Angola and the River Congo, vol. 2

by Joachim John Monteiro

CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION.

I have now brought to a close my description of a small portion of the terra incognita, comparatively speaking, of Africa, and it may not be out of place, in conclusion, to note those results of my long experience in Angola that bear on the important questions of the civilization and mental advancement of the negro race, and the material development of tropical Africa.

I have given the reasons that have convinced me of the rudimentary quality of the negro intellect, naturally corresponding to the peculiar insensibility of his organization, the result of the “natural selection” that, through perhaps thousands of years of struggling against malaria, has at last resulted in his adaptability to inhabit with perfect impunity what to the white race is the deadly, unhealthy climate of a great part of tropical Africa. I have also attempted to show that the malignity of the climate of the West Coast is, as I believe, principally due to its low level, and that this unhealthy character or influence is continued in many places far inland, although perhaps resulting from other causes.

From the mental constitution of the race, and the impossibility of ameliorating the climate, I can see no hope of the negro ever attaining to any considerable degree of civilization, owing to his incapacity for spontaneously developing to a higher or more perfect condition, and the impossibility of the white race peopling his country in sufficient numbers to enforce his civilization; consequently, should science not discover a means for the successful combating of the African climate, the negro must ever remain as he has always been, and as he is at the present day.

The greatest good or improvement we can hope for is, that in the comparatively healthy parts, as Angola for instance, the more barbarous customs or habits may be abolished by the more intimate contact with Europeans; but even this gain or advantage will not be an unmixed good, as it will be counterbalanced by the creation of an amount of vice and immorality unknown to the negro in his native or unsophisticated state.

That this is not an imaginary result, but one inevitably following the contact of the white race with one of so inferior a type as the negro, is, for example, notably evidenced at Sierra Leone. The contact of the Portuguese with the natives of Angola, however, does not appear to have acted so prejudicially as ours in Sierra Leone, for although there is not much difference for the better in the morals of the whites or of the civilized natives, the latter certainly have not the astounding impudence and cant of the Sierra Leone blacks. It is true that in Angola the natives have not been muddled by the present style of missionary work, which I am sorry to say is not only nearly useless, but must be blamed as the cause of the above very objectionable characteristics. It does seem a pity that so much money and well-intentioned zeal should for so many years have been expended on the negro of British West Africa with an almost negative result.

There is more hope for the development of the material resources of tropical Africa. The negro is capable of being acted upon to a certain extent by the desire for something more than the absolute necessaries of life, to satisfy which he is willing to work a little. The country is so extensive, and the soil and natural productions so rich, that a very little exertion on the part of the population suffices to bring forth a considerable amount of produce; but another and more industrious race will have to take the place of the negro in Africa if its riches and capabilities are to be fully developed.

The introduction of Coolies and Chinese into tropical Africa would, in my opinion, be the most important and valuable step that could be devised. The starving millions of China and other parts of the East would find in Africa a congenial climate, and a bountiful reward for their industry, with the greatest benefit to themselves and the rest of mankind. The useless negroes would then sooner follow their apparent fate of future extinction, or become merged into a more highly organized and industrious race.

The indefensible injustice and cruelty of the former slave-trade has created a wrong impression in our minds of the actual condition of the negro in Africa, and, based upon this false idea, our sympathies are unduly excited for a state of misery and wretchedness that in reality has no existence. Our blind philanthropists crowd to hear the stereotyped tale of the missionary in Africa, and the greatest interest is taken in the efforts to ameliorate the assumed unhappy state of the much-pitied negro—who is lying in perfect enjoyment and nakedness under a magnificent sky, surrounded by exquisite scenery, supplied by nature with food without any work or trouble, and insensible alike to physical suffering and hardship, or mental worry and vexation. Meantime thousands of our race are plunged into hopeless misery and suffering, unpitied and often unrelieved by those who are so anxious to minister to the imaginary wants of the poor heathen!

It is impossible for any one who has lived much amongst natives of tropical climates not to contrast the life led by them with that endured by a great portion of our own so highly civilized race—to compare their, as a rule, harmless, peaceful, healthy, and I may say sinless existence, with the grinding, despairing poverty of our cities; with the awful misery that hides in noisome dens under a cruel, rigorous climate, without warmth, air, water, or food; with the constant hopeless toil of thousands in our manufacturing districts, and the frightful barbarity, ignorance, and vice underlying our civilization, with all its religions, wealth, and luxury. We spend large sums in the fruitless attempt to reclaim and convert the negro from his so-called dark state, and we allow thousands of our innocent children at home to grow up as thieves and worse than savages.