Unfortunately, The Kruman Of The Grain Coast And The
Cabinda Of The South West Coast, Are The Only Two Tribes
That have
had the benefit of this kind of education, but there are many other
tribes who, had circumstances led
The trader and the slaver to turn
their attention to them, would have done their tutors quite as much
credit. But circumstances did not, and so nowadays, just as a
hundred years ago, you must get the Kruboy to help you if you are
going to do any work, missionary or mercantile, from Sierra Leone to
Cameroon. Below Cameroon the Kruboy does not like to go, except to
the beach of an English or German house, for he has suffered much
from the Congo Free State, and from Spaniards and Portuguese, who
have not respected his feelings in the matter of wanting to return
every year, or every two years at the most, to his own country, and
his rooted aversion to agricultural work and carrying loads about
the bush.
The pay of the Kruboy averages 1 pounds a month. There are
modifications in the way in which this sum is reached; for example,
some missionaries pay each man 20 pounds a year, but then he has to
find his own chop. Some South-West Coast traders pay 8 pounds a
year, but they find their boys entirely, and well, in food, and give
them a cloth a week. English men-of-war on the West African Station
have, like other vessels to take them on to save the white crew, and
they pay the Kruboys the same as they pay the white men, i.e., 4
pounds 10s. a month with rations. Needless to say, men-of-war are
popular, although service on board them cuts our friend off from
almost every chance of stealing chickens and other things of which I
may not speak, as Herodotus would say. I do not know the manner in
which men-of-war pay off the Kruboy, but I think in hard cash. In
the circles of society I most mix with on the Coast - the mercantile
marine and the trading - he is always paid in goods, in cloth, gin,
guns, tobacco, gunpowder, etc., with little concessions to his
individual fancy in the matter, for each of these articles has a
known value, and just as one of our coins can be changed, so you can
get here change for a gun or any other trade article.
The Kruboy much prefers being paid off in goods. I well remember an
exquisite scene between Captain - - and King Koffee of the Kru Coast
when the subject of engaging boys was being shouted over one voyage
out. The Captain at that time thought I was a W.W.T.A.A. and
ostentatiously wanted Koffee to let him pay off the boys he was
engaging to work the ship in money, and not in gin and gunpowder.
King Koffee's face was a study. If Captain - -, whom he knew of
old, had stood on his head and turned bright blue all over with
yellow spots, before his eyes, it would not have been anything like
such a shock to his Majesty. "What for good him ting, Cappy?" he
said, interrogation and astonishment ringing in every word. "What
for good him ting for We country, Cappy? I suppose you gib gin,
tobacco, gun he be fit for trade, but money - " Here his Majesty's
feelings flew ahead of the Royal command of language, great as that
was, and he expectorated with profound feeling and expression.
Captain - -'s expressive countenance was the battle ground of
despair and grief at being thus forced to have anything to do with a
traffic unpopular in missionary circles. He however controlled his
feelings sufficiently to carefully arrange the due amount of each
article to be paid, and the affair was settled.
The somewhat cumbrous wage the Kruboy gets at the end of his term of
service, minus those things he has had on account and plus those
things he has "found," is certainly a source of great worry to our
friend. He obtains a box from the carpenter of the factory, or buys
a tin one, and puts therein his tobacco and small things, and then
he buys a padlock and locks his box of treasure up, hanging the key
with his other ju-jus round his neck, and then he has peace
regarding this section of his belongings. Peace at present, for the
day must some time dawn when an experimental genius shall arise
among his fellow countrymen, who will try and see if one key will
not open two locks. When this possibility becomes known I can
foresee nothing for the Kruboy but nervous breakdown; for even now,
with his mind at rest regarding the things in his box, he lives in a
state of constant anxiety about those out of it, which have to lie
on the deck during the return voyage to his home. He has to keep a
vigilant eye on them by day, and sleep spread out over them by
night, for fear of his companions stealing them. Why he should take
all this trouble about his things on his voyage home I can't make
out, if what is currently reported is true, that all the wages
earned by the working boys become the property of the Elders of his
tribe when he returns to them. I myself rather doubt if this is the
case, but expect there is a very heavy tax levied on them, for your
Kruboy is very much a married man, and the Elders of his tribe have
to support and protect his wives and families when he is away at
work, and I should not wonder if the law was that these said wives
and families "revert to the State" if the boy fails to return within
something like his appointed time. There must be something besides
nostalgia to account for the dreadful worry and apprehension shown
by a detained Kruboy.
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