Books: People of Africa
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Edith A. How >> People of Africa
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THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO
1. Towards the Sunset
In the last chapter we read about some of the people who lived in the
Eastern lands south of the desert. They were among the wisest of the
dark-skinned African tribes. In this chapter we shall read about some
of the people who live in the Western part of Central Africa. If the
Baganda walked day after day towards the sunset, they would reach the
land of the great River Congo. This is not a narrow strip of land
along one river, like Egypt, but a very large country with many great
rivers, but all of these at last pour their waters into one very large
one, which is called the Congo. Then the Congo takes all the water
from the whole land to the great salt sea. Like Uganda this country
is very hot, and so, because there is so much sun and so much water,
there are great forests. In places where there are no trees the grass
and maize grow much higher than a man's head. In the forests there
are wild beasts--lions, leopards, elephants, and hippopotami--as well
as deer which are good to eat. Many of the people spend most of their
time hunting in the forests for food and skins.
2. The Different Tribes
The people of the Congo are all dark-skinned Africans of the same race
as the Baganda, except two tribes which are quite different. These
other people are called the Pigmies, which means they are very small.
None of the Congo people have made a kingdom of their own like the
Baganda. They belong to different tribes, each with its own customs
and language. Most of them wear a piece of bark-cloth or the skin of
an animal for clothing, but some wear very little, and paint or tattoo
their bodies. Their houses are built of reeds, some tribes covering
the reed-walls with a thick plaster of mud, others leaving them
unplastered. The roofs of some are thatched with the long grass of
the country, others are made of plaited palm-leaf mats. Each tribe
has its own way of making a house, but no one builds very big houses
or large villages. None of the houses last more than three or four
years; but these people do not want their houses to stand for many
years, because they are not like the Baganda who chose a country and
stay there always. The Congo tribes move their villages after a few
years and live somewhere else. So villages are always shifting, and
nothing they make is wanted to last long. Some weave mats and baskets
out of palm-leaves or reeds; others make pottery; others make
iron-headed spears and hoes for their fields, but only a few things
that can easily be carried are wanted to last. When the village
moves, most of the things must be left behind. So, until a tribe
decides to stay always in one place, it does not as a rule learn to
make many useful and beautiful things.
Again, often men of different tribes build their villages near one
another, but the people of the two villages keep quite separate. Each
has its own chief and follows its own customs. Several villages of
one tribe may all obey a great chief, but no tribe has a chief so
powerful as the king of Uganda. The Congo tribes have not learnt
nearly so much as some other African peoples. The customs of each
tribe depend partly on which district of this large country they live
in. Those who live near the salt sea eat sea-fish, and get salt by
boiling the sea-water in their cooking-pots until the pot is quite
dry, and then the salt is left behind after the water has gone. It
was clever of those people to find out they could get salt that way.
Others, who live near the great rivers, make canoes out of the
tree-trunks with the inside hollowed out. In these they go out and
catch river-fish to eat. Others live in a country good for goats, and
these keep large herds of goats. Some make good earthenware cups and
pots, others carve wooden ones. Some wear ornaments made of shells,
some of beads, some of berries, some of teeth; everyone uses the
things he can get most easily. But each tribe follows its own
customs, and despises those of its neighbours. They are afraid and
jealous of each other, and there is constant fighting between the
various groups of villages.
Some tribes want to be peaceful, and these plant their food, which is
maize or millet, or some other grain which can be ground into flour,
then made into porridge. Others are hunters or fishermen, and chiefly
eat meat or fish. Some live by fighting other tribes, and capturing
their food and slaves. Some of these are called cannibals, which
means they eat the flesh of human beings. People who do this are
despised by all other races in the world, as they are so ignorant that
they do not know that it is wrong to eat other men. Many of the
people of the Congo are not cannibals, but there is always war and
fighting between the different tribes, and it is dangerous to travel
because so many are always watching to rob and kill strangers. The
lions and other wild beasts are dangerous, but the bands of fighting
men are still more to be feared. Everything is wild and unsafe, and
there is no law outside the village, so each one has to protect
himself. Among the dark-skinned Central African people each village
has a chief who keeps order within it, and often a group of villages
of one tribe has a great chief. There are old laws and customs of
each tribe, and if anyone breaks one of these and injures someone
else, the chief calls him and asks all about it, and punishes the man
who did the wrong.
3. The Pigmies
Now we will think about the other two tribes who live in this country,
but who are of quite a different race from the others. These little
red and black Pigmy peoples do not have villages at all. They are all
hunters, and each man wanders with his wife and children wherever he
chooses. Then, near the village of some chief of another tribe, he
collects grass and sticks, and builds a little house which is too
small for an ordinary man to stand upright inside. The Pigmy people
are not so dark-skinned as the other races of Central Africa, and they
are very small, not so high as an ordinary man's shoulder. They live
by hunting with a bow and arrow. The Pigmy man respects the chief
whose village he settles in, but he does not fight for him or serve
him as the other people do in his village. When he chooses, he leaves
that village and goes somewhere else. If the Pigmies want fruit or
anything the villagers have, they shoot an arrow into it. Then,
later, when they come to fetch it, they leave a packet of meat in
payment, for these little people never steal. Although they live
peaceably with the other races, they speak their own language, and
never have anything to do with other villagers, and they only marry
among their own people. The Pigmy men wear a small strip of cloth,
and the women wear a bunch of leaves for their clothes. Most people
of Central Africa like to be clean, and when there is enough water
they always wash and bathe, but the Pigmies hate water and are always
very dirty. They have no cooking-pots, but roast the meat they have
got from hunting on a stick over a fire. These Pigmy people have
learnt less than any other tribe in Africa, for they do not even know
that it is better to live in villages with others of their own race,
which is the beginning of learning most other things.
4. Many still Ignorant
So in this chapter we have read about some other people who live in
the very hottest part of Africa. The Baganda are among the cleverest
Central Africans, and these Pigmies and the cannibal tribes are among
the most ignorant. But the Congo lands are very large, and there are
many different peoples; they often move their villages, and because
they hate one another they fight whenever they get the chance. So
these people are still very ignorant and miserable. When they find
out that it is better to be peaceful and work to help each other, then
they will be able to grow wise and strong like the other Central
African people in Uganda, and like the dark-skinned people of South
Africa whom we shall read about in the next chapter.
VI
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THE MINE-WORKERS OF SOUTH AFRICA
1. The Cooler Land of the South
The Congo rivers and another great river called the Zambezi stretch
right across Africa from east to west. North of this the country is
called Central Africa, about some of whose people we have been
reading. South of it across the Zambezi lies South Africa. East and
west of this land is the salt sea, on the east called the Indian
Ocean, on the west the Atlantic Ocean. As we travel south the country
gets narrower and narrower, until the two great oceans meet at the
Cape of Good Hope. Near the Congo and the Zambezi towards Central
Africa the sun is very hot, but as we journey southwards it gets
cooler. When we reach the colder lands of the south we find that the
grass and maize do not grow so tall, and that there are no great
forests. For long distances the land stretches as far as we can see,
covered with short grass, but there are no trees. This kind of
country is called "veld" in South Africa. There are some waterless
deserts here, too, but none so large as the Sahara in North Africa.
In other parts there are rivers, though some of them dry up in the
summer and only have water in the rainy season. In South Africa, as
in Central Africa, it rains some months of the year and is dry the
others.
2. Black and White
In South Africa there are two races of people living side by side.
First, there are dark-skinned Africans like those of Uganda and the
Congo. These belong to many tribes, each speaking its own language.
Secondly, there are many Europeans who, about three hundred years ago,
began to come across the great salt sea to live in South Africa.
Their own countries in Europe were too small for all the people in
them, but South Africa is so large that there was plenty of room.
These Europeans live in houses of brick or stone, and wear the same
kind of clothes which are worn by the people in Europe. Their skins
are lighter-coloured than even those of the Egyptians and Arabs of
North Africa, and their hair is straight and often very fair. There
are two chief European peoples in South Africa, the English and the
Dutch. These speak different languages, but many of them can speak
both. Europeans, as perhaps you know, are very clever at making
machines of iron to work for them. They have made motor-cars to carry
them quickly along ordinary roads, and another machine called an
"engine" which draws many cars on its own road, which is made of two
iron rails.
Among the African people of South Africa there are many different
customs, but most people live in their own villages very much like
those of Central Africa. Some tribes keep great herds of cattle,
which find plenty of food on the grassy plains of the "veldt." Many
have learned to copy European customs, especially those living near
the great European towns. Some go long distances to work in these
towns, especially in places where gold or other valuable things are
found under the ground in the "mines." It is about these men who work
on the mines that we will read now.
3. Work in the Mines
When men first found gold in the ground it was near the surface, and
was not very difficult to get. But when this had all been taken, they
had to dig deeper and deeper, until at last they found it easier to
cut out roads and rooms far down underneath the ground, and to look
for the gold among the earth and stones they found there. Perhaps you
wonder how the miners get so deep down in the earth every day. There
are no steps, but they get into a kind of cage called a "lift," which
slips down on a rope skip into a deep hole called a "shaft," to where
they want to work. It is a wonderful machine, something like a
motor-car, only it goes down into the earth instead of along the top.
When the men get out of the skip down in the mine, there are many
different roads in it, and each man has to go to his own part to work.
When he reaches his place he has to drill holes in the rock for the
dynamite which breaks up the rock, and the loose stones are taken away
along the roads to the lift and then up to the top. There it is
stamped with great hammers into dust, and washed, until the gold-dust
is separated from the rest. There are thousands of men, both
underground and at the top, always at work at the mines.
Down in the mines it is always dark because the sunlight cannot get
down there, and so the people have to use lanterns. In the larger
openings there are lamps fixed to the walls and ceilings lighted by
"electricity." Although it is dark below the ground, we must not
think it is cold. On the contrary, it is very hot and difficult to
breathe, because there is no wind, so that the bad air does not get
cleared away. It is hot and stuffy, like a house where people have
been sleeping all night with no windows open. When people first made
mines, a great many died because of the bad air and because of fires,
but now they have machines which blow good air down into the ground,
and electric and other lamps which do not set fire to things easily,
and so there are not many people killed in the mines now.
Nevertheless, it is very hard and tiring work, and men are often ill
because of the dust which fills the air they breathe. So the
Europeans to whom the mines belong pay for doctors and hospitals
where the sick can be cared for until they are well.
Many valuable minerals, besides gold, are found in South Africa, but
the chief mines are for gold, diamonds, and coal. Diamonds are
beautiful stones, clear like water, which flash red, blue, and green
when they are turned about. They are very hard, and are sometimes
used to cut glass. But they are valuable because European and Indian
ladies will pay large prices for them, as they like to wear them as
ornaments. Coal is a hard, black, shiny mineral used for burning. It
makes better fires than wood, and burns much longer. These
three--gold, diamonds, and coal--are the chief things found in mines
in South Africa. But in other countries men find iron and silver and
copper (of which pennies are made), and tin and salt, and many other
useful things, in mines dug deep under the ground.
4. How the Miners Live
People often come from very long distances to work in the diamond
mines at Kimberley and in the gold mines at Johannesburg. Sometimes
they walk, but in South Africa there are railways and trains to take
people to all the large towns, and a person can travel in one day by
train as far as he could walk in three or four days.
Very few people spend all their lives at the mines. Most of the
workers come for six months or a year, because they want money for
clothes or food, as well as to buy cattle to pay the dowry for the
girls they wish to marry. When they arrive at the mines, after their
long journey, their names are written in a book as miners, and they
are given places where they can live. If the men are single they live
together in a large compound, which is a place enclosed by walls and
gates. In these compounds there are houses where the men sleep, and
places where they can do their washing, and the European mine masters
provide people to clean these houses and to do the cooking.
If the workman has a wife he is given a house in a mine village,
called a "location." A location or a compound is like a village with a
great number of houses placed close together along straight roads.
The houses are sometimes built of stones or bricks, but more often of
corrugated iron.
In each location there are hundreds of people who have come to work at
the mines for a few months from different parts of South Africa. They
are all strangers to each other and speak many different languages.
Most of them try to copy the dress of Europeans; but as European
clothes are very expensive to buy and soon wear out, the natives often
look ragged and dirty in them.
These native workers in the mines are supplied with food, such as
maize, corn, and meal; but there are shops in the locations and
compounds where they can buy other food, such as tea, coffee, sugar,
and bread, and where they can also get clothes and other European
things.
There are hospitals with doctors and nurses at all the mines to attend
to the sick and the injured. There are also schools for the children
in the location. It is difficult to teach in these schools because
the children speak different languages, and their parents only stay
for a short time. But a great many do learn to read, write, to do
sums, and to sew.
The country near the mines is very often dry and dusty. There are no
fields nor trees, unless planted by Europeans.
There are many laws regulating the life and work of the native miner;
for example, he must go to work every day unless the doctor says he is
too ill to do so. At night every one must be in the location, unless
he be given a letter, which is called a "pass," from his master giving
the reason why he is not in the location.
5. Strict Laws for Miners
The reason for these laws is that all these people are far away from
their homes, and often no one can speak their language. Their
relations and chiefs are far away and cannot help them, and so the
Government has to make laws to prevent bad people robbing and perhaps
killing them. Wherever there is a great deal of money, there are
always thieves and bad people. So the Europeans who own the mines and
pay the workmen make these laws to protect their workmen, until their
time on the mines is finished, and they can go home to their own
chiefs again. There are police ready to see that everyone obeys the
laws, and if they find bad people or thieves they take them to a
police-court and lock them up.
In all the other chapters we have read about people living in their
own homes with their own relations. But in this chapter we read about
Africans who leave their homes to work on the mines. They work hard
and live a very different life from that lived in their village. They
see many different people of other countries, hear many languages, and
find out many new things. But no one wants to make his home there.
High wages are paid for hard work, but everything is strange and
different, and each one longs for his home. So everyone is glad when
at last his work is done and his wages paid, and he is free to go back
to his own village and the people he loves. We must remember that
South Africa is a very large country with a great many Africans in it.
Large numbers do go to work on the mines for a time, as we have been
reading, but we must not forget that all these men have their homes in
villages scattered all over that great country. In these villages
there are chiefs and customs very much like those of Central Africa.
But the great difference between South Africa and Central Africa is
that in cool South Africa Europeans can make their homes, and so the
Africans there see many European customs which they copy. Trains make
it easy to go from one part of the country to another, and no tribe is
allowed to fight. Where there is no fighting, people have tried to
learn and to grow wise. The dark-skinned races of South Africa are
learning to be good workmen, and some to be wise enough to be teachers
and even doctors to serve and help their own people to lead happier
and more useful lives.
VII
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THE GREAT FARMS OF SOUTH AFRICA
1. The Two White Races
In the last chapter we read about some of the dark-skinned Africans
who live in South Africa, but we said also that there are many
Europeans living there too. These Europeans came from two nations in
Europe--the English and the Dutch. Now in South Africa they live side
by side, doing the same work, and all obeying and helping the
Government of South Africa, which is European. For many years these
two nations kept separate, but the wisest men in each saw that this
was bad, and they decided to make one strong nation. When Europeans
go to live in another country, they take all their own customs with
them, and so in South Africa there are cities and houses exactly like
those in their old homes in Europe. In the towns many people live
together, drawn there by their work. Some work on mines or railways,
some have shops, some have to keep the town clean and healthy. In all
European towns there are shops, because in Europe and in India and
China no one can make everything he needs for himself. Each man
learns to make one thing well, and spends all the day making one kind
of thing. Then he sells what he has made, and buys from other people
all the other food and clothes he needs. A country where people work
and live in this way is called civilized. It is a good way to live,
because people do their work better and have more time to think and
learn from others. In another book we will read about civilized
countries and the town people of Europe and Asia. In this chapter we
will read about the Europeans on the great farms of South Africa, who
live far away from the towns. These people are mostly Dutch or, as
they are sometimes called, Boers, but some of the farmers are English.
2. What a Farm is Like
Now a farm is a large stretch of land which belongs to one man, who
uses it either to grow food in the ground, or else to raise large
herds of cattle, or horses, or sheep. In a civilized country people
cannot grow their own food, because they are busy all day with some
other trade. So some people make it their work to grow large
quantities of food, and sell all they do not need themselves. Cattle
are kept for their milk, which all Europeans drink. The flesh of
cattle and sheep is used for food. The skins of cattle and horses are
dried and made into leather for shoes and harness. Cattle and horses
are also used to draw heavy carts and ploughs, and for riding long
distances. A plough is a machine used to break up the ground ready
for sowing seed. It is quicker and better than a hoe. Sheep are used
as meat, and are kept especially for their wool. This is sheared or
cut off every year, and is washed and spun and then woven into cloth.
Woollen cloth is much warmer and stronger than cotton, and in cooler
countries where Europeans can live people always need warm clothes
some months in the year, because the sun is low down in the sky, not
overhead, and the air is cold. It is quite easy to see how useful
cattle and horses and sheep are in South Africa, and why some people
work to rear large herds.
On other farms where food is grown, some plant wheat or maize for
people to eat; some plant food for cattle to eat. But a great many
farms grow maize, as this grows better than other grains in South
Africa. Some parts of this country have great plains or low rolling
hills covered with short grass as far as you can see. This kind of
land is called the "veldt." In other places there are dry, dusty
plains. Everywhere there are hills formed of great mounds of huge
stones. These are called "kopjes." For many months in the year there
is no rain, and the country becomes dusty and the smaller rivers dry
up; then at last the rain comes and the rivers are filled up with
water, and the whole land is covered with grass and flowers. If at
times the rain is very late in coming, often whole farms are ruined
because the crops wither, or the cattle die, for want of water.
3. The Farmer and his Family
We said that a farm always belongs to one man, called the farmer.
This man lives with his wife and children in a brick or stone house in
the middle of his land. Sometimes, when his children grow up, the
sons marry and bring their wives to live in the father's house, while
the daughters go away to live with their husbands on other farms. The
girls who do not marry still live at home with their father and
mother. So there are often many people living together in one great
farmhouse. Each man and woman will have their own room to sleep in,
and everyone will eat together in a big room, not used for sleeping.
In the evening they all sit together to talk about what has been done
during the day. Outside, not far away, there are huts for the
Africans who work on the farm, and sheds for the cattle and horses and
the carts and ploughs. The Africans who work on the farms are not
like those who work on the mines for a while and then go home. The
farm-workers usually make their homes where they work, living there
with their wives and children. They have as a rule no other village
or chief of their own. Their wives work in the farmer's house.