Native life in East Africa

by Karl Weule

	PAGE
CAPE GUARDAFUI	[1]
DAR ES SALAM HARBOUR	[2]
NATIVE DANCE AT DAR ES SALAM	[3]
STREET IN NATIVE QUARTER, DAR ES SALAM	[4]
MAP OF THE MAIN CARAVAN ROAD	[9]
COURTYARD AT DAR ES SALAM	[10]
IN THE EUROPEAN QUARTER, DAR ES SALAM	[12]
LINDI BAY	[16]
THE SS. “RUFIJI”	[18]
VIEW NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE LUKULEDI ABOVE LINDI	[19]
LINDI ROADSTEAD	[24]
ARAB DHOW	[25]
CHAIN-GANG	[26]
WOMEN’S DANCE AT DAR ES SALAM	[27]
SELIMAN MAMBA	[29]
YAO WOMEN AT MTUA	[33]
GIRLS FROM LINDI	[35]
RUINED TOWER, LINDI	[38]
UNDER THE PALMS	[40]
THE LIKWATA DANCE	[45]
MAKUA WOMEN FROM THE LUKULEDI VALLEY	[47]
A MAN OF THE MWERA TRIBE AND A YAO	[48]
RUINS OF NYANGAO MISSION STATION	[50]
A MWERA WOMAN	[56]
YOUNG MAN OF THE MWERA TRIBE	[56]
MWERA WOMAN WITH PIN IN LOWER LIP	[57]
ROAD THROUGH THE BUSH IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CHINGULUNGULU	[59]
MOUNTAINS NEAR MASASI	[65]
THE INSULAR MOUNTAIN OF MASASI	[67]
OUR ASCENT OF MTANDI MOUNTAIN	[72]
MNYASA HUNTER WITH DOG	[77]
THROUGH THE BUSH ON A COLLECTING EXCURSION	[79]
READY FOR MARCHING (MASASI)	[81]
CAMP AT MASASI	[83]
INTERIOR OF A NATIVE HUT IN THE ROVUMA VALLEY	[85]
DOVECOTE AND GRANARY	[92]
RAT TRAP	[96]
TRAP FOR ANTELOPES	[98]
TRAP FOR GUINEA-FOWL	[99]
TRAP FOR LARGE GAME	[99]
MY CARAVAN ON THE MARCH	[104]
YAO HOMESTEAD AT CHINGULUNGULU	[105]
THE YAO CHIEF MATOLA	[108]
NAKAAM, A YAO CHIEF	[109]
INTERIOR OF A COMPOUND AT MWITI	[110]
CAMP AT MWITI	[112]
SHUTTER WITH INLAID SWASTIKA IN NAKAAM’S HOUSE AT MWITI	[114]
YAO HUT	[115]
ELDERLY MAKONDE WOMAN IN GALA DRESS	[121]
GROUND PLAN OF ZUZA’S HUT	[128]
ZUZA’S COUCH AND FIREPLACE	[129]
YAO WOMEN WITH NOSE-STUDS	[130]
INFANT’S GRAVE	[132]
MATOLA’S COMPOUND	[134]
BEER-DRINKING	[136]
WATAMBWE WOMAN DECORATED WITH NUMEROUS KELOIDS	[141]
MANUAL CHRONOLOGY, “THAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS SO HIGH”	[145]
OUR CAMP AT CHINGULUNGULU	[149]
WATER-HOLES AT CHINGULUNGULU	[151]
MAKONDE WOMEN FROM MAHUTA	[153]
TWO MAKUA MOTHERS	[157]
A FRIENDLY CHAT	[158]
WOMAN POUNDING AT THE MORTAR	[165]
MONKEYS ATTACKING A PLANTATION	[168]
THE BLIND BARD SULILA OUTSIDE THE BOMA AT MASASI	[171]
YAO DANCE AT CHINGULUNGULU	[178]
“BUSH SCHOOL” IN THE PORI, NEAR CHINGULUNGULU	[179]
A YAO DRESSED FOR THE MASEWE DANCE	[181]
MASEWE DANCE OF THE YAOS AT MTUA	[182]
FRESCO ON THE WALL OF A HUT AT AKUNDONDE’S	[185]
HERD OF ELEPHANTS	[190]
VILLAGE OF THE NGONI CHIEF MAKACHU	[193]
GRAVE OF THE YAO CHIEF MALUCHIRO, AT MWITI	[194]
KINDLING FIRE BY FRICTION	[196]
MY COMPANION, NILS KNUDSEN	[199]
FISH-DRYING ON THE ROVUMA	[202]
TWO MATAMBWE MOTHERS FROM THE ROVUMA	[205]
TYPICAL HUT IN THE ROVUMA VALLEY	[208]
DESERTED BUILDINGS, LUISENFELDE MINE	[210]
UNYAGO BOYS PLAYING ON FLUTES OUTSIDE THE NDAGALA AT AKUNDONDE’S	[211]
LIKWIKWI, THE BIRD OF ILL OMEN	[212]
LISAKASA IN THE FOREST NEAR AKUNDONDE’S	[213]
YAO GRAVES AT AKUNDONDE’S	[214]
NDAGALA (CIRCUMCISION-LODGE) IN THE FOREST NEAR AKUNDONDE’S	[216]
LAUGHING BEAUTIES	[220]
GIRLS’ UNYAGO AT THE MAKONDE HAMLET OF NIUCHI	[221]
GIRL’S UNYAGO AT THE MATAMBWE VILLAGE OF MANGUPA. I	[226]
GIRLS’ UNYAGO AT THE MATAMBWE VILLAGE OF MANGUPA. II	[227]
OLD MEDULA LIGHTING HIS PIPE	[228]
OUR CAMP AT NEWALA	[231]
THE AUTHOR IN WINTER COSTUME AT NEWALA	[232]
MAKONDE MASKS	[236]
MAKONDE STILT-DANCER	[237]
THE NJOROWE DANCE AT NEWALA	[238]
MAKONDE WOMEN GOING TO DRAW WATER	[243]
TWO NEWALA SAVANTS	[245]
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI	[249]
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”	[251]
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR MAHUTA	[256]
USUAL METHOD OF CLOSING HUT-DOOR	[261]
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO	[262]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY	[263]
THE ANCESTRESS OF THE MAKONDE	[266]
BRAZIER	[267]
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASAI	[269]
MAKUA WOMAN MAKING A POT	[270]
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA	[275]
MAKUA WOMEN	[278]
WOMAN CARRYING A BABY ON HER BACK	[283]
THREE MAKUA VEGETARIANS	[284]
USE OF THE THROWING STICK	[286]
THROWING WITH THE SLING	[287]
SPINNING A TOP	[288]
IKOMA DANCE AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, ACHIKOMU	[289]
XYLOPHONE (MGOROMONDO)	[290]
PLAYING THE NATURA	[291]
NATURA (FRICTION-DRUM)	[291]
USING THE NATIVE TELEPHONE	[292] and [293]
NATIVE TELEPHONE	[293]
MAKONDE CHILDREN	[295]
MASEWE DANCE OF THE MAKUAS IN THE BOMA AT NEWALA	[296]
KAKALE PROCESSION ON THE LAST DAY OF THE UNYAGO	[298]
MASKED DANCE AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI	[303]
WOMAN OF THE MAKONDE TRIBE	[305]
AN OFFERING TO THE SPIRITS	[324]
LANDSCAPE ON THE ROVUMA	[325]
TREES IN THE BURYING-GROUND AT NEWALA	[327]
KNOTTED STRING SERVING AS CALENDAR	[329]
MY ESCORT HALTED AT HENDERERA’S VILLAGE IN THE MAKONDE HIGHLANDS	[334]
NATIVE SUFFERING FROM THE UBUBA DISEASE	[337]
MAJALIWA, SAIDI, AND MAKACHU	[338]
FOREST RUINED BY NATIVES NEAR NCHICHIRA, ROVUMA VALLEY	[343]
MATAMBWE FISHERMAN CATCHING A TURTLE, WHICH A WATER-SNAKE IS TRYING TO SEIZE	[347]
PILE-DWELLING ON THE ROVUMA, NEAR NCHICHIRA	[350]
THE WALI OF MAHUTA	[353]
MOTHER AND CHILD	[355]
TWO-STORIED HOUSES AT NCHICHIRA ON THE ROVUMA	[357]
MAKONDE GIRL WITH LIP PIERCED FOR PELELE AND ULCERATED	[358]
PSEUDO-SURGERY. MAKONDE WOMAN WITH TORN LIP ARTIFICIALLY JOINED	[359]
MAKONDE KELOIDS	[360]
MATAMBWE AND MAKUA WOMEN WITH KELOIDS	[361]
MAKUA WOMAN WITH KELOIDS ON BACK	[362]
MAKUA WOMEN WITH KELOIDS	[363]
MAKONDE WOMEN WITH ELABORATE KELOIDS	[364]
AFRICAN ART: CARVED POWDER, SNUFF, AND CHARM-BOXES FROM THE MAKONDE HIGHLANDS	[365]
MAKONDE MAN WITH KELOID PATTERNS	[365]
YAO WOMEN WITH KELOIDS	[366]
THE LITOTWE	[367]
“BWANA PUFESA” (THE PROFESSOR)	[368]
WANGONI WOMEN AT NCHICHIRA	[369]
TWO NATIVES	[370]
THE BUSH COUNTRY AND ITS FAUNA	[372]
MAKONDE WOMAN IN HOLIDAY ATTIRE	[375]
MAKONDE HAMLET NEAR MAHUTA	[377]
A DIABOLO PLAYER ON THE MAKONDE PLATEAU	[378]
DIABOLO	[379]
ASKARI IN FATIGUE DRESS	[382]
WANDUWANDU’S GRAVE	[397]
GREAT NGOMA DANCE IN THE BOMA AT MAHUTA	[403]
MY ESCORT CLEANING THEIR TEETH	[405]
ENTERING THE RED SEA	[408]
THE AUTHOR IN BUSH COSTUME	[410]

Translator’s Introduction

The greater thoroughness and system with which anthropology and the kindred sciences have been cultivated in Germany than in this country, has been repeatedly brought home to us; but in nothing is it more apparent than in the difficulty of finding equivalents for quite elementary technical terms. The distinction between ethnology and ethnography, indeed, is pretty generally recognized, and is explained in works as popular in scope as Professor Keane’s Ethnology and Man Past and Present. But Vōlkerkunde, which includes both these sciences and some others besides, is something which certainly cannot be translated by its etymological equivalent “folklore;” and, though the word “prehistoric” is perfectly familiar, we have no such noun as “prehistory,” far less a professorship of the same in any university. These remarks are suggested by the fact that Dr. Weule, whose experiences in East Africa are here presented to the English reader, is “Professor of Vōlkerkunde und Urgeschichte” at Leipzig, besides being Director of the Ethnographical Museum in the same city.

Dr. Karl Weule, whose name is less well known in England than in his own country, has in the past devoted himself rather to geography than to ethnography proper. He was a pupil and friend of the late Friedrich Ratzel, whose History of Mankind was translated into English some years ago, and whose Politische Geographie gave a new direction to the study of that science in its more immediate relation to the historical development of mankind, or what is now called “anthropogeography.” It was Ratzel, too, who suggested to Dr. Helmolt the idea of his Weltgeschichte, a comprehensive history of the world, built up out of detached monographs, including three by Dr. Weule, on the historical importance of the three great oceans. (Only one of these appears in the English edition, with introduction by Professor Bryce, published in 1901). Dr. Weule returned to the same subject in his History of Geography and Exploration (Geschichte der Erdkenntnis und der geographischen Forschung) and a detached essay, Das Meer und die Naturvōlker (both published in 1904), with various other monographs of a similar character.

After completing his university studies at Göttingen and Leipzig, Dr. Weule resided from 1891 to 1899 at Berlin, first as a member of the Richthofen Seminary, where his work was more purely geographical, and afterwards as assistant in the African and Oceanian section of the Ethnological Museum. In 1899 he was appointed to the Assistant Directorship of the Leipzig Museum, and at the same time to the chair which he still occupies at that University; and, seven years later, he was entrusted with the research expedition described in the following pages, where its scope and objects are set forth with sufficient clearness to render further reference in this place unnecessary. After his return he was promoted to the appointment he now holds at the Leipzig Museum.

His residence in Africa lasted a little over six months, and the record before us shows that he made good use of his time. Several features in his narrative have the merit of novelty, at least as far as the general reader is concerned; for though the cinematograph and phonograph have been made use of for some time past in the service of anthropology, yet we do not remember to have seen the results of the latter figuring to any great extent in a work of this sort, though Sir Harry Johnston has reproduced one phonographic record of a native air in his Uganda Protectorate. (It is very unfortunate that so many of Dr. Weule’s cinematograph films proved a disappointment; this instrument is proving one of the most valuable adjuncts to exploration, especially in the case of tribes whose peculiar customs are rapidly passing away before the advance of civilization). Another point which imparts great freshness to Dr. Weule’s work is the happy inspiration which led him to collect native drawings; the sketches by his carriers and especially the portrait of the author himself on p. [368] are decided contributions to the gaiety of nations, and strike out a line unworked, so far as I am aware, by previous travellers. It is a matter of deep and lasting regret to me, personally, that I ever parted with a similar gem of art, picked up at Blantyre, and presumably representing a European engaged in inspecting his coffee plantation.

This whole question of native African art is very interesting. Properly speaking, nothing in the way of indigenous graphic art is known to exist in Africa, outside Egypt and Abyssinia, (if indeed it can be called indigenous in the latter case), except the rock paintings of the Bushmen, which, as is well known, have in some cases attained real excellence. (The best published reproductions up to the present date are contained in the late G. W. Stow’s Native Races of South Africa.) In South Africa wherever Bantu natives have executed any paintings beyond the simplest geometrical patterns, they are found to have learnt the art from Bushmen. The natives on Mount Mlanje (Nyasaland) decorate their huts with paintings of animals, but these have not yet been sufficiently examined to pronounce on their quality; and, on the other hand, many things render it probable that there is a strong Bushman element in the population of Mlanje (at least in the indigenous Anyanja, who have been only partly displaced by the Yaos). Dr. Weule states that this kind of “fresco” decoration is very common on the Makonde Plateau, but considers that it is entirely on the same level as the drawings of his carriers—i.e., that it shows no artistic aptitude or tradition, and merely consists of scrawls such as those with which innate depravity impels every untaught human being to deface any convenient blank space. The single specimen reproduced in his book is not precisely calculated to refute his theory, yet it is no rougher than some of the cruder Bushmen drawings (which show every conceivable degree of skill and finish); and, if the daubs in question are merely the product of the universal gamin instinct, surely, huts having clay walls would everywhere be adorned with animal-paintings, which is by no means the case.

The comparative value of Dr. Weule’s various results must be left to the judgment of experts; but it seems safe to assume that he was most successful in what may be called the outside part of his task: in forming a collection and in describing what is visible and tangible in the life and customs of the people. That he should have failed to penetrate their inner life is scarcely surprising. What does surprise one is that he should have expected to do so at such exceedingly short notice. His disappointment in this respect at Masasi, and subsequently at Chingulungulu, is calculated to provoke a smile, if not “from the sinful,” at least from the veteran in African experience. The greater his experience the more is the inquirer inclined to hesitate before putting direct questions even when they cannot be described as “leading”; but Dr. Weule seems to have recognized no other mode of investigation. The wonder is that the elders, officially convened by tuck of drum from village after village and set down to be pumped till both parties were heartily weary of the process, should have told him anything at all—as they undoubtedly did, and much of it, to judge from internal evidence, correct enough. The most sympathetic of travellers does not always find it easy to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, and Dr. Weule’s methods, on his own showing, were frequently such that I prefer to withhold any comment.

Dr. Weule devoted a considerable amount of time to the study of the languages spoken in the districts he visited, viz., Makua, Yao, and Makonde; but he does not appear to have published any linguistic documents beyond the songs, etc., given in the present volume. It is not clear whether he was aware of any work previously done in this direction, but he certainly speaks as though he were the first to reduce these idioms to writing, though abundant materials exist in print for the study of Yao, and the late Bishop Maples published a grammatical sketch of Makua which is excellent as far as it goes, not to mention the more recent work of Professor Meinhof. It is also extremely strange that, while insisting on the close relationship between the different languages of the Makonde Plateau, he should have overlooked the curious cleavage between Makua,—which has peculiarities directly connecting it with the distant Sechuana and Sesuto—and its neighbours.

Though the scene of Dr. Weule’s labours was repeatedly visited by Europeans, even before the German occupation, not much has been written about it in this country outside the publications of the Universities’ Mission. Livingstone ascended the Rovuma in 1862, to within thirty miles of Ngomano at the Lujende junction; his farthest point being apparently a little higher up than the camp occupied by Dr. Weule in August, 1906. He had hoped to find a navigable waterway to the immediate vicinity of Lake Nyasa; and, in fact, some natives told him that the Rovuma came out of the Lake; but the rapids and rocks made it impossible to take the boats beyond the island of Nyamatolo, which, though not marked on Dr. Weule’s map, must be somewhere near the mouth of the Bangala. Most of the names given by Livingstone are difficult to identify on recent maps; but this is not surprising, as native villages are usually known by the name of the chief or headman for the time being. It is true that some of these names are more or less permanent, being official or hereditary designations assumed by every successive functionary; but the population has shifted so much during the last forty years that the old names have been forgotten or transferred to other sites. Thus Mr. H. E. O’Neill, in 1882, found the Yao chief Chimsaka living in the eastern part of the Mavia Plateau a little east of 40° E, having been driven from his former place on the Upper Rovuma, more than two hundred miles to the west, by a raid of the Mangoni (Angoni or Maviti).