French enterprise in Africa

by Hourst

Our emotion at this stage of our journey can be better understood than described. From what was once the mighty town of Garo the river mists of the morning rose up; from a dead city now, but one which it was perchance our mission to restore. A great people, whose heart this lost city may be said to have been, once lived and flourished here. The Askias had united under their banner all the African states from Lake Tchad to the Senegal, and from the desert to Say. The Songhay empire was then not only the most powerful in Africa, but of the whole contemporary world.

Felix Dubois, in his book called Timbuktu the Mysterious, gave an account, founded on the Tarich es Sudan, of the Songhay, which supplements well the information given to Barth about the people who once dwelt in the great empire named after them.

To add to what these great authorities have said would be mere waste of time. I must remark here, however, that I was struck by the fact that lower down the Niger the Songhay have taken the name of Djerma, which is that of the district and its inhabitants where they now dwell. This name Djerma is also that of the North African oasis which was known to the ancients as Garama, or the land of the Garamantes. The resemblance between the two cannot fail to strike every one.

I wonder whether the two words Djerma and Garama have the same origin? and if the Garamantic race, or, as it is also sometimes called, the Sub-Ethiopian, may not have been the primitive source of all the negro tribes which now people the Western Sudan.

If it be so, the greater number of the ethnic revolutions which have convulsed the country have really after all been merely a struggle for ascendency between three races—the Negro, which I have just been discussing; the Berber, of which the Tuaregs are the purest representatives; and lastly, the so-called Fulah race, which came from the east, and may possibly be descended from the ancient Egyptians.

I give my idea for what it is worth, whilst waiting for a more exhaustive study to be made of local dialects or the discovery of ancient manuscripts which shall throw a clearer light on the subject.

The Songhay empire of Garo, which was at one time so splendid, had within itself the germs of its own decay, for its chiefs were Mussulmans. The polygamy permitted by Islam gives to each one of them in his numerous descendants a perfect legion of possible rivals ready to dethrone him and usurp his power. It is to this, and yet more to the hateful morality of the Mahommedans, always ready to find an excuse for the most heinous crimes, that the Askias owe their rapid decline.

Other emotions, however, besides those connected with historical memories, agitated us when we came in sight of all that was left of Garo. It was there we were told that we should know what were to be our relations with the Awellimiden, and my own conviction still was—the event proved that I was right—that it would be easy enough for us to pass through their country with the consent of their chief Madidu, but terribly difficult to do so without it.

We wended our way carefully amongst the submerged islets here encumbering the course of the Niger, passing many big villages with thatched huts, and seeing through our binoculars large numbers of natives assembled here and there. The whole of the district bears the name of Gao, or Gao-gao, a corruption of the old Garo. We succeeded, not without difficulty, in approaching the central village, the mosque of which serves as a kind of landmark. But the bank was very low and partially inundated. It was really a rice plantation belonging to the inhabitants, and we soon came to a standstill.

The appearance of the village and its surroundings was far from reassuring. The negroes quickly vacated their huts, and some wading, others in canoes, hurried off with all their chief valuables, whilst beneath the trees and on the higher banks collected groups of Tuaregs, some on horseback, others on foot, watching our movements in silent immobility. All were in full martial panoply, with spear, sword, and huge buckler. I made a white flag with a dinner napkin and hoisted it on a bamboo stem, which I stuck in the damp ground. We then waited results.