Gelegentlich meiner letzten Forschungsreise in Belgisch-Kongo durchquerte ich weite Gebiete dieser blühenden Kolonie, besuchte auch Ruanda und auf der Heimfahrt Rhodesia und Portugiesisch-Sambesi. Die längste Zeit hielt ich mich in der Ostprovinz der Kongo-Kolonie auf und durchreiste den Ituri-Urwald nach den verschiedensten Richtungen hin, stets auf der Fährte der Pygmäen, deren Wohngebiet der Urwald des Ituri und seiner Nebenflüsse Nepoko und Lenda ist. Obwohl der eigentliche Zweck der Reise die Erforschung der Pygmäen war, musste ich den umwohnenden Negern grösstmögliche Aufmerksamkeit widmen, da der kulturelle und sprachliche Einfluss, den sie auf die Pygmäen ausüben, ein nicht zu unterschätzender ist. Mehrere Monate brachte ich auch noch bei den Bacwa und ihrem Wirtsvolk den Nkundu in der ‘Province d'Équateur’ zu, brach aber die Arbeit dort ab, da es sich herausstellte, dass die genannten Bacwa keine reinrassigen Pygmäen sind.

It may seem a very ambitious task to attempt even an outline of the native conception of education in so large an area as Africa, with its varying races and languages, its great variety in types of social organization. Nevertheless, there are certain fundamental aspects of these African cultures which are identical in them all, and which differ profoundly from those which form the foundation of our own educational needs. If we wish to understand and to help these African peoples, it is essential that we should learn to look at their culture and their world with their eyes, in order that we may know the basis of the faith by which they live, otherwise we run a grave risk of inadvertently destroying the foundations of social organization and belief which make life, not only tolerable, but possible at all.

In the northern part of the Central Province of Tanganyika Territory, near the swamp or lake marked on maps as Lake Eyasi, dwells a tribe of hunters speaking a clicking language which is related to the Bushman and Hottentot tongues. These people call themselves Hadzapi (singular Hadza); neighbouring tribes call them by various names, of which the Isanzu term Watindega (singular Mutindega) is probably the best known. Mr. J. F. Bagshawe has contributed some papers to the Journal of the African Society on ‘The Peoples of the Happy Valley’ in which he includes this tribe, calling them the Kangeju, probably the name given to them by their neighbours to the east. The Masai are said to call them the Ashi.

It is now possible to give an outline of the religious ideas of the more important tribes of the White Nile between Khartum and the southern boundary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Actually our knowledge is not so excessively limited as would appear from the following narrative; for lack of space I have omitted much that might be said of rain-makers, totemism, and the cult of the dead, and have avoided all discussion of sacred spears (a considerable cult) and the ‘People of the Nile’ and their river cattle.

It is important to understand native opinion about black magic, not only for the anthropologist but also for the colonial administrator and missionary, if they wish to show to the peoples whom they govern and teach that they understand their notions about right and wrong. The native does not so much distrust European justice and education as he despairs of the administrator and missionary ever understanding, or attempting to understand, his point of view as expressed in laws and public opinion. This despair springs largely from the handling by Europeans of such matters as sorcery, with which both missionaries and administrators frequently have to deal. The native becomes convinced finally that the European is quite incapable of seeing the difference between right and wrong, between the proper use of a cultural weapon fully sanctioned by public opinion, such as white magic, and a heinous and cold-blooded murder, such as the crime of black magic or sorcery. He eventually reaches the conclusion, through long experience, that to white men all magic is shameful and criminal, and that they will either laugh at it or penalize it.

Es liegt in dem Begriffe jeder Weltreligion, dass sie im Gegensatz zu anderen Religionen nicht nut die ‘Wahrheit’, sondern auch den höchsten Stand einer Entwicklung in dem Suchen nach ‘Wahrheit’ darstellt. Die vergleichende Religionsforschung hat daher, mehr noch als die Fachwissenschaft bei anderen Zweigen der Kulturuntersuchung, die Neigung, die gegenwärtige, d.h. in diesem Fall die christliche Auffassung von Religion als Massstab für die wissenschaftliche Fragestellung zu verwenden. Man suchte demnach nach persönlichen Göttern, von denen der Mensch sich abhängig fühlte, und denen er mit Gebet und Opfer nahte. Statt dessen fand man aber zunächst nur den Glauben an übernatürliche magische Kräfte bei Menschen, Tieren und Naturobjekten. Eine Art Erfolg war allerdings, dass Naturdinge vielfach personifiziert wurden, aber fatal war auch hier, dass der ihnen gewidmete Kult meist in einer magischen Beeinflussung bestand, und dass die dargebrachten Opfer im besten Fall zur Stärkung der Gottheit für ihre Obliegenheiten dienten. Auch die durchgehende animistische Unterlage aller religiösen Erscheinungen, wie sie E. B. Tylor hat aufstellen wollen, hat ein Verständnis im Sinne des Religionsforschers auf christlicher Unterlage nicht herbeigeführt, da der Tatsachenbestand nicht geändert wird, wenn wir auch mit Tylor annehmen wollten, dass der Mensch aus Seele und Körper bestehe und gleich ihm alle religiös wirksamen Naturobjekte als beseelt und daher als persönlich angesehen würden. Ein Gefühl der Abhängigkeit und des Vertrauens wird dadurch ebensowenig wie dutch die vorher erwähnten Entdeckungen gegeben.

The following remarks are not addressed to specialists, but to those Europeans and Africans working in Africa who have for professional reasons an interest in getting to know the native better and, if possible, in making this knowledge available to a wider circle. This applies pre-eminently to missionaries. They, more than any other body of men, have an interest in studying the people among whom they work. It is their aim to transform the inner life of the tribe and of the individual. They are co-operating in creating a new religious, moral, and often social order. Only those who know the traditional environment of the native have the opportunity and the right of effecting such a transformation, as they are thus in a position to forge links between the old and the new, and in consequence will make the new ideas develop naturally from the old ways of thought. Old traditions must not be pushed on one side and ignored, on the contrary they should be carefully studied to see if there is not embedded in them something that can be incorporated in the new order, or something that has to be transformed.

The knowledge of the social organization and its changes, of the attitude of the average man towards his daily problems, of the emotional and intellectual background of conduct, must be the starting-point for every effort to influence a man in his particular world. The European missionary or teacher comes from another environment, he is accustomed to social conditions, mental ways, intellectual and emotional responses different from those of his pupils. This divergence in the mind of individuals and in the functioning of society often becomes a stumbling-block to the European, especially to a newcomer. A careful study of the situation he has to deal with is therefore essential for the missionary and teacher.

Wer, wie es mir in jüngster Zeit vergönnt war, einen grossen Teil des von Bantu bewohnten Afrika durchreist und unter der Führung kundiger Missionare überall in verhältnismässig nahe Berühtung zur Eingeborenenbevölkerung kommt, dem tritt in einer überwältigenden Fülle von Bildern die Tatsache entgegen, dass Afrika unter dem Einfluss der europäischen Zivilisation inmitten einer ungeheuren Revolution steht. Die grössten Umwälzungen sind immer diejenigen, die sich auf dem Gebiete des Geisteslebens volkiehen. Da aber das Leben der Bantu nach alter Art unlöslich mit Stamm und Sippe verknupft ist, da der entscheidende Zug an der Eigenart der Bantu ihr Gemeinschaftsgefühl ist und ihr Bewusstsein Glied eines lebendigen Organismus zu sein, so sind die seelischen Veränderungen da am stârksten, wo der alte Stammes- und Sippenverband aufgelöst wird und wo ihr Familienleben neue Formen annimmt.

The North German Mission has for several decades had a series of readers in the vernacular for the school-children of the Ewe people (of Togo) among whom it works. The series comprises a primer and four readers of 80-180 pages, containing material suitable for seven consecutive classes. According to the opinion of experts these books are among the best of their kind for their time. However, it is fortunate that the introduction of the new orthography has compelled the issue of a new edition. This gives an opportunity of adapting the books to the demands of modern educational methods. The principles on which the work is being undertaken are here set forth briefly in the hope that they will not only help others, but will also provoke a fruitful discussion on the weighty problem of the creation of African readers.

Si l'on consulte un tableau des langues parlées dans les possessions françaises de l'Ouest-africain, ou si l'on examine une carte linguistique de ces régions, on est frappé par la multitude des idiomes qui y sont en usage. On peut en compter, en effet, cent cinquante environ des rives de l'Océan Atlantique au Tchad. Plusieurs sont connus seulement de quelques milliers d'individus, beaucoup, qui s'étaient conservés intacts dans le sauvage isolement de la barbarie, disparaissent lentement avec la facilité plus grande des moyens de communication, des voyages, des échanges et l'introduction du commerce dans les parties les plus reculées du territoire. Bientôt, dans une génération peut-être, ils cesseront d'être compris en dehors du cercle des vieillards. Le Comité Permanent de Linguistes, dont Monseigneur Schrijnen est l'actif secrétaire-général, s'est inquiété de cette extinction rapide et étudie les moyens de faire noter par des spécialistes les langues menacées, avant qu'il ne soit trop tard. On ne peut évidemment qu'applaudir a un tel programme. Aussi ai-je été heureux de me mettre en rapport avec l'organisme en question, de lui fournir quelques suggestions et de collaborer dans une certaine mesure à son œuvre en recueillant, au cours de mon dernier voyage en Afrique, dix-sept vocabulaires de parlers soudanais qui n'ont pas encore été notes à ma connaissance.

The object of my visit to Southern and Eastern Africa was to make a comparative study, but I intend in this paper to deal with Tanganyika. This is not because I over-estimate its importance or its singularity. Indirect rule in its general sense is not an invention of this age, and even in the special sense it has acquired during the last twenty years the classic example is in Nigeria. I know that you will all feel with me what a privilege it is for us to meet here at the invitation and in the presence of that administrator whose career was first bound up with the acquisition of East Africa and then with the construction of the system of government in West Africa, the influence of which now reacts upon the East. Exactly what Tanganyika owes to Nigeria could only, perhaps, be learned by ‘listening in’ at a conversation between Lord Lugard and Sir Donald Cameron of a kind that we may suspect has been taking place during the last few weeks. I certainly do not know myself, though I hope to go out shortly to the West Coast in order to find out, if only in part.

Of all the problems of policy which confront colonial administrations, the question of land alienation is the most fundamental and the most pressing. Colonization is meaningless apart from the provision of land for the colonist to live upon; and from the colonist's point of view it is unattractive unless land is provided in large quantities. But since no African colony—and least of all any desirable tract of land in Africa—is entirely uninhabited, the problem immediately becomes that of reconciling conflicting claims. The first duty of every colonial government is to formulate the principles upon which this adjustment shall be made. Whether or not its initial step is to declare that all land belongs to the Crown is of comparatively little relevance; for in any case it is the white government which decides what shall be done with it. The use of another formula does no more than express an intention; it cannot give the native a power which he loses irremediably as soon as colonial government comes into being.

The preamble to one of the clauses in the Charter under which the British Crown entrusted the administration of the natives of Northern Rhodesia to the British South Africa Company runs as follows:

It enunciates a very important principle of our policy in dealing with backward races. ‘Careful regard shall always be had to their laws and customs…’ but there is a saving clause to be added, ‘in so far as such laws or customs are not repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good government’. The extension of this principle to all branches of native administration has of late years been strongly emphasized in various pronouncements by those whose duty it is to supervise or comment upon British government of native communities in general and of those of East Africa in particular. All that is best in tribal organizations and tribal institutions must be preserved and adapted to the machinery of government in the native territories which we administer.

‘One must be a native in order to understand the native.’ So we are categorically told by one of our prominent native leaders. Justified race-pride of an awakening people may have prompted that leader to say so, but he can hardly have meant to say that the native mind shall for ever be a sealed book to us. Otherwise we could retort and claim that one must be a European in order to understand the European mind which finds its expression in our culture, and we could quote instances where we see African people trying to do what they believe Europeans do, with but poor or deplorable results.

The Public-Health Problem In Tropical Africa. A Survey of medical reports from all parts of tropical Africa shows us a remarkable similarity in the nature of the paramount diseases. True, certain diseases such as yellow fever, plague, and relapsing fever occur in some districts and are rare or unknown in others, but the conditions necessary for their occurrence and the danger of their spread are generally present in the so far unaffected countries.

La tribu dont il s'agit est celle des Babemba. Les Babemba ont leur histoire, c'est donc une tribu importante. Ils font remonter leur origine au royaume du Lunda. Chacun sait que le Lunda, situé à la tête du fleuve Kasaï, affluent du Congo, est un des plus grands et des plus puissants royaumes nègres de l'Afrique. Les Balunda établirent leur domination sur toutes les tribus environnantes: ils fondèrent ainsi trois grandes colonies appelées Baluba. La première de ces colonies s'établit aux sources du Zambise, partie en territoire Portugais (Angola), partie en territoire Anglais (Rhodésie du Nord), cette première colonie a été conquise plus tard par les Matabélés d'origine de Zululand. Elle prit nom de Barotseland. La deuxième colonie Baluba s'établit plus à l'est entre les rivières Kasaï et Sankuru. Enfin la troisième colonie Baluba se fixa sur la Lwalaba, affluent du fleuve Congo. C'est de cette dernière colonie que sont sortis les Babemba=Baluba.

My recent article on the ‘Development of the Swahili Language’ was written before the publication of Pastor Roehl's article on ‘The Linguistic Situation in East Africa’. The former, therefore, though published six months after the latter, contains no reference to it. But Pastor Roehl's interesting article requires a reply. With much that he says I am in agreement, and I do not fail to appreciate his scholarship, but I must here confine myself to points of criticism.

Résumé de préhistoire africaine. ‘L'Afrique à elle senle nous donnerait peut-être la clef du problème de l'homme’ disait en 1877 le docteur Paul Topinard dans L'Anthropologie. Il faut bien convenir que si la prophétie de l'éminent anthropologue ne s'est pas encore réalisée, l'Afrique a livré des documents qui sont du plus haut intérêt pour l'étude du lointain passé des races humaines primitives.

N'est-il pas oiseux de poser encore cette question? N'a-t-elle pas été résolue dès longtemps? La grande majorité des colons qui vivent près des indigènes, qui prétendent les connaître, ne déclaret-elle pas avec conviction que le noir est un être inférieur, incapable de s'élever au niveau du blanc, et qu'il doit rester dans la position qui lui convient, dans la position d'un subordonné? Un fait digne de remarque c'est que les nouveaux colons, les Européens qui vont se fixer aux Colonies, acceptent presque invariablement et très rapidement cette théorie. Lorsqu'ils demeuraient encore en Europe, dans la mère-patrie, ils partageaient les idées libérales qu'on y professe généralement à l'égard de la race noire. Au bout de trois mois, six peutêtre, leur conversion est complète. Ils ont adopté l'attitude de leurs confrères. Je parle d'une attitude. C'est en effet avant tout d'une attitude qu'il s'agit. Les deux races, quand elles entrent en contact, sont mises en demeure de déterminer comment elles se comporteront l'une envers l'autre dans les relations ordinaires de la vie! Le blanc prétend être et demeurer seigneur et maître. Pour justifier cette attitude, il prononce un jugement: Le noir est un être inférieur. Mais ce n'est pas là un jugement scientifique basé sur une étude objective de l'Africain. La plupart des colons se donnent en réalité fort peu de peine pour connaître les coutumes et la vie intérieure des indigènes.