Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 1/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES.
HE basin of the Victoria Nyanza, including that of the Upper Nile as far as its passage across the Albert Nyanza (M'wutan Nzigeh), comprises a superficial area which may be estimated at some 170,000 square miles, although this estimate cannot claim to be more than a very rough approximation to the reality. Pending a more exact
knowledge of the parting lines between the great river basins, we must be satisfied with rude calculations according to the spaces enclosed in the meshes of the intersecting lines of latitude and longitude. This vast region, which has a mean altitude of over 4,000 feet, forms part of the great continental divide. The waters it sends down to the Egyptian river bring it within the Mediterranean basin; but it approaches far nearer to the Atlantic seaboard, while its southern extremity lies within 240 miles of the Indian Ocean. As regards its facilities of communication with the outer world, the Victoria Nyanza naturally gravitates towards the social and commercial system of which Zanzibar is the centre. Even after the water highway of the Nile is again opened, and intestine warfare has ceased to harass the riverain communities, European explorers will find it most convenient still to take the route, ascending from the Indian Ocean to the plateaux, which has ever been followed by the Arab traders.
Although forming the water-parting between the Mediterranean, Indian, and Atlantic basins, the Nyanza region is far less elevated than some other parts of the continent. Except towards the sources of the Tanguré, where Mfumbiro rises to a height of probably 10,000 feet, and farther north, where the still loftier Gambaragara stretches parallel with the meridian, the plateau nowhere develops elevated highlands. The plains are broken only by hills and ridges rising a few hundred yards above the normal level, and presenting no insurmountable obstacles to the exploration of the interior. Amongst these Upper Nilotic lands those especially bordering the northern and western shores of Nyanza are almost unrivalled in Africa, and scarcely elsewhere surpassed, for the charm and variety of their scenery, their abundant waters, exuberant vegetation, and fertile soil. The inhabitants of U-Nyamezi, south of the lake, are less favoured in these respects. Here hill and dale alternate with the plateaux; but during the rainy season the land is mostly flooded or changed to a swamp. All the villages and cultivated tract« have had to be distributed over the uplands, the intervening valleys being utilised only as grazing lands during the dry season. The hills consist of granites clothed hero and there with a thin layer of vegetable humus, sufficient to support a little brushwood.
East of the inland sea the soil, being less copiously watered, is strewn with brackish or saline depressions, while farther north a large space between the Victoria and Albert hikes is occupied by fresh water morasses, thicketa of the nenuphar plant, sluggish streams flowing in broad winding beds.
Climate—Flora—Fauna.
Although the Victoria Nyanza is intersected by the equator, the normal heats are tempered by the elevation of the land, by the free passage it offers to every atmospheric current, and by the arborescent vegetation fostered by the tropical rains. Hence the high temperatures prevalent in Nubia, twenty degrees north of the equator, are unknown in this favoured region. Systematic observations made at Rubaga, capital of U-Ganda, just north of the line, show that the epithet of "torrid" is inapplicable to the climate of these countries. The glass never rose above 95° F. or fell below 51°, the mean between these extremes being about 79° for the whole year. This is the temperature of Canton, Tunis, and New Orleans, and is much lower than that of Cairo, Bagdad, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, not to speak of such sultry places as Bushir, Mascat, Karachi, Bistra, or Murzuk, &c.
The prevailing winds are from the south and south-east, attracted by the rarefied air of the Sahara. Storms, which nearly always take place about the same hour in the afternoon, are generally the result of a collision between these southern currents and others from the north and north-west. In this region, which corresponds with that of the "Black Cauldron" in the Atlantic, heavy rains prevail throughout the year, except perhaps in July, which is a comparatively dry month. The greatest downpours are in September, October, and November, and again in April, although according to Wilson the mean annual rainfall does not exceed 50 inches in U-Ganda, where there are no lofty ranges to intercept the moisture-charged clouds. The months are here marked by no transitions of heat and cold, and as the rainy seasons of autumn and spring are the most conspicuous phenomena of the solar year, the people of U-Ganda have taken as the natural- divisions of time these epochs, which also coincide with their agricultural divisions. Hence their years are only half the length of ours, each consisting of six months, the first of which is called the "sowing month," the five others the "eating months." Favoured by an abundant rainfall, the flora is very rich in the fertile regions encircling Lake Victoria, where the soil consists of vegetable humus resting on a red clay mixed with sand some 35 feet thick. In U-Ganda about the equator there is no break in the verdure which everywhere clothes the land. The banana and other plantations, forming extensive gardens in which the villages are embowered in folidge, are succeeded by forest trees laden with parasitic plants and interlaced by festoons of huge creepers with the dense undergrowth. The brooks winding along the lowlands seem to flow in underground channels impenetrable to the solar rays.
But however beautiful the flora of the upland plateaux, it does not appear to be distinguished by great variey. Of the seven hundred and fifty species collected by Grant between Zanzibar and the lower Nile, eighty, or at most a hundred, were new to botanists. The floras of the Cape, of Abyssinia and the Nile are intermingled on these uplands, where even some Indian species occur, and to these have recently been added a number of European plants which here find a congenial home. Grant thinks that Karagwé especially would be admirably suited for the cultivation of the tea plant. The giant of these forests is the mpaffu, which distils an aromatic gum from its enormous trunk 24 to 26 feet in girth.
Like the flora, the fauna of the plateaux is distinguished from that of the sur- rounding regions by but few indigenous species. The lake is inhabited, like the Nile and the Niger, by hippopotami and crocodiles, while multitudes of aquatic fowl swarm in the sedge or perch on the branches of the trees fringing its shores. From the cultivated tracts most wild beasts have been scared, although the neighbouring thickets are still infested by the much-dreaded panther. Hyaenas also prowl about the villages; the wayfarer is often startled by the ill-omened yelp of the fox; small game is hunted by the wild cat and other allied species; squirrels spring from branch to branch of the forest trees, above which hover greyish parrots noted for their large size and shrill voice; lower down the flowery mead is alive with all the brilliant world of smaller birds and butterflies.
The wilder districts of U-Sui on the Karagwe frontier and of North U-Ganda, where forest trees and cereals are replaced by the wild palm and ferns, are inhabited by numerous species of the antelope, by the rhinoceros, elephant, and zebra. Here also the swampy lands are peopled by the buffalo, while the wild boar finds a lair in the dense brushwood. Several varieties of monkeys enliven the forests of the tableland, amongst them the colubus guereza, noted for its rich white and black hair, and possibly also the chimpanzee.[1] The lion is very rare on the equatorial uplands, although his tremendous roar is occasionally heard, striking terror into the other denizens of the forest. Ostriches sweep over the open plains; guinea-fowl in countless numbers find a shelter in the bush, and the victims of the battlefield or the executioner are removed by a small species of vulture, the scavenger of so many tropical lands.
Inhabitants. — The Bantus.
Certain parts of the Upper Nile region are amongst the most densely peopled lands in Africa. The descriptions of Speke and Grant, of Stanley, Long, De Linajit, and Gessi, as well as the partial estimates of the missionaries, are all unanimous on this point. According to these witnesses, some ten or twelve millions of souls are ooncontruted in the districts bordering on the great lakes, which are drained by the headstreams of the Nile.
In speech, and probably also in origin, the tribes and nations of the plateau are allied to the peoples of South Africa, whose ethnological domain encroaches at this point some GOO miles on the northern basin. All the lacustrine communities belong to this Bantu stock, which is so remarkable for its harmonious and pliant speech. East of the Victoria Nyanza, however, there appear to dwell certain tribes speaking idioms akin to that of the Kordofan Nubas; at least, it is certain that the Masai and the Wa-Kwafi, whose language is not of Bantu origin, have some settlements in the neighbourhood of the lake. Amongst these lacustrine tribes there are some that have not yet been visited by Kuropean explorers. Pending more positive information, which cannot be much longer delayed, all these tribes have been provisionally classed with the Bantu family.
The Wa-Sukuma and Wa-Zixza.
A section of the Wa-Nyamezi group of tribes has occupied the hilly district stretching south of the Speke Gulf, the largest inlet of Lake Nyanza. But no large state has been developed in this region, which is watered by the Simeyu and other streams flowing to the gulf. The inhabitants, collectively known as Wa-Sukuma, are divided into a large number of small communities of Bantu origin, but greatly modified by mixture with slaves from all quarters, and frequently displaced to escape the attacks of the ruga-ruga, or marauders. Most of these Wa-Sukuma tribes, although banded together in a sort of confederation, are distinguished from each other by their systems of tattooing and by the way the front teeth are filed down. Their chief ornament consists of iron wire wound round the arms, legs, and neck, rendering quick action very difficult. Both sexes also attach little bells to their legs, the tinkling of which acts as an accompaniment to their conversation. The tribal chiefs enjoy theoretically very little power, and are required on all important occasions to consult the elders, the real depositaries of the national usages and traditions. Nevertheless the personal wealth acquired by these kinglets, constituting them the great proprietors of the country, often enables them to play the part of irresponsible despots. When the villagers brew their pombé or native beer, the king drinks and gets drunk at pleasure; when the hunters slay an elephant he claims the best "joints," and appropriates the tusks; all the skins of lions, leopards, and zebras in the same way fall to his share. The itinerant dealer must show his wares to the king, who imposes a road-tax, fixed according to his caprice. Lastly, the tribal chief inherits the property of all his subjects who suffer capital punishment on the charge of sorcery.
Although the women generally speaking enjoy very little respect, the populous village of Wama is governed by a queen. The magicians command great influence, and whenever any of their prophecies happen to come true, or their miracles prove successful, they dispose of the unlimited authority usually accorded to infallibility. Their "divining wand" is a cow's or antelope's horn, which when filled with a magic powder and planted in the ground before a village, suffices to ward off the enemy. However, resort must often be had to charms of greater potency. When a battle is pending the wizard flays a child, placing the bleeding victim on the "war path," to be trampled by the warriors marching to victory. But a great blow was given to the power of the magicians by the arrival of the European missionaries, for they also are regarded as "medicine-men," and their potions are held to be more efficacious than those of the natives. A rain-gauge placed by them near a station on the shore of Lake Victoria had to be removed, in order not to destroy the spells concocted by the wizards to bring down rain.
The Sukuma country enjoys a certain commercial advantage, due to its position
Scale 1: 1,500,000.
on the route of the slave-dealers between U-Nyamezi and U-Ganda. Since the days of Speke and Stanley it has been visited by several Europeans, The most populous district is U-Rima, near the "Jordans' Nullah" of Speke, and the most frequented port is the village of Kagheyi (Kagei) on the left side of the lake, where was launched Stanley's Lady Alice, followed soon after by the Daisy and the Eleanor. The view towards the lake is interrupted by the hills of U-Kerewe, a large island whose name has often been applied to the great inland sea itself. U-Kerewe, which is almost entirely covered with forests, forms a separate state, whose capital, Bakindo, lies near the east side on a creek well sheltered by islets from the winds. A palisade of the trunks of trees in the centre of the town encloses the royal hut, those of the king's wives, the granaries, and the shed where are deposited the war drums. Beyond the first enclosure is the court of justice, where the king, seated on a throne decorated with teeth, talons, and horns, settles the disputes of his subjects. A second palisade, less substantial than that of the royal palace, encircles the whole village, with in huts, winding lanes, and cultivated fields, where are cultivated tobacco, cereals, and various vegetables introduced by the Arabs.
The south-east side of Lake Victoria is bordered by the U-Zinza (U-Zinja) country lying west of the Isanga River, which flows to a narrow fiord penetrating over 30 miles inland. This little-known region has been visited by Europeans only on its southern slope, which drains to Lake Tanganyka. Like the Wa-Sukuma, the Wa-Zinza are divided into several communities governed by chiefs and their wizards. They live in constant dread of the marauding Wa-Tuta tribe, who are said to be southern Bantus, perhaps Zulus penetrating from Lake Nyassa through the Tanganyka basin northwards, plundering and massacring along the route, like a horde of wild beasts. The Wa-Zinza of the hilly sandstone districts in the north, who have less to fear from hostile inroads, are a finer and more vigorous race than those of the lowlands. They wear a skirt of tanned ox-hide, deck themselves with necklaces and amulets, and lard their bodies with rancid butter. Of all the Wa-Zinza tribes, the Wa-Sui branch is the most powerful.
The Wa-Huma.
In these regions the chief power belongs to families of the Wa-Huma, a race of pastors which is represented by one or more communities on all the upland plateaux round about Lake Victoria. According to Speke and Grant, these Wa-Huma are conquerors of Galla stock, originally from the Ethiopian highlands. In U-Nyamezi, and as far as the seventh degree of south latitude, kindred tribes are found, here known as Wa-Tusi, who closely resemble the Wa-Huma in speech and usages. They are distinguished from their agricultural neighbours by a loftier figure and more regular features, oval face, straight and well-chiselled nose, and small mouth, without the pouting lips characteristic of the true Negro. The Wa-Huma women best represent this fine Ethiopian type; hence they are readily purchased by the chiefs of other races for their harems. But while all the surrounding peoples become gradually modified by these crossings, the Wa-Huma preserve their original purity, keeping aloof from all contact with the aborigines. They are nearly all stock-breeders, and as they mostly live in the jungle, far from villages, they are seldom met by travellers. Although they have given kings to most of the upland tribes, they are nevertheless regarded as barbarians by the Negro cultivators, just as in the "Middle Kingdom" the Manchu conquerors are despised by their Chinese subjects. But in the midst of all these enslaved communities, who vaunt their industrial arts and agricultural pursuits, the Wa-Huma have at least the superiority acquired from a free and independent life. They tolerate no masters, and those amongst them who have failed to defend their liberties are no longer regarded as belonging to their nation. Speke even tells us that captured and ensbved Wa-Huma women are burnt alive whenever they again fall into the hands of their fellow-countrymen. The language of the Wa-Huma is unknown, and it is still uncertain whether they speak a Galla dialect mixed with Bantu words or a Bantu idiom affected by Galla elements.
The Kingdom or Karagwé.
The kingdom of Karagwé occupies west of Lake Victoria an area of about 6,000 square miles, being limited southwards by U-Zinza, west and north by the Tanguré
Scale 1: 1,500,000,
river, which seems to have the best claim to be regarded as the Upper Nile. From U-Sui this state is separated by a desert borderland watered by the Lohugati, which flows north-east to Lake Nyanza.
Karagwé is one of the finest countries in Central Africa. With its evergreen hills, fertile valleys, and purling brooks, the whole region presents a park-like appearance, and might easily be transformed to a vast garden. The western district is tolerably elevated, the crests of the plateau here attaining a height of 5,000 and even 6,000 feet, and in clear weather commanding a view of the blue Mfumbiro peaks, and of other distant summits, named by Spelce the " Mountains of the Moon." On the Earagwé uplands the air is so cool that the natives of Zanzibar fancy that they must be in the neighbourhood of England, the only cold country known to them by repute. In some of the depressions lakes have been formed, amongst others the lovely Raveru (4,300 feet), which to Spcke and Grant seemed beautiful enough to merit the title of the African "Windermere." But although encircled by grassy slopes rising 1,500 or 1,600 feet above its waters, it is not an Alpine lake, its depth nowhere exceeding 45 or 46 feet. The Urigi, another basin near the southern frontier, is merely a large pond, discharging its overflow northwards to the Tunguré. According to tlie natives the whole valley was, even in recent times, still under water. Boats were able to ascend from Nyanza to Urigi, and the little dome- shaped hillocks dotted over the plain were then rocky islets. These hills consist of argillaceous sandstones of a bright red colour, interspersed with large masses of white quartz. The decomposition of the sandstones, the prevailing formation throughout the whole region, supplies the fertile red soil on which such beautiful crops are raised. At the head of a shady valley in the north-west spring the six thermal streams of M'tagata, which have a temperature of 130° Fahr. They are resorted to by all the surrounding populations, who have much faith in their curative properties.
Except in some districts, such as that of the capital, near "Windermere, Karagwé is rather thinly peopled. The majority of the inhabitants belong to the "Wa-Nyambo stock, and speak the Zongora, a Bantu dialect. But here also the chief power has been usurped by the Wa-Huma, whose daughters are not permitted to contract alliances with Negroes of lower castes. The lives of the "Wa-Huma are held to be sacred; hence they are absolutely exempt from capital punishment, all crimes, murder not excepted, being punished by fines alone. We know that in many parts of Africa the women are systematically fattened, to such an extent as to be no longer able to stand up. This excessive obesity is regarded as a supreme virtue, doubtless because it proves the wealth of people who can thus afford to nourish their wives and exempt them from manual labour. For an analogous reason many Karagwé chiefs allow their nails to grow, like the Annamese mandarins, to show that they have no need of their hands, slaves working and toiling for them. On certain occasions human sacrifices are also still practised. At the death of the sovereign a "mortuary chapel" is built over the body, into which are thrown five girls and fifty cows, destined to accompany their master on his long journey to spirit-land.
Warahanje, capital of Karagwé, is pleasantly situated, over 4,300 feet above the sea, on a grassy terrace overlooking Lake Windermere, and commanding a view of a steep hill, on which stands the royal necropolis. Farther on winds the valley of the Alexandra Nile, a vast forest of papyrus bounded on the distant horizon by the triple-crested Mfumbiro. At the eastern foot of an inter'ening cone the Arab traders have established the station of Kufro (Kafuro), where woven goods, salt, and European wares are bartered for ivory, coffee, and other native produce. In this district elephants have already begun to disappear, although a huge species of white or greyish rhinoceros still abounds. "West and north of Karagwe the large mammals have not yet been disturbed either by Europeans or Arabs, these somewhat inaccessible regions having hitherto remained unvisited by explorers.
The Ruanda Country.
Ruanda, lying directly west of the Tangure river, and stretching away as far as the northern slope of Lake Tanganyka, is probably the most powerful state in this still unexplored region. According to the statements of the Arabs, who have vainly endeavoured to penetrate into the country, whence they would be promptly expelled, because "famine and drought follow in their train," here are some very large villages, and the land is said to abound in minerals and hot springs. South of Mount Mfumbiro all the slopes seem to be covered by an immense forest of useful timbers. Northwards M'poro and U-Sagara, also called Ankori or Mkole, are also said to be rich in valuable products. Most extraordinary things are related of this mysterious country, wicked dwarfs, far more formidable than giants, taking a prominent part in all these reports. It is probable that a race of pigmies, like the Akka of the forests of the river Welle, and the Obongo of the Ogoway basin, occupy the upland valleys of Mount M'fumbiro and the ranges running northwards towards Mounts Kibanga and Gambaragara. Stanley states that the king of U-Ganda sent an expedition against these dwarfs, but the cold seems to have prevented his soldiers from penetrating into the upland valleys. Here also the chief power appears to be in the hands of the Wa-Huraa, these conquerors from the east having thus apparently reached the water-parting between the Nile and Congo basins. This still unexplored country will doubtless sooner or later occupy a position in the history of the continent analogous to that which it already holds in its geographical aspect. Thanks to its climate and productions, it may become a new Europe in the very heart of Africa, and here will be the principal health-resort of the Nile and Congo lowland regions.
The Empire of U-Ganda.
The kingdom of U-Ganda,[2] the best known of all the states on the plateau of the Nile basin, seems to be also the most populous, as it certainly is the most powerful. Its form is that of a crescent, stretching west and north of the Nyanza, and comprising Koki, U-Du (Uddu), and other states, as far as the mouth of the Alexandra Nile. Eastwards it extends even beyond the Somerset Nile, having gradually absorbed the U-Soga country. It also possesses the large Sesse Archipelago, besides several other islands. In the interior its still undefined limits are lost in dense uninhabited jungles, and quite recently it has claimed sovereignty over Karagwe and U-Sui. Its total area may be estimated at 20,000 square miles, and, including the dependencies, at about 70,000 square miles. Stanley's calculations, based on the number of armed men, make the population about 2,775,000. But according to the English missionaries it really amounts to 5,000,000, that is to say, nearly 200 persons per mile, a density almost one-fourth more than that of France. However, a still more remarkable statement of Messrs. Felkin and Wilson throws some doubt upon the value of these provisional estimates. According to them, the women are three and a-half times more numerous than the men, a social phenomenon elsewhere without parallel. Hitherto all the regular statistics have shown that the sexes are nearly equal, either with a slight overplus for the women, as in all the countries of Europe and the New World, or with a small excess for the men, as in Japan. English travellers seem to think that this extraordinary disproportion may be due at once to natural and political causes. The births of girls far exceeds those of boys, as is evident from the groups of children playing before the huts, the dangers of the battlefield and the massacres of the captives accounting for the rest. On their successful expeditions the Wa-Ganda warriors, like their neighbours, kill the men and carry off the women, who are afterwards divided amongst the conquerors.
In U-Granda, as in most of the other states of the plateau, the power belongs to the Wa-Huma nation, although the majority of the inhabitants are the Wa-Ganda, who have given their name to the state. They are true Negroes, with almost black complexion and short woolly hair, above the average height, and endowed with uncommon muscular strength. The women are distinguished by their small hands and feet. The Wa-Nyambo, who come from Karagwe and the adjacent provinces, and who are for the most part pastors, are more slender in appearance than the natives. But the Wa-Soga, immigrants from the countries situated to the cast of the Somerset Nile, equal the Wa-Ganda in stature and in strength, while they are even of a darker complexion. Amongst these various peoples albinos are very numerous; nevertheless they are exhibited as curiosities in the huts of the chiefs. The practices of tattooing the face, distending the lobe of the car, or filing the teeth to a point, common amongst other African tribes, are here unknown, all voluntary mutilation being forbidden under pain of death. Nor do the Wa-Ganda grease the body with fat, and they are in other respects of cleanly habits and given to frequent ablutions. The most dreaded disease is small-pox, probably imported from the eastern coast. It spares few persons when it presents itself in an epidemic form. A few scattered cases of leprosy are to be found here and there, persons frequently being seen with their black skins covered with white blotches, like those of the Mexican Pintados.
Habits and Customs of the Wa-Ganda.
The chief food of the Wa-Ganda is the banana, of which they possess several varieties, amongst others the Ethiopian musae ensete. It is prepared by them in various ways, being even made into flour and a fermented liquor which they brew from it. Sweet potatoes, haricots, various kinds of gourds and tomatoes, maize, millet, papaw fruit, rice, and vegetables introduced by the Arabs, are amongst their alimentary plants. The coffee-shrub is also cultivated, but yields a very small berry, of which the "Wa-Ganda make no infusions, using them merely for chewing purposes. They rarely eat meat, as all the live stock, consisting of thin and bad milch cows, goats, and fat-tailed sheep, belong to the Huma, who do not sell them. On the shores of the lake, and on the islands, the inhabitants, mostly ichthyophagous, find abundant nutriment in the multitude of fish abounding in the N'yanza. Nor do the "Wa-Ganda despise smaller creatures, readily eating termites and locusts, and even chasing swarms of flies, which they capture by means of nets drawn quickly through the air.
Owing to the cool atmosphere of these central plateaux the Wa-Ganda build their dwellings more carefully than most other tribes of the continent, and these huts are large enough to permit all domestic work being done within. They are nearly always of the beehive type, consisting of a double hemisphere or dome of branches supported by posts, and thickly thatched with straw of the so-called "tiger grass," some eighteen or twenty feet long. Between the two roofs the air circulates freely, keeping the interior of the cabin fresh and sweet. A sloping ledge of beaten earth round the outside carries off the rainwater during the wet season. Many of the houses have a low porch, under which they enter on all-fours. This, combined with the custom of prostrating themselves before superiors, is the cause of the pouch-like wrinkles that most of the natives have on their knees. Inside, the ground is strewn with bundles of grass disposed in geometrical figures, which produce a pleasing effect until the walls become blackened through the want of outlets for the smoke. Recently the Arabs and the Europeans have constructed other and larger houses, with gables and windows; but the king has not permitted them to erect stone buildings, none having a right to inhabit a grander house than the king's palace. The national costume is also changing under the influence of foreigners introducing new fashions.
Amongst the Central African tribes the Wa-Nyoro and Wa-Ganda alone clothe themselves from head to foot, pain of death even being the penalty for men or women leaving their houses too scantily attired. Till recently the national costume was the mhugu, a garment of bark stripped from a species of fig-tree (fictis ludia), and beaten to render it supple. Over the mbugu the chiefs wore a robe, either an ox-hide or made up of twenty or thirty skins of the little ntalaganya antelope, which is no larger than a hare, and whose brown fur is remarkably beautiful. But the Arab dress is gradually prevailing, even the poorer classes buying the haik, the shirt, the girdle, and the caftan, while the chiefs deck themselves with rich turbans or with the Egyptian fez. Stockings and Turkish slippers are also replacing the coarse buffalo-skin sandals. Their arras are also supplied from Zanzibar, and the Wa-Ganda warriors have already substituted modern rifles for the old-fashioned spears and bows. The Egyptian Government has in vain forbidden the exportation of small-arms to the Nyanza region, for these weapons continue to be imported from other sources.
The practice of polygamy is far more general amongst the Wa-Ganda than amongst the Europeans and Asiatic Mohammedans, the chiefs having no limit to the number of their wives, who are also their servants. The late King M'tesa is said to have had no less than seven thousand, obtained in exchange for trifles such as some domestic animal, a few needles, or a box of pills. The chiefs follow their sovereign's example in surrounding themselves with u host of wives, and the smallest vassal has his harem. The grandees thus absorb such a large portion of the female population that, in spite of the preponderance of girls, there are not enough left for all the Wa-Ganda. Peasants arc often seen whose scanty crops have never sufficed to purchase a single wife. No law forbids the marrying of near relations. On the death of a father the eldest son even inherits all his wives, with the exception of his own mother, occasionally sharing them with the other members of the family. During the period of lactation, lasting two years, the women live apart from their husbands, the king and the chiefs having for these nurses separate houses scattered throughout the kingdom.
Nearly all domestic work falls on the women and slaves, the free man being above any toil except that of building his own house. He is born a soldier, and must keep his strength for the wielding of arms. The Wa-Ganda naturally have all the vices produced by such a state of things. They are liars, idlers, and thieves, those who have wives and slaves to do their work passing their time in gambling and drinking. The traveller is most struck by the disregard the Wa-Ganda have for human life. Killing a man is a mere trifle that no one troubles himself about. A court-page wanting to try a rifle shoots the first passer-by, and returns delighted with his weapon and his skill. Another complains to the king of always serving, saying that he should like to be a chief. "Well then, kill your father;" and the son hastens to put this idea into execution, so as to inherit the women and slaves, which will enable him to fold his arms and do nothing in his turn. And yet the Wa-Ganda cannot be called a cruel people. They are rather inclined to benevolence, generally treating their slaves with great gentleness, and welcoming the traveller with kindness. U-Ganda is said to be the only African country where the life of the guest has always been scrupulously respected. When a war breaks out all the strangers are enclosed in a village and placed under the charge of a chief responsible for their safety and bound to furnish them with food and shelter. But if they withdraw from the place assigned to them, the chief is no longer answerable for the consequences.
Endowed with great intelligence, and speaking an extremely sonorous, pliant, and logical language, the "Wa-Ganda are probably the only African people who have made any real progress since 1862 when Speke, the first European visitor, penetrated into their country. Wa-Ganda envoys were already despatched to England in 1880. New plants have been introduced, together with new methods of culture, and agricultural labour is increasing. Very skilful in forging iron, the Wa-Ganda imitate perfectly European objects, and can even change flint-lock guns into modern rifles. They readily acquire foreign languages, and Swaheli, the idiom of the coast, and the most useful in Eastern Africa, is already spoken fluently in the capital and the market-towns. A certain number of chiefs also speak and write Arabic. In a few days school-children master the difficulties of the Latin alphabet, made much easier by the English missionaries than that of the Arabic language, in which the sound so rarely corresponds to the symbol. The Ganda alphabet is composed of Latin letters, x and q, however, being replaced by other characters.
Religion — Trade — Administration.
Hitherto foreign religions have scarcely had access to this country. Islam, which is making so much progress north and south of the plateau, seemed destined to prevail in U-Ganda; but the practice of circumcision, which nearly all Mussulmans have to undergo, except perhaps in Senaar and the Blue Nile, infringes the laws of the country, which, though permitting murder, forbids all mutilations. A hundred young men who had been circumcised were burnt by order of the king. Still, foreign Mohammedans have been allowed to build a mosque. The Catholic
Scale 1: 2,400,000.
and Protestant missionaries have made but few converts, although they both hoped to be able to strike a great blow by converting the king, baptised in anticipation as "Constantine the Black." For the rest, the Wa-Ganda have neither idols nor fetish gods, properly so-called; they believe in a universal creator, Katonda, whom, however, they do not worship, believing him too far above them to condescend to listen to their prayers. Hence they confine themselves to invoking the lubari, either welldisposed genii or dreaded demons, dwelling in the lakes, rivers, trees, and the rocks of the mountains. Mukusa, the god of the Nyanza, becomes occasionally incarnate in a wizard or a witch, announcing through this medium rain or drought, peace or war, triumphs or disasters. Another dreaded god, he who lets loose the scourge of small-pox, seems to be the spirit of an ancient king, dwelling on the west of Mount Gambaragara above the region of the clouds. All the kings have their apotheosis, and after becoming demi-gods continue to govern the people, massacring or doning as they did before their death. Amongst the most venerated is the god of thunder, and the place where lightning is seen to strike is held as sacred. Here an archway is built, under which no stranger has the right to pass; or else a hut is raised on the spot as a sort of temple, which, however, must not be repaired when it falls in ruins. Against all the dangers which surround him, proceeding from the evil genii and powers of the air, the Gunda man protects himself by amulets of wood, stone, or horn, and by shreds of cloth made for him by the mandwa, or "medicine-men." These magicians oppear also to have a sort of recognised influence, due to their skilful treatment of diseases with roots and nostrums. According to Speke, an ecclesiastical fief, over which the king of U-Gunda has only an indirect power, occupies a large tract on the left bank of the Nile.
In U-Ganda all the trade of any importance is in the hands of the Arabs and the Zanzibar half-castes. Their trading stations are limited on the north by the Somerset Nile, and the series of cataracts from Earuma to the Murchison Falls, and if they penetrate westwards towards the Albert Nyanza they still keep their depots in U-Ganda. They barter guns, powder and shot, woven goods, glassware, and a few European articles, for ivory and slaves, the latter the great staple of trade in Central Africa. At least one thousand blacks are thus sold annually to the Arabs. As the elephants retire before the hunter deeper and deeper into jungles remote from all human dwellings, the Wa-Ganda have no other means of paying their debts than by annually handing over an ever-increasing number of slaves to the dealers in human flesh. It has already been ascertained that the slave element is actually diminishing in the country. Ivory comes chiefly from U-Soga, and salt is imported from the banks of the Albert Nyanza across U-Nyoro. Till recently a little trade was also carried on with the Eg}'ptian possessions in Sudan, to which U-Gandu supplied coffee, tobacco, and cattle, in exchange for cotton-stuffs, iron, and Turkish slippers. Money is still rarely employed in these transactions, the recognised commercial currency being the doti, or "eight cubits " of calico of the value of one thousand cowries. Thanks to the numerous caravans journeying between the sea and the lake, by the easy routes of the Masai country, the facilities for exchange are increasing. Hence there can be no doubt that a civilised system of trade will soon replace that of barter. The navigation of the Nyanza has become less dangerous since the Arabs' dhows have made their appearance on its waters, and in U-Ganda itself the former miry paths are being replaced by pood routes. The road connecting the capital with its port on the Nyanza would do honour to Europeans. It is carried over a swamp on a solid foundation of wild-palm trunks placed side by side.
The Egyptian conquests at the time of their greatest extension never reached the frontiers of U-Ganda. The officers of the Khedive penetrated into the country only under the title of ambassadors. The old feudal system has undergone no change since the kingdom has entered into commercial relations with Arabs and Europeans. In theory the king is absolute master of land and people, and is free to act as he pleases in matters of small moment, such as the lives of his women or of the icakopi, members of the agricultural class. M'tesa well deserved his name. which according to one interpretation means "he who makes all tremble." A small army of executioners, their heads bound with cords, always awaited his orders, accompanying him in all his expeditions. But he was not absolute master in state affairs, his power being controlled by three icakimgu, or hereditary vassals. The katekiro, or chief functionary, a sort of " mayor of the palace " and governor of U-Du, is nominated by the king, and may be chosen even amongst the peasantry. He takes his place with the sovereign and the three wakungu in the privy council, and in the king's absence presides over the luchiko or governing body, composed of all the grandees of the country, vassals and feudatories, wakungu and wakongoli. The head cook and other palace dignitaries have also a voice in the council. At the death of the king the right of nomination belongs to the three wakungu, who select one of his children, imprison his brothers during their minority, and then burn them, reserving two or three to continue the race, should the new king die without issue. If the three great chiefs disagree as to the choice of the sovereign, the question is decided by war, the conqueror enthroning his choice. For their battles the wakungu have no lack of men, all able-bodied persons, from five hundred thousand to six hundred thousand altogether, being trained in the use of arras and obliged to obey the first summons of their chiefs. The royal guard is partly composed of peoples of Eastern Sudan and Dongola, deserters from the Egyptian army. The fleet consists of several hundred canoes.
Topography of U-Ganda.
The capital changes according to the king's caprice. In 1862, at the time of Speke and Grant's visit, the royal residence was at lianda, which, for a country of large trade, would appear to be most favourably situated on the crest of the portage between the great gulf of Mwaru-Luajerri, the Murchison Bay of the English, and the river Katawana-Luajerri, which joins the Nile at Lake Ibrahim. A few scattered hamlets in the midst of ruins, which must soon disappear, are now all that remains of Banda. Rubaga is the most important present capital, lying about seven miles towards the north-west, on a hill encircled by rivulets which form the headstream of the M'werango river, flowing through the Kafu to the Nile. On the simimit of the hill, visible from afar, with its lofty gables and flagstaff, stands the king's palace, surrounded with gardens, above which appear the conic roofs of the huts inhabited by his wives and officers. Northwards another hill bears a second royal residence, surrounded by the village of Nabulagala, Stanley's Ullagala. This is the main depot of the Arab merchants, and here begins the caravan route towards M'ruli, the principal market-town of the Somerset Nile. The two most frequented ports of U-Ganda on the shores of the great lake are U-Savara, on the banks of Murchison Bay, and M'tebbi, on the gulf limited south by the Sesse Archipelago.
The Kaviroxdo and Nanda Countries.
East of Nyanza the most powerful state is that of Kavirondo, which is said to exercise a sort of suzerainty over all the riverain peoples between the islands of U-Kerewé south-east, and the country of U-Gana north-cast, of the great lake. Thus the two kingdoms of Gunda and Kavirondo would appear to be scarcely separated by the region inhabited by the Wu-Soga. Situated nearly towards the middle of the eastern coast according to Ravenstein's map, but to the north-east of the lake following the statement of Thompson, the most recent explorer, Kavirondo, properly so called, is a grassy plain in the centre of which rise several little isolated hills, whilst in the north stands the lofty Mount Manda. Although the country has an abundant rainfall, it is diversified only by a few clumps of trees. Numerous rivers wind through the plain, and one of them, the Mori, appears to flow from the lake, evaporating in a depression below the level of the Nyanza. But this remark- able statement depends exclusively on the report of an Arab dealer, and made on his return from a journey to the interior. The Mori is said to be crossed by a suspension bridge facing the town of Kamrete. The island of U-Kava, not far from the fluvial basin, is said by Felkin and Wilson to be occupied by a race of dwarfs with a mean stature of less than four feet and a-half.
The Wa-Kavirondo are of the Negro type; they are tall and robust, with almost black complexion, flat nose, and thick lips. Judging from their language, as well as their features, they appear to belong to the same stock as the Shilluks of the Middle Nile. In appearance and speech they are quite distinct from the other riverain populations, who are of Bantu origin. The women tattoo their backs and breasts, the men rarely decorating themselves in this fashion. But like so many other African peoples they do not leave the teeth in their natural state, but extract the two middle incisors of the lower jaw. They go naked, or else only wear a waist-cloth, to which the women add a tail_of bark. This portion of their costume, like the plaited tails of other native communities, explains the fables, so long believed by the Arabs, of African tribes forming the connecting link between man and the monkey. Apart from this tail the Kavirondo women have no ornaments, but they daub their bodies with grease. Unlike the Wa-Ganda, the Wa-Kavirondo do not consider themselves dishonoured by work, but take their share with the women in all agricultural operations. They also employ themselves in the chase, in fishing, in breeding domestic birds, in which they are very skilful, and in navigating the Nyanza with sailing boats much more substantial than the canoes of the Wa-Ganda. They are as peaceful as they are industrious; nevertheless they defend themselves courageously against attacks, and the palisades surrounding their dwellings are carefully avoided by the wandering tribes of the interior. The Wa-Kavirondo have a king, who is not master over the lives of his subjects; the country is more of a confederation of republican villages than a feudal realm like U-Ganda. The Wa-Kuri and Wa-Kara, living more to the south on the coastlands bounded by Speke Gulf, resemble the Wa-Kavirondo in language and customs, except that the Wa-Kara clothe themselves in bark, tattoo the breast, and paint the body red and white by means of clay mixed with oil. But amongst the numerous tribes of the eastern slope of the Nyanza, several constitute by their customs, and possibly their origin, isolated ethnical enclaves distinct from the surrounding groups. Such are the Wa-Nanda, inhabiting the upland valleys of the same name north of Kavirondo. They appear to be an extremely ferocious tribe, carefully avoided by all traders passing in the vicinity of their haunts. They are described as "clothed with knives," which they wear on their arms, thighs, body, and waist.
The centres of population in U-Kavirondo are sufficiently large to merit the
name of towns. The largest is Kabondo, situated on the eastern frontier, near the Masai country. At N'yawa, about four hours' march to the north-west, stands the residence of the king, followed in the same direction and about the same distance by Sandegé, the depot of the Mussulman merchants of Zanzibar, commanding a
view of the Nundu range. The caravans, which travel slowly, scarcely making more than eight or nine miles a day, take two whole months to perform the journey.
The missionaries of Islam, more fortunate tlian those labouring in U-Ganda, claim
Kavirondo as their conquest; at least the greater part of the people have submitted
to the rite of circumcision.
The U-Nyoro Territory.
North of U-Ganda most of the peninsular district lying between the Albert Nyanza and the Somerset Nile belongs to the Wa-Nyoro people. Formerly all the country stretching between the two Nilotic lakes constituted the vast kingdom of Kitwara, governed by a dynasty of "Wa-Huma conquerors. This empire has been divided into many states, of which U-Ganda is the most powerful ; but the sovereign of U-Nyoro would appear still to enjoy a sort of virtual sovereignty over his neighbours, and always bears officially the title of King of Kitwara. Nevertheless U-Nyoro cannot be compared to U-Ganda, either in the extent of its cultivated territory, in the number of its people, or in political amity. In spite of the natural frontier, indicated by the banks of the Nile and the lake, its limits are rendered imcertain by the incursions of hostile tribes. Uninhabited borderlands separate U-Nyoro from U-Ganda; but here lies a region of great commercial importance, belonging at once to two kingdoms as a place of transition, which caravans can traverse only under escort, usually choosing the night for their march. This debatable region is the zone of land comprised between the marshes of Ergvgu and the abrupt bend of the Nile at M'ruli. The Wa-Ganda are compelled to force their way through it when proceeding from Rubaga to Sudan, and the Wa-Nyoro of the west have no other way by which to visit their villages situated to the west of the Nile. U-Nyoro is in a continual state of warfare, dividing it into petty states, which increase or diminish in extent according to the vicissitudes of the battlefield. It is the custom on the death of the sovereign for his nearest relations to dispute the succession; the corpse is not buried till after the victorj' of one of the competitors. The latter, however, often hastens to celebrate his triumph prematurely, in which case the war continues for generations between brothers and cousins. At present U-Nyoro is divided between hostile kingdoms; besides which Egj-ptian garrisons, cut off from the centre of administration at Khartum, still occupy the line of the Nile between the bend of Foweira and Lake Albert Nyonza. Numerous tribes have also retained their independence, especially in the high south-western district between the two great lakes.
U-Nyoro presents on the whole the aspect of a plateau with a north-easterly slope parallel to Lake Albert Nyanza. It enjoys a copious rainfall, and many depressions in the surface are occupied with swamps rendered dangerous to the wayfarer by the holes caused by the heavy tramp of elephants. The lacustrine basins are also strewn with gneiss and granite boulders, whose presence in these alluvial tracts seems inexplicable. Except in the vicinity of the Nile, vegetation appears to be on the whole less exuberant than in U-Ganda. Leguminous plants, however, are more numerously represented, and the delicate foliage of the acacia forests looks in some places like a light haze enveloping the stems and branches of the trees. Antelopes still abound in these regions even on the route hitherto followed by most explorers along the Khor-Ergugu between Rubaga and M'ruli.
The Wa-Nyoro are a smaller people than their Wa-Ganda neighbours, to whom they also appear to be inferior in physical strength and intelligence, but not in the art of forging and pottery. They belong to the same race, and speak an allied Bantu dialect, but are of a lighter complexion, usually a dull red, and the hair is crisp rather than woolly. Although of cleanly habits, never failing to wash their hands before and after meals, their huts are badly kept, and constructed mostly of branches planted round a stake, and converging upwards so as to form a regular cone. Their only domestic animals are cows, goats, and a poor breed of poultry. In case of distemper these animals are treated by bleeding, and the blood
Scale 1: 8,000,000.
saved for human consumption. Like the Wa-Ganda, the Wa-Nyoro wear clothes, and consequently hold themselves superior to the naked Negro people dwelling beyond the Nile. The young men, however, do not assume their bark or skin garments before the age of puberty, when they are accepted as members of the tribe, and their new dignity celebrated by the extraction of the four lower incisors. Two lines tattooed on both sides of the forehead further distinguish them from the surrounding populations.
the daughters following their mother's profession. The wives of the king and chiefs would regard themselves as degraded by manual labour, their whole ambition being to grow corpulent and acquire double the weight of their humbler sisters. Few of the Wa-Nyoro women give birth to more than two or three children.
Islam has already penetrated into U-Nyoro. But although many of the chiefs have become converts, the bulk of the people have accepted of the new religion little beyond its prescriptions regarding prohibited food. The "medicine-men" still universally practise magic, seeking to secure the favour of "the great wizard" and of the spirit-world by means of charms, incantations, and dances. The fortune-tellers, belonging to a wandering caste compared by Erain-Bey to the European gypsies, are also frequently consulted. The "evil eye" is much dreaded, especially that of old women, whose glance suffices to poison food and drink. All disorders are attributed to sorcery, and in order to recover the patient spits three times in the face of every woman he meets, the cure being effected when he reaches the actual delinquent. Every event, from the meeting of a wild beast to the motion of a leaf, has its auspicious or unfavourable meaning, so that the people spend their lives in studying the aspect of vegetation, the flight of birds, the state of the firmament, and all other outward phenomena. No one ever retraces his steps, and if he has to return he chooses a path parallel to the first, or else opens a new way through the bush. The blacksmith accompanies his work with a song, the words of which enter into the metal and endow it with its peculiar properties. Two men swear friendship by mingling their blood and dipping a coffee-berry in the mixture in order to assimilate their respective qualities. Between two uterine brothers mutual trust is unbounded and never betrayed. Hence the king selects his most intimate ministers amongst those united to him by the brotherhood of consanguinity. The nocturnal dances, celebrated by the flickering light of torches or the lurid flame of the stake, are said to produce an ineffaceable impression. The wizards, daubed with ochre, decked with fantastic finery, conjuring the demons by their wild gesticulations, leaps, and shouts, flitting about in the glare and suddenly plunging into the surrounding gloom, appear themselves like spectres of the night, or fantastic beings from another world. The Wa-Nyoro have also a warlike dance like that of their kindred, the southern Zulus, and, like them also, make war with assegai, spear, and shield.
U-Nyoro is also occupied by peoples of other stocks, the most powerful of which are the Lango or Longo, who hold both sides of the Nile between Foweira and Magungo. These are probably of the same origin as the "Wa-Huma, and even still speak a Galla dialect. They enjoy full freedom, forming independent communities in the midst of the Wa-Nyoro, and recognising the authority of the chiefs only during their warlike expeditions. They are otherwise specially devoted to the offices of the toilet, spending long hours in arranging their elegant or imposing bead-dresses. The prevailing fashion is a kind of helmet, in which every lock of hair is interlaced with many-coloured wools, and terminating in a superstructure of plumes, wreaths of shells or glass beads, or curved projections in imitation of buffalo horns. "Whole years are required to bring some of these sumptuous head dresses to perfection. The Lango women are the finest and most symmetrical in the whole region of the equatorial lakes. They wear little clothing beyond waist-bands, necklaces, armlets, and rings.
South of the Nile is found another ethnological group, formed by the Wa-Tchopi or Shefalu, in speech and appearance resembling the Shilluks, whose proper domain lies some six hundred miles farther north. According to the national traditions, the Shefalu are descended from a conquering people, who came originally from that direction.
Masimli, on a river flowing to Lake Albert, was the residence of the king of U-Nyoro when the country was first visited by Speke, Grant, and Baker. But in 1877 it was replaced by Nyamoga, which is also conveniently situated in the centre of the region enclosed between the lake and the great bend described by the Nile below M'ruli. The latter place, which occupies an important strategic and commercial position on the Nile at the converging point of the caravan route from U-Ganda, has ceased to be the advanced southern outpost of the Egyptians. Even before the Mussulman revolt in Dar-For the troops had been withdrawn from M-ruli and from Kirota, which lies in a forest clearing farther north-west. The western bulwark of the Khedive's possessions is, or was till recently, Foweira (Fawera, Fauvera, Faveira), whose site has been shifted to a cliff on the east bank of the Nile near the Kubuli confluence, and not far from the point Avhere the river trends westward to Lake Albert. North of the river stands another fortified station near the Karuma rapids, and north of Panyatoli, residence of one of the most powerful Wa-Nyoro chiefs. A third Egyptian fortress in U-Nyoro is Magunugo, on the right bank of the Nile, where its sluggish, current joins Lake Albert. Being enclosed by a ditch ten feet broad, this place is impregnable to the badly armed and undisciplined troops of the Lango or Wa-Nyoro chiefs. East of Magungo steamers ascend the river as far as the wooded gorges of the Murehison Falls.
Mahaghi (Mahahi), another fortified station, has been formed by the Egyptians on the west side of Lake Albert, where it is sheltered by a headland from the northern winds. The whole of this coast region, which takes the name of Lur, is inhabited by Negro tribes akin to those of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and speaking a lansuasre which differs little from that of the Shuli east of the Nile. In habits they resemble the Wa-Nyoro, with whom they formerly maintained constant commercial relations, and whose suzerainty they recognise; without, however, paying any tribute to the king. South-west of the Egyptian station are some hot springs, sulphurous, like all hitherto discovered in the Upper Nile regions. A considerable traffic is carried on by water between both sides of the lake, especially with the ports of M’bakovia (Vacovia) and Kibero, where salt is yielded in abundance by the surrounding argillaceous clays. 
murchison falls
CHAPTER IV.
REGION OF THE UPPER NILE TRIBUTARIES.
HE section of the Nilotic basin comprised between Lake Albert and’ the Bahr-el-Ghazal confluence presents a marked contrast to the surrounding land in its abundant waters, its converging streams, extensive marshy tracts, and the general uniformity of its slope. The natural limits of this distinct geographical domain are formed by the course of the Nile and Asua on the east and south-east, and of the Bahrel-Ghazal on the north. In the historic life of the continent the inhabitants of this watery region have also played a separate part. Here lics the chief connecting route between the Nile and Congo basins. The water-parting being marked by no perceptible “divide,” no barrier is presented to the migration of peoples between the two great arteries. Thus the hydrographic parting-line forms no natural limit between ethnical groups, some of which, such as the Niam-Niam, occupy both sides of the slope, while continually encroaching northwards. Through this region of transition must pass the future continental highway from east to west between the Red Sea and the Bight of Benin. It has already been partly opened by Peney, Lejean, Petherick, Piaggia, Schweinfurth, Junker, Bohndorff, and other explorers are eagerly following in their footsteps.
Northwards this region has a natural limit; indicated, however, not by any water-parting, but by the climate, which produces a marked contrast in the aspect of the land, its vegetation, fauna and inhabitants. The latitudinal depression flooded by the waters of the Bahr-el-Arab coincides in a general way with this climatic frontier. South of it the rainfall is sufficiently copious to feed perennial streams, or at all events rivers flowing for six months in the year. But on the north side we have nothing but wadies flushed only during the heavy rains. Hence the great difference presented by the forest vegetation along the right and left banks of the Buhr-el-Arab. On one side we find the baobab, with its huge inflated trunk, on the other the lulu, or butter-tree, in some places covering hundreds of square miles. The large apes never cross the frontier into Kordofan; nor does the elephant venture north of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where the flocks and herds are also free from the ravages of the tsetse-fly. The southern region belongs to the Negro and his horned cattle, the northern to the horse and camel-breeding Arab.