Each of these types, with its many tribes, inhabits sections of the three climatic or geographical zones of the Sudan—the so-called Banana, Millet, and Cattle Zones—and, since the climate and products of the zones determine the main characteristics of the people, we follow the zones in studying the people.
The characteristics of life, as well as the industries, everywhere vary with the changing physical geography of a people’s habitat; it is natural, therefore, to find a general and decided ascent in industrial life from the tropical Banana Zone up to the more temperate Millet, and again up to the Cattle Zone.
(1) The hot, humid atmosphere of the Banana Zone, and the abundant, never-failing fruits of nature supplied without the necessity of human culture, have developed a thriftless people, in whom the absence of food-problems has bred an hereditary distaste for exertion of any kind. Here and there may be found patches of corn, yams, and ground nuts, planted by the women and slaves, and requiring little culture. Fishing, perhaps the most leisurely of all sports, is indulged in; but hunting is little followed, human flesh being preferred; for the people of this zone are cannibals. The making of implements of warfare is probably done by the men; but, where slavery is the habit, no doubt most manual labor is the task of the slaves—the booty of war which seems to be the chief pastime.
Polygamy is universal, family life is loose, and the standards of chastity are correspondingly low. Wives are bought or captured; and, since frequent wars lessen the male population, women are numerous and cheap. The prevailing standard is unmoral rather than immoral. Chastity is a matter of respecting the property of others, and unchastity is punished because it is a violation of this respect for private property. Women are always property, first of their parents, and then of their husbands or owners.
(2) Passing northward into the Millet Zone, the tropical forests give place to alternate woods and prairies which commence at about the 11th parallel of north latitude. Here is the great agricultural region, grains and nut trees taking the place of the fruits and shrubs. In addition, cotton for clothing and other uses has been grown for many centuries, though, until recent years, for domestic consumption only. Domestic animals—cattle, sheep, asses, pigs, etc.—are in use, and wild animals and birds abound. The latter are both a source of food and also of peril; and, in the crop-season, slaves are employed to save the produce from enemies on land and in air. The problem of life in the Millet Zone is far more difficult than in the Banana, for man must labor for his food, till the soil, and store up the crops. In many places wells must be dug through solid rock to supply water for men, domestic animals, and fowls. In still others, wood must be hauled over long distances.
Necessity has stimulated quite a remarkable development of the industrial arts. Potters and carpenters fashion urns and bins for storing and protecting grain and other produce. Smiths smelt iron, with charcoal as the fuel; make hoes, axes, knives, and other utensils. Leather workers dress and dye hides, fashioning them into shoes, cloaks, shields, water-vessels, etc. In one district, the people have learned to make and to color glass; in another, to manufacture soap. The weaving of cotton cloth and dyeing have been practiced for many centuries.
All the arts, agricultural and industrial, declined during the flourishing days of the slave-trade, when the selling of captive slaves furnished the conquerors an easy road to wealth and to the possession of much that their own labor alone had formerly provided. Gold is an important commodity and, stored in quills, is used as a medium of exchange; but, strangely enough, it seems only in more modern times to have been fashioned into coins.
The labor is divided into well-defined crafts. Besides those already mentioned, there are tailors, musicians, architects who are also builders, barbers who also extract teeth, and even manicurists. Slave-labor is much in demand; for here, as throughout the world, until modern times, wherever agricultural and mechanical industries flourished, slavery has prevailed. And just as the ancient and modern monarchies have depended upon force of arms to supply the slaves needed, so has it been with the negro monarchies.
Professor Ely, in his Political Economy, argues, from this universal practice doubtless, that slavery is both right and wrong. “There is a time in human development when slavery represents a step in human progress, the best and longest that men were able to take. Such a step is always right. It is wrong, when men have learned how to do better.” Upon this view of the case, a host of African explorers and observers have testified to what they regard as the obvious advantages of the well-nigh universal slave-system of the more progressive tribes. They testify, too, to its partially patriarchal character in the agricultural regions, where the use of slaves, as sacrifices to the gods or offerings upon the death of a king, is practically never found. As an offset, however, to this rather roseate picture, is the even more general witness to the fact that slaves in this zone run away whenever opportunity offers, and, if chance favors them, well supplied with the goods and cattle of their masters to comfort them along the way.
The family life of the Millet Zone is decidedly above the standard of the more tropical tribes. Doubtless the possession of property for which much labor has been expended, and the necessity to preserve and to protect it, make for a higher sense of the duties which the relations of life bring. The women are more nearly equal in number with the men, and are relatively more valuable, so that a substantial price must be paid for a wife. The more complicated life, involving barns, storehouses, etc., enlarges the idea of a home and family. The care of the domestic animals leads up to the care of the home inmates, and furniture is more plentiful and comfortable. The settled life is far more favorable than the nomadic to the accumulation of household needs and comforts. Life is both more complex and more expensive. So, in this zone, polygamy gives place to monogamy save in the case of the kings and the rich, who seem to accumulate wives with wealth. The stable life tends to strengthen the ties between parents and children.