The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (best ebook reader for chromebook .txt) 📖

man and the African

black will pull together under the same regime. It is the grand error of

equalizing that which is unequal, that has lowered the negro character,

and made the black man a reproach.

 

In his savage home, what is the African? Certainly bad; but not so bad

as white men would (I believe) be under similar circumstances. He is

acted upon by the bad passions inherent in human nature, but there is no

exaggerated vice, such as is found in civilized countries. The strong

takes from the weak, one tribe fights the other—do not perhaps we in

Europe?—these are the legitimate acts of independent tribes, authorized

by their chiefs. They mutually enslave each other—how long is it since

America and WE OURSELVES ceased to be slaveholders? He is callous and

ungrateful—in Europe is there no ingratitude?

 

He is cunning and a liar by nature—in Europe is all truth and

sincerity? Why should the black man not be equal to the white? He is as

powerful in frame, a why should he not be as exalted in mind?

 

In childhood I believe the negro to be in advance, in intellectual

quickness, of the white child of a similar age, but the mind does not

expand—it promises fruit, but does not ripen; and the negro man has

grown in body, but not advanced in intellect.

 

The puppy of three months old is superior in intellect to a child of the

same age, but the mind of the child expands, while that of the dog has

arrived at its limit. The chicken of the common fowl has sufficient

power and instinct to run in search of food the moment that it leaves

the egg, while the young of the eagle lies helpless in its nest; but the

young eagle outstrips the chicken in the course of time. The earth

presents a wonderful example of variety in all classes of the human

race, the animal and vegetable kingdoms. People, beasts, and plants

belonging to distinct classes, exhibit special qualities and

peculiarities. The existence of many hundred varieties of dogs cannot

interfere with the fact that they belong to one genus: the greyhound,

pug, bloodhound, pointer, poodle, mastiff, and toy terrier, are all as

entirely different in their peculiar instincts as are the varieties of

the human race. The different fruits and flowers continue the

example;—the wild grapes of the forest are grapes, but although they

belong to the same class, they are distinct from the luscious

“Muscatel;” and the wild dog-rose of the hedge, although of the same

class, is inferior to the moss-rose of the garden.

 

From fruits and flowers we may turn to insect life, and, watch the air

teeming with varieties of the same species, the thousands of butterflies

and beetles, the many members of each class varying in instincts and

peculiarities. Fishes, and even shellfish, all exhibit the same

arrangement,—that every group is divided into varieties all differing

from each other, and each distinguished by some peculiar excellence or

defect.

 

In the great system of creation that divided races and subdivided them

according to mysterious laws, apportioning special qualities to each,

the varieties of the human race exhibit certain characters and

qualifications which adapt them for specific localities. The natural

character of those races will not alter with a change of locality, but

the instincts of each race will be developed in any country where they

may be located. Thus, the English are as English in Australia, India,

and America, as they are in England, and in every locality they exhibit

the industry and energy of their native land; even so the African will

remain negro in all his natural instincts, although transplanted to

other soils; and those natural instincts being a love of idleness and

savagedom, he will assuredly relapse into an idle and savage state,

unless specially governed and forced to industry.

 

The history of the negro has proved the correctness of this theory. In

no instance has he evinced other than a retrogression, when once freed

from restraint. Like a horse without harness, he runs wild, but, if

harnessed, no animal is more useful. Unfortunately, this is contrary to

public opinion in England, where the vox populi assumes the right of

dictation upon matters and men in which it has had no experience. The

English insist upon their own weights and measures as the scales for

human excellence, and it has been decreed by the multitude,

inexperienced in the negro personally, that he has been a badly-treated

brother; that he is a worthy member of the human family, placed in an

inferior position through the prejudice and ignorance of the white man,

with whom he should be upon equality.

 

The negro has been, and still is, thoroughly misunderstood. However

severely we may condemn the horrible system of slavery, the results of

emancipation have proved that the negro does not appreciate the

blessings of freedom, nor does he show the slightest feeling of

gratitude to the hand that broke the rivets of his fetters. His narrow

mind cannot embrace that feeling of pure philanthropy that first

prompted England to declare herself against slavery, and he only regards

the antislavery movement as a proof of his own importance. In his

limited horizon he is himself the important object, and, as a sequence

to his self-conceit, he imagines that the whole world is at issue

concerning the black man. The negro, therefore, being the important

question, must be an important person, and he conducts himself

accordingly—he is far too great a man to work. Upon this point his

natural character exhibits itself most determinedly. Accordingly, he

resists any attempt at coercion; being free, his first impulse is to

claim an equality with those whom he lately served, and to usurp a

dignity with absurd pretensions, that must inevitably insure the disgust

of the white community. Ill-will thus engendered, a hatred and jealousy

is established between the two races, combined with the errors that in

such conditions must arise upon both sides. The final question remains,

Why was the negro first introduced into our colonies—and to America?

 

The SUN is the great arbitrator between the white and the black man.

There are productions necessary to civilized countries, that can alone

be cultivated in tropical climates, where the white man cannot live if

exposed to labour in the sun. Thus, such fertile countries as the West

Indies and portions of America being without a native population, the

negro was originally imported as a slave to fulfil the conditions of a

labourer. In his own country he was a wild savage, and enslaved his

brother man; he thus became a victim to his own system; to the

institution of slavery that is indigenous to the soil of Africa, and

that has NOT BEEN TAUGHT TO THE AFRICAN BY THE WHITE MAN, as is

currently reported, but that has ever been the peculiar characteristic

of African tribes.

 

In his state of slavery the negro was compelled to work, and, through

his labour, every country prospered where he had been introduced. He was

suddenly freed; and from that moment he refused to work, and instead of

being a useful member of society, he not only became a useless burden to

the community, but a plotter and intriguer, imbued with a deadly hatred

to the white man who had generously declared him free.

 

Now, as the negro was originally imported as a labourer, but now refuses

to labour, it is self-evident that he is a lamentable failure. Either he

must be compelled to work, by some stringent law against vagrancy, or

those beautiful countries that prospered under the conditions of negro

forced industry must yield to ruin, under negro freedom and idle

independence. For an example of the results look to St. Domingo!

 

Under peculiar guidance, and subject to a certain restraint, the negro

may be an important and most useful being; but if treated as an

Englishman, he will affect the vices but none of the virtues of

civilization, and his natural good qualities will be lost in his

attempts to become a “white man.”

 

Revenons a nos moutons noirs. It was amusing to watch the change that

took place in a slave that had been civilized (?) by the slave-traders.

Among their parties there were many blacks who had been captured, and

who enjoyed the life of slave-hunting—nothing appeared so easy as to

become professional in cattle razzias and kidnapping human beings, and

the first act of the slave was to procure a slave for himself! All the

best slave-hunters, and the boldest and most energetic scoundrels, were

the negroes who had at one time themselves been kidnapped. These fellows

aped a great and ridiculous importance. On the march they would seldom

condescend to carry their own guns; a little slave boy invariably

attended to his master, keeping close to his heels, and trotting along

on foot during a long march, carrying a musket much longer than himself:

a woman generally carried a basket with a cooking-pot, and a gourd of

water and provisions, while a hired native carried the soldier’s change

of clothes and oxhide upon which he slept. Thus the man who had been

kidnapped became the kidnapper, and the slave became the master, the

only difference between him and the Arab being an absurd notion of his

own dignity. It was in vain that I attempted to reason with them against

the principles of slavery: they thought it wrong when they were

themselves the sufferers, but were always ready to indulge in it when

the preponderance of power lay upon their side.

 

Among Ibrahim’s people, there was a black named Ibrahimawa. This fellow

was a native of Bornu, and had been taken when a boy of twelve years old

and sold at Constantinople; he formerly belonged to Mehemet Ali Pasha;

he had been to London and Paris, and during the Crimean war he was at

Kertch. Altogether he was a great traveller, and he had a natural taste

for geography and botany, that marked him as a wonderful exception to

the average of the party. He had run away from his master in Egypt, and

had been vagabondizing about in Khartoum in handsome clothes,

negro-like, persuading himself that the public admired him, and thought

that he was a Bey. Having soon run through his money, he had engaged

himself to Koorshid Aga to serve in his White Nile expedition.

 

He was an excellent example of the natural instincts of the negro

remaining intact under all circumstances. Although remarkably superior

to his associates, his small stock of knowledge was combined with such

an exaggerated conceit, that he was to me a perpetual source of

amusement, while he was positively hated by his comrades, both by Arabs

and blacks, for his overbearing behaviour. Having seen many countries,

he was excessively fond of recounting his adventures, all of which had

so strong a colouring of the “Arabian Nights,” that he might have been

the original “Sinbad the Sailor.” His natural talent for geography was

really extraordinary; he would frequently pay me a visit, and spend

hours in drawing maps with a stick upon the sand, of the countries he

had visited, and especially of the Mediterranean, and the course from

Egypt and Constantinople to England. Unfortunately, some long story was

attached to every principal point of the voyage. The descriptions most

interesting to me were those connected with the west bank of the White

Nile, as he had served some years with the trading party, and had

penetrated through the Makkarika, a cannibal tribe, to about two hundred

miles west of Gondokoro. Both he and many of Ibrahim’s party had been

frequent witnesses to acts of cannibalism, during their residence among

the Makkarikas. They described these cannibals as remarkably good

people, but possessing a peculiar taste for dogs and human flesh. They

accompanied the trading party