In Savage Africa / Or, The adventures of Frank Baldwin from the Gold Coast to Zanzibar.

by Verney Lovett Cameron

I was very grateful for his interference, but the chief being a much married man was so worried by his wives that he had to ask Hatibu to take me to the part of the village where they lived, so that they could have a look at me without being incommoded by the crowd of their sisters of low degree.

We found that the chief had a large space fenced off for him and his harem, in the centre of which was a large hut which was his special quarters. Along either side were a dozen smaller ones, in each of which two wives with their children and attendants lived. His mother, who had, I fear, the difficult task of keeping the wives in order, had her hut close to the entrance.

Hatibu and I were given stools to sit on. The chief himself sat on a carved wooden stool which represented a man squatting on his haunches with the elbows resting on the knees, the seat being supported by the head and upturned palms of the hands. One of his wives placed herself on the ground at his feet and supported them in her lap; another stood on his right holding his shield, made of cane worked into patterns and fringed with the skins of long-haired black monkeys; while a third stood on his left with a copper spear, the haft of which was elaborately carved, and ornamented with the tails of zebras and buffaloes.

He spoke for a long time to Hatibu, while the remainder of his wives stared at me. After a quarter of an hour of minute examination I began to get wearied, and Hatibu asked the chief to call his wives off, and gave them a few beads and cowries, with which they were very much delighted. After this the chief took us into his hut. It was beautifully clean and neat, and lined with mats and grass-cloth worked in patterns; the floor was of red clay beaten hard and rubbed up to a bright polish. Spears, bows, and shields were hung round the walls and disposed with a certain amount of taste. The furniture was very simple, consisting of a few stools, a fire-place made of three eighteen-inch cones of clay standing about a foot apart, a bed-place of canes covered with mats, and some raised benches of clay, polished like the floor, on which skins of wild beasts were spread.

Some baskets and boxes made of bark were near the fire-place, where a few logs were smouldering. Standing near by were a couple of elaborately carved idols, male and female, round whose necks were heavy strings of beads and cowries, while their arms and legs were adorned with copper bracelets. The only opening was the doorway, and smoke had turned the inside of the roof to a shiny black. It was some time before we could see clearly. During this time the chief and some of his wives were busy removing the bed-place and placing something in the middle of the floor. After a bit we saw uncovered three very large tusks of ivory for Hatibu to buy, which after some bargaining were secured for seven copper bracelets and a hundred and fifty cowries.

This business having been completed, and night coming on, Hatibu and I went back to our hut to sleep. In the morning carriers were found for the ivory to take it back to our own camp, under the escort of two of Hatibu’s men. The rest of us pursued our way to the village we had intended to visit when we started, and reached it without any incident worthy of note.

Our guides were natives of this place. The inhabitants, evidently expecting our arrival, were on the look-out for us, and welcomed us with every sign of friendship; but when we got to the village we could see no signs of the chief Mona Mkulla, who, we had been told, had invited us to come there.

We were first taken to a large shed, where the chief of the village, Russuna, welcomed us. He brought out a large supply of native beer, which was passed round to our people, Russuna drinking some out of each vessel to prove that the beer was not poisoned. Until all that he had provided had been consumed he would not enter upon any discussion of the business which had brought us.

All things must have an end, and so at last had Russuna’s beer. He then said Mona Mkulla was a great chief, and no strangers were permitted to visit his village, but that next day, when the sun came over the tops of the trees, he would come to the village we were then in, and Hatibu would be able to speak of many things with him.

I could see that Hatibu was very vexed at this, for he had thought that the buying of ivory was the only thing that was to be done. Now he was afraid that Mona Mkulla would bring up questions about some of the Arab traders living at free quarters and driving people off as slaves. This had been indulged in to an alarming extent by some of the parties sent out to collect ivory, and had caused so much ill-feeling and bad blood that Hamees ibu Sayf had prohibited it altogether.