Chapter VI: Part 6

Houses and utensils have not been subject to change in the same degree as clothes, and thus they have preserved the same forms as were observed by the earliest travellers in Bornu and which were so fully described, especially by Nachtigal.[372] In all villages or the suburbs of towns one finds round huts with conical roofs of the shape usual throughout the Sudan. The substructure consists either of mud walls or of a wooden framework covered with matting, the roof of various material usually furnished by the stalks of whatever grain is to be had locally. On the topmost point of the roof, which is generally thickly overgrown with gourd tendrils, is often fixed an ostrich egg as a symbol of fertility.[373] In the towns there are houses usually of one rarely of two stories of rectangular design with thick walls of sun-dried brick or mud and the flat roofs customary throughout the East. The majority of these houses stand in a compound formed by mud walls, which render it impossible to see into them from outside. The dwellings of all men of rank are built in this style, as also are the mosques which have no minarets. The bare outer walls are generally without any ornament, only the party-walls and square pillars of the houses of the great are decorated with a fresco of paint in three colours.[374] Only such material as is found in the country is employed in house-building, viz. wood, mud—often mixed with cow-dung—and mats of various kinds.[375] In spite of their apparent solidity the mud houses nevertheless do not afford the same protection against the ravages of the rainy season as the huts with conical roofs, which carry off the water better.

The villages, in which the round hut predominates, are as a rule open; on the other hand, places whose importance is expressed externally by the prevalence of massive buildings are surrounded by a more or less considerable mud wall, the inside of which is buttressed by sort of stairs leading upwards, and which can even be arranged for the reception of cannon.[376] No town of any size is without a ‘dendal’, or High Street, which, apart from the market, is the centre all day long of life and activity. The internal arrangement of the houses is extraordinarily simple and is without much comfort, being generally confined to round huts filled with household furniture, among which the most prominent utensils are tastefully ornamented calabashes and carefully plaited grass dish-covers.

Amongst the employments which fill up the daily life of the Kanuri, and in which is almost universally recognized to an extensive degree the principles of the division of labour and the separation of professions, the most prominent are those connected with the operations of agriculture,[377] whose sole implement throughout the country is the hoe, and the breeding of cattle. The Kanuri devote special attention to their market-gardens—this care is also displayed by some of the other tribes of Bornu—and thus render it possible in the dry season by means of artificial irrigation to make use of the soil and produce vegetables of all sorts. These market-gardens, of numberless small shapes, have rectangular beds lying parallel to each other, which—like the moulds of a blast-furnace—are connected by channels and are irrigated by means of hydraulic contrivances from deep wells, in constructing which the Kanuri are past-masters,[378] or from the surviving pools of the dried-up rivers.[379]

The Kanuri wealth in cattle is in some places extraordinarily large, and the great attention which they pay especially to their horses is a peculiarity unmistakably inherited from their Arabic or Hamitic tribal ancestors. In harmony with this is the great love of animals displayed by the Kanuri, which forms a sympathetic trait in their character, and which is caused by their often being engaged in capturing and taming wild animals.[380] The herds of cattle, some of which are employed as pack-animals, supply the Kanuri first and foremost with milk, which is never made use of in its fresh state, but not until it has been curdled by the admixture of cow’s urine.[381] Even the butter, which the Kanuri everywhere know how to make, always has the fatal aftertaste of this unpleasant addition to the milk.

Fishing is eagerly carried on in the rivers with small nets, the fisherman being supported above the water by two hollow calabashes connected by a stick—these are also used for the manufacture of rafts.[382]

Whilst both men and women share in agricultural work, the manufacture of industrial products, as for example even the artistic embroidering of the short bodices worn by the women,[383] is almost entirely confined to men. The two commonest industries are those of textile products and leather. The former obtains its raw material from the rich cotton farms of the country; the thread made from this cotton is first manufactured into strips as broad as a man’s palm, in which state it is already an article of value, and these are then sewn together to form various kinds of garments. The dyeing of these garments and the embroidering of them in tasteful designs is, especially in the large towns, a common branch of industry. From the hides of slaughtered cattle[384] the Kanuri know how to produce excellent morocco leather generally of a red colour, which is then manufactured in the country itself into durable and beautifully patterned articles, such as cushions, travelling bags, and cartridge-belts, as well as riding-boots, slippers, and so forth. A not insignificant rôle is also played by the products of the salt- works[385]—which article is also partly obtained from the ashes of salt- producing plants[386]—and those of the smiths, who although obliged to obtain most of the raw material for their craft from other countries, yet have even ventured on the casting of cannon.[387]

The products of agriculture and industry are only sold privately to a small extent, but they are objects of the liveliest barter in the markets of the towns and the larger villages. Here the various kinds of merchandise can each show their special quarter, which at the same time serves as a workshop for many industrial products. Under the superintendence of a special functionary, the ‘Maisuk’,[388] and in the presence of numerous auctioneers and brokers, there is displayed in the market, especially at midday, an almost international conglomeration and an unparalleled crowd, which better than anything else shows the quick commercial instincts of the Kanuri people. They have here an opportunity to bring into play their mercantile inclinations, though these, indeed, are even to-day still united with that unreliability and faithlessness—even among the higher ranks—of which we hear complaints as early as Leo Africanus.[389]

On the other hand, the military spirit—as is sufficiently proved by the history of the last few years—has disappeared more and more. Already Denham was able to describe the Kanuri as an unwarlike nation.[390] Even the numbers of the army have steadily declined. Whilst Vogel still speaks of an army of 22,000 horse and 10,000 foot as having advanced into the Musgu country,[391] the numbers to-day would not amount to the half of this for the whole of the territory inhabited by Kanuri. The stimulating effect of the military spirit of Rabeh’s troops was only temporary; the only things that have remained permanent are externals, such as the ‘fantasia’ which Sanda, the Sultan of German Bornu, holds even at the present day at his capital of Dikoa on every Friday and at every Mohammedan festival; on these occasions large quantities of powder are blazed away and all the pomp at his command is displayed. Together with the disappearance of the military spirit has dwindled more and more the power and influence of the ‘Koganawa’ or higher officials, as well as that of the ‘Kachellas’ or military commanders, whose position to-day consists of little more than the title, which in long past times was far more important than at present. Moreover, with the partition of Bornu between England, France, and Germany, the old Sultanate automatically ceased to exist. The Sultans, who formerly stood in a subject relation to Bornu, such as those of Gulfei, Kusseri, Logone, and Mandara, are to- day on a perfect equality with the Shehu of Dikoa, the descendant of the last Bornu dynasty, so that all distinction between them has disappeared.

Of the Hamitic tribes settled in Bornu Proper who have contributed to the formation of the Kanuri race, only the Kanembu, the inhabitants of Kanem,[392] are still to be met with along a narrow strip of the south- west shore of Chad. But the traces in Bornu of an older race, which Barth asserts were distinguishable in his day, have now been lost.[393] Even the characteristic shields of ‘ambach’ wood[394] can to-day scarcely be still considered as a peculiarity of the Kanembu, as Nachtigal thought,[395] since they are also found in use by the Kanuri and Shuwa Arabs of the villages on the south bank of Chad, which often show a very varied mixture of tribes.

To the tribes settled in Bornu before the advent of the Kanuri belong a whole string who were absorbed in the conquering people and lost their own characteristics, but there are others who retained their individuality and who can still be distinguished from the former even at the present day.

The largest and most important tribe is that of the Masa in Western and South-Western Bornu, to whom both Barth and Nachtigal devoted an exhaustive linguistic study; with them are to be reckoned the Makari or Kotoko, the islanders of Lake Chad, the Gamerghu, the Mandara or Wandala, and the Musgu.[396]

Among the smallest of these are the Mohammedan Gamerghu—who even in Barth’s time had been for the most part extirpated[397]—whose villages are scattered along the middle Yedseram in Kanuri country, and who thus have very little chance of bringing into play their tribal peculiarities. Very important, however, on one ground or another, is the rôle that has been played in former times by all the other branches of the Masa.

The Makari or Kotoko and the Logone people, who can scarcely be distinguished from them, are the most civilized of these, although in Barth’s time their Mohammedanism was not more than sixty years old.[398] These tribes inhabit the great flooded district between the Shari, the Logone, and the connecting system of canals somewhat north of the eleventh parallel of latitude. They are more heavily built even than the Kanuri, appear to be of a more serious and steadier nature than that frivolous people—a quality, however, which inclines them to listen to the call of witchcraft—and on that account seem to be more trustworthy and more energetic. The rest of their mode of life corresponds to their greater solidity of character. This is shown even in the building of their townships.[399] Manifold are the forms of the massive often two- storied mud buildings, which have a pleasing appearance owing to the changing shapes of the doorways and windows and the crenellated edges of the thick walls decorated with turrets. The numerous nooks and corners of the narrow lanes and the high walls with their very narrow gateways make up a whole that reminds one, in towns such as Affade, Gulfei, Kusseri, and Logone (Karnak), of the ramifications of a castle of the Middle Ages.

Where so civilized a spirit finds expression it is natural that industries should be prominently developed; so besides excellent woven fabrics one meets all over the country with extraordinarily fine basket- work; in fact the Logone baskets, plaited in three-coloured patterns, are amongst the most beautiful industrial products of the Central Sudan. But besides this agriculture receives the most careful attention; the population is generally pretty thickly distributed and needs an unusually large quantity of food which will grow in a small space.[400] Of the species of grain found in Bornu, maize is here especially cultivated and certainly with great care. Moreover, along the many water-courses of the country the fisheries are very important, a branch of employment that soon makes itself very noticeable by the strong smell of fish offal in the towns. The people who live along those rivers that always contain flowing water have been compelled to develop a form of navigation of the highest interest. Their roomy barges with long beak- shaped prows and flat bottoms, which Dominik compares with the dahabeas of Egypt, are cleverly built of broad planks, and are moved forward by oars as broad as a man’s hand or by long poles.[401] Besides this, smaller canoes are also employed which are manufactured from hollowed out tree-trunks. In dress the Kotoko and Logone people differ from the Kanuri principally in the fact that the tobe is hardly at all worn any longer, much more prevalent is the East Sudan dervish dress; their weapons, on the other hand, do not appear to have any obvious differences.

Amongst the allied tribes, the Mohammedan Wandala or Mandara have to suit their habits of life to some extent to the mountains[402] which border their country on the south, and which owe their name—not a very distinctive one—to this tribe; whilst the islanders of Lake Chad, partly intermixed with Kanembu and other tribes, are the embodiment of a people living half in and half out of the water. They, too, are for the greater part Mohammedan[403] and fall into two great subdivisions.[404] The Yedina[405] or Budduma inhabit the northern and larger part of the Chad archipelago, the Kuri the smaller and southern. Whilst the former build big barges singularly resembling those of the Shari, besides possessing also smaller vessels made of ‘ambach’ wood, the means of transport used by the Kuri, though here there is a close imitation of the barges used on the Shari,[406] are nothing more than a canoe-shaped bundle of ‘ambach’ stems.[407] Bigger logs of this light material, which every man—Kuri as well as Budduma—carries with him on his hunting and raiding expeditions,[408] enable them to cross in very convenient fashion even those places where the water indeed has disappeared, but where mud a yard deep forms a dangerous hindrance to traffic. This means of locomotion, excellently adapted to the constantly shifting distribution of the waters of the lake, at any time difficult of access, may have been an inducement towards the propensity for robbery of the Chad islanders, although they have sufficient resources in their own fields and herds, and the abundance of game[409] and fish. Even if they are in friendly commercial intercourse with one or other of the villages on the banks, still the dwellers in Lake Chad as a whole correspond to what the Tuaregs are for the country to the north of the River Yo; in fact, the ‘pirates of the Chad’[410] are scarcely less audacious than the dreaded robber bands of the Southern Sahara.[411]

Of the tribes belonging to the Masa, the pagan Musgu people doubtless deserve our chief attention, firstly, on account of their numerically large population, and secondly, also on account of their interesting national customs, which furnish ethnographers with many hints for connecting them with the tribes of the watershed between the Shari and the Congo, and even with the dwellers farther south. Among these characteristics belongs especially the use of the throwing-iron, a weapon which is found far within the Congo basin and takes the place of bow and arrow.[412]

Inhabiting the flooded country of the Shari and Logone, south of the eleventh degree and the most fruitful stretches of these lowlands at that, the Musgu have been able to preserve their characteristics almost unchanged in contrast to the uniformity of those of Islam. The coarse features of the otherwise well-formed Musgu people are rendered still more unattractive by the use of lip-disks—similar to the wooden disks worn by many Indian tribes in Brazil—with which the female sex disfigure themselves, so much so that Denham mentions that the slave-dealers of Tripoli and Fezzan declined to buy Musgu women. The disks are of the size of a dollar and made out of the most varied materials, but usually from the rind of the calabash gourd;[413] the lips are perforated and the disks forced into them, so that they project like beaks. The same or a similar foolish fashion is found in the countries on the north border of the Congo basin and even in East Africa.[414] The character, too, of the Musgu has many features that do not exactly evoke sympathy. The worst of these is their domestic discord, which has not only prevented this people from offering a common front against the slave-raiders, but, on the contrary, has even caused them to utilize in the most shameless fashion the misfortunes of their fellow-tribesmen in order to rob and plunder.[415] Characteristic of the Musgu, moreover, is the barbarous way in which they retain their seat on a horse—large numbers of a small, shaggy, but pretty hardy breed are raised in the country. As saddles are quite unknown, the Musgu supply the deficiency by causing an artificial sore on the place where the saddle ought to go of a horse otherwise in good condition; this sore is kept continuously open, so that the rider is as it were glued to his horse.[416] The bridle, too, consists of nothing more than a piece of rope like a halter, which is bound round the animal’s jaw.[417] Whilst in their clothing the Musgu are also very primitive—the men only wear an apron[418] and the women only a band of rope-like twisted grass passed between the legs—in the building of their villages one finds, on the contrary, a taste for a certain amount of household comfort, for art, and for an orderly mode of life. The most remarkable thing in these villages—at least, as far as the Musgu country proper is concerned—are the bee-hive or tiara-shaped mud huts, which have numerous knobs on the outside. These knobs may make the houses more capable of withstanding the effects of the tornadoes, but they also make it possible to climb to the top of the hut from outside and thence to gain a view over the extremely flat tract of country.[419] One also, indeed, meets the usual round huts of the Sudan and mud buildings, especially designed for the storage of grain. The Musgu towns, which with certain exceptions such as the capital, Musgum, are not fortified, lie extraordinarily thick, so that this district is amongst the best populated of the whole of Africa, and was formerly the favourite quarry of slave-raiders. The banks of the Logone are so thickly inhabited, that one may describe the stretch of country extending over fifty kilometres between the towns of Musgum and Mochore as one huge city.[420]

The density of population compels the Musgu to make the most careful use of the soil, and one accordingly finds agriculture highly developed in their country, and even artificial manuring of the fields. In the neatly laid-out plantations, usually in the shade afforded by the groves of deleb palms, there hardly ever fail to be beds of tobacco, which is indispensable to the Musgu.[421] Their commercial spirit is further shown by the rational use they make of the products of nature that grow wild. Hives, in the shape of hollowed out tree-trunks, are placed everywhere in the larger trees for the numerous swarms of bees; the surplus grass or other edible plants are collected and plaited into sort of pigtails of hay, which are likewise hung on the trees to serve as dry-weather fodder for the abundant herds of cattle; they also understand how to make ingenious contrivances for catching the fish with which nature has plentifully stocked the rivers.[422] The Musgu and the tribes related to them fall into a whole string of subtribes, of which the Puss and the Wuliya are the best known.

The large pagan tribe of the Margi, inhabiting the southern districts of Bornu west of the Mandara mountains and a part also of those highlands, show substantial differences from the Masa. To begin with, the Margi possess great external advantages. They have finer limbs, better proportioned bodies, and above all, more pleasing features. The copper- colour mentioned by Barth[423] may sometimes occur naturally, as in the case of other negro tribes, but this does not exclude the possibility that the traveller was in error here, for the Margi often stain the whole body red with powdered wood. According to the study of the language which Barth engaged in, the Margi belong to the ‘South African family’.[424] In character also they differ, advantageously indeed, from the Musgu. They are easier to get into touch with, less truculent and less suspicious than the latter. But even here the national character shows the disastrous effects of the slave-raids, for the Margi, like most of the pagan tribes, replied to the persecution to which they were exposed by the Mohammedan slave-raiders, by attacks on their own part, which were rendered successful by the protection afforded by their mountain refuges and by the use of the bow and justly dreaded poisoned arrows.[425] A visit to most of the ‘kopjes’ in the Margi country is even to-day not altogether without danger, although possibly their attacks on the neighbouring natives may be the result of certainly not unjustifiable suspicion.

Every Margi is easily distinguishable by his outward appearance: the men wear little leather aprons decorated with various designs, drawn between the legs and hanging down behind like a tail; the women make plentiful use of iron armlets and anklets and iron beads;[426] they also regularly wear in the chin a little piece of stick as long as a man’s finger or a little plate of wood, bone, or metal.[427] Their villages are distinguished by great neatness and by the pleasing architecture of the round huts, where instead of the usual straw-roofs they employ an artistic kind of basket-work. In the neighbourhood of their settlements one finds as shrines large trees—usually _Adansonia_ (Kuka) or fig- trees—or little copses, whose signification is indicated by a ring of stones or an earth wall. They appear to point to a species of ancestor- worship, a fact which Barth adduces as a proof of the relationship of the Margi with the South African tribes.[428]

To the westwards the Margi adjoin the border peoples of Bornu, all of them pagan tribes within British territory, about whom even to-day we know little more than the modest amount of information furnished us by Nachtigal.[429] They consist of the Babur, south of Gujba, and the Kerrikerri and Ngizim between Gujba and Katagum.

In the middle of the old Bornu provinces in which the Kanuri language is still predominant, along the middle course of the River Yo (or Wobe), and in the hilly district of Munio, lie the principal seats of the salt industry;[430] here live the Manga and the Bedde, who are probably related to them. They are bounded on the west and north-west by the territory of the Hausas, who form the predominant element in Zinder.[431]

The Hausas, a mixed race probably of Hamitic descent, but like the Kanuri with a strong infusion of negro blood, are, thanks to their enterprising spirit and commercial far-sightedness, the most active trading folk of the Central Sudan.[432] Their travels extend from Tripoli in the north to the Bight of Biafra in the south, and occasionally also reach to the Senegal, or in the guise of pilgrims to Mecca via the Red Sea; they have thus been able to make their language the ‘lingua franca’ of the Central Sudan, wherever Arabic is not predominant. In all places in Bornu worth mentioning one meets with Hausa settlements of some sort, whose members have generally undertaken the rôle of merchants and money-lenders, and thus have attained prosperity or even wealth.[433]

Finally, one must consider as border-tribes of Bornu the Tibbu or Tubu, and the Tuareg (Tuarik) or Kindin, both of whom were formerly causes of constant disturbance to the northern provinces. The ‘thievish gipsy- like’ Tibbu, originally closely related to the Kanuri, as has been stated above, even to-day have settlements along the lower course of the River Yo (Wobe), from whence they occasionally push their by no means purely commercial operations as far as the towns of Central Bornu. Now and then one may see men of this tribe, recognizable by the characteristic ‘litham’ or cloth veiling the lower part of the face, in the markets of Kukawa or Mongonu.

Much more important and fateful, however, is the rôle which the Berber Tuaregs have played in the provinces north of the Wobe. Considered by Barth as formerly ‘an integral part’ of the population of Bornu,[434] they have in later times broken off and since then, while avoiding open hostilities, have continually disturbed the country by their sudden raids, which afforded them booty in the shape of slaves and cattle, and thus for a time completely blocked the roads to the Western Sudan, and even in parts rendered impossible the cultivation of the land. The state of affairs in these districts was so insecure that the Shehus finally saw themselves compelled to appoint a special Kachella to cope with the Tuareg raids, and even recently these have necessitated the constant interposition of the French garrisons. At all events the Tuareg are by far the most turbulent and dangerous members of the whole population of Bornu.[435]

Besides the above-mentioned tribes, one meets at the present day in Bornu two elements in the population who are scattered in larger or smaller colonies over the country usually unconnected with each other, and though of quite different origin, yet show a certain purely external similarity, and in fact are often found in friendly intercourse with each other; these are the Semitic Arabs and the Hamitic Fulani.

First as regards the Arabs called Shuwas by the Kanuri: they form a not inconsiderable part of the population of Bornu,[436] and are to be carefully distinguished from the very light-coloured Tripoli merchants designated as ‘Wassili’, who are equally of Arabic origin, but who in most cases only make a temporary sojourn in the larger towns of Bornu, such as Kukawa, Mongonu, and Dikoa. The Shuwas immigrated into Bornu at various times, firstly with the conquerors of the country from the north, and secondly at a much later epoch, about 300 years ago, from the east, no doubt, as Barth assumes, from Nubia or Kordofan.[437] They are broken up into a great number of tribes, of which the Beni Hassan has remained the purest; but they have lost many of the bodily and mental peculiarities of the Semitic race, doubtless as a result of their long wanderings and also of the intermixture which has taken place with other peoples. Their language, however, which indeed through the Koran is a bond of union between most of the North African peoples, they have retained in wonderful purity.[438]

It is interesting to see how the Shuwas, driven by circumstances, from being nomads became a settled people. Since the camel, with which their existence had hitherto been bound up, could not stand the climate of Bornu, they turned their attention to cattle-breeding, and when later these too were annihilated by contagious disorders, the wandering herdsmen were compelled to become settled, and very capable, agriculturists, who curiously enough have established themselves in just those districts which are the best watered.[439] It is this totally new mode of life which—as in the case of the Kanuri—has influenced their character in an unfavourable sense. Barth and Nachtigal lay special stress on the disappearance of that chivalrous hospitality once so notable a trait among the Arabs.[440] The Shuwas modelled their habits of life chiefly on those of the Kanuri. This is well shown in the architecture of their huts, which are similar to the Kanuri huts, only roomier and with somewhat flatter roofs,[441] and especially in their clothing. Only the mode of dressing the hair among the women, who in spite of an often unmistakable infusion of negro blood have everywhere retained their long and not frizzled hair, differs essentially from that of the Kanuri and reminds one in many respects of that of the wandering Fulani. The style almost invariably met with—at least in German Bornu—which makes the Shuwa woman easily recognizable at a distance, consists of numerous tightly plaited braids hanging down from the temples and often also a thicker raised plait at the back of the head. Hair dressed in this style, which is alleged to have originated from Bagirmi, is kept in place, according to the usual custom in the Sudan, by a plentiful application of butter.[442] The Arab tribes who have settled down are to be found to-day in the lowlands of Central and Eastern Bornu, but especially on the south bank of Lake Chad.

The Hamitic Fulani are less commonly seen in Bornu than the Shuwas, though in Adamawa, which borders Bornu on the south, they are the dominant race. According to Barth’s investigations, they were originally herdsmen, but having penetrated in historical times from the Senegal into the Central Sudan, they finally, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when they had become the ruling race in Sokoto, came into conflict with the Kanuri. However, in spite of their mental superiority, they were unable to secure any permanent influence in Bornu. They appear to have emigrated from Asia Minor in very ancient times by way of Morocco and Fezzan; many circumstances point to this, such as their physical build and the use by the men of the Phrygian cap.[443] Perhaps it was they too who, in prehistoric times, brought over the humped ox from Asia. Barth says of them with absolute truth: ‘There is not the slightest doubt that the Fulani are the most intelligent of all African tribes’;[444] equally just is Rohlfs’ dictum that: ‘At all events they are by far the finest specimens of mankind in Central Africa.’[445] The Borroro[446] tribe especially, who are found even in Bornu, between the Shari and the Logone, as half-nomadic herdsmen, and who live in almost complete isolation, have retained all the peculiarities of the race—the spare, sinewy build of the dweller in the desert or the steppe, the delicately formed limbs and the refined features, which remind one of ancient Egyptian art, and which in the case of the women, with their long hair plaited into braids and their big copper earrings, even attain a certain charm. On the other hand, it is just those Fulani who formerly played so important a rôle, that have lost many of the characteristics peculiar to their race as a consequence of intermixture with the native tribes. Fulani of this kind have remained in small colonies along the middle course of the Wobe since the time of their first advance into Bornu; similar to these are the inhabitants of those Fulani settlements which have been pushed forward from Northern Adamawa into the frontier districts of Bornu.

The character of the Fulani shows many superiorities over that of the other Mohammedan tribes of the Sudan. If the doctrines of Islam have from time to time stimulated them to special fanaticism, on the other hand—whatever people may say about the degeneration of the Fulani—it is also owing to these doctrines that they have retained a stricter morality, which is shown not least by their better developed family spirit and the domestic inclinations of the Fulani woman.[447]

[Footnote 354: Individual colonies of Kanuri extend far beyond the borders of Bornu, on the one side as far as the Sahara, on the other beyond the right bank of the Shari, and as far as Adamawa. Cf. Barth, iii. p. 293 (German edition).]

[Footnote 355: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 736.]

[Footnote 356: Nachtigal, ii. 417 ff.; cf. also Barth, iii. 77—8. The name ‘Berebere’ or ‘Beruere’ (Berber), by which the Kanuri are designated even at the present day by their southern neighbours, the Fulani, points to an original immigration from the Sahara. [On the subject of the Berbers, Sir H. H. Johnston has the following illuminating remarks in his recently published monograph on _The Opening Up of Africa_, p. 102: ‘The Berbers were very near to the white man of Europe in race, descent, and culture, but they were sufficiently tinged with the blood of Africa to be no longer in community of feeling with Europe. . . . They found the Romans a little too European to their liking: too dominating, too fond of method, order, tidiness, and fatiguing public works.’ It would perhaps be impossible to sum up the African’s objection to the European more succinctly.]]

[Footnote 357: Cf. Barth, iv. 88-9; Nachtigal, ii. 193.]

[Footnote 358: Monteil, p. 313.]

[Footnote 359: Cf. Rohlfs, ii. 8.]

[Footnote 360: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 723; Monteil, p. 355. Even at the present day in German Bornu the mother of the reigning Sultan, Shehu Sanda, holds an important position. [In the old Court of Bornu there were two officials called the ‘Magira’ and the ‘Magiram’, the Shehu’s official mother and his official sister—not necessarily his actual mother and sister. Their duties appear to have been connected with the Royal Household, but the ‘Magira’ also acted as an adviser of, and interceder with, the sovereign. There is a mention of the ‘Magira’ in Harris, _Hausa Stories and Riddles_, p. 33 ff., where she is wrongly described as the Shehu’s sister instead of his mother. These ladies are not officially recognized in British Bornu, though at one time it was proposed that they be ranked as second class chiefs and given staves of office.]]

[Footnote 361: Cf. Denham, ii. 2; Barth, ii. 317; Rohlfs, i. 341; Nachtigal, i. 738; ii. 299; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 155.]

[Footnote 362: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 611.]

[Footnote 363: [‘Masallachi’ is the Hausa word, ‘mashidi’ the Kanuri.]]

[Footnote 364: Cf. also Barth, ii. 543-4.]

[Footnote 365: Rohlfs, i. 344; Nachtigal, i. 625.]

[Footnote 366: Barth, iii. 153.]

[Footnote 367: [For illustration vid. Macleod, p. 20.]]

[Footnote 368: Cf. Rohlfs, ii. 46.]

[Footnote 369: Polko, _loc. cit._, p. 136. The way of dressing women’s hair usual at the present day had already come into fashion in Nachtigal’s time. The hair is twisted with the help of butter into countless little plaits, which radiate from the crown and lie flat on the head, being frayed out at the tips. This produces a thick crown of hair, which when seen from in front reminds one of the coiffure of European ladies. The hair is often thickly powdered with pulverized cinnamon, so that it has a chestnut-brown tint. [Cf. illustrations of p. 238 and p. 250 of Macleod, _Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa_; and for Kanembu hair-dressing and hair-ornaments, _idem_, p. 240.]]

[Footnote 370: Cf. Denham, ii. 144 ff.; Rohlfs, ii. 7. Vid. also Passarge, Pl. XX, Fig. 3. In addition to this there is the tattooing mentioned above, which was forcibly introduced by Rabeh.]

[Footnote 371: [There are a few suits of chain-mail in the country, said to date from Crusader times, and to have drifted across the desert. For illustrations of four different patterns of ‘ngalio’ or throwing-iron vid. Mecklenburg, i. 24, and for coloured illustration of ‘liffedi’ or quilted armour vid. _idem_, i. 53.]]

[Footnote 372: Nachtigal, i. 610 ff.]

[Footnote 373: Cf. Barth, ii, 308. [Instead of an ostrich egg, an inverted bottle-shaped gourd, or nowadays a glass bottle, is sometimes used, sometimes also an iron spear-head.]]

[Footnote 374: Ornamentation of this sort, such as Foureau describes at Zinder (_Documents scientifiques_, ii. 934, and _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 505), I myself found in the ruined Sultan’s palace in the old west town at Kukawa.]

[Footnote 375: Burnt bricks are not employed at the present day. [The ruins of the palace at Gaserregomo (Kasr Koumo) of the old ‘Mais’ of Bornu show that it was built of bricks of extraordinary hardness. The secret of their manufacture has, however, been lost.]]

[Footnote 376: Cf. Barth, iii. 128-9; Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 510.]

[Footnote 377: Nachtigal rightly considers cereals to be the staple food in Bornu, i. 652. [On the subject of agriculture cf. _The Agricultural and Forest Products of British West Africa_, by G. C. Dudgeon, and various special monographs in French published by the firm of A. Challamel, Paris.]]

[Footnote 378: Monteil met with wells in Western Bornu which were 38 metres [i.e. 126 ft.] deep (Monteil, p. 317). [This is nothing unusual; wells in Gubio and elsewhere are 40 fathoms, ‘nganji’, i.e. 240 ft. deep.]]

[Footnote 379: Cf. also Barth, iii. 116.]

[Footnote 380: Cf. Denham, ii. 96; Nachtigal, i. 635 ff. [I do not think many people would agree to this statement _re_ the Kanuri ‘love’ of animals.—P. A. B.]]

[Footnote 381: This bad practice is usual even within the Sahara, according to Nachtigal, i. 557.]

[Footnote 382: Cf. also Denham, ii. 88 ff.; Barth, ii. 253 (German edition) and iii. 34 (German edition). [For illustration vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, i. 26. Plaited grass fish-traps are also largely used, and are formed into dams right across the rivers.]]

[Footnote 383: For an illustration of one of these, vid. Nachtigal, i. 650.]

[Footnote 384: [Rather from sheep and goat skins. For notes on the method of preparation, vid. _Bulletin of the Imperial Institute_, 1908, 6. 175, and 1910, 8. 402.]]

[Footnote 385: Cf. Barth, iii. 44; Nachtigal, i. 544, 570; Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 946, and _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 581. Barth mentions that salt is even obtained by burning cow-dung; vid. Barth, iii. 240 (German edition).]

[Footnote 386: [For a detailed chemical study of the salt and natron of the Chad countries, vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 553-600. Cf. an article by M. Cortier on ‘Les Salines du Sahara soudanais’ in _La Géographie_ (1912), pp. 231-46.]]

[Footnote 387: Barth, iii. 289; Rohlfs, i. 307. Cf. also Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 505. According to Barth, gunpowder also is manufactured in the country, Barth, iii. 127 ff. (German edition). The powder-magazine, which blew up when the French captured Dikoa, must have been filled for the most part with locally manufactured powder.]

[Footnote 388: [‘Suk’ is the Arabic word for market, ‘Kasugu’ the Kanuri.]]

[Footnote 389: Cf. also Nachtigal, i. 602 and 703 ff.]

[Footnote 390: Denham, ii. 140.]

[Footnote 391: Polko, _loc. cit._ p. 140.]

[Footnote 392: Nachtigal, ii. 336 ff.]

[Footnote 393: Barth, iii. 114.]

[Footnote 394: For illustration vid. Pl. XXIV, Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 954; Lenfant, p. 165.]

[Footnote 395: Nachtigal, ii. 341.]

[Footnote 396: Barth, ii. 341, 414, 445; iii. 161, 269 (all in German edition); Nachtigal, ii. 426, 530; Nachtigal considers Barth’s designation of ‘Masa’ for these tribes as rather arbitrary.]

[Footnote 397: Barth, ii. 363. [They are semi-pagan.]]

[Footnote 398: Barth, iii. 304.]

[Footnote 399: Barth, iii. 275 ff.; Nachtigal, ii. 519; cf. plate in Nachtigal, ii. 502; Bauer, _loc. cit._, p. 101; Lenfant, p. 166.]

[Footnote 400: Barth, iii. 293; Nachtigal, ii. 533.]

[Footnote 401: Barth, iii. 293; Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 684; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 173. Plates in Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 975, and _D’Alger au Congo_, pp. 685, 697, 715; Dominik, p. 189. [For illustration of Kotoko canoe, vid. Macleod, p. 194.]]

[Footnote 402: They offered a very energetic and successful resistance to the hordes of Rabeh, first of all in their capital-town of Mora, and later in the hills.]

[Footnote 403: [The Buddumas do not appear to have much faith in their Mohammedan teachers. One of the chiefs remarked to M. Landeroin: ‘Our “mallams” are liars. They ask us for alms in order to cure us of sickness and to prevent epidemics. . . . If after a man’s death his relations demand a refund of the payments made to the “mallam”, he replies: “I cannot restore it, for thanks to my prayers the deceased will obtain an excellent place in Paradise, which he would lose if the ‘sadaka’ was refunded”.’ Vid. _Doc. sc._, ii. 339.]]

[Footnote 404: They are treated of in great detail by d’Huart in _La Géographie_, xi (1904), p. 167 ff.; cf. also Nachtigal, ii. 362 ff. and 373. [For notes on the Buddumas, and for Budduma and Kury vocabularies, vid. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages of the Western Sudan_, p. 38 ff. and p. 78 ff.; and for a very full study of the Buddumas, vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 310-41. Cf. also Budduma and Kury vocabularies by Dr. Decorse in _Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Orientalistes, Alger_, 1905.]]

[Footnote 405: [Landeroin remarks as follows: ‘The principal population of the Chad islands is generally designated under the name of Budduma, a nickname given them by their neighbours, the Kanuri, from ‘budu’ (= grass) and ‘-ma’ (= belonging to). But the Buddumas’ own name for themselves is ‘Yedina’, the etymology of which is uncertain. It may be derived from Yedi, a town on the south-west bank of Chad, whose original inhabitants, a branch of the Sos, may have taken refuge in the islands from the power of Bornu; or it may be derived from the Kanuri word Gedi, meaning East. . . . Some people say that Yedina was the name of the Kanembu tribe, to which Bulu, the mythical ancestor of the Budduma, belonged.’]]

[Footnote 406: Cf. also Rohlfs, i. 333 ff.]

[Footnote 407: [The usual Budduma canoe is made from reeds, the ‘fole’, a large reed with a triangular stalk and a head like guinea-corn, and the ‘ngalle’, a smaller reed and flat. The canoes have long curved prows like a gondola, only turned backwards. For illustration vid. Tilho, _Royal Geographical Society’s Journal_ for September, 1910, and Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 335 and 338; cf. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p. 50. Canoes of the same kind are also made from ‘ambach’ branches. Cf. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, i. 29.]]

[Footnote 408: [For illustration vid. Macleod, p. 232.]]

[Footnote 409: The Kuri also trap the crocodile for the sake of its meat, Nachtigal, ii. 374. The same food is also relished by the dwellers on the Shari, Barth, iii. 324.]

[Footnote 410: [They, however, maintained more or less friendly relations with the sovereign of Bornu. The principal Budduma chiefs used to go every two or three years to pay him a visit of courtesy, and brought him presents which were evidence of goodwill rather than tribute, consisting of a few cows and a little butter. In return they received embroidered gowns. Shehu Ashimi offered Kachella Koremi, chief of the Gurias, authority over all the west bank of Chad, if he would stop the Budduma raids on the Kanuris of the mainland. The Kachella accepted the country lying south of Kauwa and Ngornu, but in the following year Bornu was invaded by Rabeh, vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 332 and 318.]]

[Footnote 411: Denham, ii. 65; Barth, iii. 405 and 408 (German edition); Rohlfs, i. 291 ff.; Nachtigal, ii. 371, 485, 487, 489.]

[Footnote 412: Barth, iii. 192; Nachtigal, ii. 531; Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 24. Cf. also Passarge, p. 440 ff. [The ‘ngalio’.]]

[Footnote 413: Among the Kamerun Protectorate troops the Musgu are nicknamed the Calabashes.]

[Footnote 414: Denham, i. 361; Barth, iii. 237; Rohlfs, i. 344; Lenfant, p. 145; Bauer, p. 114; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82. Cf. also Harry Alis, _Nos Africains_, p. 111 ff.; Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 992.]

[Footnote 415: Barth, iii. 201; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 85 ff.]

[Footnote 416: According to Stieber the sores are not produced artificially but are caused by the friction of the rider’s bare limbs, Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82.]

[Footnote 417: Barth, iii. 198; cf. also iv. 35 and Nachtigal, ii. 584.]

[Footnote 418: Here and there the chiefs wear Mohammedan clothing.]

[Footnote 419: Barth, iii. 174 and 249, and illustrations on p. 208; Lenfant, p. 149; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 82.]

[Footnote 420: Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 83 ff.; Map, _Der deutsche Logone_, in _Mitteil. a. d. deutsch. Schutzgeb._, vol. xviii.]

[Footnote 421: Barth, iii. 211-12 and 229; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 84; Kund, _loc. cit._, p. 29.]

[Footnote 422: Barth, iii. 190, 240, 274; Stieber, _loc. cit._, p. 85.]

[Footnote 423: Barth, ii. 383.]

[Footnote 424: Barth, ii. 468 and 646 (German edition). [Cf. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, where Barth’s Vocabulary is printed.]]

[Footnote 425: The use of poisoned arrows is very widespread. Besides the Fulani and most of the pagan hill-tribes, the travelling Hausas also use them as a means of defence. Nachtigal found them even in Southern Kanem (ii. 260), and Foureau in Zinder (_D’Alger au Congo_, p. 561). It is especially as a protection against them that the cotton-wadded armour is intended. For the terrible effects of the arrow poison cf. Denham, i. 182 ff. [Cf. article on arrow-poison in _Journal of the African Society_ for October, 1905, by L. W. La Chard.]]

[Footnote 426: According to Barth these ornaments come from Mandara (ii. 534).]

[Footnote 427: Cf. Barth, ii. 384.]

[Footnote 428: Cf. Barth, ii. 380, 391, 535.]

[Footnote 429: Nachtigal, ii. 431.]

[Footnote 430: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 943 ff.]

[Footnote 431: Foureau, _Documents scientifiques_, ii. 910 ff., and _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 516.]

[Footnote 432: [Passarge calls them ‘the African Parsees’.]]

[Footnote 433: [Incorrect. With the exception of the three Government stations of Maiduguri, Geidam, and Gujba, and the Customs post of Mongonu, there are practically no Hausas in Bornu Proper.]]

[Footnote 434: Barth, ii. 272; iv. 4.]

[Footnote 435: Barth, ii. 203, 220, 234; iii. 42 and 48 (German edition); Nachtigal, i. 564, 572; Monteil, p. 298 ff. [The Tuareg raids have now ceased.]]

[Footnote 436: Barth estimated the Shuwa Arabs in Bornu at 200,000-250,000 souls (ii. 356).]

[Footnote 437: Barth, ii. 355.]

[Footnote 438: Barth, ii. 356; Nachtigal, i. 687, ii. 436; Rohlfs, ii. 30. [Cf. Appendix XIV and XIV A.]]

[Footnote 439: Nachtigal, i. 686; ii. 439.]

[Footnote 440: Barth, iii. 284; Nachtigal, ii. 439, 511.]

[Footnote 441: [The Shuwas roof their huts with corn-stalks, apparently thrown on haphazard; the Kanuris use grass.]]

[Footnote 442: Cf. Nachtigal, i. 651, ii. 491; Lenfant, p. 153; Dominik, p. 197.]

[Footnote 443: This has since been adopted by the other tribes of the Sudan.]

[Footnote 444: Barth, iv. 143.]

[Footnote 445: Rohlfs, ii. 132.]

[Footnote 446: [Called in Bornu ‘Abore Fellata’.] It is a proof of the intelligence of the Borroro that it is owing to this seclusion that they are able to protect their cattle against contagious disorders. Their herds provide the Borroro with everything. The milk, which amongst them is not mixed with cow’s urine, is their chief food.]

[Footnote 447: Cf. Barth, ii. 229, iii. 257, iv. 143; Passarge, pp. 69, 167 ff., 424 ff., 509; Harry Alis, _Nos Africains_, p. 311; Bauer, p. 133; Chudeau, _loc. cit._, p. 331; Dominik, _loc. cit._, p. 87. [Cf. Appendix XIV.]]

VIII

COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS

Bauer says very appropriately in his book, when treating of commerce, that ‘the treasures of the Northern Kameruns consist in fertility and capacity for labour’.[448] This statement holds good in a still higher degree for German Bornu, the northernmost part of the Northern Kameruns, and for the whole of Bornu in general; for there does not seem to be the slightest prospect of finding useful minerals here, as far as one can judge from geological conditions. All the more urgent, therefore, is the duty of the Colonial Power interested in the commercial opening-up of the country to devote the most assiduous attention to the numerous and comparatively civilized population. In a climate like this, quite unsuited to Europeans, the natives alone can extract the full market value from the natural fertility of the soil, and they are already to a large extent prepared to receive the products of European industry.

How prodigiously full of vitality the population of Bornu is, is proved by the high figure at which it has been able to maintain itself, in spite of the fact that before the beginning of the anti-slavery movement it was yearly decimated over wide districts. How destructive were the military expeditions, which generally started from Kukawa and penetrated into the heart of Adamawa,[449] expeditions which were only undertaken because ‘the treasure-chests and slave-huts were empty and must be filled’,[450] we know well enough from the descriptions of Denham, Barth, Vogel, Rohlfs, and Nachtigal. Not only the Shehus, but all their vassal chiefs also, undertook razzias on their own account into the thickly populated districts. Everything that the slave-raiders had no use for—and this was the larger part—was destroyed on the spot; in spite of this, slave caravans of over 4.000 slaves were dispatched from Kukawa, of whom naturally only a very small proportion lived to reach their final goal, Murzuk and Tripoli.[451] This inhuman, senseless, and aimless traffic, dealing in the most valuable goods which the Central Sudan possesses, viz. its numerous and industrious population, has now ceased, since the Colonial Powers have paved the way for an orderly state of affairs. But it would not be less wrong, and like throwing the helve after the hatchet, were one now, considering the present state of the Sudan peoples, to forcibly free all so-called slaves, especially as the marriages of free-born women in the Sudan are often nothing more than a purchase on the part of the man and an entry into a kind of slavery on the part of the woman; yet this is the object actually aimed at by a false philanthropy, utterly unacquainted with the conditions prevailing in these regions. One must entirely approve, therefore, when Passarge, at present the best authority on, and the most faithful delineator of, conditions in the Central Sudan, states that: ‘The abolition of slavery, even supposing it were generally successful, would mean the ruin of agriculture and the creation of a state of chaos.’[452] People at home often take offence at the mere word ‘slave’, and connect it in their thoughts with such a state of things as was described in _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. The entire opposite was rather the case. The ‘slave’ experiences, once he has found a master, an almost invariably mild treatment on the part of his owner, who is dependent on him in many respects. The ‘slaves’ often enjoy a comparatively large amount of personal freedom, dwell in their own villages, and live under far better conditions than many free men, whilst in general the difference between free men and slaves is by no means obvious. Generally speaking, the term ‘serfdom’, as proposed by Passarge, would be much more suitable to this condition than ‘slavery’; but even this term is not altogether accurate for the Chad countries, seeing that in Germany, for example, the serfs, not so very long ago, could seldom emerge from their subordinate condition. Very different was the case in the Sudan. Many slaves have risen here to wealth and great influence—such as one or other of the eunuchs of the court of Bornu or this or that kachella, who was originally a slave—and, indeed, as a foreign and therefore invigorating element, have played a not unimportant rôle in politics.[453]

The last great events which had a definite bearing on the social condition of the population, were the conquest of Bornu by Rabeh and his final overthrow; these occurred only a decade ago. The result of these events was, owing to the facile character of the Kanuri, less a destructive than a transforming, perhaps even a stimulating one—thanks to the new elements introduced into the country. A few years after these events, the thickly inhabited districts of Bornu—if one excepts Kukawa or Dikoa—nowhere give the impression of being countries which a short time ago were ravaged by the furies of war. Besides, one should take into consideration that the traces of devastation and destruction are soon effaced in these latitudes. What is more important is the fact that very soon after the overthrow of Rabeh, the chief hindrance to the development of prosperity in this part of the Sudan—that is to say, slave-raiding—also ceased to exist.

The districts from which originated practically all the slaves who in former days reached the markets of Mourzuk or Tripoli—that is to say, the rich Musgu country—are still at the present day the best populated part of Bornu, nay, even of the Interior of Africa, and may indeed compare in this respect with the centres of population of many European industrial districts.[454] But many other tracts of Bornu, with its fertile lowlands, afford the same delightful prospect. Under this category, for example, falls village after village on the right bank of the Yedseram between Isga and Malematari. In all this district there is no poverty or difficulty in supporting life; everywhere there is prosperity and the unmistakable traces of a comfortable existence. Even the hills on the border are everywhere thickly inhabited, however inhospitable and inaccessible they may appear.[455]

Nachtigal attempted to ascertain the population of Bornu on the same basis as Barth’s estimate, and, like his predecessor, fixed the numbers at 5,000,000 for the whole of Bornu.[456] It is evident, however, that in this estimate the majority of the Musgu were not included in the reckoning, for the traveller’s route only allowed him to perceive the small part which at that time had yet been explored. Bearing this fact in mind and, further, taking into consideration the peaceful development of the country during the last ten years, one may certainly add to-day half a million to the figures of Barth and Nachtigal. Of the numbers thus obtained, at least one-third come from the specially thickly populated portion of Bornu that belongs to Germany.[457]