Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

The more complete ones have an empty gourd attached to the under part, which is said to give them greater sonorousness. The blacks are excessively fond of these instruments everywhere in Angola, playing them as they walk along or rest, and by day or night a “marimba” is at all hours heard twanging somewhere. The music played on it is of a very primitive description, consisting only of a few notes constantly repeated.

Another common instrument of noise, much used to accompany the “marimbas” and drums at the “batucos,” is made by splitting a short piece of palm stem about four or five feet long down one side, and scooping out the soft centre. The hard cuticle is then cut into little grooves across the slit, and these, energetically rubbed with a stick, produce a loud, twanging, rattling kind of noise.

A musical instrument sometimes seen is made by stretching a thin string to a bent bow, about three feet long, passed through half a gourd, the open end of which rests against the performer’s bare stomach. The string is struck with a thin slip of cane or palm-leaf stem held in the right hand, and a finger of the left, which holds the instrument, is laid occasionally on the string, and in this way, with occasional gentle blows of the open gourd against the stomach, very pleasing sounds and modulations are obtained.

Another very noisy instrument with which the drums and “marimbas” are sometimes accompanied at the “batucos,” is made by covering one end of a small powder-barrel or hollow wooden cylinder (open at both ends), with a piece of sheepskin tied tightly round it. A short piece of round wood, about six or seven inches long, is pushed through a hole in the middle of the sheepskin cover, a knob at the end preventing it from slipping quite in. The hand of the performer is then wetted and inserted into the cylinder and the piece of wood is lightly grasped and pulled, allowing it to slip a little, the result being a most hideous, booming sound.

I would strongly recommend my youthful readers, if they would like to create a sensation in a quiet household, to manufacture one of these simple and efficacious musical instruments, and I would suggest the application of a little powdered resin instead of water to the hand, to produce a full tone.

I once saw at a town near Bembe a musical instrument which I thought rather ingenious. A small rectangular pit had been dug in the ground, and over its mouth two strings, about six inches apart, were stretched with pegs driven in the ground. Across these strings ten or twelve staves from a small powder-barrel were fastened. These were struck with a couple of sticks, on the end of which was a little knob or lump of india-rubber, and an agreeable sound was produced. I have seen two Kroomen from the West Coast, at the River Zaire, playing on a similar kind of instrument, but the flat pieces were laid across two small plantain-stems, and were of different sizes and thickness, so as to produce a kind of scale when struck by the performers with a couple of sticks each. The rapidity with which this instrument was played was really marvellous, and the music sounded like variations of their usual plaintive song, always in a minor key, and one seemed to be playing bass to the other’s rapidly-executed treble. This air is played or sung ad infinitum, and the second bar is often repeated. The Kroomen on board the steamers on the coast always sing it and harmonize it prettily, when it has a very pleasing effect indeed.

The southern bank of the Quanza, from its mouth to opposite Dondo, is called the Quissama country, and is inhabited by the peculiar race or tribe of negroes of the same name. They have not been subjected to the Portuguese in modern times, and I apprehend that in former years, when the Portuguese were in great strength on the River Quanza, they were never considered worth the trouble of subjugating, as they certainly are not now. The former missionaries also do not appear to have been able to do anything with them, as not a trace exists there of the habits of civilization they so successfully introduced, and which are so apparent in the natives of the greater part of Angola, where they were formerly established. Their greatest stations were on the Quanza, where their efforts were most successful; and there can be no reason to suppose that any other obstacle existed to the Quissama natives participating in their teaching or example than the resistance due to the very low type, both physical and mental, of this tribe, so apparent at the present day. The missionaries must have had a station of some importance at Muxima, in their own country, as shown by the very fine church still existing there, besides those at Calumbo, Massangano, Cambambe, and perhaps at Bruto.

The Quissama negroes are very black in colour, undersized, exceedingly dirty, and have a remarkably ugly cast of countenance. With the exception of the tribe of Muquandos, south of Benguella, the Quissama blacks are the most miserable-looking race in Angola. They have a wild, savage look, not seen in the faces of any other tribe, and have not the free mien or attitude of perfect ease of other blacks, but appear frightened and very suspicious. Everywhere on the river they cross over daily with their produce for sale to the different houses of the white traders, as well as to the petty native grog-shops and traders on the river from Calumbo to Dondo, but they never drop their distrustful behaviour, and cross over to their own side without delaying more than necessary. They will not allow traders to establish on their side of the river;—one or two that are said to have done so were robbed, and their houses burnt. They are on terms of perfect friendship with the natives and white men of the northern bank, and at Calumbo and a few other places their land is cultivated by the natives of those places.

The greater part of the Quissama country is very barren, and perfectly destitute of water except on the banks of the river itself, the Quissamas employing baobab trees, hollowed out for the purpose, as reservoirs for the rain-water falling in the wet season. It is very scantily populated except near Massangano and Dondo, where their chief towns are, and where they manufacture a considerable quantity of palm-oil.