The jungle folk of Africa

by Robert H. Milligan

On one occasion when holding a service in a town we heard two shots fired in rapid succession in another town close by. Each shot killed a man; one of them was a chief. They were unarmed and suspecting no harm; for neither they nor their people had anything to do with the palaver which was the occasion of the killing; nor had they even heard of it. A man of the town that I was visiting and who was then sitting in the audience had just stolen a woman from another town, which latter town was small and poorly defended. Being desperate, and in order that they might not be a prey to stronger towns, they resorted to this peculiar mode of justice that they might form a strong coalition against the enemy. In this they succeeded and fourteen persons were killed before that palaver was ended.

Among the Mpongwe, in the old days before the foreign power was established, and among the closely related tribes south of them, this custom prevailed in an extreme form. A woman being stolen, the people of the offended town would hurry to another town near by before the news had reached them and would kill somebody. This town would then hurry to the next and kill somebody there, each town doing likewise until perhaps five or six persons of as many different towns would be killed in one night. The last town would then, with the help of the others, demand justice from the first. It may be that the object of this frightful custom was to restrain men from committing the initial crime, that might be attended with such widespread death, bringing upon themselves the curses of many people. For above all things the African cannot bear to be disliked and cannot endure execration.

The chief amusements of the Fang and other tribes of West Africa are music, dancing and story-telling. In these, and at all times, they exhibit a strong sense of humour, truly surprising in an uncivilized people. In this faculty they are next to our own race and quite unequalled by others. In their survival of suffering and oppression, in their easy forgetfulness of injury, and their constant buoyancy of mind, who can tell how much they owe to their keen sense of humour? The pain of suffering and the weight of heavy burdens are mitigated by frequent laughter. They are fond of incongruous comparisons. On one occasion when we were travelling on the river there was on board a white man who was very bald, and who attracted considerable attention from the crew because they had never seen a bald white man before. One of their number cheered up a lot of tired boys by remarking that the head of that white man was like a fresh-laid egg.

They are passionately fond of music; but their sense of rhythm is far more keen than their sense of melody. Accordingly the drum in various forms is the favourite instrument. There are two principal kinds of drum, both made from the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and about four feet long. One of these stands upright and the open end is covered with deerskin. It is beaten with the palms of the hand. They play remarkably well upon this drum. With great variety in the beat they maintain a constant and perfect rhythm.

The other drum, which is larger, lies on its side, has closed ends, and a long narrow opening in the side. It is beaten with two heavy sticks. The wood of the drum is very resonant and it can be heard at a distance of many miles. It is used as a kind of telegraph between towns, and messages are sent upon it. This is done by means of a secret language of inarticulate sounds which they are able to imitate upon the drum, according to the part of it which they strike and the regularity of the stroke. The women do not understand it, except a few common calls. Neither would any one be allowed to teach it to a white man. This telegraphic use of the drum is extraordinary; messages of startling definiteness are sometimes sent ahead of a caravan over a great distance being repeated in town after town. This drum, therefore, bulky and unlikely as it appears, is very skillfully made, being precise in form and with varying shades of thickness in different parts. As to its musical qualities, it may have charms to soothe the savage breast; I am very sure that it could soothe no others; and among white people it would make more savages than it would soothe.

Besides the drums there are several other instruments, but of less importance. The most common of these is a wooden harp with strings made of a vegetable fibre, which respond to the fingers with tinkling notes. There is also a xylophone consisting of a row of parallel wooden bars, graduated in length, and placed upon a base of two parallel banana stocks, which lie upon the ground. Banana stocks are used because they are non-conducting. The wooden bars are hammered with sticks. The notes are pleasant; but the Fang do not make much of it, as it is not sufficiently noisy to impress them. There is still another in common use; a harp with a single string, the sound of which is like the magnified music of a Jew’s-harp.

Their singing, like their instrumental music, has not much “tune” to it, but there is always a stirring rhythm and a certain weird and touching quality, which impressed me the more because I could never quite understand it,—the same elusive charm that characterizes the singing of the negroes of the Southern States. I do not refer to the negro songs composed by white men, which are entirely different, but the melodies that the negro sings at his work. The native songs are of the nature of chants, and turn upon several notes of a minor scale. But it is not quite our minor scale. There is one prominent and characteristic note, which I confess defied me, though it may have been a minor third slightly flat. I found it very difficult to reduce their songs to musical notation.

The words of most of the songs are improvised by the leading voice, and have a regular refrain in which all join. But if they wish to sing in chorus, as in their dance-songs, any words will serve the purpose and the same sentence may be repeated for an hour. “Our old cow she crossed the road” were luminous with propriety and sentiment in comparison with the words that they will sometimes sing in endless repetition. “The leopard caught the monkey’s tail,” “The roots grow underneath the ground,” are samples of their songs. Their canoe-songs I like best of all. The rhythm is appropriate and one almost hears the sound of the paddles. They sing nearly all the time as they use the paddle or the oar, and on a long journey they say it makes the hard work easier. If they should take a white man on a journey and, not being his regular workmen, should expect a “dash”—a fee, or present, in African vernacular—the leading voice will sing the white man’s praises on the journey, alluding in particular to his benevolence, while the others all respond, seeking thus by barefaced flattery and good-natured importunity to shame the meanness out of him.

Dancing, both with old and young, takes the place in general of our games and sports, except that the men also hunt. The music used is that of the two drums already described, especially the upright one, and they usually sing as they dance. They can scarcely listen to the music without indulging the movements of the dance.

Men and women never dance together; and they have nothing like our conventional dances. There is something of the freedom and unrestrained movements of the Italian and Hungarian peasant-dances; yet in comparison with these latter the African dance is a very uncouth performance, though frequently difficult, and extremely grotesque. Its peculiar characteristic is that the feet are no more active than any other part of the body; arms, shoulders, abdomen, head—all the parts and every muscle are set in motion, sometimes including even the eyes and the tongue. Their champions we would call contortionists rather than dancers.