Africa and the American Flag

by Andrew H. Foote

It is remarkable, however, that in tracing this negro race along the continent towards the south, we find these notions and practices to fade away, and at last disappear. Southeast of the desert, along the Orange River, there is scarcely a trace of them.

The dread of witchcraft prevails universally. In general, the occurrence of disease is ascribed to this source. In the north they fear a supernatural influence; in the south this is traced to no superhuman origin, but is conceived to be a power which any one may possess and exercise. Among these tribes, the man presumed to be guilty of this crime is a public enemy (as were the witches occasionally found among our own venerated pious, and public-spirited puritan forefathers—a blemish in their character due to the general ignorance of the age), to be removed if possible, as a lion, tiger, or pestilence would be annihilated. Even the force of civilized law, when introduced among them, has not saved a man under this stigma from being secretly murdered by the terrified people. It has yielded only to the enlightening influence of Christian missionaries.

These delusions are often rendered the support of tyranny by the chiefs, for the property of the accused is confiscated. Scenes sad and horrible are exhibited as the consequence of a chief’s illness. In order to force a discovery of the means employed, and to get the witchcraft counteracted, some native, who is generally rich enough to be worth plundering, is seized and tortured, until, as an old author expresses it, “he dies, or the chief recovers.” They extend the horror of the infliction, by calling in the aid of vermin life, destined in nature to devour corruption, by scattering handfuls of ants over the scorched skin and quivering flesh of their victim.

Generally among the Guinea negroes, the ordeal employed to detect this crime, is to compel the accused to drink a decoction of sassy-wood. This may be rendered harmless or destructive, according to the object of the fetishman. It is oftener his purpose to destroy than to save, and great cruelty has in almost all cases been found to accompany the trial.

Plunder is the reward of the soldier. In the central regions this was increased by the sale of captives. Captives of both sexes were the chief’s property. Thus the warriors looked to the acquisition of wives from the chief, as the recompense of successful wars. They announced this as their aim in their preparatory songs. The chief was, therefore, to them the source of every thing. Their whole thought responded to his movements, and sympathized with his greatness and success.

Women in Africa are everywhere slaves, or the slaves of slaves. The burdens of agricultural labor fall on them. When a chief is announced as having hundreds or thousands of wives, it signifies really that he has so many female slaves. There does not appear to be any tribe in Africa, in which it is not the rule of society, that a man may have as many such wives as he can procure. The number is of course, except in the case of the supreme chief, but few. The female retinue of a sovereign partakes everywhere of the reverence due to its head. The chief and his household are a kind of divinity to the people. His name is the seal of their oath. The possibility of his dying must never be expressed, nor the name of death uttered in his presence. Names of things appearing to interfere with the sacredness of his, must be changed. His women must not be met or looked at.

In war, as long as success depends alone on individual prowess, the strong and athletic only can be successful soldiers. Where the weapons, rather than the person are the source of power, docility and endurance are qualities more valuable than strength. In these the weaker sex, in savage life, surpasses the other; hence women have appeared in the world as soldiers. It was probably the introduction of the arrow, killing at a distance, as superior in effect and safety to the rude clubs and spears of earlier conflict, which originated the Amazons of old history. The same fact is resulting in Africa from the introduction of the musket. Females thus armed were found, commonly as royal guards, in the beginning of the last century. The practice still continues in the central regions.

In Dahomey a considerable proportion of the national troops consists of armed and disciplined females. They are known as being royal women, strictly and watchfully kept from any communication with men, and seem to have been trained, through discipline and the force of co-operation, to the accomplishment of enterprises, from which the tumultuous warriors of a native army would shrink. A late English author (Duncan) says, “I have seen them, all well armed, and generally fine, strong, healthy women, and doubtless capable of enduring great fatigue. They seem to use the long Danish musket with as much ease as one of our grenadiers does his firelock, but not of course with the same quickness, as they are not trained to any particular exercise; but on receiving the word, make an attack like a pack of hounds, with great swiftness. Of course they would be useless against disciplined troops, if at all approaching to the same numbers. Still their appearance is more martial than the generality of the men, and if undertaking a campaign, I should prefer the female to the male soldiers of this country.”

The same author thus describes a field review of these Amazons, which he witnessed: “I was conducted to a large space of broken ground, where fourteen days had been occupied in erecting three immense prickly piles of green bush. These three clumps or piles, of a sort of strong brier or thorn, armed with the most dangerous prickles, were placed in line, occupying about four hundred yards, leaving only a narrow passage between them, sufficient merely to distinguish each clump appointed to each regiment. These piles were about seventy feet wide and eight feet high. Upon examining them, I could not persuade myself that any human being without boots or shoes would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen.”

The Amazons wear a blue striped cotton surtout, manufactured by the natives, and a pair of trowsers falling just below the knee. The cartridge-box is girded around the loins.