The red men of Nigeria : an account of a lengthy residence among the Fulani, or "red men", & other pagan tribes of central Nigeria, with a description of their headhunting, pastoral & other customs, habits & religion

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Foreword

IGERIA is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating countries N in the world. It is the largest Crown Colony in Africa. It is,

after India, the most populous British possession outside Europe. It has only recently been reclaimed from independent African rule, and is still almost blood-stained with the savagery of head-hunting, human sacrifices and native wars, though happily not of punitive expeditions. But the main reason why the student, the politician and the average citizen should be really interested in this country is that the colony of Nigeria is the most interesting political experiment in Africa, being administered by the so-called indirect or dependent rule.

All these elements of interest make the present book by Captain Wilson-Haffenden a very important contribution to African colonial literature. In its early chapters the author gives us a vivid description of the interesting but arduous task awaiting the young Government official in Nigeria. We are told of his first impressions; of his gradual adaptation to his difficult duties, and of the complicated control of indigenous administration which indirect rule entails. “The supervision of railway and road construction, the control of native labour, the solution of judicial and administrative difficulties constitute no mean burden on a young colonial official. And all the time he has actively to take part in the conflict between the onslaught of rapidly encroaching progress and the resistances of a venerable yet antiquated tradition.

This clash of Western culture with the older civilisations of mankind is the greatest drama that history has ever chronicled, a process of ruthless levelling which is going on in most parts of the world nowadays—in Russia as well as in the heart of Africa, in India and in China, in the South American jungle, and in the islands of the Pacific. The two principal characters of the play, the Native and the White, are both struggling against unknown forces, dragged by unforeseen destinies, groping in the dark of an entirely alien outlook. Looking at it from the point of view of the white administrator who should control and guide the progress of his native charges, we see him faced by a whole set of unfamiliar conditions: he deals with an alien race; he manipulates the laws and customs of an unknown civilisation; he has to deal with a mentality, backward, puzzling and uncontrolled at the same time.

He should have been fully trained in the knowledge of native custom, mentality and social organisation, yet up till quite recently no effort whatever had been made to provide him with such training. The depopulation of vast areas, the discontent of native communities, the formation of coloured Bolshevism and of the “ poor white”? problem have been the results of some of the haphazard and ill-instructed io

Foreword II moves in Colonial policy, which have so often taken the place of real statesmanship and expert knowledge.

A remarkable change, however, has come at last into the spirit as well as into the technique of European dealings with subject races, and West Africa, and above all Nigeria, is leading the way in this matter. Right through Africa it has become more and more clear that direct tutelage of the native, the forcing of him into European institutions, and his development on pseudo-European lines have led to well-nigh insoluble difficulties. On the other hand, such earlier experiments as the partial autonomy left to the various native states and communities of Uganda have shown that the more independence and initiative you leave to the native in the management of his local and tribal affairs the more contented, prosperous and loyal he becomes. The destruction of native customs, institutions and ideas on a vast scale has been almost completely abandoned in several African colonies. In the East, Uganda and the Mandated Territory of Tanganyika show how infinitely better is the system of indirect or dependent rule than the most questionable system of Kenya. But this system of autonomy is rightly called the West African system, because its fullest application was made in Nigeria, above all in its Northern Provinces. In Nigeria the native has been left alone as far as possible and controlled only where it was absolutely necessary. ‘The position of the hereditary leaders of the various tribes and states as guardians of law and tradition has been recognised and upheld. Within constitutional limits they are allowed to frame new laws and modify custom. ‘The British authorities suppress or change traditional practices of the indigenous population only when this proves inevitable. Indirect rule also entails the principle that the African must not be forcibly made into a caricature of the white man, but must be allowed to develop on genuinely African lines. “These principles, first laid down by Lord Lugard and embodied in his administrative work of construction and creation of new colonies, have also been carried out by such outstanding men as (the late) Sir Gordon Guggisberg, Sir Hugh Clifford, Sir Donald Cameron—to mention a few names only.

Yet it is clear that indirect rule and the development of the African on African lines, though it is the only way out of the chaos, is not by any means an easy way. It entails a theoretical task of the first magnitude, besides the many practical difficulties with which it is surrounded. For we must learn to know what “ African lines ”’ really are, and we must also define the type of development, its end and its means of realisation. All this means that the study of native cultures and social organisation, of laws and customs, of ideas and beliefs, must be an integral task of modern colonial administration. ‘This point has been clearly recognised in Nigeria, where Mr H. R. Palmer, until recently the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Provinces (now

12 Foreword

Governor of the Gambia), has not only encouraged anthropological work among his subordinates, but has become a first-rate anthropologist himself. Loa deek

The difficulty lies, however, not only with the administrative side, which has so admirably responded to the call. The anthropologist, also will have to adapt his outlook to his new task, and in fact completely remould his aims and methods. He will have to study the changing African of to-day, and not merely hark back to the “ unspoiled savage ” of several generations ago. He will have to investigate the diffusion of cultures in its new dramatic manifestations, which goes on under our very eyes, rather than day-dream about one or other of the hypothetical diffusions of several thousand years ago. He will have, above all, to stop dabbling in little curiosities and turn to such fundamental _ aspects of tribal life as land tenure, legal systems, native administrative and financial methods, and the various sociological, religious and intellectual problems which directly arise out of administrative difficulties. In doing that, the anthropologist will not become subservient to mere utilitarian claims. He will improve his theory as well as enhance his utility. This point of view I have elaborated in an article on “ Practical Anthropology ”’ (Africa, January 1929), so I need not dwell on it here.

Captain Wilson-Haffenden is fully alive to these modern developments in anthropology. He declares himself a staunch supporter of the Functional School, and incidentally makes me responsible for the creation, or at least leadership, of the school in Great Britain, following in this Professor Radcliffe-Brown’s nomination (see p. 192 of the present book). I think that I am really responsible for the label “ functional ’’ which 1s now generally attached to our school or tendency. But the principles themselves, and the method, are as old as empirical and comparative anthropology, and they are best represented in some of the work of the previous generation of anthropologists—in the writings of Westermarck and E. B. Tylor, of Grosse and Durkheim. ‘The modern functional method was born in field work and deveioped by it. For the field-worker who does not pay only a fiying visit to his tribe but remains with it till he begins to speak the language well, and to understand the fundamentals of the culture, soon comes to recognise that culture, as a whole, and all its constituent elements are constantly . at work. He sees the weapons and implements being used in various ways; he sees that customs and usages subserve each a definite purpose ; that ideas and beliefs are enacted in ritual, followed in morality, obeyed in customary and legal practices. He sees, in short, that all those elements anthropologists are apt to regard as detached curiosities to be explained by history or “‘ evolution ”’ or “survival ’’ are to the native something really effective; that they are useful instruments, powerful incentives to action ; that they supply the motive force of action and the integrating sentiments on which society is founded.

Foreword Pa

He perceives, also, that culture is a reality sa generis, which is submitted to laws of universal validity; that magic, for instance, differ as it may in various parts of the world, yet consists of the same elements —-speil, rite and condition of the performer; that it is associated with a typical belief in an impersonal force; that it controls, in a remarkably uniform way, economic activities, love and hatred, war and inter-tribal enterprises.

Sorcery, which at first blush appears but an evil, malignant force, is found, on deeper study, to be strongly influenced by moral considerations. Captain Wilson-Haffenden has found in Nigeria the same state of affairs which I was able to discover at the other end of the world— in New Guinea: evil magic is used almost invariably in the execution of legally or morally valid grievances; it is a conservative force which goes with political power and established right, and it is hardly ever used, if at all, in this purely malicious, haphazard way, which was regarded up till now as its universal characteristic. If the present author and I are correct in our independent conclusions, it becomes obvious that the Government officials ought to approach any legislative abolition of sorcery with far greater caution than has been done hitherto.

Another good example of how important the understanding of native customs in their functional aspect can be for the administrator can be drawn in this book from the interesting chapters on Headhunting, Human Sacrifice and War Shrines, and Trial by Ordeal. Here we are faced with customs which for various reasons the European administration cannot preserve. After all, we have to consider the superstitions and idolatries of the white man as well as those of the native. We get up in arms when a West African sacrifices a victim every seven years on the shrine of his fetish, though we do not mind sacrificing some twenty million lives to our fetish of national honour, flag and sovereignty of the State. However this might be, headhunting, cannibalism and the burning of witches are being rigorously suppressed now among black savages with a great deal of self-righteousness on the part of the white man, who often forgets that one of these customs at least has been practised with the same self-righteousness in England and the United States some hundreds of years ago. But Captain Wilson-Haffenden’s sympathetic study shows that these customs do fulfil a function among his Nigerians. “Their suppression leaves a system of social and individual needs unsatisfied—it leaves a gap. A wise Administration will consider whether such gaps should be filled and how this should be done—above all, how the suppressing should be carried out to inflict a minimum of harm. Many serious students of anthropology, notably Captain Pitt-Rivers, in his recent book on the Clash of Culture and the Contact of Races, have shown that depopulation is very largely due to the absence of real interest in life, consequent on the suppression of cruel but virile sports and strongly stimulating enterprises, No definite

14 Foreword judgment can be formed on this complex problem, but we need more attention given to it, not merely from armchair anthropologists or from the untutored “ practical man,” but from administrators fully trained in anthropological methods of observation and in anthropological thinking. ;

Where, however, the most important effect of functional interest can be seen in this book is in the thorough-going consideration given to family, marriage, inheritance and kinship. ‘These matters could be placed in the right perspective, as Captain Wilson-Haffenden has succeeded in doing, only by an anthropologist fully acquainted with the methods of functional analysis. The interesting account which we receive of native views of procreation and pregnancy, and of the manner in which these views affect native kinship and legal ideas, shows how important it is to study beliefs and social organisation side by side. Another very important correlation is that between free sexual life and the quality of marriage. Captain Wilson-Haffenden’s researches seem to suggest, though perhaps we would like to have a fuller documentation of his statement, that the liberty of pre-nuptial intercourse to be found among the nomadic Fulani and the Kwottos de facto leads to the formation of more stable and satisfactory marriages, since they are based on thorough and wide experience. Now this is exactly what I myself have found in an entirely different part of the world, and what has been affirmed from several other ethnographic areas by dependable observers. It seems again that here we have to do with an important law of correlation—a law which defines the function of pre-nuptial licence in direct reference to marriage.

The real value of the functional attitude is demonstrated by the present book, for this attitude or method has driven Captain Wilson- Haffenden throughout, not to an idle speculation as to what the origins of customs might be, but to further and further investigations of what an institution or a belief actually signifies to the native, how it is placed within its cultural context, what services it renders to the community as a whole. Some of the explanations no doubt will have to be reexamined, and may perhaps prove inadequate, but on the whole they aim in the right direction.

The functional point of view has led Captain Wilson-Haffenden to give us a vivid, convincing and organically connected picture of a most interesting native community. It is to be hoped that he will be able to continue his researches in Nigeria, and that these will stimulate other administrative officers to emulate him in his excellent contribution.

B. Mainowsk1.

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

CONTENTS " CHAPTER fi I. NIGERIA II. From Lacos To Bornu III. To Daroro IV. In CLosEp Country V. THE Way OF THE LAND CANOE VI. Kerri : VII. A Hausa EMIRATE VIII. THe Fuvani & THEIR CATTLE .

XVIII. Heapuuntinc, Human Sacririce & War SHRINES

INDEX 15

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Idah of Attah : ‘ : ' frontispiece Head Transport: Mada Carriers : : é es Head Transport: Hausa Carriers : : : 32 Mama Corn-bins ; ; : : ; 48 A Mama Compound . : : : : 48 Mama Women . : ; ; : , 64 Kwotto Boatmen : : ‘ : : 72 Jaba House-building . : : ‘ j 78 Gbari ‘‘Good-luck” Symbols , ; . : 88: “Town” Fulani Officials ‘ : ‘ ‘ 88 From Market. ; ; : ; , 96 To Market : ; : : ‘ ‘ 96 A “Cow” Fulani’s Dwelling. : : 104 Kwotto Courier and Beggar : : F 160 Hyena-charming Display : : F ; 168 Hunting on the Niger . ; ? ‘ : 178 Fulani Cattle . ; ; ; : : 178 A Mama Headhunter . ; : : giz Professional Hoe-dancers 248 Rest-house Construction ; i : 256 Rest-house Completed . y ; 256 Dance of “ Mai-Karifi” (The Strong wan) : : 272

PE RED JEN OF NIGERIA ene fg POT ek R. ONE ny IGERIA,” the late Lady Lugard wrote, in

N: gos, “is not properly a name. It cannot

be found on a map that is ten years old. It

is only an English expression which has been made to comprehend a number of native states. . . .”

To-day it is not necessary to preface an account of experiences and observations in those states with a reference to their geographical location. Yet it may not be amiss, for the purpose of refreshing the memory, to make a few preliminary remarks concerning their history and present condition before commencing my narrative.

The name Nigeria 1s officially applied to-day to that territory which comprises all the states under British protection between the Western Sudan and the Bight of Benin. It is the largest of the British West African possessions, its approximate area, including the Mandated Area of the Cameroons, being 363,625 square miles, or more than three times that of the United Kingdom. It has a population of nearly nineteen millions, which is, roughly, equivalent to that of the dominions of Canada, South Africa and Australia combined, or half the total number of inhabitants of England and Wales.

The territory is now divided into three main portions —the colony of Nigeria, comprising Lagos and its environs, and two groups of provinces known as the Northern and Southern Provinces of Nigeria. Of these three the Northern Provinces is by far the largest division, although portions of the others, such as Benin, the ‘‘ City of Blood,” and Lagos, the former centre of the slave trade, are perhaps better known on account of their notorious past.

The modern political history of the Northern Provinces, with which area this narrative is primarily concerned, is largely the story of the gradual rise and subsequent deterioration of local Muslim rule. The inhabitants of the more northern states were the inheritors of an ancient civilisation, based on the religion of Islam, which flourished more especially among the Fulani of Sokoto in the north-west and the Kanembu people in the region of Lake Chad. In the early years of the nineteenth century the Fulani experienced a great religious revival under the leadership of Uthman dan Fodio and a holy war was declared against the surrounding pagan tribes. From their centre in Sokoto the Fulani spread out in all directions. Kano and Zaria were among the principal towns taken, Kefh and others in the Benue area falling later. For a time, under the leadership of Uthman and his son Bello, the government remained in the hands of enlightened rulers. The administration was entrusted to a responsible executive, while the courts were controlled by judges deeply read in Mohammedan law. But by the close of the century the country had fallen into a state of confusion and anarchy, in some respects

Nigeria 19 not unlike the condition of England in the days of King Stephen.

The Fulani emirs, although nominally still recognising the headship of the Sultan of Sokoto, had in practice become a law unto themselves. They, like the English barons in the twelfth century, had secured themselves in walled fortresses, which they defended against all who might attempt to subdue them. They greatly oppressed the wretched peasantry, whom they forced to work at their mud palaces and ramparts. They confiscated the property of merchants and traders, as also the belongings of rich men on their death. Preferment was by purchase, and bribery flourished in the courts. They were continually levying exactions on the villages, and when the miserable inhabitants had no more to give they plundered and burned their dwellings, and seized both men and women as slaves. So that at length a man might walk for many days over fertile country, previously densely populated, without finding either habitations or tilled lands.

In similar circumstances history often repeats itself. As Henry II. in 1155 had been forced to subdue his unruly subjects by force of arms, so in 1900 did the British Crown, which already occupied lands adjacent to the scene of these disorders, find it necessary to break the despotic power of the Muslim emirs by military means, and insist on the restoration of law and order in their dominions. The emirs of Kontagora, Yola, Bauchi, Bornu, Kano and Sokoto were subdued in turn, and, in addition, numerous expeditions against truculent pagan tribes were undertaken.

The system of administration which has been called

“Indirect Rule through the Native Chiefs’’ was then set up, a system based on the consideration that the native chiefs were not fit for independent rule, but that, under the guidance of Administrative Officers, whose policy was co-ordinated from Headquarters, they could be trained to control a reformed native executive and judiciary. In lieu of previous haphazard sources of revenue, the emirs and their principal executive and departmental officers were gradually provided with fixed salaries and their former irregular imposts prohibited. Taxation was regularised, Imperial currency—destined to become the sole medium for the payment of tribute and fines—was introduced in replacement of the former tokens, such as cowries, salt, or iron bars. Native. treasuries were set up, and the methods of accounting for public revenue and expenditure were put on a satisfactory basis. The //kalis’ (Mohammedan judges) Courts were freed from undue interference from the executive, and in pagan areas courts composed of local elders of influence were established.

But in these latter regions the chiefs had less education, and sometimes less influence over their people, than in the Mohammedan districts. It was, therefore, impracticable in such areas immediately to set up in its entirety such a complicated system of decontrol. But the principles underlying the system were made to apply to all alike, in the more backward districts the Administrative Officer having, as a matter of course, to assume ‘the major portion of the responsibility during the period of the elementary education of the native rulers.

This system was not the same as that which obtained,

NV; 1gerta oT at the time of its inception, in the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, where a system of administration which has been called “ Direct Rule” was in force. A form of direct rule remained the official native policy in Southern Nigeria until 1914. In that year, on the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Nigeria Protectorates, the system of ‘‘ Indirect Rule,’’ which had proved such a success in the north, was extended to the united territory.

As is well known, much controversy has raged, and indeed still rages, in different parts of the Empire concerning the merits and demerits of these alternative systems of administration designed to deal with the Colour Problem; but the discussion of such matters is outside the scope of this book. Controversy respecting them is, of course, acutest where the problem itself assumes the largest proportions, as in East and South Africa, British India, and the Indian Native States. But it can hardly be said to be acute in Nigeria, for she has as yet scarcely begun to experience any widespread clash of colour. This is chiefly due to the country being unsuitable for white settlement, for, in the words of a recent edition of the Nigeria Handbook, “ except perhaps on the Plateau the Nigerian climate is not a healthy one for Europeans, and Nigeria shares with the rest of West Africa an unenviable reputation in this respect.”

Chastened by this somewhat unenthusiastic official description of the country, I ascended the gangway of the s.s. 4dda at Liverpool in a state of optimistic uncertainty as to what might await me at the end of the fifteen days’ voyage.

The atmosphere on board a West African liner is peculiar. Many of the passengers are sure to be “ Old Coasters,”’ while the majority will at least have visited the coast before. And so, the climate and its effect being the common experience of all, except the few newcomers, it forms a fertile subject of conversation throughout the voyage.

Melancholy and tragic are many of the tales which are told, those with the happy ending being all too rare. Details of the casualties from blackwater fever and sleeping sickness; ‘‘ how poor So-and-so broke up and was invalided out of the service a week before his pension was due”; how many of those who survived the train journey from the interior to the coast subsequently succumbed to the sudden chill of the trade-winds between Sierra Leone and the Canaries, and were there buried at sea, in the interval lugubriously known as “The Graveyard’’—these are the items of news constantly swopped over drinks. So that the new hand, by the time he reaches his destination, 1s prepared for the worst. But, fortunately, in the great majority of cases, the reality proves throughout better than the anticipation; unless, indeed, as occasionally happens, the individual, after years of practical immunity from disease, suddenly breaks up, and within a few days joins the ranks of the retired or the departed.

As an alternative to discussing the dead, stories are told of the living. Some of the best known concern “Old Stagers’ who, having lived a long time on the coast under the hectic conditions of the “old days,” developed various idiosyncrasies.

There was a prototype of Sanders of the River, whom readers of Edgar Wallace will no doubt recognise,

Nigeria 23 reputed to be regarded—like Nicholson Sahib in India —as the tutelary deity of a certain lawless tribe. Like his Indian counterpart he tried in vain to disillusion his unwanted disciples. But the more he punished the tribesmen the more powerful they considered him to be. And to this day it is said that to the question, “What is the name of your god?” asked of a member of this tribe, the name of this official will be given in reply.

Then there was a certain senior official who was so fond of romancing that he acquired the nickname of “George Washington.” A book could be filled with the stories which circulate, attributed to this individual, concerning his marvellous exploits and charmed life, of his education in Germany and the duels he had fought there, of his thrilling escapes from the European police, and the sundry murders he had, according to his own account, been driven to commit, of how he had deputised for Caruso in Rome at the express request of the Queen of Italy, and so on.

Another story has reference to an officer of the W.A.F.F. (West African Frontier Force — now honoured by the prefix “ Royal”’). He had gone out on patrol. One day his “boy” appeared before the Commissioner of the District and announced: “My master has come, sir.” The District Officer replied: ‘All right. Ask him to come in.” The boy hesitated ; then ventured: “‘He can’t, sir.” ‘‘Why not?” the D.O. asked. ‘“‘ Shi ne chikin akwatinsa, Bature” (“He is in his coffin, sir’), came the faltering response.

Such are some of the tales told by Old Coasters. Now that the ladies are starting to come out to the coast in larger numbers, the steamer lounge, with its chatty, catty tea-parties, is also becoming a typical West African institution. But such palavers or maganas, as occasions of human intercourse of almost any kind are locally called, do not provide the only relaxations. The voyage has other and more esthetic interests to those new to the tropics.

By day the settled magnificence of the blazing sun, the azure brightness of the cloudless sky, the sparkling indigo of Southern waters— playground of gailycoloured flying-fish and dolphins —and the low treeclad Guinea Coast shimmering in the haze, now pink, now grey, with here and there a stretch of golden sand or silvery beach, and now and then immense surfbreakers, wreathed in glistening spray; by night the glamour and clear brilliance of the tropical moon, the beauty of the Southern Cross and the phosphorescent wonder of rippling waters combine to make the voyage memorable as a first experience.

Dawn on the last day of the journey finds the liner approaching the Lagos river bar, which until a few years ago was a dangerous obstruction and effectually prevented large ships from entering the Lagos lagoon, Now, however, the mail steamers are able to enter with the assistance of a pilot tug. This comes out to meet the boat soon after dawn, and escorts her a couple of miles up a winding course, flanked by a low coast broken by several creeks, until the ‘‘ pestilential Island of Lagos,” as Burton called it, is reached. Barely sixty years ago the centre of the slave trade in the Bight of Benin, one finds it to be a flourishing modern port, furnished with up-to-date wharves, connected with the

Nigeria 26 mainland and with the adjacent island of Iddo by two fine bridges, complete with canal, electric light, telephones and wireless, and—crowning boon—(until 1928) enjoying complete immunity from income-tax—a veritable John Citizen’s paradise !

CHA POT BOR T W O

N arrival at Lagos I was met by an official from ():: Central Secretariat. He confirmed the

advance copy of my travelling orders, received en route by cable at Sekondi, to the effect that I was to proceed to Bornu for duty. I was to entrain at Iddo station, situated on an island in the Lagos lagoon, thence to proceed to railhead at Kano, seven hundred miles up country from Lagos. There I would be supplied with carriers with which to complete, by such means of personal transport as I might devise, the remainder of the journey of three hundred odd miles to Maiduguri, the Headquarters of the Bornu Province, seventy miles from Lake Chad.

After crossing the Iddo straits—or, as the journey is now made, after leaving the recently constructed wharf at Apapa—the Northern Nigerian boat-train passes through the narrow coastal belt of mangrove swamp and enters the rain and deciduous forests of the Southern Provinces. Thence it penetrates the zone of savannah jungle, to which the greater part of the Northern Provinces belongs, until finally, at the northern terminus, it reaches the edge of the thorn forest and desert, marking the southern limit of the Sahara.