Africa unveiled. ... With map and illustrations

Front matter

AFRICA UNVEILED. WHIPPING post for slaves at tete. Frontispiece. Page 186, AFRICA UNVEILED BY the REV. HENRY Formerly of the Universities' Mission to JGfntral Africa. " AFRICA SEMPER ALIQUID NOVI REFERT." WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ♦ PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION 0- THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. — — ♦ LONDON : SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES : 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS J 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; _\%, PICCADILLY J AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. New York : Pott, Young & Co. 1S76. LONDON: Printed by Jas. Truscott & Son, Suffolk Lane, City. CONTENTS. PAGE Geographical Features of Africa I The^Different Races of Africa — The Nilotic Family . 29 The Different Races of Africa — The Nigritian Family . 55 Different Forms of Government in Africa ... 80 Religious Beliefs and Customs of the Africans . . .111 Domestic and Social Customs of the Africans . . iaa African Slavery and Slave Trade 171 Christianity in Africa ■■ I., n, I, ut !',,hl,..i,r.i hy thr Society /.'■>- Vtvm__rtmo Chrirtitm tikawledae AFRICA UNVEILED.

Chapter I. Geographical Features Of Africa

Many years ago, when I was a small boy, I recollect pondering over a map of Africa, and being greatly perplexed thereby. My difficulty was this. South of Barbary, and west of the valley of the Nile, the map described a desert which extended right across the continent to the Atlantic Ocean, and southwards to the Mountains of the Moon, below which mysterious range of hills was a blank space, reaching to the region of the Cape, which, I was told, was also a barren region. But I could not believe that this great area was a desert. It seemed to my boyish mind contrary to the providence of God, to condemn so vast a portion of the world to such a repulsive sterility, and, in my fashion, I said as much. I was told by my preceptor, a rigid but most devout old Puritan, that God knew what was best for the world, and was warned not to trouble myself with matters that were too high for me.

I was silenced, but not satisfied. And my dissatisfaction was justified, for in course of time the interior of Africa, south of the Sahara, was found to be not POPULATION OF AFRICA. a torrid desert, not "a barren and dry land where no water is," and " without inhabitants," but a land crowned by fertile plains, where lived vast numbers of animals, that for their sustenance required much flesh, and a never-failing abundance of pas turage ; dense forests, where were " both small and great beasts"; inland seas, which in extent equalled the lakes of North America ; far reaching rivers, whose waters and valleys swarmed with life ; great mountains, some of which were raised so high that their summits were covered with perpetual snow ; a climate which needed but the agency of civilisation to make it as healthy as any other region within the tropics ; and, above all, a land which gave food and shelter to probably 1 50 millions of human beings ; and under happier circumstances, might sustain 1,000 millions.

It may be thought that this is an exaggerated estimate of the population of Africa. I do not think so. It is more thickly peopled than is generally supposed ; indeed, some parts of the country are densely popu lated. The Shillocks afford an illustration of this. These people inhabit the left bank of the White Nile, and occupy a territory about two hundred miles long and ten broad. In 18 71 they were subjected to Egypt ; a census of their villages was then made, and it was proved that 1,200,000 souls had been added to the dominion of the Khedive. In the Shillock country, it is true, there is to be found everything that contributes to the exuberance of life — agriculture, pasturage, fishing, and the chase ; but there are many PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 3 such districts in Africa, and few where human beings are not plentiful.

The physical geography of Africa is very remarkable, and until within the last thirty years was but little known. Various theories on this subject had from time to time been propounded by eminent men, but it was not till 1852 that the true structure of the country was demonstrated. In his address to the Royal Geo graphical Society in this year, Sir Roderic I. Murchison declared what were the true features of the most ancient, as well as the actual, geography of Africa. He maintained that during countless ages, anterior to the creation of the human race, the old rocks which now form the outer fringe of Central Africa, circled round an interior marshy or lacustrine country, and that the present state of this region represented the resi dual geographical phenomena of that primeval age. At the same time, he also showed that the differences between the geological past and present of Africa were enormous ; that the lands of Central Africa have been much elevated above the level of the sea, that eruptive rocks have penetrated them in many places ; that deep chasms and defiles have been sud denly formed in, the subtending ridges, through which the waters have been let off to a lower level to cleave their way finally as rivers to the sea.

By one of those happy coincidences, which may more properly be called providences, that have tended to excite and maintain interest in Africa of late years, Dr. Livingstone, at the very time this theory was THE VICTORIA FALLS. propounded, was forcing his way across the continent, and, in utter ignorance of Sir Roderic's great inductive feat, had ascertained by actual observation, and be yond all doubt, that the whole of Central South Africa was at one time a vast lake country ; and, furthermore, on his discovery of the Victoria Falls, had found the exact spot where, by some mighty convulsion, the rocks which there held in the waters were rent in twain, so as to permit them to escape outwards. The Victoria Falls are rightly placed amongst the wonders of the world. The Zambezi, which at this place is nearly a thousand yards broad, suddenly dis appears.

It descends at one plunge into an enor mously deep chasm less than a hundred feet wide. This great fissure traverses the channel of the river from the right bank to the left, and thence continues its course through the hills to the north-east for thirty or forty miles, where the river emerges into a comparatively low country, through which, with but few obstructions, it pursues its way down to the Mozam bique channel. The convulsion which caused this enormously deep chasm undoubtedly broke through the barrier by which the waters of the Zambezi were dammed back in the great central lake. The superstitions of the natives who live in the neighbourhood of these falls lead them to invest them with supernatural characteristics. They call them Mosyoa tunya (the sounding smoke), because dark clouds, which look like the smoke of a burning jungle, are constantly seen to hang over the broad belt THE VICTORIA FALLS. 5 of the river, and thundering sounds are constantly heard to proceed from the falls.

The sudden plunge of the river into the yawning chasm naturally produces these sounds, and the conflict between the raging waters and the walls of rock through which they force their way, produces volumes of spray which rise high above the river, and are then collected into clouds and borne before the wind. But the spray is not uniformly diffused above the great fissure, for in some places it assumes the form of great pillars, like the pillar of cloud that guided the Israelites of old, among which the sunbeams play and produce glorious circles of prismatic colour. Dr. Livingstone was the first civilised man who beheld these falls. The natives who accompanied him on his first visit to them, saw them for the first time, and were awe-struck with the awful grandeur and wondrous beauty of the scene.

The roaring of the waters, the rainbow hues in the rising spray, the gorgeous tropical verdure on either side of the river, so impressed them with religious feeling, that they offered prayers and sacrifices to what they imagined to be the spiritual powers of the locality. Recent researches have tended to show that the basin-shaped structure of Central South Africa ex tends northwards ; but how far northwards it extends, has not yet been clearly ascertained. This, however, is certain, the physical structure of Central Africa determines that of almost the entire continent The watershed is not, as was long supposed, a WATERSHED OF CENTRAL AFRICA. mountain chain sending its roaring torrents on the one side to the Atlantic, and on the other towards the Indian Ocean, but is represented by a vast basin-shaped plateau, varying in height from two to four thousand feet above the level of the sea, which stretches through many degrees of longitude and many degrees of latitude, and in which the Nile, the Zambezi, the Congo, and some other rivers of con siderable magnitude, have their source — immediately, in the existing lakes, like the Nile and the Shire, or as the drains of the country, like the Niger, the Zambezi, the Congo, and the Orange river.

Africa, it is said, has always something new to show, and for many years to come geographical enterprise will find an ample recompense in the discoveries it will make ; yet I think it may be safely affirmed, with regard to the physical geography of Africa, that all future discoveries will prove subsidiary to those already made. The source and course of the Congo have yet to be accurately defined; the Niam-niam districts when better known may acquaint us with many affluents that contribute to the waters of the White Nile ; the country north-east of Kilimandjaro (the snow-clad mountain in East Central Africa) has yet to be explored; and the wide region west of the Albert Nyanza lake may show that the lake system of Central Africa is more extended than at present appears. But the veil has been drawn from the grand geographical features of Africa ; and though future discoveries may inform us clearly of many things RIVERS OF AFRICA. 7 which are now invested with doubt, I do not think they will greatly add to our knowledge of its physical features.

The rivers of Africa have given rise to much contro versy. Theories upon their sources and courses, and upon the termination of some of them, have been propounded and hotly debated, and not readily abandoned when proved to be inconsistent with as certained facts. I suppose there is nothing more certain with regard to any river in the world than that the Shire" flows out of the Lake Nyassa. But one of the most confident and imaginative of theoretical geographers had declared that it proceeded from the Lake Shirwa (a lake without an outlet) ; and at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, he main tained this to be true in the teeth of one who had ascertained by actual observation that no river flowed from Lake Shirwa, and who had followed the Shire' from its junction with the Zambezi to its egress from Lake Nyassa.

This is but an illustration of the con flict which has raged upon the rivers of Africa. It was many years before the doubts and theories as to the course and termination of the Niger were put an end to. I once met with a man who maintained that the Niger, because at a certain part of its career it flowed northwards, emptied itself into the desert. This was long after its true termination had been ascertained ; and not until some sturdy traveller has followed to its fountain the remotest stream that contributes its waters to the Nile, will the controversy upon the true source SOURCES OF AFRICAN RIVERS. of this famous river be ended. It is beyond my pro vince, however, to enter upon these vexed questions. The great central plateau is to a great extent to Africa what the heart is to man — the central vital system which circulates life throughout the body.

Here are found the sources of the far reaching rivers, and most of their numerous tributaries. Other streams varying in length from one to five hundred miles, like the Juba and the Rovuma, in the East, and the Cuanene and the Coanza, in the West, may take their rise outside this plateau, but for the most part they have their origin in the mountains which constitute its flanks. To a scientific geographer the discovery of the actual source of any river must be a subject of great interest, but in a brief review of this sort it is sufficient to indicate in a general way the regions whence the rivers flow. Naturally these rivers should be the highways to the heart of the country, and to a great extent they are so. The obstacles to the navigation of African rivers are fever and cataracts. Medical science is getting rid of the one, and engineering science may lessen, if not altogether remove, the other.

The Kebrabasa rapids on the Zambezi proved fatal to the carrying out of the original idea of the Zambezi Expedition; and the Murchison cataracts on the Shire prevented the realisa tion of Livingstone's grand idea of floating a steamer on the Lake Nyassa ; but when the real need arises, means will surely be found for the overcoming of these difficulties, which, after all, are not greater than have been surmounted in other parts of the world. HIGHLANDS OF AFRICA. 9 There is an error with regard to the real character of the highlands of Africa, which requires to be cor rected. It is imagined by some that the great central plateau, because it is the seat of a wide-spread lake system, and is also intersected in almost every direc tion by rivers which have numerous departing and tributary branches, and in whose valleys marshes are undoubtedly formed, is nothing better than a huge swamp.

This is an error to which travellers have unwittingly contributed. Most African explorations have had for their object the discovery of river sources. Travellers, therefore, have kept as close as they could to the rivers whose origin it was their object to dis cover, and they have had to wade almost as much as to walk. In the narratives of their travels, consequently, they frequently describe a very humid country. Livingstone was said by the natives to have been afflicted with water in the head, so persistently did he hunt after and cling to the watery regions ; and on the cover of his " Last Journals" he is represented in a very undignified position, riding through a swamp on the shoulders of a man. But no one knew better than Livingstone that the swamp lands are not the chief characteristic of Central Africa ; and though his wanderings led him through the watery regions, he continually expatiated on magnificent ranges of high land country, where, though water is not wanting, swamps are scarcely known.

In his " Last Journals," when suffering from the lassitude common to the lowlands, he thus recalls his recollections of these higher THE AFRICAN LAKES. regions : " When on lands of a couple of thousand feet elevation, brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, and healthy blood circulates through the brain; the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step firm, and a day's exertion always makes repose thoroughly enjoyable." He was returning to the higher lands which had brought such enjoyment to life, hoping that he should there recover from his illness, when death met him on the way. I suppose no one will deny that the lakes determine, to a certain extent, the character of the country ; that they occupy a considerable portion of its surface ; that they are in some cases mere expansions of the rivers in the central districts, like Lake Tchad and Lake Bangweola, and in others occupy depressions in the central plateau, of which Tanganyika, the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the Lake Nyassa are examples ; but south of the Sahara it is equally certain that these lakes are surrounded, and in some cases enclosed, by high table lands, which rise at intervals into mountains.

I have some personal knowledge of the highlands of East Central Africa, and my recollections of them are not less pleasant than were those of Dr. Living stone. After leaving the river Shir., at about 350 miles from the coast, and passing over a hill-country in which steppe alternated with broad valleys, cultivated lands, with long stretches of park-like woods, we reached, at an altitude of about 2,500 feet, a seemingly illimitable plain, which opened out to view THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS. 11 one of the most magnificent prospects I ever beheld. Far as the eye could see — and here for the greater part of the year the atmosphere is so clear that it does not seem to impede the vision — there extended a wide grassy plain, broken here and there by rocks of fantastic shape, verdant hills, clusters of trees, streams of water on whose banks grew lofty trees, which formed bowers of foliage that equalled in hue and excelled in grace of form any similar production of Europe; and mountains, that far and near lifted up their heads towards the pale azure of the sky, rising sometimes to the height of nearly 10,000 feet.

There were no real swamps here. At the bottom of the mountains and hills pools of water sometimes formed in the rainy season, but as the rains ceased the pools dried up, and you might travel a hundred miles in any given direction and fail to find a thorough swamp. At certain seasons of the year, this magnificent country would be bright with the hues of myriads of flowers, amongst which a world of butterflies passed their brief existence ; and rocks and hills were beautiful with the variegated verdure with which they were clothed. The fertility of the greater part of this vast plain was remarkable. Year by year it produced abundantly a great variety of cereals and tuberous plants, and this with no more manuring than was afforded by the ashes of the burnt upturned roots. The larger wild animals were scarce, for the population was great, and had driven them to take shelter in less-peopled districts ; but the country was good for pasturage.

Birds with B WOODLANDS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. gay plumage were numerous, and others less gay filled the air with melody. The climate was cool and re freshing, and its effects on the system answered in every particular to Livingstone's description ; indeed, it was a land calculated to nourish the body, to gladden the heart, and to content the mind. It may be well to supplement this not imaginary picture, by Dr. Schweinfurth's botanical description of another portion of the highlands of Central Africa, the Niam-Niam country, a district 4,000 feet above the sea. He says : — " The features of the woodlands are very diver sified. There are trees which run up to a height vary ing from thirty to forty feet, and these alternate with dwarf shrubs and compact underwood. Many of the fields are marked by single trees, which stand quite apart, and which have been intentionally preserved by the natives because of their edible fruit.

In some places there are low-lying grassy fiats, which in the rainy months are quite impassable, because the grass grows taller than a man ; whilst in others the grass is stunted, because there is but a thin layer of soil to cover the rock below, and consequently vegetation is comparatively weak. As to the pasture lands, they seem to be intercepted every here and there with bushy and impenetrable thickets, which are either grouped around some isolated trees, or luxuriate about some high ant-hill. In the shade of these are found the splendid bulbs of the Hæmenthus, Gloriosa, Clo rophytum, together with Aroideæ, ground orchids, FLORA OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 13 and the wonderful Kosaria. Upon the drier spots within the forests, or where the clay soil happens to be mixed with sand, weeds and herbaceous plants are found, which recall the flora of the northern steppes.

Peeping further into the thickets which are formed in the forests, we come across great trees so thickly bound by the wonderful foliage of the large creeper Carpodinus, that a ray of sunlight can never pass there. Here, too, are wild vines of many a kind, the festoons of which are further burdened as they hang by Dios coriæ and Asclepiads. " In its general character the flora of this district seems to conform very much to what has been dis covered in the table-land of Western Africa, of which the lower terraces form a narrow belt along the shore, and are distinguished for the wild luxuriance with which the African primeval forest seeks to rival the splendour of Brazilian nature. In contrast to this, the bush forests in the higher parts of tropical Africa, broken by steppes, present in uniformity perhaps the most extensive district that could be pointed out in the whole geography of vegetation.

Extending as it does from Senegal to the Zambezi, and from Abyssinia to Benguela, tropical Africa may be expected to be without any perceptible alternation in character but that which is offered by the double aspect of steppe and bush on the one hand, and primeval forest on the other. On the West this is illustrated by the marked difference between the table-land and the low terraces, whilst in the interior it is exhibited by the distinction B NORTHERN AFRICA. between the woods on the river banks and the flats between the river courses." — The Heart of Africa. Making allowance for the difference existing in the character ofthe country in the immediate vicinity of the large lakes, such is Central Africa ; not a torrid desert or an unmitigated swamp, but one of the most luxuriant and productive regions of the world.

The geographical configuration of Northern Africa is generally so well known that a very brief description of it will be sufficient for my purpose. Having regard to the great natural features of the country, Northern Africa may be thus divided : — i. Barbary, comprehending the whole of the country north of the Sahara, and west of Lower Egyit. 2. Sahara (the sea of sand), or the Great Desert. 3. The Nile region, which includes Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia. 4. Soudan, comprising the districts into which Africa immediately west of Abyssinia and south of the Sahara is divided, and which extend from Kordofan, in the east, to the mouths of the Rio Grande, the Gambia, and the Senegal, in the west. (1) The geographical features ofthe Barbary States, which comprise Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, are determined by the stupendous chain of the Atlas mountains which, with its ramifications, extends from Cape Bon, on the Mediterranean, to Cape Nun, on the Atlantic, embracing within its tremendous sweep all these countries.

Owing to their being so largely FERTILITY OF BARBARY STATES. 15 pervaded by mountains, the Northern States have every diversity of surface, are abundantly watered and fertile. In ancient times indeed, their fertility was such as to be almost proverbial. Notwith standing the low form of agriculture now practised (to which Algiers as yet is scarcely an exception), the fertility of the soil continues unimpaired, and produces the most luxuriant crops, including all the grains, and most of the fruits of England. Even in Tripoli, where the mountains approach the sea nearer than in any other part of Barbary, and in the immediate rear of which is the desert, where there are no rivers of any consequence, and lakes are unknown, and the country depends for its irrigation almost solely on the rains, a more fruitful district than that which surrounds the capital can nowhere be found.

The rivers of this region generally flow northwards or southwards. The former for the most part dis charge themselves into the Mediterranean, the latter, after running distances of from one to two hundred miles, approach the limits of vegetation, and are absorbed in the desert. The climate is far less hot than from the geographical position of this part of Africa might have been expected. As is well known, that of Algiers is so healthful that it has become a resort for delicate Europeans ; and but for their barbarous governments, and, to foreigners, generally unsafe condition, the other regions of Northern Africa would afford to invalids climatic advantages equally great. THE SAHARA. The Atlas mountains act as a rampart against the encroachments of the desert to the north; consequently the country extending immediately south of this range is very different in its character to that which faces the Mediterranean.

It partakes in some respects of the character of the desert (to the verge of which it extends), though in others it differs widely from it. The higher lands consist of a succession of broad mountain ridges of moderate elevation, running commonly east and west ; the lower grounds, by which these hills are separated from each other, are valleys or plains of no great extent, in most of which there is a temporary or permanent lake, formed by the waters that flow from the adjacent highlands. The surface of this extensive country is not fertile. It is generally composed of a sandy soil, and, save in the rainy season, is almost destitute of vegetation. (2) Sahara, or the Great Desert, forms an almost impassable barrier between Central Africa and the more civilised nations of the world. It has served almost as effectually to cut off the central regions from the ancient civilisations, as the ocean for, many centuries separated the Sandwich islanders from the rest of the world.

This vast sea of sand extends from the bed of the river Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the countries on the southern side of the Atlas range to the limits of the Soudan, and occupies an area of more than two millions of square miles. For the most part it is a region without water, bird, or tree, without even the semblance of vegetation. CHARACTER OF FEZ Z AN. 17 Here and there, as is well known, there are fertile spots, called oases, having wells of water, and a vegetation which, in contrast with the surrounding barrenness, seems luxuriant and beautiful. These islands of fertility are, however, widely distant from each other, and those who traverse the desert are often exposed to terrible trials before they are able to reach them. The oases are most numerous in that portion of the desert which lies between Tripoli and Bornu and Kanem, through Fezzan ; consequently this route is more frequented than any other caravan road between Soudan and the northern countries of Africa.

Fezzan itself is a kind of oasis, where, amidst barren wastes and bare hills, there is generally water and vegetation. It was from this point that the Romans penetrated into Central Soudan, and the Arabs, about a.d. 780, proceeded on their mission of conquest to the same region. But though this route be less dangerous than others, the narratives of travellers serve to show that its dangers are sometimes appalling. In the more western portion of Sahara the watering places and oases are at a greater distance from each other, the wells are frequently dry, and it is not only more subject to the fearful simoon, but to furious tempests of winds, which roll the sands before them like the billows of the ocean. The destruction of human life in this part of the desert is sometimes very great. Whole caravans, each consisting of not less than 2,000 persons, have been buried beneath the overwhelming sands; and it is rarely that a caravan DANGERS OF THE DESERT. traverses this region without many of its members perishing from want, thirst, or fatigue.

Travellers have drawn fearful pictures of the misery and suffering incidental to these desert journeys. Some tell of travelling through whole districts amidst and over human skeletons, crushing them at every step beneath the feet of their horses and camels ; and others describe the almost countless remains of the dead which are found in the neighbourhood of some of the wells. Probably the greater part of these were the remains of slaves. Gangs of slaves accompany almost every caravan from the Soudan, and here, as in other parts of Africa, the slave-trader's path is strewn with the skeletons of his victims. The effects of a violent wind in the desert have been thus graphically described by an old traveller : — " The east wind blew with violence, and, far from affording us any refreshment, it only threatened to bring us under the mountains of sand which it raised ; and, what was still more alarming, our water diminished rapidly from the extreme drought which it occasioned.

What distressed us most during this horrible day was the pillars of sand, which threatened every moment to bury us in their course. One of the largest of these pillars crossing our camp, overset all the tents, and, whirling us about like straws, threw us one upon another in the utmost confusion. " In the commotion of nature the consternation was general ; nothing was heard on all sides but lamenta tions, and most of my companions recommended THE KALAHARI DESERT. 19 themselves to heaven, crying with all their might, ' There is no God but God, and Mahomet is His prophet ! ' Through these shouts and prayers and the roaring of the wind, I could distinguish at intervals the low plaintive moan of the camels, who were as much alarmed as their masters, and more to be pitied, as they had not tasted food for four days.