In the neighbouring kingdom of Yoruba, this is not so much the case, where the influence of the Fellatas has made itself felt.
This brings us to the Delta of the Niger, the chief population of which is the Ibo.
South of the Delta come the negroes of the Gaboon, and south of these those of Loango, Angola, and Benguela. Between this last-named country and Walvisch Bay, the type changes to that of the browner-coloured Caffres, and the Hottentots. The language changed long before—in the parts between the Gaboon and the old Calabar rivers.
I do not profess that scientific imperturbability which enables me to write about such abominations as human sacrifice, and such follies as snake-worship, without branding them and the nations that adopt them as barbarous. They belong, however, to the darker side of the picture. The brighter gives us something better; warmth of domestic feeling, aptitude for such commercial dealings as their circumstances develop, adaptation to the habits of the European, susceptibility to the ameliorating influences both of Mahometanism and Christianity, are all negro characteristics.
We have noticed the character of the Kruman, we will now notice a negro tribe wherein an alphabet has been evolved. A man of the Vey country, to the back of Liberia, a truly negro locality, named Doala Bakara, having seen both Arabic and English books, conceived the idea of producing an alphabet for his own tongue. This idea, as he tells the story himself, haunted him in a dream, wherein he was shown a series of signs of letters. These he forgot in the morning; but remembered the impression. So he consulted his friends; and they and he, laying their heads together, coined new ones. The king of the country made its introduction a matter of state, and built a large house as a day-school. The effect of this has been, that a book in the Vey tongue has been deciphered by an English scholar, and that several Vey natives, of both sexes can read and write. The alphabet itself is a syllabarium; i.e. there is a separate sign or letter, for the different syllables of which a word consists—not for the different elementary sounds.
The darker individuals of the group before us have furnished a text upon which a general sketch of the negro population of Western Africa has been the commentary. Let us now turn to the men of the lighter complexion, and the less prominent lips. They are Fellatas, Fellatahs, or Falatiya. Sometimes they are called Fellatiya Arabs; but they have nothing to do with the Arab of Arabia except so far as they are Mahometans in creed, and somewhat light-complexioned in respect to their colour.
The metropolis of the Fellatas is Sakkatu, visited by Clapperton, from whom the following remarkable history is taken:—Towards the end of the last century a vast number of wandering pastoral tribes spread over that part of Central Africa, which is called Sudania—underwent a change in respect to the social and political organisation, which Prichard compares with that of the Arabs at the time of Mahomet. Many—but not all—of them embraced Mahometanism, and that with more than ordinary zeal and devotion. They visited the more civilised parts of Barbary, they performed pilgrimages to Mecca, they recognised in one of their sheiks, called Danfodio, a prophet with a mission, to preach, to convert, to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the pagan population of the countries around—Guber to the north, and Kubbi to the south, Zamfra, Kashna, and parts of the Houssa country to the east. Their war-cry was Allah Akbar; their robes and flags white, emblematic of their purity. Kano was conquered without a blow, so was Yaouri, so was the town of Eyo or Katunga on the Niger, so was part of the Nufi or Tapua country—even the frontier of Bornou was violated.
Danfodio’s death, which took place in 1818, was preceded by fits of religious madness; not, however, before he had consolidated a great Fellatah kingdom, and become the terror to the states around. It was in vain that a portion of his conquests revolted. The present Sultan of Sakkatu, Mohammed Bello, is the most powerful prince of Africa, whether pagan or Mahometan.
Most of these Fellatas are Mahometans, some retaining their original paganism; but whether pagan or Mahometan, they are still the same people. Their features are the same, their pastoral habits the same, their language the same. This is one of the most isolated tongues of Africa; with plenty of miscellaneous, but no very definite or special affinities.
In Borgho, i. e. in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a language akin to the Yoruba, one akin to the Fellatah; so that there Fellata offsets in Borgho. But here, according to Lander, they have been in the country from time immemorial. Here, too, they hold themselves as a separate people from the Fellatas of Sakkatu, dominant and powerful as that branch is, and respectable as would be the connexion. Such, at least, is Lander’s statement. Their name, too, undergoes a slight modification, and is Filani. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the origin—not at least the Filani of Borgho.