Races and Peoples: Lectures on the Science of Ethnography

by Daniel G. Brinton

II. The Negroes.

The true Negroes of Africa are confined to what the Arabs call Beled es Sudan, the Land of the Blacks, the Sudan, and adjacent parts. It is therefore an error to look on that continent as mainly inhabited by negroes. At least a third of it has always been principally peopled by the whites, and another third by tribes not of pure negro stock. The true negro type, such as I have described it in my first lecture (see page 48), is scarcely seen in resident tribes south of the Equator or north of the tropic of Cancer. Within that limit they may be divided for purposes of study into four groups, the Nilotic, the Sudanese, the Senegambian and the Guinean.

1. The Nilotic Group.

These begin with the Changallas, east of Sennaar, in the Egyptian Sudan, between the 10th and 15th degree of north latitude. To the south of them along the White Nile are the Dinkas, the Chilluks, the Nuers, Kiks, Baris, and other tribes. These are wholly black and in a rudimentary stage of culture, depending chiefly on hunting and fishing. They go naked, the women at most wearing little aprons. Some of them are cannibals, and all are of savage dispositions. As a rule they are tall and powerful, and brave in war.

The Nuers are spoken of as of fine physical traits, and building handsome and durable houses. Their bows and arrows, and the helmets of their warriors, resemble those depicted on ancient Egyptian monuments. It is probable that they are of mixed blood, their hair being less woolly than that of their neighbors. The Baris, who live on the White Nile, are described as an intelligent people. They cultivate millet and tobacco, understand the reduction of iron and copper from the ores found in their country, and are skilful merchants, making long voyages to exchange their wares.

2. The Sudanese Group.

The Central Sudan is the site of the most important negro states, the monarchies of Bornu, Bagirmi and Wadai. The two former are in the fruitful depressions which surround Lake Tchad, a large fresh water sea in the center of one of the most delightful tropical basins in the world. The natives are known as Kanoris, Kanembus, Marghis, Haussas, Biddumas, etc. They are true negroes, very black, and of strong body.

Further to the west commences the watershed of the Niger, the great river of Central Africa, describing in its course a vast semicircle more than two thousand miles in length. On its banks are numerous kingdoms and some cities of magnitude, as Sansandig, with 30,000 inhabitants, and the better known Timbuctoo, with 20,000. Many of their houses are built of sun-dried bricks, and an active commerce is carried on. But it must be added that these houses and this commerce have been created by the Arabs, Tauregs, and mixed races, not by the negroes themselves. These are principally tillers of the soil, hunters, fishers and warriors. They nominally govern the states of Gando, Sokoto, Fellata and others, but Arab influence is visible everywhere, and the beneficent results of the introduction of the Mahommedan religion in this part of Africa is strongly attested even by English travellers.

The Haussas, the Todas, and the Tibbus, tribes near the border of the desert, are principally of negro blood, but with a visible strain of Hamitic descent in them. The last mentioned, indeed, should properly be classed with the Berber stock.

3. The Senegambian Group.

The country south of the Senegal river to the coast of Sierra Leone is known as Senegambia, or the western Sudan. It is claimed by the French, who own the shadow of a sway there. The tribes near the coast are the Sereres, the Wolofs, the Baniuns, and many others, all in a low stage of culture. To the east is the important nation of the Mandingoes, occupying an extensive territory adjoining western Guinea on the south, and stretching east to the heights near Timbuctoo.

The Wolofs present a pure type of the Negro race, perfectly homogeneous, and, according to Dr. Tautain, it is impossible to find among them a single physical character hinting at an admixture of any other blood. Their faces are prognathic, and the women have the projecting gluteal region, so marked a trait in the Austafrican. Their language is agglutinative, and is an independent stock. Most of the Wolofs are Mohammedans, and in social organization they maintain a rigid system of castes, based principally on occupation.[122]

The principal divisions of the Mande or Mandingo nation are the Mallinki, the Soninki, and the Bambaras. They are not so pure in blood as the Wolofs, many among them having regular features, light complexions, and straighter hair. These traits are doubtless owing to their long contact with the Arabs and the Berbers, the latter of whom have controlled their country more or less for two thousand years. They are active in commerce, and cultivate the soil, the men working with the women in the fields.

4. The Guinean Group.

Most of the tribes of the coast of Guinea are in a condition of savagery, and have deteriorated by their contact with the whites. The petty kingdoms of Ashanti, Fanti, and Dahomey are heard of from time to time in our newspapers as the scene of some particularly bloody rite or massacre. For generations this was the central point of the slave trade, and the encouragement it gave to devastating wars led to the destruction of all progress. It is here, on what is called the Pepper Coast, that we established the Republic of Liberia, where about 20,000 negroes from the United States are carrying out a moderately successful experiment of returning to their native continent.