz, Collignon, etc.). Lastly, Tunis presents a progressive series of palæolithic implements absolutely similar to those of Europe in several stations (at Gafsa and, in a general way, west from the Gulf of Gabes).[482] But all these finds are very isolated and too far removed one from another to enable us to infer from them the existence of one and the same primitive industry over the whole continent.[483] Numerous facts on the contrary, particularly the absence of stone implements among the most primitive of the existing tribes of Africa (with the exception of the perforated round stone with which the digging-stick is weighted, as well as the stone pestles met with among some Negro tribes), and the rarity of superstitions associated with stone implements, lead us to suppose that the stone age only existed on the dark continent in a sporadic state and in virtue of local and isolated civilisations. Further, the absence of bronze implements, outside of Egypt, leads us to suppose that the majority of the peoples of Africa, with the exception of the inhabitants of Egypt and the Mediterranean coast, passed from the age of bone and wood to that of iron almost without transition.

Several palæethnologists go so far as to think that the iron industry was imported into Europe from Africa. At all events skilful smiths (Fig. 135) are found in the centre of Africa among Negro tribes somewhat backward in other respects.

Historic data are lacking in regard to most of the peoples of Africa, especially for remote periods, except in Egypt. However, combining the various historic facts known to us with the recent data of philology and those, still more recent, of anthropology, we may assume with sufficient probability the following superposition of races and peoples in Africa.

The primitive substratum of the population is formed of Negroes, very tall and very black, in the north; of Negrilloes, brown-skinned dwarfs, in the centre; of Bushmen, short, yellow, and steatopygous, in the south. On this substratum was deposited at a distant but indefinite period the so-called Hamitic element of European or Asiatic origin, the supposed continuators of the Cro-Magnon race.[484] This element has been preserved in a comparatively pure state among the Berbers, and perhaps has been transformed by interminglings with the Negroes, into a new race, analogous to the Ethiopian, with which we must probably connect the ancient Egyptians. The Berbers drove back the Negroes towards the south, while the Ethiopians, a little later, filtered through the Negroid mass from east to west. This infiltration continues at the present day.

A new wave of migration followed that of the Hamites. These were the southern Semites or Himyarites who crossed from the other side of the Red Sea. Probably as far back as the Egyptian neolithic period they began the slow but sure process of modifying the Berbers, Ethiopians, and Negroes of the north-east of Africa.

The Negro populations driven back towards the south were obliged to intermingle with the Negrillo pygmies, the Ethiopians, and Hottentot-Bushmen, and gave birth to the Negro tribes composing to-day the great linguistic family called _Bantu_. Bantu migrations, at first from the north to the south, then in the opposite direction and towards the west, have been authenticated.[485] As a consequence of the interminglings due to these migrations, the Negrilloes and the Hottentots have been absorbed to a great extent by the Bantus, and the rare representatives of these races, still existing in a state of relative purity, are to-day driven back into the most unhealthy and inhospitable regions of Central and Southern Africa. The last important invasion of alien peoples into Africa was that of the Northern Semites or Arabs. It was, rather, a series of invasions, ranging from the first century /B.C./ to the fifteenth century, when the climax was reached. The Arab tribes have profoundly modified certain Berber and Ethiopian populations from the somatic point of view as well as the ethnic. Moreover, the Arab influence under the form of Islamism continues to the present time its onward march over the dark continent, making from the north-east to the south-west. The Guinea coast, the basin of the Congo, and Southern Africa alone have as yet remained untouched by this influence. Let us note in conclusion the Malay-Indonesian migration towards Madagascar, and the European colonisation begun in the seventeenth century.

(_Drawing by P. Moutet, partly after Wood._)]

EXISTING POPULATIONS OF AFRICA.

Putting on one side the Madagascar islanders and the European and other colonists,[486] the thousands of peoples and tribes of the “dark continent” may be grouped, going from north to south, into six great geographical, linguistic, and, in part, anthropological units: 1st, the Arabo-Berbers or Semito-Hamites; 2nd, the Ethiopians or Kushito-Hamites; 3rd, the Fulah-Zandeh; 4th, the Negrilloes or Pygmies; 5th, the Nigritians or Sudanese-Guinea Negroes; 6th, the Bantus; 7th, the Hottentot-Bushmen.[487]

I. The _Arabo-Berber_ or _Semito-Hamitic_ group occupies the north of Africa as far as about the 15th degree of lat. N., and is composed, as its name indicates, of peoples having as a base the Arab and Berber races. Under the name of _Berbers_ are included populations varying very much in type and manners and customs, speaking either Arabic (Semitic language) or Berberese (Hamitic language). Three-fourths of the “Arabs” of Northern Africa are only Berbers speaking Arabic, and are the more “Arabised” in regard to manners and customs as they are nearer to Asia. The nomads of the Libyan desert and Tripoli have preserved fairly well the Berber type, but they have become Arabs in language and usages. In Tunis and Algeria the Arab influence is still very much felt in the south; in Morocco it is very trifling. From the social point of view, the contrast is great between the settled Berber and the nomadic Arab. To give but one example, the democratic _régime_ of the former, based on private property, bears no resemblance whatever to the autocratic _régime_ of the latter, founded on collective property. But all the Berbers are not of settled habits (example: the Tuaregs), and several tribes have adopted the Arab mode of life.[488]

Physically, the Algero-Tunisian Berber also differs from the Arab. His height is scarcely above the average (1 m. 67), while the Arab is distinguished by his lofty stature. The Berber head is, generally speaking, not so long as the Arab, although both are dolichocephalic. The face is a regular oval in the Arab, almost quadrangular in the pure Berber. The nose is aquiline in the former, straight or concave in the latter, and moreover, the Berbers have a sort of transverse depression on the brow, above the glabella, which is not seen in the Arabs; on the other hand, they have not so prominent an occiput as the latter. This characterisation is quite general; in reality, among the Arabs, and especially among the Berbers, there is a very great variety of type. According to Collignon,[489] four Berber sub-races or types must be recognised. (1) The _Djerba_ sub-race, characterised by short stature, globular head (ceph. ind. on the living sub. 78 to 81.7), is well represented in the populations of the south-east and the east Tunisian coast, as well as by certain _Kabyles_, by the _Mzabs_,[490] and the _Shawias_ of the Aures. (2) The _Elles type_, dolichocephalic, with broad face, occupies the centre of Tunis and the east of Kabylia. (3) The _dolichocephalic Berber sub-race_, with narrow face and stature above the average, forms the present type in Algeria-Tunisia. (4) The _Jerid_ or _Oasis type_ (Fig. 136), of somewhat lofty stature and dark complexion, is well represented around the Tunisian “Shotts.”

(_After Collignon._)]

Among the nomadic Berbers we must mention separately the _Tuaregs_ or _Imoshagh_, as they call themselves,[491] with their manifold divisions (_Azjars_, _Haggars_, etc.) spread over the western Sahara. Very characteristic of their costume is the black veil which covers the head leaving only the eyes free, the stone rings on the arms forming also a very national ornament. They employ certain characters in writing peculiar to themselves. In the _Maghrebi_, who roam over the plateaus situated to the west of the Nile, the Arab strain is very strongly marked.[492] On the other side of the great African river, towards the Red Sea, the Berbers have entirely disappeared and the population is formed of Arabs more or less unmixed. The Bedouins of Egypt (237,000 in 1894) are Berber-Arabs divided into numerous tribes (_Aulad-Ali_, _Gavazi_, _Eleikat_, etc.).

(_Phot. Collignon._)]

The nomadic or settled _Moors_ (Fig. 137) of the western Sahara, extending from Morocco to the Senegal (the _Trarza_, the _Brakna_, etc.), speak Arabic and “Zenagha,” which is a Berber dialect. These are Berbers more or less crossed with Negro blood. It must further be observed that the name of Moors is very wrongly applied to the Mussulman inhabitants of the towns of Algeria and Tunis and to the _Riffians_ of Morocco.[493]

The _Fellaheen_, Mussulmans (635,600 in 1894) of the lower valley of the Nile (as far as the first cataract), mixed descendants of the ancient Egyptians, must be included among the Arabo-Berbers because they have abandoned the speech of their ancestors, adopting that of the Arabs, but many of them have preserved intact the type of the primitive Egyptians, fundamentally Ethiopian, so well represented on various monuments in the valley of the Nile.[494] The ancient Egyptian language is preserved, however, under the form of the _Coptic_ dialect which, until quite recent times, served as the liturgical language to the Christian section of the inhabitants of Lower Egypt, known by the name of _Copts_ (500,000 in 1894; cephalic index 76, according to Chantre).

We must likewise add to the Arabo-Berber group the _Barabra_ (in the singular _Berberi_) inhabiting to the number of about 180,000 the part of the Nile valley situated between the first and the fourth cataract. It is a people sprung from the intermingling of Ethiopians, Egyptian Fellaheen, and Arabs (ceph. ind. 76). One of the most commercial tribes of this ethnic group is that of the _Danagla_ inhabiting the country of Dongola.

II. The _Ethiopians_ or _Kushito-Hamites_, who are sometimes called _Nuba_ or _Nubians_,[495] inhabit the north-east of Africa, from the 25th degree lat. N. to the 4th degree lat. S. They occupy almost all the coast land of the Red Sea, and that of the Indian Ocean from the Gulf of Aden to Port Durnford or Wubashi. Their territory is bounded on the west by the Nile, the Bahr-el-Azrek, the western edge of the Abyssinian plateau, Lake Rudolf and Mount Kenia.[496]

In the northern part of this territory dwell the _Bejas_ or _Nubians_, the different tribes of which, _Bejas_ or _Bisharin_, _Hamrans_ (Fig. 138), _Hadendowas_, _Hallengas_, etc., are stationed one after another between the Red Sea and the Nile, from the first cataract to the Abyssinian plateau. Certain Beja tribes, like the _Ababdeh_ (19,500), to the north in Upper Egypt, partly of settled habits, the _Beni-Amer_ to the east, the _Jalin_ to the west, are in a large measure Arabised, but still speak a Hamitic language, while side by side with them dwell Semitised Ethiopian tribes, speaking only Arabic like the _Habab_ and the _Hassanieh_ of the Bayuda steppe or the _Abu-Rof_ and _Shukrieh_ of the lower basin of the Blue Nile.[497] It is in the same category of Semitised Ethiopians, but speaking the _Amharinga_ and _Tigrenga_ dialects, etc., which have sprung from a different Semitic language, _Ghéez_, that we must place the inhabitants of the north and east of Abyssinia, as well as the natives of Kaffa and the east of Shoa, who have sprung from the intermingling of the _Gallas_ (see below) with the Arabs.

(_Author’s coll._)]

The _Amharinga_ language is spoken in Amhara and Godjam; the _Tigrenga_ farther to the north, in Tigre; the _Curagheh_, derived from the ancient Amharinga, to the west of Lake Zuwai and to the south of Shoa, and the sources of the Hawash. The term “Abyssinian” has only a political signification, like that of “Austrian” for example; it is a corruption of the word “Habeshi” (“mixed”), which the Arabs formerly gave in derision to the inhabitants of the Abyssinian plateau united together into a Christian state. The substratum of the population of the Abyssinian plateau is formed by the _Agaw_, Ethiopian in type, Hamitic in language, but the Abyssinians of the higher classes are strongly Semitised. The national religion of the Abyssinians is monophysite Christianity, closely allied to the Coptic religion, but impregnated with Mussulman, Judaic, and indigenous animist elements.

To the south of the Abyssinian plateau, from the neighbourhood of Lake Tsana to the extreme limits of the extension of the Ethiopian peoples to the south and west is the territory of the _Gallas_ or _Oroma_, representing the purest Ethiopian type. To the east of the Gallas, from about the 42nd degree long. east of Greenwich, dwell the _Somalis_, probably only Gallas more or less intermingled with the Arabs, who for several centuries have overrun the country. They occupy the whole of the seaboard from Cape Jibuti (at the southern extremity of Obok) to the mouth of the Jeb, or Jubba, and the plain of Aji-Fiddah, which extends below the equator, but in the interior of their country, especially in the north, numerous Galla tribes are found.

To the north of the Gallas, between Abyssinia and the coast (from Cape Jibuti to Hamfila Bay), are the _Afar_ (in the plural _Afara_) or _Danakil_ (_Dankali_ is in the singular), who form the bulk of the population of the French colony of Obok-Tajura. Physically they resemble the Somalis, but they are less Arabised. To the north of the Danakil there is a population akin, it is said, to the Agaw, or aborigines of Abyssinia, and known by the name of _Saho_ or _Shaho_. It occupies the southern part of the country of Massowah, the northern being taken by the Ethiopian tribes known by the collective name of Massowans.[498]

From the somatological point of view, the Ethiopians are characterised by a rather high stature (1 m. 67 on the average), a brownish or chocolate-coloured complexion with a reddish tinge, by an elongated head (average ceph. ind., 75.7 to 78.1 on the living subject, according to Chantre), frizzy hair, intermediate between the curly hair of the Arabs and the woolly hair of the Negroes, and lastly by the face elongated to a perfect oval, and the prominent, straight or convex, very narrow nose.[499] Thin and slender, the Ethiopians have fine ankles and wrists, long and very sinewy limbs (especially the fore-arm), broad shoulders, and conical-shaped trunk like the ancient statues of Egypt. In short, they are good representatives of the Ethiopian race.

III. _Fulah-Zandeh Group._--Under this term we include the whole series of populations resulting from the intermingling of the Ethiopians and the Nigritians (or Sudanese Negroes), and extending from east to west across the whole of Africa, over a belt of 5 to 6 degrees in width. This belt passes through the following regions, starting from the east: The country of the Masai (between Lake Rudolf and the 6th degree of latitude S.); the region comprised between the upper valleys of the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Arab on the one hand and the basin of the Ubangi-Welle on the other; Darfur, Dar-Runga, Wadai, Baghirmi, and Bornu; Dar Banda and the upper basin of the Shari; a good part of the basin of the Niger-Benue and the whole of the basin of the Senegal. This territorial zone may be divided from the ethnographical point of view into two distinct portions by the line of the watershed between the basins of the Nile and Congo on the one hand and the basins of the Chad, Niger, and Senegal on the other. To the east of this line dwell, in compact groups, the Zandeh or Niam-Niam, Masai, and other populations who have sprung from the intermingling of the Ethiopians with the Negroes of the eastern Sudan (Nilotic Negroes), and in some rarer cases with the Negrilloes and Bantus. To the west, on the contrary, we find, scattered over an immense tract, isolated groups of one population only, that of the _Fulahs_ or _Peuls_, sprung from the crossings of Ethiopians with the Negroes of the central and western Sudan, and further impregnated with a strain of Arabo-Berber blood.

In the eastern group, which I propose to call provisionally the Zandeh group, we find the _Masai_ and the _Wakuafi_ peoples of an Ethiopian type modified by intermingling with the Nilotic Negroes of the north, with the Bantus and perhaps with the Bushmen of the south, to judge by the photographs published by Luschan. The Masai speak a Nilotic-Negro language. On the north-east they touch the habitat of the Gallas, and are surrounded on every other side by Bantu tribes, except on the north-west, where, between Lake Rudolf and the upper Bahr-el-Jebel, exist populations still imperfectly known, the _Latukas_, the _Turkan_, the _Lurems_, who are probably half-breeds in various degrees of Ethiopians and Nilotic Negroes,[500] as are the _Drugu_ and the _Lendu_ of the region of the sources of the Ituri, the _Loggos_ and the _Momvus_ or _Mombuttus_ (who must not be confounded with the _Mangbattus_) of the upper valley of the Kibali.[501]

To the west of these tribes, in the basin of the Ubangi-Welle, we find a compact group of several peoples who, under various names, have however a certain family likeness in their physical type, manners and customs, and language. These are, in the first place, the _Niam-Niam_ or _Zandeh_, who with their congeners the _Banja_ dwell to the north of the Welle. They extend beyond the ridge which divides this river from the White Nile, in the upper valleys of the Sere, the Jubé, and other tributaries of the great river. We also find a few isolated Zandeh groups to the south of the Welle, but the greater part of the country watered by the left tributaries of this waterway is the domain of the _Ababuas_, the _Abarmbos_, and the _Mangbattus_ or _Monbuttus_, remarkable for their light skin, as well as the lighter shade of their hair compared with that of the other Zandehs (fair hair in five per cent.). The Niam-Niam extend to the eastward to the country of the Makaraka (tribes of _Bombeh_, _Idio_, etc.), where they intermingle with the _Mundus_ and the _Babukurs_. On the north-west the Zandeh are in contact with tribes still little known, like the _Krej_ (basin of the upper Bahr-el-Arab), the _Bandas_, and the _N’Sakkaras_, who, however, seem to be closely related.[502]

The Niam-Niam and the Mangbattus, who may be taken as types of Zandeh populations, suggest physically the Ethiopians; however, strains of Nilotic-Negro blood are manifest among them. They have a civilisation well characterised by several traits in their material life: anthropophagy (see p. 147), garments of bast (p. 183), ornaments worn in the nostrils and in the lips perforated for the purpose, spiral-shaped bracelets, weapons of a particular kind (pp. 259 and 269), partly borrowed from the Egyptians, as were perhaps their harp, bolster, and so many other objects. They are cultivators using the hoe (p. 192), fetichists partly converted to Islamism and forming little despotic states.[503]

The populations encountered by the travellers Crampel, Dybowski, and Maistre westward of the countries peopled by the Zandeh, between the Ubangi and the Grinbingi (one of the principal branches of the Shari), must also be connected with the Zandeh group. These are, going from south to north, the _Bandziri_, the _Ndris_, the _Togbo_, the _Languassi_, the _Dakoa_, the _Ngapu_, the _Wia-Wia_, the _Mandjo_, the _Awaka_, and the _Akunga_. The physical type of these tribes suggests that of the Niam-Niam, except the stature, which is higher, (1 m. 73, according to Maistre). The language common to all these peoples, _Ndris_, differs from the Bantu dialects spoken on the Congo, and appears to approximate to the Zandeh language. As to their material culture and civilisation, these are almost the same as among the Zandeh tribes.[504]

(_Phot. Collignon._)]

The _western group_ of the great Fulah-Zandeh division, of which I have spoken above, is formed of a population more homogeneous in type and language than the Zandeh, but dispersed in isolated groups in the midst of the Negroes. These are the _Fulbés_ or _Fulahs_[505] speaking the Fulah tongue, their true name being _Pul-bé_ (in the singular _Pul-o_, which means “red” or “light-brown” in the Fulah tongue). The Mandingans call them _Fulbé_, the Hausas _Fellani_, the Kanuri _Fellata_. It is a mixed population, the substratum of which is Ethiopian but with a predominance either of Arab and Berber, or Negro elements.[506]

The favourite occupations of the Fulahs, stock-breeding and war, lead them away on more or less distant migratory journeys and expeditions; thus it happens that they are found dispersed among the Nigritian populations over a large tract of country comprised between the lower Senegal and 10° latitude N. on the one part, and from Darfur to the hinterland of the Cameroons on the other part. A fact to be noted in regard to their geographical distribution is that they have not yet reached any point on the coast of the Atlantic. They are especially numerous in the valleys of the Senegal and the Niger-Benue, as well as in Futa-Jallon and Darfur. The latter country is probably the primitive country of the Fulahs, whence they set out towards the west and the south; their migrations from the Senegal towards the east are of recent date and continue to the present day.

IV. _The Nigritians._--We include under this name all the Negro populations who do not speak the Bantu dialects; these populations exhibit as a rule the classic traits of the Negro: lofty stature (from 1 m. 70 among the Mandingans to 1 m. 73 among the Furs and the Wolofs, according to Collignon, Deniker, Felkin, Verneau, etc.), very marked dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. reaching from 73.8 among the Toucouleurs to 76.9 among the Ashantis, according to the same authors), black skin, woolly hair in a continuous mat, large and flat nose (nas. ind. varying from 96.3 among the Negroes of Tunis to 107.5 among the Ashantis), forehead bulging on the median line and often retreating, thick lips projecting outward, frequent prognathism. The territory of the various peoples composing the Nigritian group may be defined as follows: on the north, a wavy line which at first, going from the mouth of the Senegal to the great bend of the Niger, then deviates little from the fourteenth parallel going to the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Nile; on the south, the coast of the Gulf of Guinea to the Cameroons, then the mountain ranges of Adamawa and the seventh degree of latitude N., to the countries occupied by the peoples of the Fulah-Zandeh group, and farther to the east to the basin of the upper Nile. The latter constitutes the eastern limit, while to the west this limit is clearly indicated by the Atlantic Ocean.[507]

Among the Nigritians we also class the _Tibus_ or _Tedas_ of the country of Tibesti, which extends in the midst of the Sahara between the encampments of the Tuareg on the west and the Libyan desert on the east. But it is a population already much mixed with Berber and Arab elements.[508]

The Nigritian group maybe divided into four great sections: _a_, the Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian) or Nilotic Negroes; _b_, those of the Central Sudan (French), that is to say the Hausa-Wadai group, with the Tibu already mentioned; _c_, the Nigritians of the Western Sudan (French) and the Senegal; lastly, _d_, the Nigritians of the coast or _Negroes of Guinea_.

_a._ The _Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan_ or _Nilotic Negroes_ speak various dialects having a certain relationship, and brought together under the name of “Nilotic” languages. These populations are Negroes in every acceptation of the word, except the not uncommon instances where they are intermingled with the Ethiopians (chiefly in the east) or with the Arabo-Berbers (principally in the north). Thus the _Nuba_ and the _Funje of Fazokl_ are connected by several facial characteristics to the Ethiopians; they have besides even adopted a Hamitic dialect, just as the Negroes of Kordofan, intermixed with the Arabs, have exchanged their language for the Semitic mode of speech. The Negroes of Darfur (the _Furs_ or _Furava_ and the _Dajo_), of high stature, and very black (Nachtigal), are much purer; they speak a Nilotic-Negro dialect. In the west of the country they are mixed with the Fulahs, and Arab tribes surround them on all sides. The predominant race is descended from pure Arabs established first in Tunis, who achieved the conquest of Darfur only in the nineteenth century.[509] To the south-east of Darfur, separated from this country by the encampments of the _Bahr-el-Huer_ or _Bagarra_, Arabised Nilotes, dwell other Nilotics of a well-marked negro type. These are, first, the _Nuers_ of the right bank, and the _Shilluks_ (about a million) of the left bank of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from Mechra-et-Reg to Fashoda; then the _Dinka_, _Denka_, or _Jangha_ (about a million) of the low country watered by the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and by the Bahr-el-Jebel or Upper Nile. All these tribes are shepherds, sometimes also fishers or husbandmen.

The upper valleys of the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal are occupied by the _Bongo_ Negroes, divided into several tribes: _Moru_, _Mittu_, _Bongo_ (said to be steatopygous). Slightly blent with the Ethiopians, they have an almost red skin, of the colour of the soil of their country, impregnated with ore. They are accomplished smiths and good agriculturists. Between the Bongo of the west, the Dinkas of the north, and the Niloto-Ethiopian tribes like the _Latuka_ of the east, there are established in the country traversed by the Bahr-el-Jebel the Nilotic Negroes called _Bari_. As to the upper basin of the Bahr-el-Jebel, it is occupied by the _Madi_ (not to be confounded with the _A-Madi_ of the Welle), the _Shueli_ or _Shuli_ (whose speech connects them with the Shilluks), and the _Luri_, who are, like the Dinka and Shilluks, true representatives of the Negro race. Very tall and slim, they resemble, with their long limbs, the wading birds of the marshes whose approaches they inhabit; for the most part their head is elongated and compressed, the forehead retreating, their skin is black, and they are blubber-lipped; the face is the prognathous face of the Negroes, such as, in accordance with convention, they used generally to be represented. They are settled cattle-breeders and tillers of the soil.[510]

_b._ The _Nigritians of Central Sudan_ present almost the same type as the Nilotes. Such, for instance, are the Negroes of Wadai (the Tama, the Massalits) and of Baghirmi (the Barmaghé), or at least those among them who have remained free from intermixture, either with the Fulahs or the Arabs. As much cannot be said of the nomadic Tibu or Teda of Tibesti (p. 444), nor of their neighbours the Kanem, to the north of Lake Chad, and the Kanuri of Bornu and of the north of Adamawa, who closely resemble them, but who are tillers of the soil. The great nation of the Hausas prevails in the region situated between the Benue, Bornu, the middle course of the Niger, and Sahara (Sokoto, etc.); it extends even farther, into Adamawa. Their language has become the language of commerce in those parts of the country limited by the bend of the Niger, into which Fulah has not yet penetrated; it extends also into Bornu and Adamawa to the east, and into the country of the Mossi and the Kong to the west. The Hausa nation comprises a large number of peoples and tribes, with a greater or lesser Arab and Fulah intermixture, among whom also should probably be classed the Sara and their near relatives the Tumok between the Shari and the Logone. The Sara are distinguished by tall stature (average 1 m. 77, according to Maistre), very dark colour, and globular head (average cephalic index on the living subject, 82).[511]

_c. The Nigritians of Western Sudan and of Senegal._--This group, going from east to west, comprises: 1st, various mixed tribes, dwelling between the Niger and the basin of the upper Black Volta; 2nd, the Mandé or Mandingan peoples; 3rd, the Toucouleur; and, 4th, the Wolofs.

1st. The peoples living between the Hausa on the east and the Mandingans on the west are still little known, and seem to be much mixed. Quite to the north, in the bend of the Niger, below Timbuctoo, are found the Songhai or Sonrhays, who speak a language apart, and in the north are mixed with the Ruma “Moors,” emigrants from Morocco, and in the south with the Fulahs. To the south of their territory live the Tombo, partly speaking Mandé, and the Mossi, whose language also has affinities with Mandé. To the north of Wagadugu, the Mossi, interblent with the Fulahs, speak their language, while south of this town, they are of purer type and have a knowledge of the Hausa dialect. To the east of the Mossi, in the region of the sources of the White Volta, live the Gurma; while the upper basin of this river, as well as that of the Red Volta, is occupied by the Gurunga who previously formed the Grussi (or Gurunssi?)[512] state. Farther to the south, in the territory made neutral by a treaty between Germany and England, are found the Dagomba, the Mampursi, and their congeners the Gonja; these last, whose centre is at Salaga, have exchanged their primitive language for “Guang,” which appears to be a dialect of the Ashanti tongue (Binger). In commercial relations they employ also the Hausa and sometimes the Mandé and Fulah languages, just as do the Dagomba and the Gurunga. The _Bariba_, natives of Borgu, the hinterland of Dahomey, have affinities with peoples we have just enumerated.

(_Phot. Collignon._)]

2nd. The Mandé, Mandingan,[513] or better Mandénké (the word _nké_ signifying “people” in the Mandé language) form a compact linguistic group whose domain extends from the Senegal and Upper Niger to that portion of the West African coast comprised between Saint Louis and Monrovia. The domain of the Mandé language extends much farther to the east than the territory of the Mandénké peoples properly so called; it encircles Timbuctoo, the countries of the Gurma and the Diumma, where it competes with the dialect of the Fulahs, and encroaches even on the domain of the Dogomba and the Gonja (to the north of Salaga), where the Hausa speech prevails. The Mandénké properly so called includes a large number of tribes, which may be divided into two great clans: the Bamma or Bambara, whose “tenné” or totem is the crocodile, and the Malinké (hippopotamus totem). The Mandénké are Mussulmans, except the clan Bamma or Bambara of the basin of the upper Niger, which has remained fetichist. Related to the Mandénké, according to their dialects, are the _Soninké_ of the interior and many other populations of the coast of Senegal. The Soninké or Sarakolés[514] inhabit the right bank of the Senegal, above Matam and the margins of the Niger, and below the Bamako as far as the vicinity of Timbuctoo; they are crossed with the Torodo, Bambaras, and Fulahs. As to the populations of the coasts, the following, proceeding from north to south, are the chief.[515] First, the Diola,[516] between Casamanze and the Gambia, who have remained fetichist. They are tall (1 m. 70) and dolichocephalic (cephalic index, 74.5 according to Collignon and Deniker). The principal tribe, that of the Felups, has imposed its dialect on all the others. To the south of the Diola are the Balantes and the Bagnoris, a bellicose and turbulent people; the Papels, one of the tribes of which, the Mandjacks, is the most in harmony with its masters, the Portuguese; the Bujagos of the Bissagos islands; the Biafares, the Nalus, the Landumans, fetichists of Rio Nunez, having affinities with the Hausa; finally, the Baga of the Compong delta, half-savage fishers, fetichist like the two preceding, but of much fairer skin and more pacific.[517] To the south of the Pongo river are met the Sussus or Sossé (Fig. 140), driven from Futa-Jallon by the Fulahs. Their language is spoken fluently in French Guinea, and even among the Nalus and Landumans. To the south of Mellacory, in Sierra Leone, the Timni take the place of the Sussus; then come the Vei or Way, who extend as far as Monrovia; alone among Negroes, they appear to possess a special mode of writing. All the Mandé peoples bear a strong likeness to each other in physical type (high stature, 1 m. 70, dolichocephalic, colour black, etc.), and the different tribes are only to be distinguished by tattooings and other signs of an ethnographic kind, and by their dialects.[518]

3rd. The Toucouleur or Torodo, regarded by some as Fulahs intermixed with Wolofs (see below), inhabit the left bank of the Senegal, from Dagana to Medine. They are to be found also in the Segu Sikoro country and in the basin of the upper Niger, in the midst of the Soninké and Fulah shepherds, to whom these agricultural populations are subject. The Toucouleur are tall (1 m. 73), and very dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on living subject, 73.8).

4th. The Yolofs, Wolofs, or Jolofs of Lower Senegal, with their congeners the Leybu and the Serers of Lower Gambia, are perhaps the most black of all Negroes; these are distinguished by tall stature (1 m. 73, according to Collignon, Deniker, and Verneau), and by moderate dolichocephaly (index on the living sub., 75.2). Their language is very widespread in Senegal and Guinea, for they are good merchants as well as tillers of the soil.[519]

_d._ The Littoral Nigritians or Guineans occupy all the coast of Guinea from Monrovia to the Cameroons, and exhibit a great uniformity of physical type. Less tall, in general, than the Senegalese and the western Sudanese, the head is more elongated and the complexion fairer. Notwithstanding this uniformity, they are divided into several tribes, which, according to their linguistic affinities, may be grouped into five great sections.

1. First, the tribes speaking the various dialects of the Kru language--that is to say, Kru properly so called or Krumen, Bassa in Liberia, and Grebo in French Guinea (to the east of Cape Palmas).

The Kru are less tall (1 m. 69), less dark, but more hairy than the Senegalese; the head barely dolichocephalic (75.1 ceph. index on living subject).[520] Of all Negroes these are the best factory workers, the best man-of-war’s men and ordinary seamen. They are obedient, faithful, and courageous; they enter readily into engagements, and make a fair bargain. They retain in their hands a good part of the trade of their country.[521]

2. To the east of the Grebo, between San Pedro and Apollonia, live people speaking different dialects of the Agni language. These are the Assinians or Okin (stature, 1 m. 75), the Agni of Krinjabo or Sanwy (Fig. 9), the Apollonians or Zemma, the handsomest of the Negroes, who formerly furnished to Brazil its thousands of slaves; finally, the Pai-pi-bri, between San Pedro and Lahu, whom Admiral Fleuriot de Langle took for a white race. These Negroes are really of a bronzed tint, much fairer than, for example, the Okin. Other somatic traits (projecting nose, lips not thrust out, etc.), as well as ethnic traits (bark clothing, etc.), together with the recent arrival in the country of the Pai-pi-bri, have led it to be thought that they have a kinship with the Zandeh peoples.[522] Their neighbours to the east, the Jack-Jack or Jacks, live opposite Dabu, on a narrow tongue of land separating the lagoon from the sea; they call themselves Awekwom, and speak, like their Ebrié and Attié neighbours, a dialect of the Tshi language. They are excellent traders, nearly all knowing English.

3. But the Awekwom and their congeners form only a linguistic parish in the Agni country. The true domain of the populations speaking the languages of the Tshi or Ochi family begins only on the east of Apollonia. In the interior are encountered the Ashanti and Ton shepherds and tillers--that is to say in the ancient kingdom of Ashanti (now an English possession),--and the Fanti traders on the coast, in the region of Elmina.[523]

The Accredians of the coast, between the town of Accra and the mouth of the Volta, formed a mixed population whose language is not yet classed.

4. The Volta provides the approximate limit between the Tshi tongues and the Evé or Ewe dialects. The bulk of the people speaking Ewe occupy the German colony of Togo and the west of the French colony of Dahomey. In this group are distinguished six dialectic families: The Anlo or Anglo of the coast between the Volta and Togo, whose dialect is the best known; the Krépis, mountaineers of the Akposso, to the north of the preceding, who speak the Anfueh language; the Ana, of Atakpamé; the Fon or Fawins, better known as Dahomese, to the east of the Anlo and Krépis, who speak the Jeji or Jege dialect; the Ewe properly so called, or Henhué, to the north of the preceding, especially around the town of Wida (Glé-ewé, “land of the Ewes”); lastly, the Mahi or Maki, entirely to the north, speaking the purest Ewe dialect, and coming, as they say, from the banks of the Niger.[524]

_e._ The River Wami separates in the east the Ewes from the peoples speaking the Yoruba tongues, and who are, from west to east: the Egba or Ikba of the Abeokuta country, the Nago of Porto Novo, the Ikelu and the Jebu of Lagos. The Yoruba originally occupied all the region comprised between the Slave Coast and to about the ninth latitude N.; but they have been driven back towards the coast and into the east by the Ewe peoples, who, towards the beginning of the eighteenth century, invaded the present country of the Dahomese, and later (in 1772), the Togo and the ancient kingdoms of Porto Novo and Wida (formerly Juida). In this last the Jege or Fon (of Ewe stock) have imposed their dominion on the Nagos (of Yoruba stock). Most of the Nagos have been reduced to slavery; they, together with the Mina, emigrants from Ashanti, formed, while the slave-trade flourished, the bulk of the black cargoes consigned to Brazil.[525]

The Ewes and the Yorubas are shorter in stature (1 m. 64 and 1 m. 65) than Nigritians in general, and are often brachycephalic or mesocephalic. These two characters, combined with the comparatively fair colour of the skin, observed by all travellers, and the great development of the pilous system, are, I consider, sufficiently indicative of the presence in these people of Negrillo elements, of which I shall presently speak.[526]

The Protectorate of the Niger coast and the delta of this river are occupied by populations related to the Yorubas, but much intermixed. The Benin, in the interior, whose kingdom, where human sacrifices were much in vogue, has lately been destroyed by the English; then on the coast the active-trading Jakris tribe, the Bonky and the Calabaris, who formerly furnished so many slaves; finally, the Idzo or Ijos, of the delta of the Niger, divided into several tribes--Brass, Patani, etc., good ship-builders, but very turbulent,--who have attacked time after time the settlements of the Niger Company.[527] In the interior of the territory of this Company are found the Igbera, mountaineers, forming several independent little states (about a million and a half individuals) between Adimpa on the lower Niger and Sakun on the middle Niger, as well as on the Benue, and sub-divided into “Sima” of the towns and “Panda” of the forests. Their neighbours the Igara, speaking Yoruba, occupy the left bank of the Niger and lower Benue, where they are more or less subdued, while in the interior they remain wild hunters. In the Cameroons, the Bantu, like the Dualas and the Bakokos, have driven into hinterland the Bobondi, Buyala, and other Nigritian tribes.

V. _The Negrilloes._[528]--The pigmy black populations are dispersed over a large zone extending from three degrees north and south of the equator, across the entire African continent, from Uganda to the Gabun. The Akkas or Tiky-Tiky of the upper Nile and of the country of the Niam-Niam, the Afiffi of the country of the Momfu (between Kibali and Ituri), the Wambutti of the Ituri, the Watwa or Batua living to the south of the great curve of the Congo and the valleys of its tributaries on the right, the Chuapa-Bussera and the Lomami, the O-Bongo (plural Ba-Bongo), the Akua, the Achango of the French Congo, the Boyaeli and Bayago of the Cameroons, the Ba-Bengaye of Sanga, are the principal rings of this chain of dwarf peoples stretched between the region of the great lakes and the Atlantic ocean. But Negrilloes have also been noted outside these limits. Without stopping to consider the evidence of the traveller Mollien (1818), who speaks of dwarfs in the Tenda-Maië country, near the sources of the Niger, where modern explorers have never met with anything of the kind, we may, however, bring together a certain amount of serious testimony to the existence of dwarfs in the basin of the upper Kasai, as well as more to the east, as far as Lake Tanganyika, and lastly to the north of the Lakes Stefanie and Rudolf (English East Africa), near the borders of Kaffa, 7° latitude north, where pigmies have been described by older travellers under the name of Dogbo, and where, in 1896, they were indeed discovered by D. Smith. They call themselves Dumes, are about 1 m. 50 (4 ft. 11 in.) in height, and resemble other pigmy tribes. According to Schlichter, other tribes of short stature live more to the north, in Kaffa and Shoa: the Bonno, the Aro, and the Mala; these last two are probably the same tribes as those spoken of by the old explorers, D’Abadie and L. des Avranches, under the name of Areya and Maléa.

According to Stuhlmann, the populations of the upper basin of the Ituri are a blend of Pigmies with Bantus (the Vambuba, the Vallessi), or with Nilotes (the Momfu).

Several authors confound in one group of Pigmies the Negrilloes and the Bushmen. Nothing, however, justifies their unification. The colour of the skin in Bushmen is a fawn yellow, while in Negrilloes it is that of a chocolate tablet or of coffee slightly roasted; the hair of the former is black and tufted, while the hair of the latter is like extended fleece and often of a more or less light brown. The face of the Bushman is lozenge-shaped, the cheeks are prominent, and the eyes are often narrowed and oblique, which traits are not met with at all in Pigmies. Steatopygy (see p. 40-41), a special trait of the Bushman race, has not been noted among Negrilloes, except in individual cases among the women, and to a less degree than among Bushmen, as, for example, is proved by the two portraits of Akka women published by Stuhlmann. At the same time the profile of the sub-nasal space, always convex in the Akkas according to Stuhlmann, is often to be observed among Bushmen. Thus, therefore, a slight degree of steatopygy in individual cases and the profile of the sub-nasal space would be the sole characters connecting the two races. In support of this connection, shortness of stature has also been adduced.

At first sight this last appears feasible, but rigorous measurements on a sufficient number of subjects are still lacking. In the various series of Bushmen the figures vary from 1 m. 37 to 1 m. 57, and in those of Negrilloes from 1 m. 36 to 1 m. 51. These figures, however, are based on only from 3 to 6 individuals, except in three cases: a series of 50 Bushmen of Kalahari, measured by Schinz, which gives the average height as 1 m. 57--that is to say, the same as the Japanese or Annamese; another series of 30 Akkas (by Emin Pasha) giving an average height of 1 m. 36; and a third series of 98 Watwas (by Wolff) giving an average of 1 m. 42.[529] On comparing these three large series, the only ones deserving attention, a difference of 0 m. 18 (7 inches) in height in favour of Bushmen is shown. As to the cranial form, it varies also. Notwithstanding the paucity of documents, it may be said that the Negrilloes are, in general, sub-dolichocephalic or mesocephalic (average index of 9 living subjects, 79.7); while Bushmen are undoubtedly dolichocephalic (average index of 11 living men, 75.8). Let me add in conclusion that the Negrilloes are covered with a fairly thick down over the entire body (Emin Pasha, Yunker, Stanley, Stuhlmann), and that nothing analogous has been noted in Bushmen.

The Negrilloes live in the midst of other peoples (Bantus, Nilotes, etc.), either as isolated individuals (for the most part slaves) or in little groups (up to about 800 individuals), hidden in the deepest thickets. These little hunters have established a sort of _modus vivendi_ with the agricultural populations surrounding them: they exchange with them the produce of their chase, or of their gathering, for foods and objects in metal; they also pay for the protection of their powerful neighbours by doing service, for the benefit of the latter, as clearers of the forest, where it is a critical matter to meet them on account of their arrows, poisoned with the juice of a certain _Aroidea_, or with certain putrid animal matters derived especially from the ant. The bow and arrows which they use are the same as those of their protectors, only proportioned to their stature.

(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]

VI. The _Bantu group_ comprises the numerous peoples of Central and Southern Africa whose dialects form the Bantu linguistic family, without having any analogy with the Nigritian languages. They have all an agglutinative structure, and are especially characterised by the exclusive use of prefixes. Each principal prefix indicates an entire category of objects or ideas; such a prefix is _M’_, _Um_, or _Umon_ (according to dialect), denoting the singular; _Ba_, _Wa_, or _Va_, denoting the plural. Thus the root _Ntu_ (man) united to the prefix _Umon_ means “a man” (_Umon-Ntu_) and with the prefix _Ba_ “men” (_Ba-Ntu_). It is superfluous to say that physically the Bantus present a great variety of types. This is due especially to intermixture with the Negrilloes and Ethiopians to the north, and with the Bushmen-Hottentots to the south. Nevertheless, there may be discerned a probably primitive type, which, while being fundamentally Negro, yet is distinguishable from the Nigritian type. In this type the stature is generally not so high, the head less elongated, and prognathism also less; the median convexity of the brow often disappears, and the nose is more prominent and narrower.

We may divide the Bantus, according to their ethnographic and linguistic characters, into three large sections: western, eastern, and southern.

1. The territory occupied by the _Western Group_[530] covers almost exactly the south-east of the Cameroons, French Congo, Angola, and Belgian Congo, except those parts of these states situated to the north of the Congo. The Dwala (28,000 individuals, stature 1 m. 69; ceph. ind. 76.2, according to Zintgraff) and the Bakunda of the Cameroons, relatively civilised, are found up to the point of junction of the Bantu and Nigritian peoples, where the African coast changes its westerly direction and becomes nearly north by south. Like their neighbours of the south, the Mungos or Minihé of the north-west, and the Balongs, who live in large phalansteries, they are intermixed with Nigritian elements. East of the Dwala are found the Basas and the Bakoris; these last are notable for their spirit of solidarity, for the practice of the taboo and worship of ancestors. From the somatic point of view, a great difference is to be observed among them in the stature of men and women. Like the _Dwala_, they use the drum language (see p. 134). The _M’Fan_ or _Fang_, called _Pahuins_[531] by the Negroes of the Gabun, occupy the country situated between the 3rd degree of N. latitude and the Ogowe, and its right tributary the Ivindo. But it is probable that their habitat extends farther to the east, for the _Botu_, whom Mizon had met with in the basin of the Sanga, appeared to be of the same race. The Fans touch the sea-board of the Atlantic only at a few points. With the _Gabunese_ (_Benga_, _Kumbé_, etc.) and the _M’Pongwes_ of the coast (whose language, which is very rich, has been adopted by other tribes), they form almost the whole of the population of French Congo to the north of the Ogowe. It is supposed that the Fans, certain traits and manners and customs of whom recall the Zandeh, have immigrated quite recently, perhaps at the end of the last century, into their present region, coming from Upper Ubangi, where the Zandeh tribes live (see p. 441).

In the valley itself of Low Ogowe are found the _Baloa_ or _Galois_, and, farther to the south, between the Muni and Sette Camma, the _Bakalai_ or _Bahélé_ (about 100,000 according to Wilson), former nomads, who have become carriers and merchants. Ascending the Ogowe are met successively the _Apingi_, the _Okanda_, the _Aduma_, the _Okota_, etc. All these tribes speak the same language as the islanders of Corisco, and are for the most part very tall and dolichocephalic (average stature of the Okandas 1 m. 70, and ceph. ind. on the living sub., 74.2, according to Deniker and Laloy). But there are met with also among them tribes like the Aduma, who on the contrary are short (1 m. 59) and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 80.8, according to the same authorities), which indicates intermixtures with the Negrillo race, represented in the vicinity by the Obongos or Ashangos to the east (Du Chaillu), and by the Akoas to the west (Touchard and Dybowski). The Adumas, who are slave merchants (Guiral), are good boatmen. To the south of Bakel, in the basins of the coast rivers, Rembo, Nyanga, etc., are found the _Balumbo_, the _Bavili_, on the coast, and the _Ashira_ in the interior. The basin of the lower Kuilu or Niari is occupied partly by _Mayombé_ and the _Loango_ (height 1 m. 65, ceph. ind. 77.5), mixed tribes, who are dispersed equally over the coast from the river Nyanga to the north to Landana to the south.