The Gambia.—All our settlements on the Gambia are in the Mandingo country.
Of all the true and unequivocal Negroes, the Mandingos are the most civilized; the basis of their civilization being Arab, and their religion that of the Koran. Hence, they have priests, or Marabouts, the use of the Arabic alphabet, and a monotheistic creed.
Of all the Negroes, too, the Mandingos are the most commercial, not as mere slave-dealers, but as truly industrial merchants.
Of all the families of the African stock, with the exception of the Kaffres, the Mandingo is the most widely spread. It also falls into numerous divisions and subdivisions. Hence the term has a twofold power. Sometimes it is a generic name for a large group; sometimes the designation of a particular section of that group. The[35] Mandingos of the Lower Gambia are Mandingos in the restricted meaning of the word.
For the Mandingo tribes, when we use the term in a general sense, the most convenient classification is into the Mahometan and the Pagan. That this division should exist is natural; since, with the exception of the Wolofs, the Mandingos are the most northern of all the western Negroes, and, consequently, those who are most in contact with the Mahometan Arabs, and the equally Mahometan Kabyles of Barbary and the Great Desert,—a fact sufficient to account for the monotheistic creeds of the northern tribes.
As for the Paganism of the others, we must remember how far southwards and inland the same great stock extends—indefinitely towards the interior, and as far as the back of the Ashanti country, in the direction of the equator.
This prepares us for finding Mandingos at our next settlement.
Sierra Leone.—The native populations which encircle this settlement are two—the Timmani towards the north, and Bullom towards the south.
Both are Negroes of the most typical kind, in respect to their physical conformation.
Both are Pagans.