Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

The geological character of the coast-line from the Quanza to Mossamedes is gneiss, mostly very quartzose, then with a good deal of hornblende and mica near Cuio, passing to a fine-grained porphyry and fine granite with large, distinct feldspar about Mossamedes. Close to the sea these primary rocks are joined by a line of tertiary deposits, principally massive gypsum, and sandstones of different thicknesses curiously separated by layers of the finest dust. Farther south, between the River San Nicolao in 14° S. lat. and Mossamedes, there is a strip of columnar basalt and trap-rock of only a few miles in width.

The character of these rocks is sufficient to account for the very sterile nature of the country; in fact, most of it is completely a rocky desert, without a drop of water, and covered with but little grass, and frightfully thorny bushes. Although this is the general character, there are numerous places of the greatest beauty, particularly at a distance of twenty to thirty miles from the coast, where the first elevation is reached, and where the vegetation, as in the rest of Angola, changes to a luxuriant character.

The country about Cassanza is level and well covered with grass, and the natives appeared inoffensive and quiet. They have a considerable quantity of fine cattle, and what is rare amongst the natives of Angola, they milk the cows regularly twice a day, the milk being a principal article of food with them. The few days that I was there in 1863, I enjoyed the abundance of beautiful milk immensely.

The Portuguese with whom I was staying was then engaged in cotton planting, but the ground did not appear very suitable for its cultivation. He also had a beautiful cotton and sugar-cane plantation at Benguella Velha, and at a pretty place called Cuvo, where there is a small river and good ground near its mouth.

On that occasion I had come up in a sailing barge from Benguella to Novo Redondo, to explore that district for copper, specimens of the ore having been found in several places. The river at Novo Redondo had overflowed its banks, and the road we had to follow was under water for some miles, and whilst waiting for the river to subside, I started to Cuvo and Cassanza to see the country and my friend. On returning to Novo Redondo I obtained for guide the services of a jovial and useful black named David, who had been educated at Benguella. He could read and write Portuguese, which language he spoke perfectly, and was a man of great importance in the Novo Redondo country, as he was the hereditary king of the place, and was to be proclaimed as such as soon as he could make up his mind to eat a man’s head and heart, roasted or stewed, as he should fancy. David was not at all inclined either to forego his kingship, or to eat any part of one of his fellow-creatures, which by the custom of his country it was imperative he should do to be proclaimed king.

He had been putting off the disagreeable ceremony for some two years, if I remember right, but his people were getting impatient at not having a king, and were threatening to elect another. How he got over the difficulty, or if he at last submitted to overcome his repugnance to roast or stewed negro, I never heard.

The “Mucelis,” or natives of Novo Redondo and of the country inland called “Celis,” are cannibals, and, as far as I could ascertain, there are no others in Angola.

The Portuguese have no stations inland on that part of the coast, that of Caconda, to the interior and south of Benguella, being the first; and they do not allow the practice of cannibalism at the town of Novo Redondo itself, as they strictly prohibit and punish there, as in the rest of Angola, any fetish rite or custom, but I found that at Cuacra, the second large town I passed on my way inland, human flesh was eaten, and in several other towns I passed I saw evidences of this custom in a heap of skulls of the blacks that had been eaten in the centre of the towns, and on the trees were also the clay pots in which the flesh was cooked, and which, according to their laws, can only be used for that purpose.

One night I walked out of my hut at a town where I was sleeping, and seeing that no one was about, I chose a nice skull from the heap, and brought it home and presented it to my friend Professor Huxley, who exhibited it at a meeting of the Anthropological Society. I had previously asked whether I might take one of these skulls, but had been told that it would be considered a great “fetish” if I did, and David begged me not to do so, as there would be a great disturbance, so I was obliged to steal one in the way I have described, and hide it carefully in my portmanteau.

It is only natives who are killed for “fetish” or witchcraft that are eaten, and the “soba” or king of the town where they are executed has the head and heart as his share.