Chapter XI: Races and Peoples of Africa (2)

As to the upper basin of the Niari, it is inhabited by the _Bakuni_ or _Bakunghé_ to the north, and by the _Bakamba_ (height 1 m. 69, according to Maistre) to the south. These populations resemble the Loangos and somewhat also the _Kacongo_ (height 1 m. 65, ceph. ind. 75.6, according to Zintgraff). Farther to the south are the _Basundo_, savages with, it is said, red hair, and the _Babembé_ (height 1 m. 72, according to Maistre) and the _Babuendi_, recognisable by the tattoo of a crocodile on the breast, who people the right bank of the Congo from the mouth to Brazzaville. Among their neighbours the _Bacongo_ or _Bafyot_, who thickly populate the opposite bank, the influence of the old Portuguese Christians is still to be recognised in many spots by processions with the crucifix, but the supreme god has become feminine, having relation both to the Virgin Mary and to the “Earthmother of All.”[532] This goddess, called Nzambi, is the principal personage of a trinity, the other members of which are a son, and a third spirit, Deisos. The Bacongo have also as an institution popular guardians of justice (p. 253), whom they call _pagasarios_. Above Brazzaville, on the right bank of the Congo, as far as Bolobo, are met various _Bateke_ tribes, distinguished by their short stature (1 m. 64), marked dolichocephaly (73.6, according to Mense), powerful trunk, and tattoo marks of several rows of parallel strokes on the cheeks. They extend to the west as far as 10° long. E, and occupy to the north all the basin of the upper Alima. The _Batekes_, who, with their neighbours the _Baboma_ and the anthropophagous _Ballali_, were the first to submit to French dominion, are travellers and, though practising anthropophagy, a temperate people. The _Ashikuya_ of the region of the sources of the Nkheni, neighbours of the _Batekes_, are celebrated as the best weavers of the Congo. The lower valley of the Alima, as well as the right bank of the Congo as far as the mouth of the Ubangi and even above, are occupied by the _Bangi_, _Bubangis_, or _Bapfuru_ (height, 1 m. 73, according to Maistre), differing from other tribes by their mode of head-dress and their tattoo: a large swelling of flesh on each temple and on the middle of the brow. Their number is estimated at about a million.[533] North of the Bangis, between the Congo and the Ubangi, live their congeners the _Baloi_ and the _Bonjos_, veritable athletes and proved to be cannibals (Dybowski). The river M’Poko, which enters the Congo opposite the town of Bangi, marks to the north the limit of the Bonjos, as of the Bantus generally of this part of Africa. Their immediate neighbours to the north, the Bandziris, are more like the Zandeh than the Bantus.

To the south of the Congo the various Bantu tribes are still little known.[534] On the coast, between the mouth of the Congo and the Kunene, the collective name of Angolese is given to various much-intermingled tribes: _Mushikongo_ (1 m. 66, ceph. ind. 72.5), _Kiamba_, _Kissama_, _Mondombé_ (plural, _Bandombé_; 1 m. 67, ceph. ind. 76.8), _Bakissé_ (1.66, 75.5), etc. The mountainous region situated more to the east--that is to say, Bangala, the basin of the Kulu, the left tributaries of the Kasai (ancient kingdom of Muata-Yamvo), the region of the source of the Zambesi--is inhabited by populations who have preserved the Bantu type in purer form. These are, starting from the south, the _Ganguela_, occupying the table-land bordered on the east by the upper valley of the Kwando, on the south by the right tributaries of the Zambesi, and on the west by the Mubungo tributary of Lake Ngami; they are excellent smiths, supplying articles in iron to their neighbours, who are the _Amboella_, the _Kimbandé_, and the _Kioko_ or _Akioko_. These last, scarcely thirty-five years ago, taking up a position to the east of the Ganguelas, have to-day advanced to the 10th degree of S. latitude, into the western part of Muata-Yamvo. But the basis of the population of this ancient kingdom is constituted by the _Lunda_ tribes, whose territory extends from the Kwango (affluent of the Kasai) to lakes Bangweolo and Moero. They occupy the basin of the Kasai (_Kalunda_), the swampy plains to the east of the upper Zambesi (the _Balunda_, the _Lobalé_), and are distinguished by their peaceable habits and hospitality. Their women enjoy a certain freedom.

The _Baluba_, who form an important nation, occupy the territory between the Kasai, the chain of the Mitumba mountains and the 6th degree of S. latitude. They appear to have many analogies with the Lunda. Of tall stature (1 m. 70), their head is more globular and complexion less dark than with most Negroes (ceph. ind. 79, according to Wolff). The original country of these tribes is the upper basin of the Congo. Many of the Baluba are mixed with the _Bashilange_ aborigines who dwell between the middle valley of the Kasai and that of its right affluent, the Lulua, and form a separate population, relatively civilised, who emigrate as far as the Congo, where they become engaged as carriers. These are a lively people; the head is slightly elongated (stature, 1 m. 68, cephalic index 76.9, according to Maistre). About 1870 they underwent a politico-religious revolution and introduced the hemp or “Riamba” cult, in accordance with which all the smokers of Riamba declare themselves friends, the duty of mutual hospitality is acknowledged, the sale of girls interdicted, etc. Crimes are punished by excessive administrations of the drug, which in the end stupefy the criminal (Pogge, Wolff). Their neighbours to the north, the Bakuba of the great bend of the Sankuru, who speak a different language, are more sedentary and busy themselves in trade and the cultivation of their fields, with the assistance of Negrilloes who live among them. The Basongo, their neighbours to the north, are redoubtable man-eaters.

All these populations, who, as we have seen, are characterised by stature above the average and by moderate dolichocephaly, are distinguished also by fairer complexion than their neighbours the Bantus of the Congo (Maistre, Serpa Pinto, Deniker and Laloy). The region they hold has frequently (from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century) been invaded by the “Djaga,” armed bands in the service of certain families of the Balunda people. The invaders intermingled with the aboriginal race, which is probably allied to the Bushmen and Hottentots; at least, there are till now to be met with in the country individuals of very pure Bushman type, above all among the Kiokos.

The populations to be found between the great bend of the Congo and the 5th degree of south latitude, known collectively as the Mongo or Balolo, and Bayombe, seem to possess traits intermediate between the Lunda and the natives of French Congo. They are degenerate tribes. Such cannot be said of the Bayanzi of the right bank of the Congo, between Bolobo and Lake Tumba, nor of the Banga, between the Congo and the Ubangi, who are very alert, active, and intelligent. Their mode of head-dress, in which the hair is plaited into horns, is entirely characteristic.

Most of the western Bantu of French Congo and Congo Free State wear ornaments in the lips, file or pull out the incisor teeth, tattoo, and build small square dwellings.[535]

_b._ The group of _Eastern Bantus_ includes numerous tribes often having an intermixture of Ethiopian blood, and ranging from the region of the sources of the Nile to 15° S. latitude, between the east coast of Africa and the great lakes. German ethnographers distinguish among them the _ancient_ and _modern_ Bantus, according to their immigration from the south or north (see p. 429). On the coast, between Cape Delgado and Port Durnford, the Bantus are interblent with the Arabs and form a compound population speaking the Kiswahili language.[536] This Bantu dialect has, owing to the simplicity of its structure, become the _lingua franca_ of almost the entire region occupied by the eastern Bantus. To the west of the Swahili live, in Unyamwesi and the surrounding countries, the Usambara and the Unyamwesi, belonging to the “ancient Bantus,” and having, like them, migratory tendencies towards the north.

As to the _Bantus of the Lake Region_, the tribes of which are dispersed between the south of Unyoro and Lake Tanganyika, they are not more free from intermixture. But they speak the dialect derived from that primitive Bantu language, “Kirundi,” or “Kikonjo,” which to-day is preserved in its original purity only in a narrow tract of some fifty kilometres, extending from the foot of Mount Ruwenzori to the northern extremity of Lake Tanganyika. Mixed with Nilotes in Unyoro, with Wahuma Hamites elsewhere, the language of these “ancient Bantus” was adopted by their conquerors. The most southern tribe of this group is that of the Makua, who extend to 16° S. latitude. The tribes who people Uganda (to the north-west of Lake Victoria Nyanza) have probably sprung from the same stock, but speak a different language.

The peoples speaking Bantu to be met with south of Kilima Njaro, on the Iramba table-land, the Wakamba, Wataita, Wakaguru, and Wagogo, are Hamito-Bantus who have adopted the manners and customs of the Masai. These “Bantus of recent immigration” have come from the north-east, from the country of the Gallas, where their remaining fellows are still to be found under the name of Wapokompo in the upper valley of the Tsana, and Watakosho, speaking Galla, near Lake Rudolf. Among the eastern Bantus are provisionally classed the Wavira, who perforate the lips like the western Bantus; the Wahuma, who are of Ethiopian type; and the other tribes who dwell between the middle Congo and the lakes, from the equator to 5° lat. S., who are also called Waregga (People of the Forest). These are cannibals who have come from the south-west; their language differs from that of their neighbours, the Manyuema, who are of Ethiopian type. The tribes living to the south of the Ituri valley, the Wambuba, the Wallessi, etc., appear to be a hybrid of Negrilloes and Bantus.

The group of _Southern Bantus_[537] is composed of Kafir-Zulus to the east, of Bechuana to the centre, and of Herrero to the west. The Zulus (Fig. 47), of which the most southern tribe or “Ama,” the Amaxosa or Kafirs (Fig. 135), live in the eastern part of Cape Colony, and have of recent times advanced towards the north, far from the country of their origin, up to the region of Usagara. Among the chief Zulu tribes should be noted the Banyai, the Bakalaka, the Baronga, the Swazi (Fig. 142), and the Tonga, between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal; the “Ama” Mpondo of Pondo, the “Ama” Tembu of Kafirland; the Makong, neighbours of the Shinia (Foa) on the banks of the middle Zambesi, etc. Except these Kafirs, who have a special language, all the other Zulus speak the Takesa tongue.

The Bechuana, separated from the Zulus by the chain of the Drakensberg Mountains, are infused more or less with Hottentot blood; they are divided into _Eastern Bechuana_ or _Basuto_, among whom Bantu traits predominate, and the _Western Bechuana_ or _Bakalahari_, who show a more marked intermixture of Hottentot elements. To the north of the Bechuanas, in the upper basin of the Zambesi, live the Barotsé, a people related to the Zulus, of which one tribe is known as the Mashona. Finally, two other Bantu tribes extend to the south of the Kunene, surrounding the table-land inhabited by the Hill Damaras or Haw-Koîn (see below); these are the Ovambo or Ovampo, tillers of the soil (over 100,000), to the north between 16.30° and 20° lat. S., and the Ova-Herrero or Damara shepherds, of a fine Bantu type, to the west and south.

(_Coll. Anthr. Inst. Great Britain._)]

Physically the Zulus are of high stature (1 m. 72, according to Fritsch) and dolichocephalic (average ceph. ind. of 86 skulls 73.2, according to Fritsch, Hamy, and Shrubsall). They have these traits in common with the Nigritians,[538] but they are not so dark as the latter, and are less prognathous. The face also is square and the nose prominent, although somewhat coarse.

(_Phot. Coll. Anthr. Soc., Paris._)]

VII. The Bushmen-Hottentots[539] probably occupied formerly the whole of South Africa from the 15th degree of south latitude to the Cape of Good Hope. Hardly pressed for three centuries by Bantus in the east and north, and for a century by Europeans in the south, they are reduced to-day to a few thousands of families, wandering or sedentary, in the uncultivated country of Namaqualand, in the desert of Kalahari, and in some points of the hinterland of the Cape. To the north of 18° S. latitude are found only a few islets of Hottentots, and towards the south they are no longer met with in compact groups within sixty miles from the coast. To the east, their habitat is limited at about 23° longitude E. of Greenwich. And further, we must gather within these limits the territory between the Herrero country and 18° S. lat. of the Hill Damaras or Haw-Koin, who, although speaking a Hottentot dialect, possess a quite special physical type; they are notably much darker than the Hottentots, and recall rather the Negroes of Guinea. They are miserable savages who live by hunting and plunder.

In addition to the Hill Damaras there are to be noted in the group of which we are treating: 1st, the Naman, called Hottentots by Europeans (modification of the Dutch word “hüttentüt,” meaning of little sense, stupid), inhabiting the west of the territory we have just defined (Fig. 24); 2nd, the San (“Sab” in the masculine singular), called “Bosjesmen” or “Bushmen” by Europeans, in the east of this territory (Fig. 143). It should be remarked, however, that the word Bosjesman (in Dutch, “man of the bush”) is often applied to Hottentot populations, or to Hottentot-Bushmen like, for instance, the mixed breeds of Namaqualand who speak a Hottentot dialect. In certain works the name Koi-Koin is applied to the whole group before us. This is incorrect, for the Koi-Koin, or better, the Hau-Khoin, are no other than a Hottentot tribe, just as are the Nama, Gorana, and others (about 20,000).

There are numerous likenesses between the San and the Naman, who are both representatives of the Bushman race[540] (see pp. 287 and 455), but there are also numerous differences. The Hottentot language is of the same stock as that of the Bushmen; and both are characterised by the presence of certain articulations known as “clicks.” But the Hottentot dialects, which closely resemble each other, possess four palato-dental clicks, while the Bushmen dialects, differing much from each other, have besides these four clicks another guttural click, as well as a certain articulation which is not effected by inhalation as are the clicks proper, but by rapid and repeated expirations made between the two half-opened rows of teeth.

The two peoples differ equally in manners and customs. Let it suffice to recall that the Bushmen live in the woods and are nomadic hunters, who do not practise circumcision, but whose custom it is to cut the finger-joints in sign of mourning. (See pp. 181, 204, 211, and 228 for other particulars.) The Hottentots, on the contrary, are nomadic shepherds; they live in the steppes, practise circumcision, and are unacquainted with the custom of ablation of the phalanges. Besides, they have lost all ethnic individuality; they dress in the European fashion, speak Dutch or English, and live like the white colonists. Children born of marriages between Hottentots and Europeans are called “Bastards,” a title which in Africa is not regarded as discreditable.

VIII. The population of the island of Madagascar[541] may be divided into three great groups: the Hovas in the middle, the Malagasies of the east coast, and the Sakalavas of the rest of the island. There is further to be noted the Arab infusion, especially on the north-east and south-east coast.

The Hovas, or better, Huves, who occupy the high table-land of Imerina (from which comes their true name, “Anta-Imerina”[542]) are Indonesians more or less intermixed with Malay stock; their skin is olive-yellow, their hair straight or slightly wavy, their eyes sometimes narrow; their stature is short, their head globular, the nose prominent and somewhat sharp (Fig. 144).[543] They preserve many manners and customs Indonesian in character--their square houses on piles, sarong, instruments of music, _fadi_ or _taboo_ for diet, infanticide, polygamy, canoe with balance-pole, cylindrical forge bellows, form of sepulture, etc. A half-civilised people, they are tillers of the soil, shepherds, and traders. The Sakalavas, on the contrary, are almost pure Bantu Negroes, black, dolichocephalic, of high stature, with frizzy hair and flat noses. They have preserved some features of Negro life (palavers, fetichism, etc.), but are adopting more and more the mode of life of the Hovas or the Malagasies. These last present traits intermediate between the two groups; of chocolate-brown complexion, with frizzy hair, of medium height, they have other features so modified as to recall sometimes the Hovas, sometimes the Sakalavas.

The Hovas arrived in Madagascar only seven or eight centuries ago (Grandidier), and succeeded in subjugating the Sakalavas and the mixed populations. Up to the period of the French occupation (1896) they were masters of the island, with the exception of the west coast and some points in the south. They have imposed their language on the subjugated populations, and all the peoples of the island, notwithstanding their diversity of origin, of type, and of manners and customs, speak Malagasy, which is a dialect of the Maleo-Polynesian linguistic family with some intermixture of Bantu elements.

It is supposed that before the advent of the Hovas other Malay and Indonesian incursions took place in the island, though nothing certain is known in regard to this; that the arrival of the Negroes was due to their own action is problematical, notwithstanding the relative nearness (250 miles) of the coast of Mozambique, the notorious incapacity of the Negroes as navigators being taken into account. It is possible that the Negroes were introduced into the island entirely by the Maleo-Indonesians, who have always been good seamen. The Arab invasions date back hardly five or six centuries.

The constitution of Hova society up till recently was divided into nobles (_Andriana_), freemen (_Hovas_), and slaves (_Andevo_). The abolition of Royalty and slavery, after the French occupation, have to a certain extent modified this hierarchy. For thirty years converts to Protestantism, at bottom the Hovas are very indifferent in religious matters, but cling to their ancient animistic beliefs. To the Hovas should be joined the Betsileo, who live to the south of the Imerina table-land; they are not of such pure race as the Hovas, while they are less intermixed than are the Malagasies.

Among these last must first be distinguished the populations of the coast: the Betsimasaraka and the Antambahoaka to the north of the 20th degree of S. latitude; the Antaimoro, the Antaifasina, the Antaisaka, and the Antanosi to the south of this latitude; then the population of the interior: the Antsihanaka to the north of Imerina, the Bezanozano in the centre of the island, the Antanala or Tanala, and the Bara and Antaisara to the south.

The Betsimasaraka are dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. 76.3, according to Collignon and Deniker), and of stature below the average (1 m. 64). The Antambahoaka and the Antaimoro claim an Arab origin, but they hardly differ from the other Malagasies; they are rather backward in culture and emigrate from their country readily, but with the idea of returning. The Antaifasina (who number about 200,000) have close affinities with the Antaisaka, their warlike neighbours on the coast, in closer proximity to Vangaindrano; both have many customs of Arab-Mussulman origin, and are connected, according to all probability, with the Bara tribe. This last lives inland, to the south of Betsileo, side by side with the Antaisara, said to be true savages, but among whom are nevertheless observed signs of Arab blood (Scott Eliott). The Antanosi are grouped round Fort Dauphin, but some of this tribe has emigrated to the interior, extending as far as the neighbourhood of the west coast, where it has assimilated the customs of the Bara people. As a race the Antanosi are less negroid than the other Malagasies, and recall rather the Betsimasaraka. They have curly or almost smooth hair (Catat), and complexion of light chestnut. They are a peaceable and intelligent people, of cleaner habits than the other Malagasies. Like most of the tribes of the south of Madagascar, even the Sakalavas (as, for example, the Antavandroi), they wear garments of matting plaited with straw, except on the coast, where European fabrics have now replaced the native garments.

(_Phot. Collignon._)]

The Sakalava tribes are numerous. The best known are the Menabe, Milaka, Ronondra, and Mahafali. In the north of the island the Sakalavas are mixed with the Betsimasaraka, and form the Antankar or Antankara people, wild shepherds and tillers of the soil, recalling the Bantus; their centre is at Diego-Suarez. In the south, blended with the Bara, they enter into the composition of the Antandroy population (about 20,000), almost savage, who depend largely for sustenance on the cactus berries of their sterile country, live by cattle-raising, and have many manners and customs borrowed from the Bara.