The Ethnologist Need Only
Go To Zanzibar To Become Acquainted With All The Different Tribes
To The Centre Of The Continent On That Side, Or To Congo To Find
The Other Half South Of The Equator There.
Some few freed slaves take service in vessels, of which they are
especially fond; but most return to Africa to trade in slaves and
ivory.
All slaves learn the coast language, called at Zanzibar
Kisuahili; and therefore the traveller, if judicious in his
selections, could find there interpreters to carry him throughout
the eastern half of South Africa. To the north of the equator
the system of language entirely changes.
Laziness is inherent in these men, for which reason, although
extremely powerful, they will not work unless compelled to do so.
Having no God, in the Christian sense of the term, to fear or
worship, they have no love for truth, honour, or honesty.
Controlled by no government, nor yet by home ties, they have no
reason to think of or look to the future. Any venture attracts
them when hard-up for food; and the more roving it is, the better
they like it. The life of the sailor is most particularly
attractive to the freed slave; for he thinks, in his conceit,
that he is on an equality with all men when once on the muster-
rolls, and then he calls all his fellow-Africans "savages."
Still the African's peculiarity sticks to him: he has gained no
permanent good. The association of white men and the glitter of
money merely dazzle him. He apes like a monkey the jolly Jack
Tar, and spends his wages accordingly. If chance brings him back
again to Zanzibar, he calls his old Arab master his father, and
goes into slavery with as much zest as ever.
I have spoken of these freed men as if they had no religion. This
is practically true, though theoretically not so; for the Arabs,
on circumcising them, teach them to repeat the words Allah and
Mohammed, and perhaps a few others; but not one in ten knows what
a soul means, nor do they expect to meet with either reward or
punishment in the next world, though they are taught to regard
animals as clean and unclean, and some go through the form of a
pilgrimage to Mecca. Indeed the whole of their spiritual
education goes into oaths and ejaculations - Allah and Mohammed
being as common in their mouths as damn and blast are with our
soldiers and sailors. The long and short of this story is, that
the freed men generally turn out a loose, roving, reckless set of
beings, quick-witted as the Yankee, from the simple fact that
they imagine all political matters affect them, and therefore
they must have a word in every debate. Nevertheless they are
seldom wise; and lying being more familiar to their constitution
than truth-saying, they are for ever concocting dodges with the
view, which they glory in of successfully cheating people.
Sometimes they will show great kindness, even bravery amounting
to heroism, and proportionate affection; at another time, without
any cause, they will desert and be treacherous to their sworn
friends in the most dastardly manner. Whatever the freak of the
moment is, that they adopt in the most thoughtless manner, even
though they may have calculated on advantages beforehand in the
opposite direction. In fact, no one can rely upon them even for
a moment. Dog wit, or any silly remarks, will set them giggling.
Any toy will amuse them. Highly conceited of their personal
appearance, they are for ever cutting their hair in different
fashions, to surprise a friend; or if a rag be thrown away, they
will all in turn fight for it to bind on their heads, then on
their loins or spears, peacocking about with it before their
admiring comrades. Even strange feathers or skins are treated by
them in the same way.
Should one happen to have anything specially to communicate to
his master in camp, he will enter giggling, sidle up to the pole
of a hut, commence scratching his back with it, then stretch and
yawn, and gradually, in bursts of loud laughter, slip down to the
ground on his stern, when he drums with his hands on the top of a
box until summoned to know what he has at heart, when he delivers
himself in a peculiar manner, laughs and yawns again, and, saying
it is time to go, walks off in the same way as he came. At other
times when he is called, he will come sucking away at the spout
of a tea-pot, or, scratching his naked arm-pits with a table-
knife, or, perhaps, polishing the plates for dinner with his
dirty loin-cloth. If sent to market to purchase a fowl, he comes
back with a cock tied by the legs to the end of a stick, swinging
and squalling in the most piteous manner. Then, arrived at the
cook-shop, he throws the bird down on the ground, holds its head
between his toes, plucks the feathers to bare its throat, and
then, raising a prayer, cuts its head off.
But enough of the freed man in camp; on the march he is no
better. If you give him a gun and some ammunition to protect him
in case of emergencies, he will promise to save it, but forthwith
expends it by firing it off in the air, and demands more, else he
will fear to venture amongst the "savages." Suppose you give him
a box of bottles to carry, or a desk, or anything else that
requires great care, and you caution him of its contents, the
first thing he does is to commence swinging it round and round,
or putting it topsy-turvy on the top of his head, when he will
run off at a jog-trot, singing and laughing in the most provoking
manner, and thinking no more about it than if it were an old
stone; even if rain were falling, he would put it in the best
place to get wet through.
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