BLACK ORIGINS - THE ORIGIN OF THE NEGRO OR BLACK RACE. BY SIR HENRY M. STANLEY
The indefinite extension of time which we must allow to cover the numberless migrations of families, tribes and sub-tribes from Asia to Africa, the natural overlapping of one by the other which must necessarily have occurred, and the consequent mixture of types from this and countless other causes, make it impossible to unravel the tangle of humanity that was formed in Egypt, the threshold of the Dark Continent, in the earliest ages.
Discoveries have lately been made in Egypt by Flinders Petrie, De Morgan and Amelineau, and in South Africa near the Buffalo River by Dr. Hillier, which go to prove that, though the old Egyptian kingdom may have been founded between six and seven thousand years ago, this lapse of time is but insignificant com pared to that between to-day and that far-reaching date in the neolithic age when the first human family entered Egypt.
Before stating my theory as to the origin of the negro race, I should like to lead the reader in a general way from that period just preceding the legendary and historic period down to the present condition of negro types found in Africa. At the outset I frankly confess my agreement with those savants who give an Asiatic origin to man, because, first of all, the very earliest records, monumental or written, prove the influence of Asia on Africa, while there seems to be nothing to exhibit African influence on Asia. On the sculptures of Egyptian monuments, on the face of the Sphynx, in the features of the most ancient mummies, and in those of Egyptian wooden and stone statues, I see the Afro Asiatic type as clearly as I see it in the faces of the fellaheen and nobles of the present day.
Down to the fifth century before Christ, Egypt was commonly believed to belong to Asia; but though since that period she has been admitted to belong to Africa, because of her river and the land formed by it, moderns as well as the ancients have persisted in acting on the supposition that she is Asiatic. Before the later Asiatics crowded into Egypt, there was, no doubt, an earlier race which we distinguish by the term African, because we find comparatively little of that type in other continents; but it is clear that, whatever proportion of it sought refuge in the interior of Africa, enough individuals were left to make an indelible impression on the newcomers, and form a separate race, which on account of its peculiar character came to be known as Egyptian. From the time when this new race founded the kingdom, formulated its severe religion, and distinguished itself by its aloofness from other peoples, there appears to have been a perpetual struggle as to whether Asiatic or African blood should predominate; and ancient writers were as much puzzled as moderns are as to what continent the old Egyptian race was originally derived from.
Leaving the primitive African out for the present, let me say that we must go back to pre-Aryan times to find the ancestry of those early Asiatics who, entering Egypt, originated the peculiar Egyptian race. These people are commonly called Turanians, and they have been variously described as "dusky, dark, black, black skinned, and their hair as varying from coarse, straight, black hair," to "curly," "crinkly" and "woolly." The centre of this race appears to have been in the neighborhood of Accad, where, it has been found, a King Sargon reigned about 3800, B. C.
Sixteen hundred miles to the northeast there was developed in process of time a different race altogether, of light complexion, with blue or gray eyes, and "blood brown" and light hair. It was called "Arya," which means the noble or ruling race. Finding its habitat near the Hindoo Koosh too limited, it spread itself west ward over the Iranic plateau, and across the Tigris into the Euphrates Valley.
At what early date the Turanians near Accad first felt the pressure of the Aryan multitudes, history makes no mention; but when the Aryans, still expanding, reached the Indus about 2000, B. C, they found India peopled by a Turanian population. There fore, by inference we may assume that, if the Indian peninsula from the Himalaya to the Deccan was already so well filled at 2000, B. C, Egypt, lying much nearer and smaller, must have been occupied some thousands of years previous.
In the Mahabharata, the Aryan epic written about 1500, B. C, we find earnest invocations to the gods against the Turanians, and such allusion to their appearance as to leave no doubt of their color. The gods are implored to give the Aryans power over the "black-skinned" Dasyus, the black inhabitants of Himavat (Himalaya) and the "Black Cudra of the Ganges."
We cannot dogmatize upon the true date when the Turanian centre at Accad was pierced by the Aryan wedge; but it is natural to suppose that, as the Aryans were advancing from the East, the alarmed Turanians would take the direction furthest from the pressure. By the traces they left behind them we know that some fled to Egypt and to Southern Arabia, along the shore of the Persian Gulf, and others to the Armenian mountains-the southern shore of the Black Sea toward the Caucasus on one hand and the Bosphorus on the other-and so northward to Hyper borean climes in the tracks of a still earlier type of man.
Long continued research by Egyptologists has fixed the age of Menes at about 5000, B. C, or 3000 years earlier than the Aryan descent upon India. As the consolidation of tribes into a nation would require 500 years at least, we must add about that number of years to the age of Menes to find the beginning of the people who consolidated themselves into national strength.
On the Asiatic continent there are still abundant evidences of the color of early man. In the Dravidian Hill tribes, in Eastern Assam, the Malacca peninsula, Perak, Cochin China, the Anda man, Sandal and Nicobar Islands, we find from a host of author ities that it was black, and that some of the people had decidedly woolly hair, others kinky or frizzly hair, others straight and coal black. A still earlier man may be represented by the Negrillos- the Ainus, the Esquimaux and the Lapps.
On the African continent may be found their congeners in the pure negroes and the pigmies.
Logan, a prolific writer upon Asiatic ethnology, appears to be convinced that early man's first home was in Africa. Sir Wm. Flower believed that he originated in Southern India and, spread ing east and west, peopled Melanesia and Africa. Allen derived the African negroes from Asia. Professor Seeley claimed that the negro race occupied a belt of land extending from Africa to Melanesia, which has since been submerged. De Quatrofages' theory was that man originated in tertiary times in Northern Asia, that the glacial period caused a great migration, but that the greatest mass of primitive humanity grouped itself in the Central Asiatic highlands, whence the three fundamental types, physical and linguistic, arose. The black race, he thought, appeared first in Southern Asia between the highlands and the sea.
The earliest writers, such as Herodotus, Aristotle, Pliny and Pomponius Mela mention the countries which were peopled by the Asiatic blacks. Thus, at the eastern extremity of the Black Sea, Herodotus relates that he found the Colchians were "black skinned," with "woolly black hair," and conjectured therefrom that they were of an Egyptian race. By inference we learn that the Egyptians or some of them were of that type, "black and woolly haired," but, in his description of the troops under the Persian banner, he draws a distinction between the Eastern and Western Ethiopians. The first, he says, had "straight, black hair," while that of the latter was "quite woolly."
When the Aryans finally extended their conquests to Egypt, we may reasonably suppose that, however few or many of the primitive people had already started on their wanderings into unknown Africa, the shock of the Aryan advent must have then given those remaining a stronger impulse to scatter inland. It is clear from the tributes illustrated on the Theban monuments, that some of these fugitives from Egypt had prospered in the African in terior ; and it is just as clear from the brilliancy of their painted portraits in the tombs near Karnak, that the prisoners brought from Inner Africa resembled the average brown and black woolly haired African of to-day. As early at 2500, B. C, Sankhara invaded Ophir and Punt (Somali Land) and brought much booty therefrom. In 2400, B. C, Osirtasen I. repeated the expedition. In 1600, B. C, Thothmes III. returned victorious from Punt; and in 1322, B. C, the great Sesostris inscribed his exploits in Ethiopia on the monuments. The Ethiopians built cities of re nown, and grew into a proud and conquering nation, having at an early period found that across the Red Sea their Turanian con geners were settled in Southern Arabia, with whom they estab lished a valuable trade. The ruins of Meroe, their ancient capital, between Berber and Khartoum, rival those of Egypt. The effect of these on Diodorus was such that he ascribed to the Ethiopians the origin of Egyptian religion and art! A prince of Ethiopia-the famous Memnon-lent aid to Troy in the thirteenth century before Christ. An army under Shishak, of Ethiopia, invaded Palestine with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horse men. Zerah, an Ethiopian, had started to fight Asa, King of Judah, with "a thousand thousand" men. Tirhakah, the "Melek Cush," King of the Ethiopians, defeated Sennacherib.
In the reign of Psammetichus I., successor of Tirhakah, 240,000 Egyptian soldiers affronted by their king emigrated to Ethiopia and were allotted lands in the region of the Automolii, probably near the modern Senaar. Until the seventh century, A. D., Ethiopia experienced the ups and downs of Egypt; but at this period the fanatic Arabs, unable to conquer the people of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), succeeded in isolating them, with the rest of the African continent to the south, from the civilized world.
It will thus be seen that another barrier, no less rigid and 6trong than the first, was raised against the African race.
The severe and exclusive Egyptians by their occupation of Egypt had blocked the return of the primitive settlers in Africa, at the northeastern end; the 1,500-mile wide Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea prevented communication with the progressive nations of Europe; the Atlantic and Indian Oceans separated them from all mankind on the west, south and east. The Straits of Babel Mandeb had, however, afforded Ethiopia means of communi cation with the people of Arabia, the Sabaeans and the Jews, and the Ethiopians had profited in culture and wealth; but the fanatical Arabs closed even this passage to the outside world.
This is what makes Africa the best place in which to study primitive man, as he must have been in Asia, Europe and Amer ica, before history was conceived.
It is only, in fact, within the last thirty years that civilization can be said to have obtained a sure footing in the interior, and that we have been enabled to take note of the effects of certainly 7,000 years of in-breeding, consequent upon the long segregation of the black people within their impassable boundaries.
To-day, the descendants of the primitive Africans are to be found south of the twentieth degree of north latitude; and, despite the thousands of years during which they have been imprisoned within the continent, they have retained in a remarkable degree the physical characteristics of their primeval progenitors. The dwarfish tribes who captured the five Nasamonian explorers in the fifth century, B. C, near the Niger, are still represented by the pigmy Wambutti and the Akkas of the Congo forest, the Batwa of the Central Congo plains, the Akoas and Obongos of the Gaboon, and the Bushmen of South Africa.
What the pigmies' average height may have originally been it is difficult to state; but, by comparing the old Egyptian sculpture of a pigmy as he stands by an ordinary man of the past with a photograph of a modern pigmy and a modern man of the average height, it does not appear that the pigmy has improved in stature. 'The circumstances of his surroundings are much the same to-day as they must have been in the past. He is still the wild, shy man of the woods or desert, as he is represented to have been in the times of his earliest discoverers. He lives the same precarious existence, in-earth burrows, or diminutive huts, preying on in sects, ground game and mud fish, or on what he can steal from his taller neighbors. In central or southern Africa his presence has been a nuisance to" the tillers of the soil, as well as to shepherds and herdsmen, and it has been resented continually, and prompt vengeance taken on him for his depredations. While his neigh borhood has affected some of the taller tribes, as we may see in the dwarfish individuals found among them, his tribe seems not to have been affected at all; from which we may infer that when his sisters were made captive they met different treatment from that which he dealt to his captives. Here and there among the East and West Coast tribes, we meet with traces of a long residence of the pigmies near them. To-day the pigmies may not be found within hundreds of miles of them, but the clayey complexion, tufted hair and low stature are unmistakable proofs that at one time female pigmies have cohabited with males of the taller race.
The pure negroes are in a great majority over all other races in Africa, and are almost as much scattered over the continent as we believe the Turanians were over the world; but, wherever located, they are easily recognizable among their colored congeners.
That the reader may not be wearied with African names, it is best to divide Africa into divisions.
The first, beginning from the west, includes the Niger basin and its outskirts. The most prominent peoples in it are the Haussa, Yorubas, Fantis, Mandingoes, Wangara, Kanuri and Baghermis. These generally are of average height, but vary greatly in complexion, from dead black to dingy yellow.- The darker are more often found along the coast, those on the desert border are much mixed with Berbers and Afro-Semitics from the east The masses in the interior, though distinctly negro in com plexion and physical character, possess considerable aptitudes for progress, as if long ago a higher race had impregnated them.
The second division comprises all that vast territory extending to the Nile from the fifteenth degree of east longitude, and southerly along the line of Nile waters and westward of the lake region down to the Zambesi River. The best known of these tribes are the Shilluks, Dinkas, Nuba, Niam-Niam, Mabode, Azange, Baris and the Congo tribes, such as the Manyema, Bakongo, Bateke, By-yanzi, Balunda, Balua and the Zambesi-Marotse, and others. In this division, the number of sub-tribes is immense. Except on the Nile shores, scarcely any of these tribes would be called black by an expert in African color, but rather a varying brown, between a light bronze and a brown verging on blackness. They are all, however, pure negro in type and are probably the finest specimens of unmixed negro humanity in Africa, being well developed and of great muscular strength. Few of these peoples in the central region have shown such advance in native manu factures as may be seen in Nigeria, but capacity for improvement is evinced by the beautiful brass and iron ornaments and weapons of the Mabode and By-yanzi, by the hut architecture and domestic utensils of the Monbuttu, the grass cloths of the Bateke and the trading shrewdness and enterprise of the By-yanzi.
If we proceed now to the eastern division, which stretches from the Jub River to the Limpopo, and take a depth inland of about 300 miles, we find another set of negro tribes remarkably like those met in the second division, of good height, well set, and admirably muscular. Where the land is low, as in the immediate hinterland, the climate is hot and moist and the tribes are of a livid black, but immediately the highlands are reached the complexion lightens and the physique of the people improves. Many of the children, as in Ugogo and Unyamwezi, are almost fair in comparison with their parents. Nearer the coast land, many individuals among the tribes exhibit the effect of contact with a low-statured race.
The eastern sea fringe is occupied by a very mixed race, wherein may be traced repeated blendings with migrants from foreign stocks. It requires no great discernment to perceive that the indigenous peoples have freely mixed with Somalis, Gallas, Abyssinians, Arabs, East Indians and perhaps Jews, Sabaeans and Phoenicians. The complexion of the people is of all shades from deep black to light olive, and the hair also proves the effects of foreign blood, though, as the foreigners were not in such numbers as to form a permanent race, there is a continued tendency toward reversion.
The most interesting division is the eastern central, which lies between the lakes and the eastern division; because, without doubt, it marks the highway of the warrior tribes which advanced in re peated waves toward the south, absorbed whole tribes of the autochthonous peoples blended with them, and formed a superior and victorious negroid race. It is easy to trace the march of this race through the ordinary negro tribes, by the physical superiority, the taller stature, the courage, discipline, organization and war ring propensities of its descendants. The traditions of the natives also guide us as to the direction whence their ancestors came.
In my opinion, two streams of migrants flowed from the base of the Abyssinian Mountains?one from the direction of Senaar and Fazogl, and the other from Shoa. On approaching the Victoria Nile, the first crossed into Unyoro, and thence south be tween the lakes; the second advanced by way of Turkan and Kavirondo and overspread what is called the Great Rift Valley. It is clear that the first stream was the largest, because all trace of the second seems to be lost about the sixth degree of south latitude, while the course of the other is perceptible among the Kafirs at the Cape and the Zulus of Natal.
Before the conquering march of this host, the primitive peoples fled into the places of refuge which lay on either side of the route, such as the islands in the lakes, the higher slopes of Ruwenzori, and Mfumbiro mountains, the Congo forest, and other out-of-the-way resorts. It is among the descendants of these refugees that one may find customs and habits reminding us of the fish-eaters (the Ichthyophagi), the "Cave Dwellers," and the nomadic "Blemmyes" of Arabia. These tribes are always subor dinate to the descendants of the conquerors who settled and occu pied the lands, and who are to-day known as Wanyoro, Waganda, Wanyambu, Waha, Wafipa, Wangoni, Matabele, Zulu, etc.
Some of these are more negrified than others. They all have the woolly hair and many among them are as negroid in feature as the purest negro; but the majority still retain points in their physiognomies which stamp them as descendants of the old Ethiopian stock, which has fertilized this belt of African humanity.
The Wanyambu further south than the Waganda, and the Wanyankori also, exhibit as close an affinity with the Abyssinians as the Wanyoro. In their lengthy limbs and their slender build, as well as in their refined features and small hands, they prove their descent. Among various tribes further south, such as the Waka ranga and Wanyamwezi, the Watusi herdsmen again maintain the tradition; and, though surrounded by powerful negro tribes, they refuse to be contaminated by intermarriage with them, and strike the traveller at once by their tall, slender, elegant figures, ex pressive eyes and delicate features. But for the hair, they might be taken for a tribe of Bishari lately imported into this region.
As we proceed south, we enter a region where the negro blood and type predominate, but a few hundred miles beyond it we pick up the trail of the Ethiopian again in the Wangoni country, only to lose it, however, beyond their boundary. Across the Zambesi in the Matabele country, we recognize the type once more, and behold the familiar features of Waha, Wakerewe and Waganda, when ever an Indaba is held. Beyond the Matabele are the Zulus, who resemble very strongly the best class of Waganda.
In Cape Colony, the extremity of Africa, where humanity has whirled about considerably and formed curious mixtures, we see the Hottentots, Griquas, Namaquas and Korannas, a type formed by the average negro blended with the primitive "earth diggers" or Bushmen, when the Bushmen were not so few or so much des pised as they are to-day. This breed is not so tall as the negro of the central regions, nor so dwarfish as the Bushmen. They have the clayey complexion and high cheek bones of the latter, as well as their tufted hair, but the muscular development and build of the true negro.
As regards North Africa, it is unnecessary to go into details respecting the Berber stock, which is the ancient "Barberi" of the Romans. The basic stock was, no doubt, that which peopled Egypt in the pre-historic age; but as its area was much larger, and as it formed itself into several independent tribes and nations, it was more exposed to the influence of the many European and Asiatic nations which in the course of time formed colonies, of which Dido's colony is an example. Among them, Greeks, Phoenicians, Goths, Gauls, Romans, Celtiberians, Arabs, Jews, French and Spaniards have left their traces freely on the mass of the peoples now found there, while the negro blood has not been wanting to give color and picturesqueness to their physiognomies.
Darwin says in his "Descent of Man:" "Although the existing races of men differ in many respects, as in color, hair, shape of skull, proportions of the body, etc., yet, if their whole organization be taken into consideration, they are found to resemble each other closely in a multitude of points."
No traveller who has penetrated Africa, with an open mind, can refrain from agreeing with this. I have endeavored to show the effects on the Africans of more than 7,000 years of in-breeding, to which they were compelled by their peculiar environments, and the rigid natural and artificial barriers raised against them, by which the original type of African has been perpetuated by repetition. When this fact first dawns on the traveller, he is moved by an emotion as great as that which affects him when gazing on the mummy of Sesostris after it lay entombed for thirty three centuries. He has viewed the physiognomies of his own pre historic ancestors, who occupied Asia hundreds of centuries before Menes and Ninus existed; and if he has been led by his thought to trace the fortunes of those pre-historic dark men, conquerors of the African, who elected to wander through Asia and Europe, he will begin to realize what his own cave-dwelling ancestry, who were contemporaries of the mammoth and the lion, were like.
There is no need to seek for traces of a submerged continent to locate the home of the first woolly-haired negro, or the clay-colored Bushmen and darker pigmy. Asia is of sufficient amplitude, provided we allow time enough and take into consideration its varieties of climate, for the strange divergences in the human races to have taken place within it. The continent that exhibits the almond eyed Mongolian, the blue-eyed Circassian, the deep, black Gondas and Bhillas, the dark Paharias, the dwarfish Aeta, the hook-nosed Jew, and the short-nosed Tartar, could surely, in the very earliest ages of man, have produced such contrasts as the woolly-haired negro, and the silken-haired Aryan. But in all my travels I have seen nothing more wonderful than this, that, in whatever disguise I have found man, something in him seems to justify the belief that "we are all the children of one Father." Henry M. Stanley.
