The jungle folk of Africa

by Robert H. Milligan

In the work of the station, though formally we were equal, yet as a matter of fact, we recognized Dr. Good as head, owing to his years of experience and his competence. Dr. Good spent most of his time itinerating—preaching in the streets of the villages near and far. He also made several long tours of two or three weeks for the purpose of exploring the further interior. While at the station he studied the language, translated, and did a large amount of medical work. Mr. Kerr had charge of the work of building, and most of the material work necessary in establishing the station. I studied the language, did all the buying from natives and went to the coast when it was necessary that a white man should conduct the caravan. Later in the year I did what I could of Dr. Good’s medical work in his absence, the chief result being invaluable experience on my part, and no fatalities that could be proved to be the direct result of my treatment.

I am sure that those who have never been among uncivilized people, or at least those who have not a vivid realization of their ignorance will not know what a layman with experience may accomplish in healing the sick and instructing the mind through healing. When I went to Africa I was as ignorant of medicine as an educated man could be, and I had neither Dr. Good’s liking nor aptitude for it. But, in the first place, like other white men in that climate, I was soon compelled to become my own physician. For even if there is a professional physician at the same station, he cannot be there always; but self-care must be constant, and so one accumulates a considerable experience. And what he does for himself he can do for the natives. For however ignorant he may be of medicine he is wiser than they. When I saw a woman writhing in a convulsion I at least suspected poisoning; but they suspected witchcraft and beat drums around her to drive out the bad spirit. When I saw a poor boy delirious with fever and instead of administering some remedy the distracted parents were only trying to discover who had bewitched him, the difference between my knowledge and their ignorance seemed immeasurable, and I could advise them and help them, for already I had learned considerable about malarial fever. When a poor child was suffering with worms, that frightful scourge of Africa, incredible to us in the extent of its prevalence, and the parents, though they knew and could tell me what was the matter, yet knew of no remedy but to change the child’s fetishes, I knew, even if I had been in Africa only a few months, that santonine is far more effective than any change of fetishes. And no man ever lands in Africa before he knows that sulphur is excellent for itch. Ulcers also are exceedingly common. Cuts, scratches and wounds are always neglected and may become bad ulcers; and sometimes the blood is so tainted by the diseases of vice that ulcers will not heal without internal remedies such as potassium iodide. There is abundant need of all the skill of the best equipped physician. But the majority of cases needing medical treatment are simple in the diagnosis and the treatment; for the weak and the sickly are bound to die young. Fevers, ulcers, worms, and itch are very common and cause more suffering than everything else. But any layman can do something for these. And if he is associated with a physician for a time, he can learn to do much for the relief of suffering. He can do as much as he has time to do; and knowledge grows with experience. So it was that even I, despite unusual ignorance of medicine and original ineptitude, after some years, when I was in charge of a boys’ boarding-school, treated from fifteen to twenty boys a day; for the parents were especially willing to send their sick boys; and at the end of the term there was very little sickness among them.

There is much less sickness among the tribes of the interior than those at the coast. If we knew all the reasons for this we might also know why the coast tribes everywhere are dying out, many of them being now but small remnants of formerly great and powerful tribes. The coast tribes have all come from the interior, and the interior tribes to-day are all moving towards the coast. The change of climate may have been for the worse; for the strong sea-breeze alternating with the stronger land-breeze is hard on those who are not protected by clothing. The slave traffic greatly reduced the coast tribes and threatened the extinction of some of them; but it is not a reason why they should still continue to decrease. The excessive use of the white man’s rum without doubt reduces the birth-rate among coast tribes. Besides, certain diseases have been imported with the white man’s vices. And it is also possible that the greater amount of sickness and disease among coast tribes may be in part due to the better care of children among the semi-civilized people of the coast, with the result that a greater number of weak and sickly children live to maturity than in the savage life of the interior, where none but the robust are likely to survive.

Many sick people came to Efulen, most of them with very bad ulcers. They realized the benefit, and it won their good-will and their desire to have us stay among them; but I cannot say that it won their gratitude. Even when they paid nothing for medicines or for bandages, they took for granted that we were in some way serving our interest by healing them. Their psychology allowed no place for any altruistic motive. The outer bandage with which Dr. Good bound their ulcerated limbs, he used several times, in fact as long as he could, for bandages were not easy to supply and many were required. But his patients, especially the women, liked to have new white bandages each day, for they regarded them as ornamental. So they would take off the bandage before coming to him and would declare that they had lost it, or that it had been stolen. But frequently when he would tell a woman that he would not dress the ulcer until she should find the bandage she would deliberately take it out of her basket before his eyes and hand it to him half laughing and half scolding. Shortly after our arrival at Efulen a chief came from a distant town bringing his sick wife. He left her, however, in the village at the foot of the hill and first came up alone to talk the palaver with Dr. Good and see what the white man would give him if he would bring his sick wife to him to be healed. Very frequently they asked for pay for being treated and for taking our medicine. The medical work therefore did not serve our missionary purpose as greatly as I had anticipated. But that is no argument against it. Duty is duty; and to relieve pain and suffering as far as we are able is a duty quite apart from any consideration of gratitude or reward.

No more notable event occurred during the entire year than the visit of Mrs. Laffin, one of our missionaries at Batanga, who had only been in Africa a short time, and was destined soon to find a grave there. Dr. and Mrs. Laffin came in the dry season, when the roads were at the best, and Mrs. Laffin was carried in a hammock much of the time. Mrs. Laffin was a saintly woman, an ideal missionary and a very charming lady. She was the first white woman who ever visited the Bulu country, and it required a superb courage. She greatly desired to see the Bulu people; and besides, with the true woman’s sympathy, she wished to know how we were really living at Efulen and to offer suggestions for our comfort. Our new house, for the first time, seemed very bare and quite unfit for such a visitor. As soon as we heard of her coming I sent to the coast for a number of things that I felt we must have for her reception. Among other things I asked Mr. Gault to send me some table-cloths, out of one of my boxes; though we had never felt any need of them before. He sent me bed-sheets instead; but they served the purpose admirably; and we had towels for napkins.

One day, when I was apologizing to Mrs. Laffin for our having only the comforts and none of the luxuries of life, she replied about as follows: “If I had loved a fine house and housekeeping more than anything else I would have stayed in America where both are possible. But I have chosen missionary work in preference, and housekeeping therefore is only a hindrance. Now, if you had carpets, upholstered furniture, and pictures on the walls, I, having a woman’s domestic conscience, would feel that, instead of giving my time to the people, I ought first of all to oversee your house and order the housekeeping. But, as it is, this house gives me no more concern than if it were a wood-shed or a stable, and I can go to the towns without restraint or any conscientious scruple. I believe that in Africa we ought to have as good food as possible, comfortable beds and chairs, and plenty of room, and I hope that you will soon have all these; but for the brief period of my visit here your house just suits me.” I may say that I made no more apology.

One day while Mrs. Laffin was there she was buying some food from a native for which she paid him in salt. She gave him the right amount, but he as usual thought it was not sufficient and told her to go and bring some more. When she did not do as he said, he ordered her in the threatening tone that he would use to a Bulu woman. I immediately came forward and taking up his cassava threw it down the hill and told him to follow it “quickly, quickly.” He looked at me in surprise and hastened to explain that it was not I whom he was addressing, but only the woman, and that he would never address a man in that manner. I told him that I would far rather he would address me in that way than the white woman. But he still repeated: “It was not you, white man; it was not you, but only a woman that I spoke to.”

At length, however, he understood my meaning, but was only more surprised than ever and calling out to his friends told them, to their great amusement, that in the white man’s country the men obey the women,—which was not exactly the idea that I had intended to convey. I then told him that if he would tell the white woman that he was sorry for his rudeness she would still buy his cassava.

It was strange how Mrs. Laffin without knowing a word of Bulu, and making but little use of an interpreter, yet, by the language of a sympathetic heart expressed in manner and in actions, reached the hearts of those poor Bulu women, and discovered some womanly quality in them. They all followed her through the village, and they were almost gentle in her presence. I heard them telling afterwards how that in passing through a certain village she saw a child who had cut its finger and was crying. It was a cut that his mother would not even have noticed, but Mrs. Laffin instantly drawing a pretty handkerchief from her pocket tore it in two to bind the bleeding finger. In another matter they showed surprising modesty, which Mrs. Laffin evidently thought was natural to them; but, indeed, it was natural to them only in her presence. One cannot describe, nor even understand, the powerful influence of such a woman upon the degraded and fallen of her own sex; but even all good women have not Mrs. Laffin’s influence. When she was leaving Efulen after two weeks, to return to Batanga, the Bulu women as she passed through their villages left their work and their palavers to follow her far along the way in silence, only asking that she might some time come back again.

It was not many months afterwards that she was stricken with the dreaded fever, that came suddenly and unawares, like some stealthy beast creeping out of the jungle in the darkness. The third day she died. She had been in Africa a little more than a year. Such is the price of Africa’s redemption. But we may not say that her life was wasted. Such a life and such an influence cannot be in vain.