Races and Peoples: Lectures on the Science of Ethnography

by Daniel G. Brinton

We have seen that the African continent at the period of its first occupancy was divided by the sea (now desert) of the Sahara into two unequal portions, the northern being properly an appendix of Europe. The southern portion began at the Mediterranean on the north, where the tertiary plateau of Tripoli rises above the sea, included the valley of the Nile above the Delta, and the remainder of the continent as it now is, together with the island of Madagascar, with which it was then connected by a land bridge. As the Sahara sea evaporated to become a desert, its vast tracts and also the lower Nile valley and the eastern coast nearly to the Equator were occupied by the Hamitic stock of the white race. The remainder of the continent was in the possession of the Austafrican or black race.

Scheme of the Austafrican Race.

I. Negrillo Branch.	1. Equatorial Group.	Akkas, Tikkitikkis, Obongos, Dokos, Vouatoans, Kimos of Madagascar.
	2. South African Group.	Bushmen, Hottentots, Namaquas, Quaquas.
II. Negro Branch.	1. Nilotic Group.	Shillaks, Dinkas, Bongos, Kiks, Baris, Nuers.
	2. Sudanese Group.	Haussas, Battas, Bornus, Kanoris, Ngurus, Akras.
	3. Senegambian Group.	Serrerus, Banyums, Wolofs, Foys.
	4. Guinean Group.	Ashantis, Dahomis, Fantis, Yorubas, Mandingoes, Veis, Krus.
III. Negroid Branch.	1. Nubian Group.	Nubas, Barabras, Dongolowis, Pouls, Tumalis, Nyam Nyams, Monbuttus.
	2. Bantu Group.	Caffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas, Sakalavas, Damas, Herreros, Suahelis, Ovambos, Bassutos, Barolongs, Bengas, Duallas, Wagandas.

This race is divisible into three quite different types or branches, resembling each other in possessing a very dark skin, black eyes, woolly hair, a prognathic face, and generally a dolichocephalic skull, but differing widely in many minor traits. These types are the Negrillos, the Negroes, and the Negroids.

The general characteristics of the Austafrican race are the most positively marked of any of the varieties of our species, and as it is certainly the lowest in zoölogical analogies, by some writers it has been considered the oldest of all. This reasoning is erroneous. The black race developed quite locally, under the influence of intense heat and humidity. Its original habitat must have been where alone its purest representatives have always been permanently residing, that is, on the lowlands of western central Africa, between the equator and 12° north latitude, and from lake Tchad to the Atlantic. The hot and moist depression watered by the great river Niger, may be named as the probable “area of characterization” of the distinctive physical type of this race.

How far from this center was its maximum extension has been variously estimated. There is no evidence that the blacks ever occupied the lower Nile valley, the area of ancient Egypt. On the oldest monuments they are represented as slaves, and the Egyptian type discloses no sign of admixture with Negro blood. They occupied at one time the southern oases of the Sahara, but their dominion never extended as far north as Fezzan. The presence of Negro colonies and mixed breeds which is visible in the northern oases, is owing to the importation of the Soudanese as slaves, and also to the extensive migrations they are still in the habit of making. I learned when visiting some of these oases, that many black families are constantly moving from one to another in pursuit of their various callings.

It is an historical fact that from the beginning of the Christian era at least, and probably much longer, the whole of the southern Sahara and the northern portion of the Niger valley have been under the absolute control of the Berbers, members of the Eurafrican race. They founded in those lands the extensive monarchies of Ghanata and Melle, which maintained their supremacy through many centuries.

On the east it is not likely that the Negroes ever gained prolonged control east of the White Nile. That portion of the continent between this river and the Arabian gulf has been held by the same peoples since the time the ancient Egyptians sent their trading ships to “the land Punt,” the name under which they knew it; and these peoples were not of the Austafrican type or race.

The general tendency of migration in central as in southern Africa, so far as it can be traced in historic times, has been westerly and southwesterly. The densest population has been near the Atlantic coast, as if the various tribes had been crowded to the impassable barrier of the ocean.