West Africa Before Europe

yd
^.
SEP 7
m^
West Africa before Europe.
GOLD COAST
NATIVE
INSTITUTIONS:
WITH THOUGHTS UPON A HEALTHY IMPERIAL POLICY

FOR THE GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI.
BY
CASELY HAYFORD,
or THE Innbk Tbmplk,
Rakhiktkk-at-Law,
GuLU
()OA8T
Esq..
and op
tiik
Ha It.
Advocating the m penalisation of the Gold Coast and of

Ashanti on purely aboriginal lines, leading ultinnately to the
Imperialisation of West Africa with a lucid exposition of the
Native State System of the Gold Coast and of Ashanti, and
the working of the Concessions Ordinance.
I
Anglo-Aj'rican Argus and Gold Coast Globe speaks of it as

an"e)>och-iuakingwork in the history of West African thought."
Mr. Walter K. Warren, LL.B., Barrister-atLaw, in

Wett Afrvcii
"'I'his book J have read from cover to cover,
and among its 418 [tages I have failed to find a dull one.
It is a remarkable work, written by a native thoroughly conversant with the Knglit^h language and law, and a master of
the constitution of his

7*he
own
people."
West African Mail
" We
recommend a
careful
perusal of this book."
The British and South African Gazette :" The work

great moral and intellectual value, and is an
inftmetive commentary upon the customs and institutions of
the Gold Coast of which Mr. HayforJ has had a long and
useful experience, whicli enables him to speuk with weight
and authority upon the subject"
pottesses
Hector Macleod, Esq., M.A., late Chief Justice of the

Gold Coasts says --" How happy I shouKl have been when
proceeding to the Gold Coast in 1880 could 1 have discovered
:
och
I
a treasury of information as to the people among

to administer justice."
whom
was
W. Maitlamd,
Profetsor F.
bridge,
Myi
'*
It contains
of Downing College,
that interests me."
Cam-
much
Thf Daily News says: *' It is a treatise which commends

itelf by reason of its careful arrangement, accurate detail,
knowledge of local customs and institutiuuM, ami its admirable
uiKeetions for the improvement of local administration
likely to be lieneHcial to British and Fauti.**
DR.
P..
W. BLYDEN.
West %ixm befou Europe

a7id othei' Addresses,
DELIVERED
In
ENGLAND
IN
1901
AND
1903,
BY
Edward Wilmot Blyden,

Author of
*'
^''
From West Africa
Christianity^
^^
lld,,
to Palestine^''''
Islam and the Negro Race.^^
African Problem^' &c.y &'c.
With an Introduction by
CASELY HAYFORD,
Barrister-at-Law^ Author of " Gold Coast
Native
Institutions,''''
London
C.
23,
M. PHILLIPS,
Southampton Buildings, W.C.
1905.
V^1
^.
T
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
1.
West
...
...
Africa
...
...
...
Address delivered before Liverpool
Chamber
of
Commerce, September,
1901.
2.
Islam
in the
Western Soudan
..
37
Reprinted from Journal of African

Society, October, 1902.
3.
Fome Problems
of
West Africa
95
Address delivered before Liverpool
Chamber
of
Commerce, June
16,
1903.
4.
Wêst Africa before Europe
...
Address delivered before the African

Society,
June
26, 1903.
127
"^
Reading Room,
Inner Temple,
London,
tlth July, 1903.
Dear
Dr. Blyden,
have read with deep interest your
"Islam
in
number
of the Journal
am
of all
in
the
article
October
agree with you in every
fully convinced
therein expressed are worthy the
and study
"
the African Society.
of
Without saying that

particular,
Soudan
Western
the
that the thoughts
earnest attention
thinking Africans.
have pleasure in enclosing herewith a cheque for
and
20,
shall
be glad
if
you
will
please
direct
the re-publication in book form of the said article

together with any other public utterances of yours
on this and kindred subjects you
may
think
fit
to
include.
In the event of your adopting the course I suggest,

I shall
me
at
copies
thank you please
to
cause to be forwarded to
Anona Chambers, Axim, Gold Coast, some

of the book for distribution among our Gold
Coast friends.
Yours
faithfully,
CASELY HAYFORD.
Dr. E.
W. Blyden,
Portland Hotel,
London, E.C,
INTKOIDUCTION.
The claim
of
Edward Wilmot Blyden
esteem and regard of

rests not so
has done for any
thinking
Africans
the special
work he
all
much upon
to the
particular people
of the
African race, as upon the general work he has
done
for the race as a whole.
The work
ton and
and
W.
of
men
like
E. Burghart
provincial
in
Booker
Du
Bois
is
is
exclusive
The work
sense.
Washing-
T.
universal,
of
covering
the entire race and the entire race problem.
What do
mean
mean
this,
that while
Washington seeks to promote the

material advancement of the black man in the
United States, and W. E. Burghart Du Bois his
social enfranchisement amid surroundings and
in an atmosphere uncongenial to racial development, Edward Wilmot Blyden has sought for
more than a quarter of a century to reveal everywhere the African unto himself to fix his attention upon original ideas and conceptions as to
his place in the economy of the world
to point
Booker
T.
11
out to him his work as a race among the
men
races of
to lead
all,
lastly
and most important of
him back unto
He
self-respect.
has been the voice of one crying in the wilderness
these years, calling upon
all
thinking
all
Africans to go back to the rock whence they
were hewn by the common Father of the

nations
learn
to
that foreign sophistry has encrusted
all
upon the
the
drop metaphor, to learn to un-
Born
intelligence of the African.
West
in
Indies some seventy years ago and
nurtured in foreign culture, he has yet
mained an African; and, to-day he
is
re-
the
greatest living exponent of the true spirit of
African nationality and manhood.
To emphasise an important
consideration.
In the Afro- American school of thought the

black
man
materially
is
to
seeking
show
and
intellectually
himself
man
the lines of progress of the white man.
along
In the
African school of thought, represented by Dr.

Blyden, the black
man
is
engaged upon a sub-
limer task, namely, the discovery of his true place

in creation
18
upon natural and rational
lines.
the striking difference between
the
That
two
HI
And
great schools of the thinkers of the race.
has been the work of
it
Blyden to accentuate
whom we
day, he, of
Edward Wilmot
this difference
are
all
and, to-
so proud,
is
the
leading thinker of the latter school of thought.
Apart from the magnetism of
his personality,
the great influence of Dr. Blyden over the lising
thinking youth of the race,
lies in
the fact that
he has revealed in his writings and utterances

the true motive power which shall carry the
And
race on from victory unto victory.
has to say to his people,

teaching
The
one word,
in
is
*'
:
summing up
Man know
he
all
his
thyself"
was aforetime crying solitarily

the wilderness has suddenly become the
in
voice that
voice of a nation and of a people, calling unto

their kindred across the Atlantic to
to their
way
pang the
'*
of thinking.
We
strivings after the
wind
in
we
to-day to return to
ask them
and
" in
which
America are engaged, and
our brethren
ciples
come back
notice with
to original
and
first
prin-
racial conceptions
to those cooling streams by the fountains of
Africa which would refresh their souls.
To
leave no possible doubt as to
my
meaning,
IV
Afro-Americans must bring themselves into

touch with some of tiie general traditions and
institutions
of their
sojourning in a
ancestors,
strange land,
though
and,
endeavour to
Thus
conserve the characteristics of the race.
and only thus,
like Israel of old,
able, metaphorically,
in the
to
will
they be
walk out of Egypt
near future with a great and a real
spoil.
is
a leader
leaders of African aboriginal thought
among
and
lest
a prophet should be without honour among his

own kindred, I am happy in this introductory
note to have, among others, the privilege and
the opportunity of giving him the recognition
that
is
his due.
CASELY HAYFORD.
January
1905.
AXIM, GrOLD
(!0A8T,
WkST AfHICA.
SEP- 7
1207
"1
WEST AFRICA.
I
am
to address
you
this afternoon
on West
Africa a large and important subject too large
and too important to be dealt with within the

An
limits to which circumstances confine me.
hour, or even two hours, would be a very
short time for a speaker on
West Africa
to
do
he had the power of miraculous condensation.
A whole book would be necessary to deal with
so vast and comprehensive a subject nay,
Miss Kingsley did not think
several books.
anything like justice to his subject unless
* Address delivered hefon Liverpool Chamber of Commerce,

September, 1901.

she had exhausted the subject
devoted to
letters
it
when she had
three books, besides lectures and
so that,
forgetful
if
of the imposed
happen to exceed the time, I

hope the Chairman will be good enough to
limitations
give
me
a gentle reminder.
Miss KiNGSLEY
But what
shall I say of
What
and what probably I am
Miss Kingsley
West
am
Africa after
able to do now,
expected to do,
is
to
pass in rapid review from the African standpoint the various agencies which in the in-
and progress, are at work

But I cannot proceed within West Africa.
out saying a word of Miss Kingsley. Brief as
was my acquaintance with her, I recognised in
terest of civilisation
her a
spirit sent to this
and the African race

not given
to
others
in
world to serve Africa

a
to
way
in
serve
which
them.
it
was
Miss
Kingsley was one of those simple beings
would there were more of them to whom

nothing seems an impossibility that is noble
and just. She believed in spite of all appearances, in the strong sense of justice, and in

the sincere aspirations of her countrymen after
whatever things are lovely and of good report,
and it was a source of grief to her that they

were so often misrepresented, or misrepre-
among
sented themselves
After her two

interests
visits to
races alien to them.
Africa, entirely in the
where she studied the
of science,
African in his native home, she returned to
England with a deep sense of the injustice

done to that son of the tropics by her people,
through an entire misunderstanding of him
and she gave the remainder
of
shortened, alas, by her labours

to
introducing the African to
her
life
in Africa
Europe, and
pleading for more patient and accurate study

of his character
and
idiosyncrasies, his cus-
toms, and his institutions.
The African
She recognised
Society.
imperial work and

She honoured such men
the
destiny of her race.
honour as
Gladstone, John Morley,
as the weaker races everywhere
John
Bright,
W.
E.
Frederick Harrison
genius and imperial
but she saw that the

work of Great Britain
West Africa before Europe
even at times in
its
military
aspect
were
necessary in the permanent interest of hu-
manity, and that while the nation could not be
prevented from obeying

impulses of
its
its instincts, it
and the
ciilling
might, by accui*ate
knowledge, be prevented from
inflicting in the
its work unnecessary evils upon

who come under its control. This know-
prosecution of
races
ledge on behalf of the African she strove to
impart
and
it
is
this
knowledge which the
African Society (founded in
memory
with the Marquis of Ripon as
its
of her),
president,
taking up her mantle, was established to

fuse.
The members of
intimate knowledge
dif-
this society believe that
of,
sympathy with, and,
therefore, access to the heart of the people
governed, are more truly divine conditions of
Government than superior might or wisdom

without those qualifications. The work of the
African Society, therefore cannot be regarded
as divorced from the imperial idea.
detre
is
to recognise that idea, and,
Its raison
if
possible,
upon the only true basis upon

which any idea can be stable and fruitful, and
not fitful and mischievous, and that is the
to adjust
it
basis of knowledge, of truth, of justice,
and of
righteousness.
-Thk Impenetrableness of Africa.
For thousands of years Africa has been

the object of European curiosity and effort,
but with results so
little
satisfactory to the
ancients that, notwithstanding the great con-
quests of
Rome
on that continent,
in spite of
her overthrow of the mightiest State that ever

held sway over the destinies
Augustus
Csesar,
who
of that
land,
reigned during the most
flourishing period of the Eternal City, in his

last will
and testament advised the Romans
never to invade Africa.
There are but scanty records of the ancient
and north-west portions of

We have glimpses of the
that continent.
Mediterranean coast, but no data by which to
history of the west
trace
Africa.
the
early
conditions
After the
fall
of inter-tropical
of Carthage, had the
R'^mans not been so much carried away by

vindictive impulses, had they allowed the
ample records of the Carthaginian Empire to

survive the wreck of the State of Hamilcar,
Hannibal, and Hanno,
we should now be
possession of data which might help to

gest
new methods
of dealing with
alas,
in
sui-
or modify existing methods
the African problem.
we know nothing
of
those
But,
brilliant
periods which witnessed in Equatorial Africa
the exploits of Hanno, or the expeditions of
King Solomon.
Our knowledge
of the past
begins with the enterprises of the Portuguese

in the fifteenth century
Spaniards,
made noble
they, followed by the
efforts to
open up and
improve the western portions of the continent.
But the discovery of America turned them

from their exploitations. Columbus lived at
Elmina, on the Gold Coast, and
Benin, before ho undertook
for the discovery of a
new
said at
it is
his great
journey
continent.
Not-
withstanding the vast and expensive preparations put
on foot at that time by Portugal for
Columbus saw that the

country was impossible for European colonisaThe same instinct, or inspiration, that
tion.
attracted him westward in search of new
countries, repelled him from West Africa as a
home for his race. Elmina, now more than
occupying
Africa,
four hundred years old, where he planned his
trans-Atlantic enterprise,
village,
only a trading
is still
hardly ever visited even by the omni-
present steamers of Elder, Dempster
So
&
Co.
Europe and
far as the past relations of
Africa are concerned, the views of Mr. Meredith
Townsend,
book recently
in his interesting
published on ''Asia and Europe," might apply.
*'The fusion of
Townsend,
author's best
"
the continents,"
" has never occurred,"
judgment
will
says
and
Mr.
in the
never occur.
The East bowed low before the
blast,
In patient, deep disdain,
She
let
the legions thunder past.
Then plunged
When
in thought again."
Most High divided the nations, and

their inheritance, and when he separated the
sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the
the
peoples
and so
and Asia are
far as Africa
concerned, those bounds will never be obliter-
ated or permanently transcended.
We
are
now
living in days of
and comprehensive attempts

Africa.
Science,
we
agency, overcoming
are told,
all
is
more
serious
with
to
deal
an
irresistible
things, and, therefore,

8
it
urged, what the ancients could not ac-
is
complish, what 400 years of modern effort has
not been ahle to
effect, will
now he
realised
by
scientific appliances.
Modern Effort
I believe in
in
Wkst
Africa.
the future extensive relations
and permanent relations

between Europe and Africa, but I believe
that to bring these relations about and to
foster them for the mutual good of the two
continents, two facts, the one physical and the
other political, upon which Miss Kingsley
frequently and justly insisted, must be recog-
amicable and
fruitful
nised
by the people of both countries
Europeans on the one
on the
**
other.
First.
The
side,
and by Africans
facts are these
Tropical
Africa
by
is
unfit,
and
will,
as long as astronomical conditions are as they

are,
remain unfit for colonisation by a white
population.
Secondly.
It
is
a region suitable for Euro-
pean tiude colonization.
The extension of our Empire there," said

Miss Kingsley, "does not necessarily mean
*'
Wkst Africa befouk Europe.
subjugating the native and taking from him

his lands
and property, and the men up here
who may
so engineer our Imperialism are not
true Imperialists
they are I'emainders over
from the Councillors who sent his
down
Philip of Spain
is
nor just
is
and
there
Majesty
the road to ruin.
policy of creating an agrarian

tropical Africa
late
This
grievance in
a policy neither profitable

neither gold nor good in
it,
one you will not pursue if you will

same amount of earnest thought and
consideration to Imperialism that you give to
it
is
give the
the grievances of cyclists about the state of
On
the roads.
say
the other hand, with those
we have no moral
whole of tropical Africa,

There
even^ in the
West
it, we
is
for
is
a thing
have no sympathy.
in
tropical Africa,
most highly developed native
part,
Africa that no native has, so in taking

are not stealing
the Oberhoheit.
it
who
right to take over the
it
it
from him.
There
is
means the power
That thing
no English word
to rule at the top
of things, the power to enforce peace
among
peoples, to secure commercial communication,
and provide an ultimate
coui't of
appeal in
West Africa befork Europe.
10
matters of justice, to be king over kings, ruler

over many peoples.
This power that we steal
from no one, we have every right to have it

does not need to steal the natives' land. The
we can pursue in tropical Africa,

the Landeshoheit, is one we have neitluu- right
to, nor use for, in tropical Africa.
What we
other policy
wânt there
It
is
is
not Landehoheit, but Oberhoheit.
not imperially necessary for us to steal the
natives' land in deadly
West
the true Negroes in their
grievance
and give
home an
agrarian
you must steal things,

something useful."
if
goodness' sake steal
Great Britain
Now
Africa,
in
West
Africa.
us consider the agencies which are
let
at present in operation for the practical

effective amelioration
Africa.
the
civil
for
of conditions in
and
West
We must regard, as first and foremost,

or political agencies.
admitted
effected
during
it
cannot be denied
the
last
It
must be
that they have
century,
especially
during the Victorian era, wonderful revolutions

in that portion of the continent.
Great Britain
has been the most strenuous and self-denying
West Africa bkfoke Eukope.
of the political agencies, but, owing to climatic
hindrances, which have not been friendly to a

continuity of policy, based
upon an accurate
apprehension of things, the British Govern-
ment has not achieved the
results
which a
hundred
years
oui;ht
to
effected.
The
contact
of
policy, for the
been one of laissez /aire
most
The
have
part, has
fact
is,
that
during the greater part of the century which

has just expired, time and
money and
lives
were devoted to getting the slave trade out of

the way,
and counteracting
effects.
When
that
its
disintegrating
diabolical
system had
been destroyed both by British naval enterprise
and the downfall of slavery
in
America,
both the great English political parties came

to the conclusion that the policy of
England
should look to a gradual withdrawal
West
from
Africa, excepting probably Sierra Leone,
leaving the natives to the government of themselves.
This decision was owing also to the expectation that the extinction of slavery in
would lead
as was
America
indeed suggested in one
of President Lincoln's
Messages to a whole-
West Africa beforu Eirope.
12
sale
of
emigration
deported
blacks
from
Americii to the fatherland, and the idea in

the minds of these statesmen probably was to
place no hindrance in the
repatriates.
peculiarities
tics
way
of this influx of
But when it was found that the

and exigencies of American poli-
would detain the blacks
in
the land of
and when the

by Lord Ripon the
their exile for time indefinite,

**
earth hunger" referred to
other day began to take possession of certain
Continental powers, compelling Bismarck, that

far-seeing statesman of " blood
and
iron," to
suggest an international conference to discuss
no man's land," as
when,
as
and
a result of that
it
conference, a partition of Africa was made on
the map, then h'ngland began to realise the
the situation in that vast
was called
**
mistake of her
laisaez
/aire policy, and
to
awake to her rights and duties in connection

Within the last few years
with West Africiv.
a great statesman has come to the front at the
Colonial Oflice who, impatient of the slumber
of years and the
lurht^s
unaccustomed, we
to the
of the past, has brought
may
say abnormal, activity
"development of that portion of the
West Africa beforr Europe.

which has
estates of the Empire,"
13
lain fallow
nay for thousands of years.

Then the pendulum, having svvung too far to
for generations,
to
was made,
the right.
But
its
normal
the
are
left,
swing too
for a time, to
now
it is
far
happily regaining
oscillation, and fruitful
the prospects
before
and beneficent
England and the
native owners of these " undeveloped estates."
Next to England in protracted

West Africa is France.
political
work
in
France
in
West Africa.
France has a peculiar work to do for West

Africa -a work much needed, and suited to
the genius of the Celtic race
privilege a few
Ivory Coast
months ago
was my
French
regions which, before the Franco-
Liberian Treaty of 1892,

territory,
It
to visit the
were
and I was not only
in
Liberian
satisfied,
but
delighted with the results so far of French
administration upon the

the
natives.
made
civilised native traders
life
and prospects of
careful
enquiries
of
from Sierra Leone and
who came on
board the steamer from the various trading
other settlements on the Coast
14
and opportuniThey all emphasised

ties under French rule.
the fact of the encouragement and assistance
stations, as to their condition
affonled
them
in the prosecution of their enter-
prise by the local authorities.
somewhat
sceptical
territories
move<L
West
France
Africa,
and
(Jition,
at first
transfer of
the
is
to
to
all
my
improve her material con-
give an opportunity for per-
from what they have in

kind, but from
is
re-
doing her part to pacify
of Africa evidently springs
France
those
doubts were
manent progress to the sons of the soil.

The contribution of the French to the
sation
the
from Liberia to France, but after
observation
actual
was
as to the result on
population of
native
what
is
common
civili-
not only
with
all
man-
special to themselves.
France, England
is
England.
France
can do for Africa what England cannot do, and
what France cannot.

thinking Africans recognise, and all
England can do
(io.
This
all
for Africa
gladly co-operate with each nation according

to the
with
measure
in
and native customs and

And there seems to be more of
native ideas
traditions.
which their systems accord

this
15
conformity in the French methods than in
more rigid and unimaginative system of

Whatever there is among
the Anglo Saxon.
the
the
of
natives
interest
is
racy,
original,
or
romantic
not perishing under French admin-
istration, therefore
Miss Kingsley chose, as
the proper field for her researcbes into
West
and character, the French settleAnd to the credit of the French this
ments.
must be said that Miss Kingsley should have
African
life
been able to
suffer the physical discomforts,
the social and intellectual inconveniences, and
the mental strain inseparable from the effort

to acquire that
wide and profound knowledge
which she exhibited of the religion of the

natives and the meaning of their customs, was
owing not less to the French regime than to
her
own unique and incomparable
genius.
The next important political agency in

Africa
comparatively a
is
Germany
in
new comer.
West
The Germans have only

field, but,
West
Africa.
recently entered the
as apt pupils, have already mastered
the situation.
They are taking
their part with
16
In comand capital.
mercial thoroughness and success only the
energy,
intelligence,
Their steamers
English are their superiors.
are found in every inlet and outlet along the
Their settlements in Togoland, ad-
Coast.
joining the Gold Coast Colony, are becoming
important centres of
Not long ago
trade.
these settlements were only clusters of native

huts.
Popo
Little
material
visited
position.
it,
saw
is
In
rapidly increasing
March
last,
when
in
large buildings of recent con-
struction, or in progress of construction, in the
European
latest
style of
beauty and
but adapted to the climate.
Government
buildings, for
solidity,
They are
offices and
chiefly
official
residences, a few trading factories, with groups
of native houses interspersed, and extensive
groves of cocoanut trees in the background.
There are two churches here, and a large,

commodious, abundantly equipped hospital,
with ample grounds for cattle, and a fine
vegetable garden.
years*
I
experience
A skilful
on
the
physician of
Coast
many
presides.
counted from the deck of the steamer betwen
forty
and
tifty
head of
cattle grazing near the
17
come
the
Hither
hospital.
invalids
neighbouring settlements for
rest,
There are as yet
and recuperation.
from
attention,
visible
no
Lome, the other German
signs of segregation.
settlement of importance in these parts, has
and gives a similar
a similar development
promise.
learnt
the
that
experiments in
cotton culture by American experts was being

vigorously prosecuted.
smaller
German
There are other though
settlements in Togoland,
all
proving by the activity visible in them that
Germany
is
in
West Africa
and come
to stay,
to give her desirable quota to its
development
and prosperity.
Where
I
in
have
thk Safety of Africa Lies.
work
the European
briefly called attention to the
which the three greatest of
Powers are engaged, each pursuing

course, in
its
own way,
apparently very
little
sympathy with the

felt
of
its
own
its
lines,
heed on the work
others.
own
with
of,
or
have sometimes
that the safety of the African lies in the
antagonism among themselves of the invaders

of his country
but I have also
felt
that the
18
European traders and other agencies on the

Coast would be able to accomplish more for
uniform and permanent progress if there were
more of mutual sympathy and trust among
them.
Notwithstanding the alleged partition
of Africa, those
who
Coast can detect
little
travel along the
West
of practical occupation.
sometimes intervene beHundreds

tween individual Europeans, and these inof miles
dividuals often of different nationalities.

difficult to see
i.e.,
It is
how, under such circumstances,
the constant striving for ascendency or
precedence in trade or politics on the part of

restless
and divergent
individualities,
and the
absence of any concurrent interest, there can

be any sustained, any concentrated, influence,
upon the African or his country. I had an

example of the absence of any common sentiments during my voyage along the Coast a few
months ago to which I have referred. At
nearly every port at which we stopped we
found that a German steamer was either in
port or had just left, taking the cargo which
had perhaps been promised
skipper.
On
to
our enterprising
arriving at a port, which shall
19
here be nameless, the captain eagerly dressed

himself, not trusting
now
to the second mate,
to go ashore in search of a cargo, having to
When
confront a heavy surf.
he returned
somewhat damaged
by the waves, I safd,

''Well, Captain, did you succeed?"
''Not
much," he answered, resignedly. " There is
only one
man
white
ashore there
Swanzy's agent, the
Everybody
is
Englishman.
yond
him
others
foreigner
He
is
to
that
is
Germans."
the
ordinary
always the centre.
are
all
are
outsiders.
Be-
Even
so
enlightened a person as Miss Kingsley confessed to something of the
there
is
sometimes
same
Englishman with regard to

of his
own
in the
Mersey
conntry.
in
feeling.
And
this parochial feeling in the
Some
different sections
years ago I arrived
one of the steamers from the
Coast, w^hich had taken in a
gers at Madeira.
We were
number
of passen-
anchored for some
time in the river, waiting for the health
officer
For some reason or other

was detained on shore or somewhere
else beyond the usual time.
While most of
the passengers were silently grumbling, a
to board the ship.
he
20

Londoner
nervous
who had
come
off at
Madiera, unchastened by the discipline gained
on the Coast by necessary and unnecessary

delays, and anxious to catch a particular train,
walked up and down the deck in great irritation, exclaiming,
''
This
to these foreign ports
is
why
I hate to
come
London we should
in
have been ashore long ago."
The next political agency in West Africa, and,

without doubt, the least in
promise in posse,
is
esse,
the Eepublic of Liberia.
The Republic of
This
young
nation
is
Liberia.
making a
struggle to hold her position
owing
to her
though of large
methods so
far,
heroic
but, of course,
growing out of
her peculiar circumstances, she will continue

the struggle, and with no other result than a
struggle unless she abandons those methods
which contradict the tendencies of modern

She must nolens rolens be
requirements.
drawn ultimately
activities
into the whirlpool of foreign
which surround
public cannot be said to
her.
have
Yet the Refailed,
nor,
considering her rich and valuable resources, can

she be said to be bankrupt.
Her
21
first citizens
the founders of the Colony and the organisers

of
new
the
State
from
America
from
favourable
manhood
theless,
and
after
were
fresh
to
Negro
from
the
far
development
of
self-reliance.
emigrants
conditions
leadership
They,
of
less
never-
than
assumed the reins of Government

in
1847.
Everybody will remember that
striking picture which appeared in Punch not
many years ago, called " Dropping the Pilot."
It was an impressive picture, and the whole
civilised world was moved to minified emotions
by it. It was impressive because of its suggestiveness.
It was a symbol of separation
between the past and the future.
It was
considered that the new captain who was to
take the helm of the ship was inexperienced.
Great destinies hung upon that event. Something like this, in its seriousness, was that
which took place on July 26, 1847, when the
Liberian craft took leave of its leader and
guide of thirty years. The little ship ventured
upon the sea of nationality, and for a time
drifted without
recognition.
The mother
thirty years,
West Africa bkfore Europe.
22
country, owing to
" peculiar institutions,"
its
could not even signal
welcome
its
to the
new
England, in the person of Lord
born baby.
Palmers ton, espied the new
craft,
boisterous sea, wondered at
its
tossed on a
temerity, but
the
on close inspection thought it showed
promise and potency of life," and gave the
**
inexperienced pilot at the helm, in the

of Great Britain, a master's certificate.
name
This
was soon endorsed by France, then by Germany, and other Powers. For half a-century
this craft, amid various and trying vicissitudes,
has been holding
its
they say in America.

*'
own
**by the hardest," as
She has had
to confront
rock and tempest roar." but her greatest
perils
have arisen from
shore."
She has now come
the ways
must
" false lights
Two
ariive
at
along the
to the parting of
channels are before her.
decision
or suffer
She
worse
Those who launched the ship have all

passed away. Their successors now on the
things.
deck are not immigrants, but the children of

immigrants,
all
educated
in
Liberia
The
President and his Cabinet, the Justices of the
Supreme Court, the member.s of the
Legisla-
Wkst Africa befohe Europe.

Commissioners now
ture, the
in
23
England,
all
Now
received their training in the Republic.
must appear that there must have been, or

must be, an affluence of educational facilities
it
in Liberia to
is
have produced such
that a country which
evidence, also,
done so much might be able

will avail
herself of the
It
results.
do more
has
if
she
assistance and
co-
to
operation of which a past mistaken policy has
That she
deprived her.
is
anxious to eschew
the short-sighted policy of the past, the pres-
ence of her Commissioners in England
and we may
will
among
the pro-
and productive agencies of the
Liberia, "
proof;
safely preilict that the Republic
before long range itself
gressive
is
times.
British Colony in Everything
BUT THE Flag."
And
what,
it
appears to me. should have
practical interest for every British subject,
that Liberia
but the
is
flag.
a British Colony in everything
We
have everything that the
Union Jack symbolises, except

significance
to
you
to
is
And
assist
this
us
we
to
are
get.
its
financial
now appealing
We
have the
Wkst Africa before
24
language,
the
laws,
Britain.
All
the
the
Ei^ropk.
literature of
men
prominent
Great
of
the
Republic supply themselves regularly wfth the

leading
ergans
Times, Daily
with
of
Neiv.<,
British
opinion.
Standard, Telegraph, &c,
the Liverpool
Manchester
public
Mercury, Post, Courier,
Guardian,
Spectator,
Saturday
ReHnv, West Africa,
cV:c.,
side by side with the
New York
Tribune, Sim,
Ereninfj
Standard
English
Post,
American
&c.
books are
circulate in Liberia
our
in
libraries.
and
In-
and an abhorrence at the recent

dastardly attack on Mr. McKinley will be felt
dignation
as keenly in Liberia as in Liverpool.
We
read
a greater variety of English literature than
many an Englishman
then,
is
England
in
Liberia,
an independent English- African State
We
in Africa.
could not
if
would not
we would,
if
we
could,
and we
alienate our intellectual
allegiance to Great Britain, for that allegiance

is
a guarantee of
and stimulus
attainment.
to
We
political
and
religious liberty
the highest possible
consider
it
to
human
be a great
privilege to say
"
We
pponk the langunjô SbakeRpeare spnko,"
25
if we cannot add,
with regard to the
whole of our population, " we hold the truth
even
And
and morals Milton held."
why we should not,

round man in politics
for Milton
do not see
was an
all-
as well as in religion.
The Commercial Agency
West
in
Africa.
The next agency in operation in West Africa

makes for improvement is the commer
îl agency.
The observant stranger who visits
London for the first time is struck with those
^hich
remarkable words over the entrance to the
Royal P^xchange,
"
The earth
the fulness thereof."
And
and proprietor has seen

at the
God
has
command
the
of
the
of
humanity.
earth's
the Lord's and
the Divine Creator

to place this fulness
of the children of Japheth
shall enlarge
given
fit
is
Japheth
means
for
resources
In
the
him
He
and
to
the
distribution
in
hands
the
of
interest
China,
Japan, India, or Africa, the resources would

not be distributed.
distribution,
that branch of the
is most prosperous is that

most liberal in its method of
which unfetters commerce and
Japhetic race which
branch which
And
is
26
breaks clown the barriers of trade.
The possiWest Africa
European commerce in
are practically unlimited, and England has
done more than any other nation to create,
foster, and develop commerce in that country,
and England will, as is justly her due, reap
bilities for
most of its rewards in future.

But this work of distribution, of development
cannot be pushed without help without sub-
And
ordinate assistance.
assistance brings
the procuring of this
up the labour
question.
The Labour Question.

Labour, like every other exchangeable commodity, adjusts
itself in Africa,
as elsewhere,
and demand. In former

days labour in West Africa was abundant and
cheap, because there was comparatively no
to the law of supply
demand
for
it.
In
a drug, and was
in
still
earlier times
it
wtis
inexhaustible quantities
exported to the Western Hemisphere to help

build up the waste places in the New World.
But now times have changed, and men have

By your irreprt^ssible
changed with them.
enterprise, your genius for
commerce, you have
27
introduced conditions which have increased,
and are continually increasing, the demand for

labour.
But it is plentiful for the purchaser
who
pay the price for
will
it.
One
of the
drawbacks to the supply, it seems to me, lies

with some of those wishing this labour. 1'hey
are surprised that people in the bush should
not submit to the price they lay down and are
They think that, as it seems
willing to pay.
to them, these
they
clothes,
men
are houseless and without
ought to welcome everything
brought to them
sidered necessaries in
privilege of
those
who
way
what are conEurope, and pay for the
in the
of
working to get those things from
import them.
But the only thing
necessary and indispens!ible for the existence

of
man
in that tropical
garden of Eden
If he only dresses the garden
can get
his
is
and keeps
food.
it,
he
apron leaves or his coat of skin
which he often can do without, and the trees

of the garden yield him all the year round
more than enough

est effort
is
on his
optional with
for his food with the slight-
part.
him
The wearing of
Like the happy
clothes
pair in
the Garden of Eden, he needs clothes only
28
when he has
I
touclied the tree of knowldege.
have travelled through regions
in the hinter-
land of Seirra Leone and Liberia, where the

greater part of the population wear no clothes
where indeed it is fashionable not to

where a woman appearing in
in Kurope is called full dress would be
an impertinence. The Spectator a few weeks
ago (August 24), has a few very appropriate
" We are too apt to
remarks on this subject.
at
all,
wear
what
clothes,
think," says that able journal, "that
who have not our
special
brand of
people
civilisation
and would adopt it at once if

In reality, they very
only they knew how.
are pining for
it,
often despise the very things
we
think speci-
and would regard with horror

and as something per se degrading what we
ally im[)ortant,
believe to be the proofs of the higher culture.*
The Spectator says
that,
and
it is
true.
The Unpracticality of Forcr as a Means

OF Procuring Labour.
Civilisation increases
man
needs.
civilised
man
human wants and
hu-
There are some things that the

in
Europe must have and he

procures them at any cost.
attained
man
its
countries
man
He
is
Civilisation has
highest point where nature forces
work.
to
29
Certain
become
luxuries
necessities.
these
in
The
tropical
condition of the wealthy heir.
in the
No
has everything ready to his hand.
climatic
whip urges him
Why
on.
he work unless he wishes to
then should
The man of
temperate region or the cultured
man
the
any-
where has no option his needs are inexorable

and must be supplied. We had, during the
;
American
War, an impressive illustration

demands of civilised conditions. Cotton was king in those days.
Pie held absolute sway over the manufacturing
and commercial markets. The New England
manufacturer and New York merchant actually
sent across the Atlantic and purchased cotton
in Liverpool, the cotton which they could not
do without, but could no longer procure from
New Orleans and Mobile. Of course, the
quantities they got were small, but I am
Civil
of the stern and unyielding
calling attention to the fact of the pressure
imposed upon them by the conditions.

are
creating
conditions
in
Africa in
So you
which
30
you must have labour

therefore, if you
expect permanent success, you must pay
;
for
it.
Some
the
are advocating compulsory labour
compound system
in
vogue
in
South Africa
Surely the present conditions in South Africa
should furnish no encouragement for the adoption in
West Africa
of any of the methods
adopted by the enterprise of Europe towards

the natives of that country.
must again invoke the endorsement of the

Spectator' as to the untoward consequences
which must follow any unjust or cruel treatment of the natives how they who sow the
wind reap the whirlwind in Africa as elseIn opening a very striking article on
where.
" The Boers and the Natives," the Editor,
I
writing in the spirit of a true prophet, says

"
In
Mr.
Second
Lincoln's
Inaugural
perhaps the most soul-shaking piece of oratory

in the
English language
occurs
a memorable
passage in regard to the continuation of the war.
Mr. Lincoln speaks with passionate earnestness of his desire that the scourge of
may
speedily pass
away
war
but then, like some
31
Hebrews, he dwells on
the treatment of the Negroes by the Southerners, and declares that it may bo that it is
inspired prophet of the
God's
will
that the
war
shall
continue until
every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall
be paid by another drawn by the sword."
As one
reads Mrs. Heckford's letter to the
Times of Monday, dealing with the treatment

of the Kaffirs by the Boers,
it is
impossible to
prevent the words recurring to the mind,

all
"
long for the war to cease
der, with Mr. Lincoln, whether the
go on
''
until every
"We
We
wonwar must
drop of blood drawn with
the lash shall be paid by another
drawn by the
sword."
Wrongs have been committed by Englishmen upon the natives cruel things have been
done.
But they have not been done
dance with the settled
policy, as the Spectator
shows, of the British nation.

article closes
in accor-
This remarkable
with the following solemn warn-
European exploiters of Africa.

"The white man, in the presence of the
black, can only save himself and his skin from
the most subtle, moral deterioration, if he
ing to
all
.''
West Africa before Europe
32
keeps up the highest standard of humanity in

his dealings with the inferior race.
gives
way
rules
as an arbitrary
If he once
to the domination of cruelty,
owner and not as a
man
trustee, the ultimate fate of the white
sealed.
He must
phrase-monger
and
is
be no sentimentalist and no
in dealing
with the black, but
he must never give way to the
fatal
dram-
drinking of arbitariness and cruelty."
Thk Individual Agency
in
West Africa.
The next agency at work in West Africa is

what I call the personal or individual agency.
After all, the great movements which have
humanity have been brought about by
Principles and systems are of little
persons
affected
use without their embodiment in a person.
The
fact
is,
individuals
often a person
is
become
a system.
principles
If
you
will
your minds go back for a moment, you

find that the initiation of every great
and
let
will
movement has been entrusted by the Almighty to a

committee of one, with power to act. Think of
Noah and the Ark, of Moses and the emancipation of the Hebrews, of Colnnibiis nnd
33
America, of the Reformation and Luther, of

the application of electricity and Edison.
So now, there
man.
is
one
man
One
moving, with
grand strength, matters on the material side
in
West Africa. The imagination of the ancients

when they wished to depict extraordinary
activity
and comprehensive sagacity as the
possession
of
single
multiplied the organs or
They invented
individual,
members
simply
of the body.
giants of wonderful size and
abnormal strength. They gave us a Briareus,

with his hundred arms, and Argos, with his
If Homer were writing now
knowledge of the President of the
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, with his
multifarious and wonderful activities, he would
invent a man of wonderful strides and irresistible elbowing power, treading his onward way
through the crowd, undisputed and unimpeded,
by the force of an irresistible magnetism before
which all resistance gives way Not that there
are no other individual agencies at work in
hundred
with
eyes.
full
West
Africa.
very good
earnestness,
We
have a few very strong men
men, working with intelligence,

and effectiveness. But they all,
34
with one accord, acknowledge the vast and

unapproachable labours, the inexhaustible resourcefulness of Mr. Alfred Lewis Jones.
The Philanthropic Agency
in
West
Africa.
The next agency in operation in Africa is

what we must call the philanthropic agency,
Much
including the missionary work.
been written
No
subject.
and
one
ness, the greatness,
prise in its
its
it
has
being written on this
can
dispute
the
noble-
of the missionary enter-
aims and purposes, and often
emissaries and
years,
is
agents.
has poured out of
in
For a hundred
best, of
its
men
and money, of prayers and tears, but so far

with but moderate success, and with little
prospect of any larger results in the future.
It
is
very generally admitted
now
that the
The opening of
the twentieth century has been marked by
methods have been
defective.
earnest discussion of this subject.
In England
two very important works have been published

within the last three months, which show the
tendency of religious and philosophic thought
in relation to the
schemes of the Chnrcli
for
35
These
dealing with the non- Christian races.
books emphasise the increasing feehng against

the
indiscriminate
attempt
change
to
the
psychological condition of any people, and to

abolish
rashly
their
One
arrangements.
is
or
social
traditional
"Asia and Europe,"
by Mr. Meredith Townsend
the other, bear-
ing the curiously insufficient
of " Varia."
title
by Professor William Knight, of the University of St. Andrews.
is
Natives Amenable to Other Weapons

BESIDES
Time
Maxims and Martinis.
will not allow
agencies,
me
but in conclusion, I
upon the following
reflection.
the foremost power in

the field
sacrifice
to consider the other
West
Africa
and more abundant
could
may
venture
If England, as
in
longer in
labour and
rise to the full height of
her
magnificent Imperial destiny, which in Africa

at all events might be easily fulfilled without
fire
or sword, but by the intellectual, moral,
and material influences which she could bring

to bear on the people, there would be no need
of Ashanti or Soudan or any other wars.
86
Livingstone and other travellers of his spirit
and temper have proved how amenable Africans are to other weapons than Maxim guns
and Martini rifles. It has been fully shown
that, if necessary, Africans can fight, and fight
efiectively,
but England, with
civilization
and
religion,
If wars
culture, not
her superior
to mention her
ought never to allow it to be necessary.
and
fighting come, the fault
not in the natives,
who
is
largely
are everywhere
more
disposed to regard the representatives of Great

Britain in
the light of friends and guests,
whose presence among them is a protection and

an ornament, than as masters or despots.
British gold can do more for Africa than
The only war that the natives
British arms
gladly welcome is the war organised by the
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and
now being vigorously prosecuted, the war
Whatever
against poison- bearing mosquitos.
the outcome, whether the scientific theory in
its details is
established by these efforts or not,
good and good only

be the
result.
for Africa's future
must
37
Islam in Wkstehn Soudan.
ISLAM IN WESTERN SOUDAN.^

There
question
is
at the present
moment probably no
of deeper practical interest to the
European Powers, who for political and commercial objects have partitioned Africa among
themselves,
than
the
question of Islam in
The
Soudan, both Eastern and Western.
elaborate Report of Sir Frederick Lngard,
High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, presented to Parliament in February, 1902, is
almost of pathetic interest, considering the
and the multitudinous

Muslim population under his rule, and having
regard also to the slender outfit at his com-
vastness of the area
mand
for administrative
tion,
in
most
* Article reprinted
work.
unusual
Public atten-
de.L>ree,
from Journal
has been
of West African
Society, October, 1902.
Islam in Western Soudan.
38
attracted
to that important region,
recently
brought within the British Empire.

Civilisation, within
the last
fifty years,
has
advanced with rapid strides, and the solidarity

of humanity is being more and more recognised.
Religion and race are ceasing to be barriers
" The steamship and
between man and man.
the railway, and the thoughts that shake man-
and reducing
differences and distinctions between communities alien to each other and living in various
climes and countries.
The African Society
is an offspring and illustration of the spirit of
the times. So far as Africa is concerned, Miss
Kingsley, whose memory it commemorates,
has created a new standpoint for European
thought. She has made it possible for African
conditions, whether intellectual social or religious,
to be studied by outsiders with
patience and without prejudice and the imkind,*' are annihilating distances
pulse she has given in that righteous direction

will
never be spent, because
intellect in its investigations
if
the
human
can only be made
to hold the scale with steady hand, whatever
the interests involved,
it
will arrive at
know-
39
ledge which will act at once as guide and
stimulus to further research
men can be made
to look at
and the more

new and fresh
landscapes in the intellectual as in the physical
more they see, and the more they

see the more they desire to see.
world, the
It
is
with these views that
venture to
invite the readers of this Journal to a conside-
ration of the question of Islam in
Western
Soudan.
the exact
It
when
date
is
not possible to
that irrepressible faith
this portion of Africa
and
that
entered
for the purposes of
gical fact is not indispensable.
know
first
a knowledge of that chronolo-
this discussion
to
fix
it
has behind
It is sufficient
it
regions a history of centuries.
in those
It
is
vast
an agency
which, operating for at least a thousand years

in this land, has
ment
in
been the most effective instru-
moulding the
intellectual,
political character of the millions
brought under
particular
it
the
work
presents
foreigner
thoroughness.
it
influence
its
in
Soudan
has
with
social,
whom
and yet
and
it
has
in
its
the special phases
rarely
been studied by
anything like insight or
40
The
generality of European writers on the
subject take
no
for granted that there is
it
need for giving special attention to Islam
must only be an imitation
Africa, for
it
caricature
of Islam
if
in
not
in
Arabia, just as they
allege that Christianity
among Negroes must
always be of a degenerate quality.
At
the
''
Parliament of Religions," held in
Chicago in 1 893, there were no representatives

of Negraic
Mohammedanism
Two
of their faith.
to tell the story
years ago, an Ecumenical
Missionary Conference was held in
New
York,
at which there were delegates from every part
of the mission
field,
religions of the
and
all
the contemporary
world were discussed
in their
upon their votaries. But no information was given as to Islam in Soudan.

No
fewer than one dozen speakers, Missionaries
effects
and Secretaries of Missionary Societies, dealt

with the g^neral question, but no one attempted
to describe Islam as
it
exists in Negroland.
deal about
was said of Africa, and a great

Mohammedanism, but of Moham-
medans
Soudan almost nothing, because no
great deal
one
in
in
that
vast gathering
knew anything
Islam
about
it
in
Western Soudan.
at first hand,
and very few
41
at second
hand.
As
at present advised, I
books
in the English
know
of only
two
language which, written
by foreigners, have attempted to deal with

Islam in Soudan. They are Arnold's Preaching
of Islam, and Atterbury's Islam in Africa,^ and
'^
both these writers confess to having written at

second
Mr.
hand.
Arnold
is
professor of
philosophy in the Anglo- Mohammedan College

at Aligarh in India.
of the
Dr. Atterbury
Park Presbyterian Church
in
is
pastor
New York.
In his preface Professor Arnold says
''
:
I can
neither cl;iim to be an authority nor a speciahst
on any of the periods of the history dealt with

in this book."
preface, says
Dr. Atterbury, in opening his

*
Perhaps the writer was the
better prepared to undertake this investigation
some personal observation of Mohammedanism in India, Egypt and the Turkish

"
Empire
from
cannot but sympathise with these courage-
ous writers
in the difficulties
which confronted
London.
C)iistablp,
'
Putnam's Sons,
New York
and London.
Islam in Western Soudan
42
them at the outset of their inquiries. They

had never themselves been in Africa, and it
is presumable had never conversed with any
intelligent Negro Muslim on the subject of his
faith.
Prof Arnold allows his readers to see
both sides of the question.
arguments
He
presents the
and against Islam in Africa without drawing himself any damaging conclusions.
for
Dr. Atterbury produces an array of statements
which he takes to be
facts,
and from these
arrives at the conclusion that Islam in Africa
makes, on the whole, for
evil and not good.

assumes that " Islam in Central Africa, is
little more than a slightly modified fetichism."^
And he has had followers in this view among
He
his countrymen.
Chicago adopts
Mr. Frederic Perry Noble of

this opinion in his
voluminous
work on The Redemption o/A/nca,'^ and reproduces the statement made thirty years ago in
the Church Missionary Intelligenctr
Mussulman Negroes who have read
'*
that all
the
Qumn
can be accommodated
in
Euston
that the priests them-
station,"
,
*''
Mam
and
*'
the waiting room oi
in Africa^ p. 149.
Fleming H. Hevell Company, Chicago.

cannot
selves
between
distinguish
48
'
niump-
and 'sumpsimus when they jabber, and

do not attempt to understand other Arabic
books. "^
Mr. Noble did an enormous and
simus,'
'
creditable
amount of work
in
journeys to and
advertisements, in correspondence and
fro, in
other literary effort to qualify himself to become
an authority on
He
*'
The Redemption of
Africa."
did everything but travel in Afnca.
whole book
is,
a striking
therefore,
tion of the sentiment from
His
illustra-
Emerson prefixed
"Our books are false

by being fragmentary." I may say, in passing,
my own experience, and I may venture to add,
to his "Author's Note."
the experience of numerous competent travel-
Soudan including Barth, Thomson,

Binger, Dubois, Chevallier English, German,
lers
in
French, does not confirm the general description of Islam given
There
is,
by Atterbury and Noble.
however, on the part of Dr. Atterbury
evident earnestness and sincerity
while he
what he thinks a spade

a spade, he seems always disposed to acknowledge the merits of what he believes to be
never hesitates to
call
The Redemption of Africa,
vol.
i.
p. 73.
Islam in Western Soudan,
44
genuine moUil.
impostor or a
He
never
Mohammed an
On the contrary,
calls
false prophet.
in his opening cha|)ter he says of
Arabian
"
*'
He was
''
he was a prophet of some truth."
rather
In this he
from the eminent student and scholar
differs
who
the Great
a true prophet
introduces the book.
whom
one must always
Dr. Ellinwood, to
with respect,
listen
speaks of the ''pettifogging character" of the
The doctor
Koran.
moment probably
it was not the Koran
for the
lost sight of the fact that
he had read but a translation of the Koran,
two very
different
Dr. Atterbury,
things.^
who
am
school of theological thought,
glad
that
the younger
represents
an x\merican
is
of high social and literary standing, because
there are millions of people in his country
have a practical interest
and he
^
"It
is
is,
who
in this great question
in truth,
one of the most illusory of conceits to
fancy that by verbal transference, a correct counterpart

obtained of the idea and spirit of a passage.
may be
himself a descendant of philanthro-
is
translation
etymologically perfect, and yet no more give the force
of the original, than the
awkward dancing of
the graceful pirouettes of
the
ballet."
Gontroveray^ by Sir William Muir, p. 194.
a bear represents
The Mohammedan
Islam in Wkstekn Soudan.
45
who
did a grcât deal to establish and

Republic
of Liberia, and to give to
foster the
pists
tlie
Negro an opportunity
in his
own
father-
land of untrammelled development.
The books of the greatest value on Islam in

Africa and most easily accessible are in the
French language. The works of Idrisu, Ibn
Batuta; Leo Africanus, written in Arabic from
300 to 1000 years ago, have been translated
and are still standard authorities

The Tank e Soudan, an
on the subject.
Arabic work of Soudan ic authorship, which
into French
has
recently
come
into
the
field,
perhaps
the most exhaustive on the history of Islam

in
Negroland,
natives
to
because
th(^mselves,
is
the
work
not generally
of
the
known
English-speaking people, and was, until
recently, inaccessible
language.
It
is
due
through any European

to
the learning,
zeal,
and energy of the distinguished French Orientalist, M. Houdas, that European scholars can
now become acquainted with one of the most
important works ever produced in Negroland.
The eminent Professor, with prodigious labour

and complete success, triumphed over almost
46
Islam
in
Western Soudan.
insuperable difficulties to give us this valuable
work
''
The
an
in
TaHk
French
admirable
e
translation.
Soudan;' says M. Dubois,^
''
is
conceived upon a perfectly clear and logical
most correct rules of
plan, according to the
....
literary composition
It forms,
with the
exception of the holy writings, the favourite

of the Negro, and
is
known
to the farthest
extremity of Western Africa, from the shores
Lake Chad.
Barth discovered fragments ofitatGando, and
of the Niger to the borders of
I heard
On
it
spoken of
in Senegal."
the general question
of
Islam,
three
works since the publication of Muir's Life of
Mahomet in 1858 have influenced the judgment of the present generation of European
students of the subject, and have furnished
them with a new, more

fruitful
and more
point of view than had ever before
prevailed in Europe.
remarkable
"
These works are
on "
Mahomet " and
the old National Review
" Islam,"
*
first
the
The
by Mr. Meredith Townsend
articles
Great Arabian
in
accurate,
published
in
"
the article
the
on
Quarterly
Timbuctoo the Myd**riim$^ pp, 312-315.
47
in the Literary Remains

and Mohammed and
Emanuel Deutsch
All
Mohammedanism by Bosworth Smith.
Review and afterwards

of
writers on the subject during the last thirty
years
the most belated
scious or not
the
have
critics
whether con-
been more or
or stimulating
restraining
under
less
guidance
of
these works.
now
I will
as
say a few words on the faith itself
understood by
herents,
of their
its
intelligent
in close contact
and teachers during the

officially
with the system
last thirty years,
both
as diplomat representing the British
Government, making
or
as
treaties
educator
among them.
have
hours
questions
for
Foulahs,
Mandingoes,
studied
ad-
and then on the practical consequences

belief upon character and conduct.
I
have been
chiefs
Negro
with
establishing
discussed
with
their
Islamic
schools
religious
Ulemas
Yorubas.
African compositions both
have
in
prose
and poetry, bearing upon the Deen as they

love to call Islam.
The Kalimah,
According to the best
in-
formed representatives of the faith in Negro-
48
land,
words of the Kalimah, or
the seven
fundamental creed of the
much
religion, are
misunderstood by Christain writers on
The
subject.
La
words
ilalia til AllaJiu.
Mr. Gibbon,
whom
of
the
Mohamnwd
original
the
are
rasul Allah.
probably the majority of
Christian students follow, describes Islam as

follows
"
The
Mohammed
is
under the name of Islam,

preached to his family and nation,
faith which,
compounded of an
necessary fiction
is
and a
truth
eternal
That there
only one God,
and that Mohammed is the Apostle of God." ^

Gibbon was entirely mistaken in regarding
the faith as " compounded." It is this that
has misled
all
who
writers acquainted
follow his guidance.
with
Arabic
have
Even
sur
rendered their judgment to the witchery of

his
grandiose periods.
As
far
gather he was not accjuainted
as
we can
with Arabic.
His estimate of Islam was to a great extent

the result of the inuiginiugs of early youth.
*
DeeUfM and
Fall, Ohap, 60.

*'
Before I was sixteen," he
49
us in his
tells
had exhausted all that

could be learned in English of the Arabs and
the Persians, the Tartars and Turks and the
same ardour urged me to guess at the French
autobiography,
'
of d'Herbelot and to construe the barbarous
Latin of
Pocock's Abulfargius.'-
speaks of
'*
that unpleasant trick,
bon brought into fashion, the
Macaulay
which Gib-
trick
we mean,
of telling a story by implication and allusion."
And
yet he has wielded for
tury an
irresistible
"
Imperial Gibbon's
cen-
over ardent and
Mr. Perry Noble says
generous youth.
note,
spell
more than a
grand
in
may
style
have unconsciously influenced the author of

these volumes.
ackowledge
his
If so, he
would be
indebtedness in
the
to
fain
words
Thou art my master and

the author of my atylePBut students do not
nowadays go to Gibbon either for style or
opinions about religion and it is difficult to
understand what he could teach bearing upon
the '' Redemption of Africa."
of
Dante
to Virgil
''
'
Essay on Hallam.
The Rpdemptum of Africa,
p.
xv,
50
Dr. Atterbury gives what he believes to be

the
doctrine
of
Islam
"
from
the
highest
authority in the world," the Sheik-ul-Islam.^
In giving the Kalimah the translator misrepresents the words of the original, adopting
the usual phrase,
Mohammed
thise with
there
is
only one God, and
His prophet."
is
Dr. Atterbury
We
can sympa-
when Dr. H. U.
Weitbrecht, a Church Missionary in India,
and long resident in Mohammedan lands,

makes the astounding statement that in Islam
God and the prophet are coupled together
as objects of faith." ^
The most elementary
knowledge of Islam should have prevented so
gross an error. According to African Muslims
**
the idea
is
in
the last degree blasphemous.
But Mr. Townsend in his article on " Mahomet "^ expressed a somewhat similar view,
pardonable half a century ago, but inexcusable
now
in
a writer of Dr. Weitbrecht's excepopportunities
tional
Mr. Townsend said
for
**
>
Jalam in Afnca^
Church Mufn'onary
National
Jievitio,
p.
learning the truth.
The crime of Mahomet
19.
Intelligencer^
3 u\y, 185^.
Nov. 1899.
Islam
Western Soudan.
in
consists not in putting forth his
51
commands
to
do justice and love mercy as the word of the

Lord, but in asserting that he could never
Lord
speak anything except that word."^
Houghton
is
more
accurate.
Mohammed
humiHty of
He
The
''
says
in all that concerns
conspicuous throughout the
his personality is
do not say unto you, that in my

possession are the treasures of God, nor that
nor do I say unto
I know what is unseen
Koran.
'
you. Verily I
what
is
hammed
am
an angel,
revealed to me.'
is
Sura
only follow
vi-50.
naught but an Apostle
Apostles have passed away before him.'

iii-138.
Nor does Mohammed even
to himself
gives
God."
other
Sura
attribute
any specialty of nature such as he
to Christ,
been born
Mo-
of
whom
he declares to have
Virgin
by
the
Spirit
of
Professor Arnold also represents the creed

as one sentence.^
^
I see that this sentence has not been reproduced in Mr.
Townsend's able article on "The Great Arabian," in his
interesting volume on Asia and Europe.
Poetical Works, vol.
i.
Preaching of Islam,
p.
p.
182.
336.
52
He
"
Islam in Wkstkrn Soudan

speaks of the "
half " of
first
it
and the
and connects them by a copu*'

There is no (rod
but God and Mohammed is the Prophet of
God."
But an accurate version would be
" There is no God but the God," the Being
whom or which all nations and races un**
second
half,"
lative conjunction thus
consciously worship.
say
unconsciously,
know Him whose name,

is great among the nations,
Whose name in every house incense is
because none really

as Malachi says, "
and
to
oflFered
and a pure offering"^

" Father of all
in
every age,
In every clime adored,
By
saint,
by savage, and by
Jehovah, Jove or Lord
the
sage,
Lord, according to the opening chapter
of the Koran, of the three worlds, the Merciful,

the Compassionate, whose tender mercies are
His works, rational and irrational

maketh his sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust."
The distinction between the two words
over
**
all
Who
Malachi,
11.
Islam
God
translated
Western Soudan.
in
in the Kaliniah
is
53
not to be
indicated by merely writing the second
There are no capital
with a capital G.
The
in Arabic.
distinction
word
letters
marked by the
is
use before the second word of the definite
which disappears
article,
in the ordinary trans-
Mr. Muir translates Allah by the

article but departing from
lation.^
Lord, retaining the
the radical signification of the word, unless
Lord " the idea

expressed by Yahveh, which would not be far
we
are to understand by " the
from that intended by Al-ilah or Allah the

God, the only Adorable One.
To
**
translate, as
There
is
His Prophet"
is
morphic
so
idea
practice,
Mohammed
is
to introduce the anthropo-
and everywhere
The ideas conveyed
strongly
repudiated in the Koran.

in the
common
the
no God but God and
is
two sentences
according to African
are,
Muslims, unapproachably separate, and they

can be connected by no conjunction either
copulative or adversative.
senting
There
is
No
pronoun repre-
Supreme Being is admitted.

no His and the word which describes
the
Life of Mahomet,
vol.
iii.
p. 84.
54
Mohammed
is
Prophet but Apostle
not
Messenger.
correct translation of the second sentence
of the
Kalimah would
"Mohammed
be,
Apostle of God," not the Apostle.

vasul,
Apostle,
whom
there
translates
is
no
has
article.
Mohammed
is
Lane, than
probably no higher authority,
Mohammed
**
an
The noun
is
is
God's Apostle."^
related to have said that there
were 124,000 Prophets and 313 Apostles or

messentêrs
The Apostle may include the
Prophet but the Prophet never includes the
Mohammed
Apostle.
did not arrogate to him-
some Christian controversialists and

many Muslim commentators strive to make
him do, the position of the only prophet or
messenger of God. Nor did he teach, as some
self,
as
theologians
among
his
countrymen try to assert
he was the
for him, that
last of the
in the sense of the limitation of
munications to him and
The passage
assumption
*
Modern
XX iv. chap.
of the
is
based
Divine com-
those before him.
Koran on which the

is
JCgypttana^ cliap.
i.
prophets
Sura
iii.
'
xxxiii. 40.
latter
"
Mo-
Mi^chatul-Magabthf book
hammed
is
man among
God and a seal of the
not the father of any
you, but an Apostle of
Prophets."
55
The supporters of the opinion of
the finahty of
Mohammed's
revelations inter-
pret seal as implying the (3losing for ever of
the door of revelation, to be opened no more.
On
the other hand, there are those
pret the
word
who
inter-
numerous other
in the light of
passages in the Koran, where

called confirmer, corroborator.
Mohammed
Amen sayer,
is
to
the teachings of preceding prophets, just as

the seal
is
attached to legal instruments in
testimony of the good faith of what has gone
which does not exclude the

idea of Prophets and Apostles after Mohammed. The term musadiqun, corroborator, is
before, a theory
also applied to Jesus
phrase
Mohammed
and he
of
''seal
is
and other prophets.
the prophets,"
The
applied to
occurs only once in the
Koran
called a seal, not the seal as generally
translated.
Many Muslim
writers in letters
and more formal documents, instead of
fol-
lowing the complimentary references to the

i'rophet by
"after
the
whom
phrase
there
is
la
no
nahi
ha'dd
prophet,"
hu,
use
Islam
66
in A^'estkrn
Alkhatimu lima sabaka, the
Sou pan.
seal of
what has
gone before.
Moliammed then
is,
according to the teach-
ings of the Koran, a Messenger, one of the
Messengers, of the Supreme and Universal
The Faith of Islam
God.
ism nor Sacerdotalism.
is
neither Henothe-
It is not the
of one God, as exclusively
worship
God
the
of the
Arabs, adapted to and preferable for Arabia to
which Cicero said>

god, and we have
*' Every State has its. own
ours " or as Elohim was at one time regarded
by the Jews. Islam is monotheism, not only
all
others, in the sense in
as contrasted with polytheism, but also as ex-
pressing the idea of universal, unapproachable,
incomparable, and solitary supremacy.
It
is
name or place
be defined by human speech
Unknown.
The Nazamiyah
the worship of a Being without

or sex, not to
the altogether
sect of
Muslims^ believe that
is
it
lawful to
speak of the Almighty as a thing,
sliai'.
Paul
which (the thing which) ye
ignorantly worship " ** The Power that makes
spoke of
for
" that
righteousness"
*
llu^'hes's
is
Arnohrs well-known
Dictionary of
Mam
p. 56fc*.
Islam in Westkrn Soudan.

phrase, not
makes,
irlio
57
The anthropo-
etc.
inorpliic
tendency which would
which in
the Lord's Prayer to who to agree

antecedent Father a male Being
with
its
change the
would probably be correct grammar, but, I

venture to think, not sound science or philosophy.
Science begins and ends with agnosticism. The process is, Nan sciri, non scio, non
sciam. I did not know, I do not know, I shall
not know.
To
knowledge a
call
man
distinguished for his
scientist or scientific
man
is
his standpoint a description of the lucus
lucendo \d\\d.
*'
from
a non
suppose," said Darwin,
**'
must write myself down as an Agnostic." The

Divine revelations, according to Islam, have
no prescriptive or exclusive channels
no class
are special intermediaries for the conveyance

of
Divine truth to mankind.
the chosen spot for the
No
place
is
Divine teachings or
worship,
The essence
of the creed
by the utterances of
There
is
its
is
not to be judged
ordinary votaries.
a native dogmatism in
caused by fancying for one's
human nature
self
teachers a private monopoly of God.
or one's
Hence
68
Mohammedans, as there are Christand Jews and Buddhists, who, inferior to
there are
ians
the true teachings of their creed, cannot believe
God
that
is
where
He
is
not reached by such
paths as those they have been taught are the

only paths that lead to Him.
All earnest students of Islam must recognize

the justice of the following indignant and energetic criticism recorded
by Mr. Townsend
1858 and reproduced
1901
"
The
living
law of Mohammedanism
to be found in the
tatorsa
who
in
Koran, but
set of the
ever disgraced
most
in
in the
is
not
commen-
vicious scoundrels
humanity,
whose
first
object seems to have been to relax the plain
meaning of the
cable."
original edicts as far as practi-
Mr. Stanley Lane Poole, a higher authority,

at least a later witness, than Mr. Townsend,
8ays
what Muslims now believe

and practise is not to be found in the Koran at
all ...
For ourselves we prefer the Koran
to the religion as it is now practised, and we
**
large part of
'
Aia and Europ*;
p, 211:
Islam
in
Western Soudan.
are glad to think that
modern Islam
results of
which
it is
supposed to
liar simplicity
It is the
we do
not
59
owe
There
the
book on
to the sacred
rest.
all
is
a pecu-
about the Koran
broken utterance of a human heart
wholly incapable of disguise
and the heart
was that of a man who has influenced the

world as only One other has ever moved
Whenever
I refer educated African
it."
Muslims
to frequent discrepancies between the teach-
ings and
examples
of
the
Arabs
and the
plain doctrines of the Koran, they invariably
the language
reply
in
(Sura
ix 98)
of the
Koran
itself
Al Arab ash ad kufran wa nifalmv.
The arabs are most stout in unbelief and

hypocrisy, and are more likely not to know
"
the bounds which
God
has sent
down
to
His
Apostle."
This passage has protected the Soudanic
Muslims against undue reverence for the Arab

and armed him against imposition from the
'^
Studies in a Mosque,
jip,
167, 168.
60
wiles of the unscnipulous
men
among
the country-
of the Prophet.
Mr. Lane Poole indirectly furnishes another

proof of the sincerity of the prophet of Islam
in the
remark that
Mohammed
*'
in part des"'*
when he created the Muslim

when African Muslims are
troyed the Arab
So
again,
approached on
subject of surrendering
the
their religion for that of Europe, they refer to
the various sects and divisions of the " People
of the
Book," in which phrase they include
Christians and Jews, quoting again the words
Koran Sura ii. 107)

The Jews say, The Christians rest on
nothing
and the Christians say. The Jews
of the
'*
'
rest
on nothing.
'
"
They are thus
protected
against
undue
ascendency among them of either Arab or
European peculiarities.
Having endeavoured to define the two fundamental articles of the Muslim creed as expounded by its African professors, let us now
see
how
far
Mohammecrs
teachings agree with
the belief of Christendom as expressed in the

^
Studiei in
Mittque, p,
3*i,
have frequently discussed

Creed with African Muslims. Take the
Apostles' Creed.
this
61
Clauses separately
" I believe in
Maker
God
the Father, Almighty,
of heaven and earth."
Excepting
the
medans accept
word 'Father"
Moham-
this.
"And in Jesus Chiist His only Son
our Lord."
This they believe, excepting the words His

only Son.
"Who
was conceived by the Holy Ghost,

of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Born
Pontius Pilate."
This they accept.
**Was
dead
crucified,
descended into
hell
and
and
He
buried.
the third day he rose
again from the dead."
they
This
Sura
"
iii.
He
reject
on
Koranic
authority.
47, 48.
ascended into heaven."
This they believe.
They
reject
what follows down
to the
word
"dead."
All the remainder, beginning with " I believe
in the
Holy Ghost " they accept
eos
animo.
62
Witli
regard to the miraculous
Birth of
Mohammedans hold much more decided

views than many Christians. The Prophet said
Christ,
'*
Whosoever
shall bear witness that there is
and that Mohammed is His servant and messenger and that Jesus Christ is
His servant and messenger and that he is the
son of the handmaid of God, and that he is
the Word of God, the word which was sent to
God
one
Mary, and Spirit from God,
will
enter into
Mohammed
believed in
paradise."^
Rodwell thinks that
the Immaculate and miraculous conception of

Christ.2
in the
If Christ
Koran, he
is
is
not called the Son of
never called, as he
new Testament,
The "Son of Mary"
quently in the
the
Man.'*
is
*'
God
is fre-
Son of
the
only
appellation.^
*
MUhkai-vl Afasabih,
'rratisloUion
i.
1 1.
of the Koran, p. 155.
* After thie, it is surprising to read the following from so

eminent an authority as Sir William Muir " The Goran
itself contains no doctrine {)eculiar to Christianity, if perhaps
:
we except
the Keturrection from the dead, and the Life to

and even these arc travestied and cast into the mould
The Mahommedan Controversy, p. 129.
of rabbinical legend."
come
On
the other hand, the
63
Times (June
13,
1902), reviewing a remarkable volume^ recently
published, informs us that " criticism not obscurely suggests that
all
those elements in the
Gospels which ascribe to Christ a miraculous

Birth and a Divine Nature are the creation of
the Church's reflective consciousness and the
Again
product of her adoration of Christ."

''It
said
is
be the case that of
to
Articles of the Creed this
with
difficulties
in the
is
the
all
the most beset
judgment of our edu-
cated youth."
The Koran
Mary to her
The
ascribes
the
Divine choice of
purity and chastity (Sura xxi. 92).
positive idea of preference as a
virtue
is
''
said,
emphasized.
When Thou
In the Te
tookest
reward of
Deum
it
upon Thee
is
to
man. Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's
deliver
womb."
This
is
somewhat modified,
with advantage, in the Prayer
Book
I think
of the
Catholic Episcopal Church of the United States.
We
will
now
consider the practical conse-
upon the character and

conduct of the Soudanese Muslim.
quences of his Creed
Contentio Veritatis,
By Six Oxford
Tutors.
Islam
64
It brings to
Western Soudan.
in
him a consciousness of
his place
as a distinct, rational, responsible individuality,

allied to the highest intelligences of the universe,
all
moving
in entire subordination
Supreme Will
sion to the one
and submis-
none bv virtue
of nationality or race taking precedence in the

family
of the Faithful
Its
invocations are
The
always for the Prophet and his followers.
Prophet and
God
Man, according
supreme.
is
system,
is
above
whatever
his
people are one.
his
all
created
all
beini,'S,
Only
to
and
this
inferior,
worldly position, only to
the
Creator,
who when He had made man com-
manded
the angels to prostrate themselves
new creature (Sura, ii, 32). But

man is in no way allied to the Almighty, nor
is he in any way connected with the beast of
before the
the
nor
field.
There
totemism
is
neither anthropomorphism
Islam.
in
This
creed
has
wrought upon the Africans as individuals or

communities improvements which the system
evolved or ratlier derived in Europe from
Semitic
teachings
hampered as
it
is
is
so-called civilisation,
helpless
to
produce,
by the concomiuints of
which
as a
social
or

spiritual force are disintegrating
65
and destruc-
tive.
has
Civilisation
advantages
its
and
dis
and its burdens the

White Man's Burden and the Black Man's
Burden.
To the African, forced to come into
advantages,
its
contact with
privileges
it,
the religion of Islam furnishes
the greatest solace and the greatest defence.
To him it is praesidium as well as duke decus.

The foreigner never fails to respect him when
he presents himself with the badge of the faith
Mohammed.
of
The
that
it
religion
of Arabia has this feature
has been preached
become the abiding
known
Shem,
races
Ham
to,
faith of
accepted by, and
members
of
all
the
Caucasian,
Mongolian. Negro,
and Japhet,
all
banner^[and speak
its
unite under
language.
its
Christianity
has never been able thus to unite distinct and

dissimilar races.
Ham
and Shem have never
found cordial and unqualified welcome in
its
whether Eoman, Anglican, or Puritan.

Yet its Japhetic professors have assumed that
fold,
all
races outside
its
fold should not only enter,
but are anxious to enter.
When, however,
Islam
66
in
through special
strangers
come
and from many
Western Soudan.
made to secure them
from many an ancient river,
efforts
"
palmy plain," they are

assigned a back seat. They are not allowed to
share in the brotherhood and equality promised.
" Hitherto shalt thou come and no further" is
the practice if not the law of the religion. And
a
yet Dr. Weitbrecht, with
all
the facts before
him, deliberately says that "the tribes converted to
which
Islam have entered a blind alley
will lead
them a
certain distance
and
no farther."
Will Dr. Weitbrecht
tell
us
why
there are as
yet no native Bishops in the Church of England
The propriety or necessity for such

an appointment was suggested by Rev. J.
in India
Thomas, a European missionary in India, to

Rev. Henry Venn, Honorary Secretary of the
Church Missionary Society, in 1864. The idea

was endorsed both by Mr. Venn and Dr. Cotton,
This was forty years
Bishop of Calcutta. 2
that direction has
nothing
in
ago and yet
And it would seem that
been attempted.
;
Church Minionary Intelligencer^ Nov. 1899.

^Memoir of Rev. Henry Venn, B.D., p, 322.
'
Christendom
getting
is
away from the

remarkable
idea
is
The
brotherhood.
the Fortnightly Review
article in
on " Negrophilism in South
(August, 1902),
Africa"
and farther
farther
of
67
heartbreaking to the
intelligent
African, or would be heartbreaking
if
he were
not reassured by the rapidly spreading influence

of Islam over his Fatherland.
Fortnightly that at
all
It is said in the
the missionary centres
"an increasing perception that not

but training to labour is what
required as the first European lesson to the
there
is
literary training,
is
black man."
Again many white Christians are troubled

by ^' the importation from the United States
of a Negro Bishop of an African Episcopal
Church."
The people
equality of black
and white
will
in
endure no
Church or
in
State.
man
In West Africa alone, where the white
cannot
live,
we have
in
one single
three native Assistant Bishops

tribe.
One
of them,
who
is
all
laid
same
recognised by
his people as entirely qualified to be
Bishop, has the burden
locality
of the
made
upon him of
all
full
raising
68
10,000, as an
endowment
fund, before he can
be appointed to a position to which every consideration, except, probably, his colour or race,
entitles
him.
Many
of his people are dis-
couraged by this condition imposed upon him
and refuse
to subscribe.
Christ said,
''
Go
ye into
all
the world and
preach the Gospel," but from the course pur-
sued by his enlightened
representatives,
it
would seem that the command of the Master

If a Negro, or an Indian, or
is impracticable.
a Chinaman, who has embraced Christianity
and has been specially trained to preach by
qualified Christian teachers, applies to a Mis-
sionary Society to be sent to any station outside the dark races, he
is
told that propriety
or circumstances require that he should evangelise his
own
brethren
and yet
it
was from a
dark race that Europe received the Gospel

but the
moment
became
racial
it
crossed the Bosphorus
it
or the monopoly of Europe.
is not in accordance with the message

which Paul, specially sent to evangelise Europe,
gave to its people. He told them what up
This
to this
day they seem unable to grasp, even
Islam in Westekn Soudan.
when they
69
profess to be carrying the message
them
"As many of you as have been baptized
the Apostle gave
into
Christ have put on Christ."
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is

neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female for ye are all one in Christ
;
Jesus."!
Hut Great Britain does not hold
itself re-
sponsible for the popular missionary propo-
ganda.
Without, probably, having in mind the
particular feature of the case

out,
we
are pointing
Lord Salisbury, addressing the Society
for
the Propagation of the Gospel at the celebra-
two hundreth anniversary, June
tion of its
190(),2 said
"
This
is
19,
:
a great occasion.
in the history
It
is
a standpoint
not only of our Church, but of
our nation."
He
then added
" I
am
here perhaps rather as a stranger,
must not conceal from you that
for I
at the
Foreign Office missionaries are not popular

(laughter)
^
and that perhaps the Foreign Office
Galatians
iii.
27, 28.
At Exeter Hall.
70
may
look upon
me
rather a deserter in
as
appearing upon your platform at the present

time."
The
" occasion "
Spirit of
was " a great one," and the

God, which Eenan calls " the soul of
the world," gave to the head of the British
Government the word

ring to the
in
due season.
Mohammedans
his
Refer-
Lordship used
the following weighty and carefully prepared
language
May
one word
same line upon

a matter which touches us more closely, and
which is seldom absent from our tliouglits,
and that is the position which this country and
those who represent its moral and spiritual
forces occupy to those great Mohanmiedan
**
I say
populations which
in
in the
so
many
parts of the
world come into close connexion with our rule?

I have pointed out to you how difficult it is to
persuade other nations that the missionary
is
not an instrument of the secular Government.

It
is
infinitely
^lohammedans.
who
more
He
difficult in
the case of
cannot believe that those
are preaching the Gospel against the
religion
of
Mahomet
are not incited
tl
Hereto
71
and protected therein and governed in their

action by the secular Government of England
vîth which they are connected
And re.
Mohammedan countries
you are not dealing with men who are wholly
evil.
You are dealing with men who have a
member
religion,
that in these
erroneous in
many
respects, terribly
mutilated in others, but that a religion that
has portions of our

tem.
You
sincere,
own embodied
in its sys-
are dealing with the force which a
though mistaken, theism gives to a
You will not convert them.

I do not say that you will never do so
God
knows I hope that that is far from our fears.
But, dealing with the events of the moment,
vast population,
I think that your chances of the conversion of
them as proved by our experience are infinitely

small, and the danger of creating great perils
and producing serious convulsions, and, it may
be, of causing bloodshed which shall be a serious and permanent obstacle to that Christian
religion
preach,
which we desire above all things to

a danger that you must bear in
is
mind."
In accordance with the teachings of such
72
truly
Office
aries
Christian
statesmanship,
refuses to allow mission-
consistently
to
acquired
operate
Foreign
the
Khartoum,
at
responsibility
in
its
newly
Mohammedan
country.
makes room for

all.
If a Muslim Negro from Soudan or a
Malay from India, or a Chinaman from Pekin,
is competent he can be sent on any
the most
Islam, on the other hand,
important
mission
in
connection
with
his
and he will be invited to lead the

prayers in any mosque in Europe, Asia, Africa
or America. A Negro Muslim from Sierra
Leone has lately been loading the devotions of
English Muslims in the mosque at Liverpool.
The Sheikh-ul-Islam of England, Abdullah
Quilliam, an Englishman, whose nationality
does not debar him from holding that high
position in the Mohammedan community, delivered by his faith from racial prejudices and
restrictions, has named one of his sons after
an African slave Bilak a name which, Mr.
Townsend tells us, though that of a Negro, is
religion,
in
Asia, through his connection with Islam,
better
known than
that of
Alexander the
Sultans and Pashas will take their
Great. ^
places
73
ranks at the time of prayer
the
in
behind the black or brown Imam,
if
only he
is
qualified to lead or stand before them, as the
word means.
Mr. Bryce,
in
Romanes
his
Lecture, a few months ago,^ confessed to the

inability
of
on
Christianity
compared with Islam.
subject as
this
Christianity," he said,
'*
" with its doctrine of brotherhood, does not
create the sentiment of equality which Islam

"
does
This
not the fault of Christianity
is
but of the earthen vessel in which the treasure
An
contained.
is
to maintain the
and
diffuse
ance
to
is
incompetent
Nazarene,
simplicity of the
His teachings as
them.
Imperialism to
jects,
Imperial race
It
not
is
He
gave utter-
the business
make men but
of
to create sub-
not to save souls, but to rule bodies.
must have a certain repulsiveness

On
its moral side, it must be imperious, with
pronounced self-confidence,
a certain unsympathising straitness a pride in itself and
It
an
inevitable
deficient in
^
ignorance
spirituality
Asia and Euro/ze,
p.
185.
of
others.
It
is
and therefore cannot

'^
Times, June
lOtli,
1902.
Islam
74
in
Western Soudan.
most successful work for aliens

must be on its material side. Well regulated
police supervision, technical and industrial
schools, hospitals and dispensaries, are its
proper and more eflfective instruments for
civilising and building up backward races.
Islam is the most effective educational force
impart
it.
Its
in
Negroland.
system of
common
prevails throughout Islamic Africa
every child
is
and
original
schools
by which
taught to tead the Koran in the
commit to memory what has

Thousands learn the Koran in
to
been taught.
way and thus aquire a familiarity with an

immense number of Arabic words, which serve
this
bond of union and produce a soHdarity of

views and of interests which extends from the
Atlantic to the Red Sea, and from the Mediter-
as a
ranean to the Equator.
And when
it
is
con-
sidered that five times a day millions in those
and longitudes repeat in their devottions the same words, it will be seen what a
mighty force they form on the continent
latitudes
Mandingoes, Foulahs, Jalofs, Mausas, Yorubas,
and
all
are not
the vast variety of tribes whose names
known
to Europe, speak each
its
own

Islam
vernacular, but
Western Soudan.
in
when they meet
all
75
prostrate
themselves before the great Creator with the
same words of adoration and self-extinction

AUahu akhar, and grasp each other by the
hand with the same language of salutation, in
the spirit of the watch- word of the Koran.
Almumiiiuva Ikhtcatun.
^'
How
All believers are brethren."
tianity,
caste
bearing on
prejudices,
its
back the burden of
the liquor
ethical intolerance, ever to
these people
Chris-
is
traffic,
and
wealthy ones
its
make way among
African Muslims live only for Islam.
pers
its
and
among them
The
there are seldom any pau-
use
their
means
for the
promotion of intellectual and spiritual educa-
was present in 1894 at the dedication

of a magnificent mosque erected at Lagos at
an expense of 5000 by a wealthy native
Mohammedan. The Governor of the Colony,
Sir Gilbert Carter, presided, and there was
tion.
present the Sheikh-ul-Islam, Quilliam, appointed by His Majesty the Sultan,
Abdul Hamid
76
Khan
ceremony and
to invest with a Turkish Order the devoted
and patriotic builder.
Six months ago, during a visit which I
made to the French colony of Senegal, I
saw numerous evidences of the practical
interest which the Native Muslims take in
Education.
One of the largest and most important of the mosques in St. Louis, a two
to represent
him
story stone building,

tiled roof
was
It
gatherings,
feet,
with
was informed, by
Prayers are held
The upper
lower story.
is
60 feet by 48
erected,
private beneficence.
literary
at the
story
lectures
and
is
in
the
used for
discussions.
surrounded by nine small comfortable
dwelling houses, constructed of similar materials,
of one story, erected by the same liberal
builder of the
mosque
for the poor,
where
respectable indigent persons too poor to
own
or rent houses are given shelter for
The
life.
Ahmad
Gouray, I
did not have the pleasure of seeing.
He had
benefactor,
left
whose name
a few weeks before
is
my
arrival
on pilgrim-
age for the second time to Mecca.
The
skill
of
these people
in
the
Arabia

language and literature
is
often marvellous.
They not unfrequently surpass

Oriental co-religionists.
and Moors
sit
in
perfect
77
in culture their
have seen Arabs
amazement and
as
outsiders while listening to the reading and
exposition of Arabic books
Koran
not excepting the
by Natives of West Africa.
M. Felix
Dubois says: '*The Soudanese doctors were

enabled to add the works of their own authors
to the books of Bagdad, Cairo, Grenada, which
formed the foundations of their
libraries.
A celebrated jurist of Hedjaz (Arabia) arriving

Timbuctoo with the intention of teaching,
found the town full of Sudanese scholars.
Observing them to be his superiors in knowledge, he withdrew to Fez, where he succeeded
in obtaining employment." ^
During my visit to Senegal referred to above,
through the kindness of His Excellency M.
E/Oume, the Governor- General, to whom I had
a letter of introduction from Sir C. A. KingHarman, the Governor of Sierra Leone, and
in
the obliging courtesy of
M, Decazes, Director
of Native Aifairs, I enjoyed exceptional oppor^
Timbuctoo the Mysterious^ pp. 285 and 302.
78
tunities for studying the situation as
Mohammedans.
it
relates
The
chief Government
Al Hajj Ahmad Sek. a Jalof,
thoroughly educated in French and Arabic,
and who has performed the pilgrimage to
Mecca, was placed at my disposal. Among
to
Interpreter,
other places of interest this gentleman took
me
Mohammedan
to the
Court, over which
Alkadi (Judge) Bakai Ba. a Native, presides
man much above
splendid physique and

severe,
the ordinary size,
commanding
of
presence,
though dignified of aspect, with a voice
of masculine and impressive strength.
He sat
at his desk surrounded by Arabic law books
printed and in manuscript.
He conversed
with
equal ease in French and Arabic, and in Foulah

or Mandingo, with the interpreters,
med
Sanusi and
took with
ions,
all civil
me from
was
and
told
Moham-
Momodu Wakka, whom

Sierra Leone.
His decis-
by the Governor-General,
in
religious cases affecting his co-
religionists, are final.
Islam in Soudan
is
supporting missionaries
or
propaj^âted
by
self-
without supervision
emolument from any recognised or directing
Islam in Western Soudan

centre.
in
79
have often seen these missionaries
remote and sequestered pagan towns and
villages,
away from
the public eye, earnestly
teaching and preaching the Unity of

the
God and
Mission of His Apostle, and teaching
and youth.
What these men do
never appears in any newspaper, foreign or
local, to be brought back to them either in
terms of eulogy or of dispraise. There is a
spiritual impotentiality, so to say, which cannot
children
be trusted away from conventional incentives
Every mite which
and supports.
it
drops into
Lord must be inscribed

some individual or sect and
Not so the missionary
the world.
the treasury of the
with the
name
heralded to
of
of Islam in Africa who, strong in his belief

in the doctrines he promulgates, acts every-
where on
his
own
initiative
his only support
Ajn ind A llahi,

No human praise
being the words of the Koran,

"
My
elates
*'
reward
is
with God."
and no human censure depresses him

reports of your successes
Why don't you send
to the local papers
" I
asked one of the active
Muslim missionaries at Lagos. ''We report

to God," was the laconic but significant reply,
Islam
80
Western Soudan.
in
and he added, with a cynical

something
air,
a sentiment
like that expressed in the lines of
Metastasio
" La gioja verace,
Per
farsi palese
J)'un labbro loqunce,
Bisogno non ha."
must confess that whenever I have seen

these men at work
and I have frequently
seen them and have contrasted their zealous
I
efforts,
their
human
to
self-sacrifice,
indifference
their
recognition and applause, with the
timidity, the hesitancy, the helpless
dependence
upon foreign aid and stimulus of native missionaries of Christianity, something of the
feeling has come over me which Renan says
was excited in him every time he witnessed
Je ne suis
jamais entrd dans une mosquê sans une vive
emotion, le dirai-je ? sans un certain regret de
n'^tre pas musulman."i
the daily prayers of Muslims,
Islam in Soudan
is
*'
protective in
its
influence
and permanent in its conquests. When the

Muslim missionary has once brought a com^
Ernesl Kenau, Uldainisnie
by Arnold,
i*reachin(j
of Islanif
et
la Science^
p.
339.
i.
19,
qiiotetl
munity within the pale of Islam,
it is
81
for ever
sheltered from the blighting influence of foreign
trade and commerce.
This the religion from
Europe has nowhere done and cannot do.

All the representatives of His Majesty at
present administering the affairs of the
West
African Colonies agree in their testimony as to

the preservative and uplifting influence of Islam.
Sir Frederick
Muslim
Lugard
in his report
pays to
influence the following compliment
" It has appeared
to
me
that
it
would be
advisable to include in Northern Nigeria any

large
towns close
become depots
liquor."
to
for the
the
storage and
sale
of
The inhabitants
mostly
the frontier which might
of Northern
Mohammedans and
Government
Nigeria are
they have compelled
to legislate against the intro-
duction of liquor by the practical argument of

refusing to purchase
it.
1 See Report of Sir Frederick Lugard, High Commissioner,

on Northern Nigeria, published in West Africa, March 8,
1902 ; also Despatch of Sir George Denton, Governor of
Gambia, published in West Africa, August 2, 1902. Also
Message of Sir William MacGregor, delivered to the Legisla-
tive Council of
Lagos in 1902,
82
His Excellency Sir George Denton, Governor

of the Gambia, in an official letter to the
Colonial Office describing his last visit (January
1902) to the Hinterland says
"
One
thing that I noticed on this
the progress which

in this part of the
was
making
visit,
Mohammedanism is
But a very
world.
little
time ago the Soninkes were very numerous, as

now every day
also were the Pagan Fulahs
;
the Marabouts are increasing, and before long
they will number three-quarters at least of the

This, I think,
population.
will
on the whole
be of decided advantage to the Colony, though

the revenue from the spirit trade, never a large
amount on
but
it will,
the
sum
On
of no doubt,
be possible to make up
the Gambia,
I believe,
lost
ivill
fall
from other sources."
the other hand, Sir
Matthew Nathan,
Governor of the Gold Coast Colony, complains

an official letter dated January 18, 1902, of
the drunken and slovenly habits of some of his
chiefs who have not yet come under Islamic
in
influence.
llm Afissionajy Herald {bosion, U.S., August,

1902) says
The Gold Coast Aborigines, April
19, 1902.

" It
is
many
not
83
years since the Christian
Khama removed his residence to Phalapye, for the sufficient reason that
he wished
chief
his people to be out of the
way
of the tempta-
tions to drink
old capital.
which surrounded them at their

He is to remove again, but for
what reason we are not as yet informed.
new
station
is
to be Serone,
His
about forty miles
north-west of Phalapye."
It is needless to
add that if Khama and his

been converted to Islam there
would have been no necessity for breaking
up
his home.
On the contrary, the Government
people had
would have been compelled, as
in
Northern
Nigeria, to prohibit drink.
At
to
the Ecumenical Conference in New

York
which reference has been made above
numerous and earnest complaints were

made
by missionaries of the demoralization
brought
among their converts by civilization.
Eev.
John G. Paton, D.D.,
New
terian missionary, said:
^^
Hebrides, Presby-
After
Gospel to the heathen, and
we
give the
and property
not to uphold the
life
are safe, trade follows us,

of God, but to give the natives
work
rum and
84
Islam
brandy,
which
Western Soudan.
[n
both
ruin
their
bodies and
'
souls."
Dr. Theodore L.
evangeUst, said,
Islands
Cuyler,
another veteran
speaking of the Philippine
*They are under our
flag.
That means,
Under
authority, opportunity, responsibility.
our
flag
It is
a most terrible truth that that
Old Glory," as we call it, floats

to-night over American drinking dens and
American slaughter houses of body and soul
Yes, shame!
(Cries of Shame !').
in Manila.
shame
Oh, if it must hang above those
drinking hells, then, for Heaven's sake, hang
our "
flag,
'
it
at half mast."
Every one will remember the fervent appeals

of the Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa
against the liquor
It is clear to all
traftic.
acquainted with the conditions that, unless

Christian missionaries can induce the nations
whose
citizens they are to suppress the export
of liquor to Africa, their labours on this conti-
nent will be those of the Danaides, and Islam,

kee[)ing
*
immeasurably
in
advance
hkumenical MiMionanj Con/erenrf^
vol.
i.
j.
in
383.
its
whole of the
influence, will finally absorb the

intellectual
and
strength
physical
85
of
the
country.
With Islam Africa

physical destruction
might share the
it
is
at
safe
fate of the
Indians, Sandwich Islanders,
from
North American
New
The Philippines cannot be
&c.
least
with popular Christianity
Zealanders,
in the
danger
of those countries, because Islam has a strong
hold upon large portions of the population

the rest are under the conservative influence
of
the
Roman
Catholics,
whom,
under
wherever they go, native races are preserved.
One
of the reasons for this favourable result
given in a recent speech delivered in
London
by bishop Hoare of Victoria, that the
Roman
is
Catholic missionaries do not evangelize, but
occupy themselves with educational work.
Islam in Africa is again and again reproached

with backwardness.
With contemptuous
re-
ference to its so-called " stagnant " condition,
the lines of Lord
Houghton are
flung into
face.
Church Missionary
Intelliyencer^ August, 1902.
its
86
Islam
"So
Western Soudan.
in
while the world
And
rolls
on from change to change,
realms of thought expand,
The Letter stands without expanse

Stiff as a
dead man's hand."
or range,
In the case of Africa, we must say

a cycle of Cathay than
Better this " stiffness
"
has permitted dark

civilization to " roll
till
they
''
rolled "
fifty
'*
better
years of Europe."
than the pliability which

races
contact with
in
on from change to change,"

out
of existence.
This
" stiffness " has proved a powerful antiseptic.
But the poet adds

*'
The
tide of things rolls forward, surge
on surge,
Bringing the blessed hour,
When
in
The God
Then
loiters
will
Himself the God of Love shall merge

and Power.
of AVill
be Africa's time.
Meanwhile, she
asleep during the march of material
progress and political rule.
The charge
is
brought against
fiequently
Islam in Soudan that

fierce hostility
to
it always brings with it

Europeans and Christians.
This charge, according to the testimony of
competent witnesses, cannot be sustained so

far as
Negro Muslims are concerned, who are

1
Poetical Wovlit^ vol.
i.
p.
164.

everywhere
peaceable,
non-
Captain Binger,
spent several years in Soudan, and has
held
appointments under the French
official
Government among Soudanese

of the
Mohammedans
" lis sont

ils
and
tolerant,
political in their aspirations.
who
87
n'ont
of
Kong
says,
speaking
bons musulmans mais tolerants, et
rien
du fanatisme des musulmans
Foulbe du Macina on des Toucouleurs.
Tous les musulmans sont tres tolerants

aucun d'eux n'est assez sot pour ne pas prater
une marmite ou une calebasse a un infidele,
,
comme
habitues
Ils
cela
a lieu
dans quelques contrdes
par des Foulb^s musulmans
m'ont sou vent interroge sur
qu'offrent ces trois religions (qu'ils
Mouga
entre
pour
Sila,
elles,
me
Insa
Sila,
....
les differences
nomment
Mohammadou
Sila)
mais aucun d'eux n'a et6 assez sot
dire
que
meilleure, y^ dots
musulmane est
a lexir louangey
la religion
le
dire
la
M. Felix Dubois, another traveller in Islamic

Soudan, whose knowledge of Arabic gave him
1
Du
Niger au Golfe de Guviee, par
Mosn, par
le
le
pays de Kong
Capitaiiie Binger, 1887-1889.
et le
Paris, 1892.
Islam
88
in
Western Soudan.
exceptional advantages for learning the people,
says:
"
The character of the Soudanese in general

is essentially based upon a foundation of goodness and docility, and they lack the elements
necessary to produce the savage sectarian so
common
and Asia
Contemporary history of the Soudan has, however,
to the north of Africa
revealed
The
explosions
frequent fanatical
and numerous holy wars
curious bio-
graphy of Kl Mouchelli has disclosed one of

the causes of these disturbances, naniely, the
influence of the
the present
felt
Arabian Musulman. which at
moment
principally
makes
itself
by the propaganda of the sect of the
Lenoussi ...
It
is,
therefore, through direct
or indirect contact with the foreign Musulman

of the white races that the Soudanese
formed into a sectarian, and
it
is
contact that we must preserve him
is ti-ans-
from this
in
order to
maintain peace in the Nigerian countries.

" Finally,
and most characteristically, it is

not the pure-bred Negro among the population
of the Soudan who allows himself to be led
into holy wars, but it is those people in whose
Islam
in
Westren Soudav.
89
veins the blood of the while races flows, the
and the Toucouleurs,

who are a mixture of the Foulbc^ and the
Negro of Mali.''^
roulb(5s of Berber origin,
Mr. E. D. Morel,
paper
ing
in
an exceedingly
published in
the
interest-
Journal of
the
(January 1902), makes the

reassuring statement that France ** has broken
African
Societij
the power of the cross-races, upon
she
means of existence without

murder, and slave-raiding, and has
conferring the
is
rapine,
made
practically
impossible the renewal of
jihadii by the Tijaaniyah Sect

ji
whom
large scale."
The Soudanese Muslims

of
all
on anything like
are the most loyal
the natives under European rule.
In
religious matters they listen for fetwas from
Constantinople, not
Mecca
They take no part
in the dispute about the Khalifate.
lead to
Rome
in,
All roads
the religious ideas of Europe
so in the religious ideas of the Soudanese
Muslims
t9
roads
all
lead
to
Constantinople,
Istamboul.
ttoXlv
Tr)v
300, 301.
Thnbuctoo the AJysferious,
Journal of the African Society^ Jan. 1902.
jp.
90
Al Hajj Omar, who waged extensive wars in

Soudan in the name of Islam, was a Toucouleur.
Samundu or Samory, a full blooded negro, was
an un instructed fanatic attempting, with a
misguided zeal, to spread Islam among Pagan
tribes by means of the sword.
But in all his
conquests he never aspired to ultimate supre-
macy
for himself
successes,
At
the time of his greatest
when he was unquestioned potentate
of the whole of the valley west of the Niger,
he desired, by a proper
instinct, to
his country to British rule,
surrender
and as an earnest
of this gave large concessions to the British

capitalist,
servile
and
spirit,
this not
from any cowardly or
but because he recognized the
destiny and limitations of his race.
The pure
Soudanese as pointed out by Dubois, do not

aspire to,
capable
and they know themseles to be
of,
extensive secular sway.
colony of Senegal and
its
hinterland,
in-
In the
where
there are hundreds of thousands of them, they
have no
political associations,
At
and no journal-
where there is every

facility for such a thing, they have not a single
newspaper, and they are happier for it than
ism.
St.
Louis,
West
their brethren in other parts of
who
rejoice in the advantages
and
*'
91
Africa,
freedom
of the Press."
Another charge brought against Muslims,

especially those of Soudan,
ception of a
to her
and
is
that their con-
woman and
her place
to humanity.
But
degrading
is
this
charge
is
brought only by those unacquainted with the

facts
untravelled and half-educated people.
have neither time nor inclination to discuss
the question here, so far as Africa
concerned,
is
and to give the I'esults of my own experience.

Miss Kingsley has shown that honourable homage was paid to women in Africa, both Mohammedan and Pagan, long before Europe
understood or appreciated the question. At the
recent celebration of their Majesties' Coronaation
in
this
two
colony,
hinterland were received by the

as Queens
in their
With regard
own
from
ladies
the
Government
right.
to the future of Islam
to be a cherished idea with certain
it
seems
European
writers that the increasing political subordination
of Islam
religious
means
power.
its
disappearance as a
Mr. Bryce
in
his
lecture
92
above referred
to,
looking at general political
conditions, exclaims, ''Conceive the difference if
Islam were within two centuries to disappear
from the earth.
The thing
is
not impossible
But the symof Islam is the crescent not the waning moon.
perhaps not even improbable."

bol
Its political
ligious
Coloniale,
this
disintegration intensifies
force.
January
writer
La
in
its
re-
Depeche
27, 1902, calls attention to
important fact
"
Par une coincidence inexplicable en apparence mais absolument logique et fatale en

realite, les Etats musulmans partout sont en
voie de decadence, d'affaibHssemnt, de mine,
que
nombreuses
alors
la
religion
dans
recrues
africaines et asiatiques.
'*
D^ja
la
Ilussie
Flslam
de
fait
de
populations
les
...
a mis
la
sultanats de I'Asie occidentale
main sur
;
les
I'Egypte, la
Tunisie ne sont plus que des protectorats.
L'Afghanistan, la Perse,
la
Turquie,
le
Maroc
ne vivent plus qu'a T^tat precaire, grace au

rivalit^s des puissances
europeennes qui con-
voitent leur heritage.
Et cependant, I'lslam
non seulement
mais
subsiste,
s'(5tend,
fait
des

gagne des fidMes."
proselytes,
93
Sic volvere
Parcae.
no earthly prospect of the disappearance of Islam from the religious forces of

There
is
It will continue as long as
the world.
Catholicism
will,
as
Roman
long as cloud-capped
towers, gorgeous palaces, and solemn temples
Learned African Muslims declare
remain.
and Africa are the fated possessions

of Ishmael, while Europe and America have
been given to Isaac Abraham's two sons.
that Asia
The Cross, while surrendering to the Crescent

the localities which
opened
for itself
new
it
first
consecrated, has
fields in the
West.
SOME PROBLEMS OF WEST AFRICA.

Great Britain has done more to open up
Africa and bring
its
ledge of the world
And
it
is
inner secrets to the know-
than any other nation.
the only nation that, single-handed,
undertook the gigantic task of abolishing the

evils which, by partaking with others in the
slave trade,
it
had helped
to create.
When
it
became thoroughly convinced of the pernicious

and immoral character of the system, it not
only did all in its power to destroy it, but
subjected itself to great labour and to vast
expenditure of treasure, and
resources of
diplomacy,
to
exhausted the
secure
the co-
operation of others in the work of the complete

annihilation of the nefarious
It
is
traffic.
impossible to read the papers
wliicli
in
those days were presented each year to Parliament by the Foreign Otiice, on the subject of
West African
96
Problems.
mark the numerous and

unceasing efforts of England to make Foreign
Pi)wers adopt such views of commerce with
the slave trade, and
Africa as are alone consistent with justice and
humanity.
I say
is
it
impossible
for
us
in
these days to peruse those papers without a
feehng of admiration at the perseverance, the

single-minded ness, and the ability with which,
in
accordance with the
spirit of true religion
and the dictates of humanity, the various

administrations, whether Whig or Tory, m a
nobler rivalry than party, emulated each other
in carrying out the great and arduous task of
extinguishing a gigantic wrong, under whatever flag perpetrated.
The vigorous
the iniquitous
efforts of
traffic
England to root out
began soon after she had
inaugurated what might be called the era of
modern exploration, Mungo Park being

lead,
followed
travellers,
It is
l)y
long
list
of
in
the
energetic
ending with Stanley.
a curious fact in the political history
of England that after her brilliant, scientific
work in Africa, and her marvellous philanafter a vast expendithropic work /or Africa
West African Problems.

ture of blood and treasure
97
she shonjd
have
been content, during a long period of years,

with
quiescent
if
not indifferent
towards that great continent.
mentary Committee should
attitude
That a Parliahave made the
astounding recommendation to retire gradually
from a
field
which had been so dearly won
is,
to the present generation, entirely incomprehensible,

regret.
and to the past a source of unavailing

But it was nobody's fault in those
Both the great parties acquiesced in

Mr. Gladstone and
the retrograde policy.
Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Caldwell and Lord Stanley
were all of the same opinion on the subject.
The warm and generous inpulses, the hopeful
days.
feelings of a previous generation,
appeared to
be frozen into a cold, unmoved indifference, so
that
all
personal appeals to
the subject of
Downing
West Africa were
received by
the authorities as idle declamation
cogent
and
waste paper.
elaborately-written
And
Street on
the most
petition
as
this spirit, strange to say,
largely infected the intense commercial temper,
even of Liverpool.
to Africa, or at
Nobody paid any

least only a
few
attention
specialists,
^S
like
McGregor
Laird,
who had
craze for
what was really then the dark continent, and

persisted in his dreams of
But
it
would appear
its
vast resources.
to a careful student of
history of those times that the indifference to
West Africa then
prevailing
grew out of a
succession of failures of several philanthropic

to
efforts
ameliorate the condition
of that
country, especially the lamentable termination

of the Niger Expedition of 1841, which had
brought a vast deal of public censure and
odium upon its distinguished promoters.

More has been done for African developement and progress during the last decade than
<luring the
whole period which elapsed between
when the slave trade was abolished, and

1895, when the present administration came
1807,
upon
England her new African policy, under the
guiding and steady hand of a sagacious and
into
Circumstances
power.
indomitable
faculty
spirit,
forced
possessing an extraordinary
of insight and
capacity for grasping
situations.
But the public notice of

nounced, as
its
subject,
"
this address
an-
Some Problems
of
West African Problkms.

West
Africa."
99
propose, then, to discuss a
few of the problems
(in the
time allowed
me
I can deal only with a very few), which in thai
country confront the British Government and

the British people
and
now awake,
they are
to
or,
which, 1 believe,
rather, increasingly
awaking, and of which, please God, under the

liberal
and
tactful reign of
Edward
VII., they
will arrive at a satisfaction solution.
All intelligent Africans believe in England,

in
her
high
moral
purpose,
in
her strong
They believe
not slumber nor
sleep whenever any wrong exists in her
dominions until that wrong is redressed.
They judge England of the present, as to her
upright intentions, by England of the past.
We do not believe that she will be trans-
sense
of
that
England
right
and
justice.
will
formed by any undisputed

in
Africa, as, alas,
some
political
ascendancy
of her children are
sometimes transformed when away from their

country and loosed from their native traditions.
England of the past is England of the present,

will be England of the future.
and
The
first
and most obvious problem con-
100
fronting Great Britain in

political
West
problem, growing daily
Africa,
in
the
is
magnitude.
Besides the administrative questions, which,
owing to the recent assumption of Protectorates

perplex British governors on the coast, there
is
the
vast
region
recently
brought under
British jurisdiction in Northern Nigeria, con-
taining
population variously estimated
between ten and twenty
millions,
at
with an area
The bold and daring

Frederick Lugard has introduced
of 500,000 square miles.

policy of Sir
a great responsibility, but also a great privilege,

into the
area of British political influence,
involving duties
without
which cannot be neglected
seriously
compromising
British interests but the interests of
not
only
humanity
hence arises the necessity for wise and prudent

statesmanship, in order that the Empire and
the people taken under
its
care
may reap
advantages which ought to accrue
the
from so
great a responsibility and so vast an opportunity.
Two
principles,
it
seems
the policy of the Imperial
taken upon themselves
to
me, should guide
Powers which have
to partition Africa.
101
encourage the development of the
First, to
natives along the lines of their
own
idiosyn-
No
cracies as revealed in their institutions.
people can profit

institutions
own
by or be
which are not the outcome of their
The sudden and wholesale
character.
of European
imposition
under
helpful
ideas
and methods
upon the African has been like the investing

of David in Saul's armour.
He is falling
before the
Goliath of progress.
feature of the question which so
fluenced
the
feelings
of
Miss
It
this
is
largely in-
Kingsley.
Speaking of the methods of the European

Africa, she said, solemnly
and vigorously
in
You have a grand, rich region there, populated by an uncommon fine sort of human
being.
You have been trying your present
**
set of ideas on
it
for over
400 years
They
liave failed in a heart-breaking, drizzling sort
of
way
to perform
any single
solitary
the things you say you want done there.
one of
West
is just a quarry of paving stones

and those stones were cemented in
Africa to-day
for
hell,
place
gold."
with men's
This
is
blood
mixed with wasted
strong language, but not too
West African Problkms
102
strong; and I believe that this idea, since the
death of
ing
in
its
distinguished exponent,
the British mind
is fructify-
the idea of giving to the
African the fullest opportunity for self-develop"
ment and self-advancement. This is the sort

Muslim African has
of opportunity that the
and which accounts
had,
superiority to
his
brother.
idea takes possession of him
out by individual
Christian
or
Megro cannot.
an
If
he can carry
organised
It
practical
his
for
Cliristian
is
heretical theology of the African
The
effort.
much
not so
it
the
Mohammedan
or his war-like tendency that annoys his critics,

as his self-reliant and defensive instincts.
few years before the enlightened rule of Sir

Frederick Lugard, some traders ventured to
send up the Niger, as far as Egga, sixty pun-
cheons of rum.
The
back
enterprisinjr
to
their
natives at once sent
them
owners with an
indignant message.
This settled the question
of
of the
the
possibility
liquor
traffic
in
Northern Nigeria.
The present High Commissioner
is
only en-
forcing a policy which he found existing in the
country.

The next
principle which,
it
103
appears to me,
governors and administrators in West Africa

shouhl pursue, and which I
am
glad to
know
they are conscientiously endeavouring to pursue,
is
give to the African taken under
to
British rule
and
ties,
which as individuals or communi-
effect,
as
enjoyed
the advantages, in their spirit
all
or
rulers
they
people,
would have
under native conditions.
Do
not
deprive them of rights and advantages which
they valued and enjoyed before you came, and
which were
in
equity, without
accordance
making
it
with justice and
clear to
them that
you give them their equivalent.

The sense of
justice is as keen in the African as in any one
For example, if, for the necessities or
else.
convenience of European enterprise or for
more effective administration, you close one
door, which for generations they have prized'
open another, which the native will feel is an

adequate substitute for the one he has been
induced to surrender.
This will tend to pro
duce the desirable and profitable result which

Sir Alfred Jones is anxious to see brought
about,
viz.
''
:
to
make
the native happy and
West Afkican Problems.
104
prosperous in his
own
country." I believe that
the future of Africa will rest with that
which
will
basis of the
And
rated.
establish
two principles
I
am
the
have just enume-
know that I have

be new to the actual
who represent Great
glad to
said nothing which
responsible
Power
authority upon
its
will
authorities
Britain in that country.
am
and putting on record the
only supporting
policy which they
now attempting to introduce.

Referring to the new acquisitions in Northern
Nigeria, it is encouraging to know that General
Lugard has exhibited so much mildness in
conquest, and so much wisdom and moderation
are
in policy, that, as
won
far as
can learn, he has
the respect and esteem not only of the
who have come under his sway, but

also of the officers who assist in administration.
He has, I may venture to say, a
splendid field before him. The new subjects he
has brought within the Empire are among the
people
greatest of the African tribes, and will be the
most
intelligent
and most
Avith
England
the regeneration of the Conti-
nent.
in
Their leaders
effective
co-workers
the Almamis, the Sheiks,
the Kadis
West African Pkoblkms
105
and
are, as a rule, a respectable
men who have great influence,

among their own co-religionists, but
among Pagans and the High Commis-
useful class of
not only
also
sioner
is
pursuing the enlightened policy of
attaching them firmly to the Government, and
endeavouring to procure the exertion of their

influence to
tive effect to
of his administration.
the far-seeing schemes
He would
gladly, as he
has several times informed me, appoint political

agents from
made
among them,
if
there were any
educated in Western learning to be
sufficiently
available for this
work as expounders of
the British spirit and policy.
Growing out
of this necessity, another prob-
lem before the Government and

is
Britisli
people
the training of co-workers and leaders from
among
the
these followers of the Prophet.
French,
African
English.
from their longer dealings with
Mohammedans,
are far ahead of the
I visited last year, in
Director of
Here,
Mohammedan
my
capacity of
Education at Sierra
Leone, with the consent and approval of Sir C.

A. King-Harman, the Governor, the Colony of
Senegal to study the French system of educa-
Wkst African Phoblems.
106
Mohammedan
tion for their vast
population,
Their chief instrument for this purpose
is
the
College for the Education of Sons of Chiefs
and of Interpreters, founded at
Louis, by
St.
that enlightened statesman, General Faidherbe^

fifty
It
years ago.
a most interesting Institution which, the
is
Governor-General, M.
was admirably
that, since
my
Koume, informed me^
fulfilling its
visit,
purpose.
learn
saw have
the buildings I
been taken down as not adapted to the
in-
creasing necessities, and a magnificent up-to-date

structure
is
now
in
course of erection.
have also endowed schools
in
all
They
the towns.
So that with all the vast preparation they ai'e

making for material improvements for railroads, and docks, and wharves
they do not
neglect
people
fundamental
the
education.
necessity
of
the
These are the high-minded
uses which the French in that part of Africa

are making of Imperial power, so that what-
ever
their
they
faults
must
respect and confidence of their

subjects.
The
of the African
command the
Mohammedan
precise problem of the education

is
to
develop his powers as aa
West Airican Problems.

African
the
his
man
stran<i;e
to the
107
European
in
way he should <j;o a way not known to

foreign guide, who is a stranger endeavour-
ing
to
develop a strange
direction.
man
in
strange
The method which has been
generally
pursued in the training of the African has been

absurd
superficial
in
its
results
because
it
has been carried on without the study of the
man and
his intellectual possibilities, and, of
course, producing, as a rule, only caricatures of

alien
manners, who copy the most obvious
peculiarities of their
drawbacks and
The
policy
teachers,
all
their
defects.
British are only
educating
of
with
now entering upon the

They
Mohammedans.
have elementary schools for Muslims at Sierra
At
Leone and
Lagos.
Governor
particularly anxious to
is
this enterprise
responsible
work
Colony
in the
but
it is
Sierra
for
is
the
promote
which he
is
a very small part of the
that any Colony can do by
question
Leone,
itself.
The
one of Impeiial interest and requires
for its success the
patronage and stimulus of
Imperial resources.
Lugard, who
is
now
hope that Sir Frederick
in
England, will be able

108
Government
to induce the
provide either
to
out of Imperial funds, or by contributions from

the various colonies interested, for the establish-
ment of a Central Institution on the highlands

of Sierra Leone for the education in English
and Arabic of Mohammedan youth from
Northern Nigeria and
Colonies on the
the
Coast.
In
the
interior
there
Mohammedans who when
such a
comes generally understood,

earnest support.
is
known
will give it their
is
with their religion,
among them.
when
is
highly prized
venture to say that the love of
own sake, is
Mohammedans as
as general
African
it
is
it
not intended to
learning, for its
This fact
of
movement be-
Intellectual culture,
that such culture
interfere
thousands
are
not altogether
is
among
Europe.
in
unknown
in this
The Spectator, some time ago,

speaking of the work to be done by the Gordon
Memorial College at Khartoum, said
country.
**
We
tribes
do not doubt the readiness of
to
fill
the
become surveyors,
managers, and
classes
to
all
repletion,
engineers, doctors,
even
men
of learning,
the
and
traffic
pure

learning
learning
109
without use having had a
singular attraction
for
all
men
of the East,
even including Chinamen, ever since Egyptians
and men of Chaldsea studied astronomy and

endeavoured to foresee the future of the soul.
.
know something
of
nothing think of
it
they
knew
it,
as the language by which,
they
scale of creation
We
who know anything,

Arabic, and all who know
All Soudanese
would be raised
if
the
in
and of Society."
learn English, they say, or the language
of the white
man, to succeed
in this
world
learn Arabic to prosper in the next. There
stant communication, epistolary
is
we
con-
and personal,
between Mecca and the Mohammedans in West

and Central Africa. Very few incidents occur
West Africa,
are not in a very short
Mohammedans, which
time known in Mecca
and at Constantinople.
There was a rumour
in
affecting
some time last year that Messrs. Elder,

Dempster & Co. would probably put a steamer
on the Coast
to
Mecca.
joy
all
at stated times to take pilgrims
This report was hailed with great
through the interior of Senegal, Gambia,
Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Lagos.
News
110
of
it
reached Mecca, and I saw Arabic letters
written from that Holy City to
Mohammedans
them on the prosfor reaching Mecca
at Freetown, congratulating
pect of greater
facilities
and sending the orthodox
itinerary
for
the
fulfilment of the requirements of the pilgrimage
landing at Alexandria.
after
Lugard
was
Sir Frederick
communicated
with
on
the
pilgrims going from Northern
probability of
Nigeria.
He thought that the movement
would be possible and useful after the country
was
settled.
Considering the importance attached to the

pilgrimage in
all
parts of the
Muslim world,
another enterprise of Imperial interest,
this
is
and
will,
no doubt, be looked upon not without
sympathy by the Imperial Government.

I see reports in the papers of a
rising by the people of
probable
Northern Nigeria against
their recent conquerors, but I feel sure that
Kano and Sokoto that is, the

Mohammedans having laid down
the people of
indigenous
their hostility,
it
will
never be necessary here-
after, if the policy of Sir Frederick
persevered
in,
for
England
to
Lugard
is
maintain her

ascendancy in those countries
by
Ill
of
force
arms.
You
will
be surprised to learn that you have
in Liverpool an element, an apparently trifling
element
it
may
an
nevertheless,
but,
be,
element, of the security of British Administra-
Whatever view you,
tion in those countries.
as
Englishmen and Christians, may take of one of

your countrymen who embraces Islam,
like to assure
you that the
among you such
would
fact of there being
pervert,
as
you
designate him, or a convert, as the
would
Mahom-
medans would call him, he being an Englishman

and the head of a mosque in the greatest
ommercial
city of the
Empire, produces
in
the
Muslim the deepest

possible impression and the most favourable
conception as to the friendship and tolei'anoe
mind
of
the
African
of the British nation.

at
the
extensive
African
I have been surprised
among West
this man and his
knowledge
Mohammedans
of
work.
I was, as I have just told you,
visit to
French Guinea
by
rail
from Dakar
last year,
on a
and travelled
to St. Louis, a distance of
nearly two hundred miles, and at nearly every
112
station I
met with Mohanuiiedans who enquired

so when going along the coast
about Quilliani
on British steamers
have encountered traders
who, as soon
from the
interior,
me
would address
out,
manner
they found
the following
in
"Do
On my
you know Quilliani ?"

the
ing in
'*
me
as,
Do you
affirmative, they
answer-
would proceed
believe that a white man, an English-
man, can be a true Muslim
On
"
being
assured of the confidence reposed in him by

the Sultan of Turkey, the
Ameer ot
Afghanistan,
and the Shah of Persia, whose Consul

pool he
is,
''
God
is
common among them when
surprise or admiration.
"
Liver-
they would exclaim with evident
emotion, Allahu akbar
phrase
in
God can do anything
Great
"
expressing
In this case
it
meant
He has even made
Englishman a devout Muslim."
an
Mr. Quilliam
himself hardly understands the unique character
and importance of
silent,
his position here.
He
is
perhaps a suppressed, certainly an un-
conscious, element of British Imperial influence

in the
It is
Muslim world.
a curious thing that
the two
Knilih
113
names most extensively known among the

West and Central African Mohammedans are
those of Liverpool men.
During the journey,
to
which
have referred, on the Senegal
rail-
Momodu Wakka,
way, I was introduced by
Mandingo Mohammedan, who accompanied me

as interpreter from Sierra Leone, to the private
secretary of the
celebrated
whom we met
Samory, or Samudu,
He
the stations.
named
at one of
inquired of the gentleman,
Jones, wdio sent, in 1802, a magnificently
bound copy of the Koran

the
African warrior,
name
to his royal master,
of the donor having been inscribed
He
on the back of the book.

Jones was
still
alive
book, he said, was

family of
still in
Samudu.
was not only
I said,
alive,
''
me
asked
Rather
"
if
The
the possession of the
I told
him that Mr. Jones
but interested in the
pil-
grimage to Mecca from West Africa, and one

he might be able to provide
of these days
facilities
making the journey
for
shorter and easier for
medans.
He
this piece
right
hand
to
Mecca
West African Moham-
could not suppress his delight at
of information.
in
his
two
He
hands,
grasped
my
exclaiming,
114
Alhamdu
lilldhi;
"Thank
God."
AUahu akbavtt In
God; God is great; if
;
An Empire
sha Allah
please
it
Empire
cognizance and
like the
builder,
itself, must take within his

sympathy all races and creeds.
Another problem before Great Britain is the
establishment of adequate means of communication between the different portions of their
possessions in West and Central Africa, which,
though increasing
in productive
practically inaccessible
power,
are
and to
to each other
the coast.
It is a source of not a little gratification
every one acquainted with past and

conditions, to see the importance
attached to the construction
West
in
Africa.
to
present
now
being
of railways in
If this question has
come with-
the range of practical politics in England,
it is
entirely
owing
to the persistent represen-
tations and irrepressible energy of Liverpool.

It is not very long ago since it was a matter of
the utmost difficulty to
make
the British public
understand the important advantages to be

derived from railways in West Africa, independently of their immediate pecuniary return.
115
During a succession of years a railway was

earnestly recommended between Sierra Leone
and its hinterland, but without effect. After
more than
generation
the lines
hesitation,
for
Leone and Lagos were
of
discussion
railways at
Sierra
at length surveyed,
eventually railways were built
and
and
and nothing
can be more promising than the reports we
hear from time to time of their excellent effects
;
upon the country through which they pass.

The African Section of the Liverpool
Chamber
Commerce is now diligently

by those in Downing Street, who
of
listened to
hold in the hollow of their hands the destinies of

that important part of the Empire.
of
McGregor Laird and
The craze
his prognostications of
wealth in Africa beyond the dreams of avarice,

are being realised through
the
commanding
business powers and insuppressible energy of

his successor in
section
spirit,
the
which I now have
chairman of the
the
honour
to
address.
Many
years
ago,
the French foresaw the
exigencies of the present, and planned for the
construction
of railways, and in
considering
IIG
the question they did not confine their deliberations to the single point
business men,
viz.,
might be looked
the
amount of
on the
for
There are
speculation.
which often influences

profit
line as
cases,
an ordinary
no doubt,
which the immediate question of

loss
is
called
But a nation
everything.
upon
to deal with matters
which
is
profit
in
and
sometimes
from a
differ-
ent point of view.
There are occasions which
demaml somewhat
of generous enterprise, far-
it may be, of immediate

While England hesitated, France
sighted wisdom, and,

self-sacrifice.
was covering her West African possessions

with a net-work of high roads, in the
instance,
in
every
and now she

direction,
is
first
extending her railways
linking
together
French
Guinea and Dahomey and the Ivory Coast,

with a view, probably, of eventually connecting
French Congo with her possessions in North

And it cannot be said that France
Africa.
has not splendid ex post facto justification for
all
ner expenditures and sacrifices thus
\\\v.
England does not keep her eyes open, her

aspiring, energetic and far-sighted neighbour
If
will
command
all
the
traffic
between
the
117
Soudan and the Mediterranean, and divert it

to the Atlantic through French Guinea and
Senegal.
For these reasons, I was very glad
to notice that
readily
Moor
fell in
the
Chamber
Commerce
of
so
with the suggestion of Sir Ralph
as to the direction the Southern Nigeria
Railway should take.
The
France
entente cordials
is
between England and
hailed with delight by
and workers
Africa
for
and
all
Afiicans
believe that
Africa has largely contributed to this rapprochement.
Moved by
the same impulse towards
that country during the last twenty years,
and
eager about the responsibilities they have there
assumed before the whole world, the sympathy

cordiality which now distinguish their
and
relations should not be considered strange.
For the
nations in
first
time in the history of the two
West
Africa, an event occurred
few months ago which surprised and delighted

everybody.
An
English Admiral's ship not
only visited Dakar, the chief port of Senegal,
but the Admiral landed with his
proceeded by
railway
capital, a distance of
to
Saint
suite,
and
Louis,
the
180 miles, on a friendly
118
visit to
His Excellency, M. Roume, Governor-
Greneral of French
West
Africa.
At
all
which
the
were beautifully decorated, and there are about sixteen of them

between Dakar and Saint Louis, Admiral
Moore was <^reeted with the greatest enthusiasm by enormous crowds of natives.
railway stations
If Africans
happy
are delighted
at
the
present
between the two great

because they feel that, owning
state of things
nations,
it
is
larger stakes in Africa than any other foreign
Power, and ruling over the mightiest populations of that continent, there could be no better
guarantee for the peace, the freedom, and the

prosperity of the natives, than in the harmony
and co-operation of France and Great Britain.

It is of the utmost importance that these two
by union and co-operation,
impress a wholesome direction upon what
must be regarded as the most critical period
in the modern history of Africa.
nations
to
should,
have heard of a railway to be constructed
Baghdad by
international co-operation.
most important railway yet

to be constructed in the cause of Africa and
believe that the
West Afkican Problems.

humanity,
is
119
that to be built by Great Britain
and France, conjointly, from Algiers to the

Cape of Good Hope, the terminus on one side
being in French territory, and on the other in
Such an enterprise would make for

the permanent peace, not only of Africa, but
English.
The united
England
and France would be a guarantee for the easy
and successful arbitration in any difficulties
of Europe.
interests of
arising out of commercial or political rivalries.
On
the other hand, the railway would furnish
facilities for
most
effective
of the continent, which
is
police supervision
almost equally divi-
ded between the two nations, France, perhaps,

having the larger share.
But
to
keep up railways, and practically
must be fed. The

which must be solved,
justify their existence, they
next problem, therefore,

is
that of enlarged and scientific agriculture.
am
new Cotton Growing

Association has set before itself the work of
promoting this industry in West Africa, where,
I
it is
glad to see that the
to be regretted,
it
is
almost non-existent.
If the philanthropic agencies, which have for
nearly a hundred years been in
operation in
Wkst African Pkoblems.
120
sown
that country, had
the hearts of the
in
and busied them-
natives the seeds of industry,
selves in bringing those seeds to maturity, they
would indeed have opened

a
career
him
enabled
effective
of
now
to
West African
would have
to the
which
usefulness
come forward
as
an
co-worker and valuable contributor to
the cause of the general progress of his country.
West Africa and

depen<lent upon
England
easier
in that
England
each
country would of course be far
Elnglishmen could
if
colonise
England could send human labour

those
fertile
mutually
are
The work of
other.
regions
but this
is
and
it,
to cultivate
not possible.
The Lancashire manufacturer is indebted to

West Africa at once for cheap cotton and for
a customer.
It must be, for you, both farm
and
sho[),
plantation and market, and
also supply the necessary labour.
it
must
Everything,
except the material capital, must be found on
The human
the spot.
intellectual capital
you can supply from

expensive
in
the
want,"
and
course
said
most
of
Mary
this
country,
uncertain,
time
an<i
Hisappear.
Kingsley,
is
*'
which
most
must
'*
We
something

besides regions whereto
England
from
we want
the
men
121
we can send away
women
and
namely,
regions that will enable us to keep
backbone of Englanrl, our
very
manu-
facturing classes, in a state of healthy comfort
and prosperity at home in England in other

words, we want markets."
Well, as a market for your products, it is
well
known
that
West and
Central Africa are
unsurpassable, not simply for their geographical

or territoral importance.
would be as valuable
to
Without the men it

you only as the Arctic
regions are valuable as a place for
expeditions or for sport.
scientific
Equatorial Africa
must be for the African or for nobody. Therefore, you must foster the native
not coddle
him but don't kill him study him, and teach
him how to make the best use of his country
With your superior intelligence and experience,

scientific attainments, you
ways and means for energizing
the industry of the people.
They are, as Sir
with your
must
large
find out
Alfred Jones has said, the assets of this nation,
and you are our

I'udicious
methods
assets.
to
It is
create
your part by
in
the natives
122
wholesome wants
Don't stimulate
in
them a
desire for luxury, for that will defeat the
The
you have
in
effeminate
them and convert them
ous
love of luxury will

into ambiti-
anxious to exploit the
idlers,
others
view.
always
plotting
end
labour of
and scheming, not to
own
eat bread by the sweat of their
face but
by the sweat of the face of others.

I have seen during my travels and long
West Africa and its hinterland,

of men with nothing
sojourn in
hundreds,
thousands
nothing to think and,

therefore, nothing to do the climate and
before them in
of,
life
soil
favouring a
Now,
it
and purposeless existence.

not reasonable to expect from
listless
is
such people hard and contiunous work.
spontaneous and superfluous

will
or incentive.
it
from people anywhere
reasonable to expect
anywhere
Is
toil
No man
work without adequate motive

a man finds that two hcmrs'
If
labour a day answers
all
his
purposes,
why
should he work for ten hours, or eight hours,

or six hours
I
There
is
no
man
in this house,
venture to say, not even your President, with
his extraordinary
and abounding energy, who

will
work without an object that appeals
him.
*'
Every man has
as upright a statement as
As
called
notwithstanding
activities,
human nature
her
all
who
will
is.
Eng-
multifarious
appealing to the outside world by
the splendour of their achievements,
from
It
it.
regards spontaneous labour, even
land,
to
not an
his price " is
immoral sentiment, as Macaulay

is
123
is
not free
classes of men, especially in the cities,
not work, and without the excuse
v/hich the African has of an exhausting climate
and a
prolific
days ago,
and ever producing
saw a number
of
men
A few
soil.
in the
morn-
hours, sitting and lying about in the neighbour-
hood of
St.
George's Hall in this
a policeman standing
*'
men doing here?"
he replied.
''
by,
*'
city.
asked
**What are those
Oh, they are resting,"
Resting,"
said,
*'
what have
"Just what they are

doing now," he answered with a smile.
''Have they no work to do, then?"
I
"
Those
are
men,"
he answered
enquired.
with an air of seriousness, " who, as a rule, will
*'
not work. Some of them are married men, who
*'they been doing?"
'^
''
live
on the labour of
their wives,
who take
in
West African Pkoblems.
124
**
**
washing or do other work to support them.'*

There are numbers of people in this country,'*
he went on to say, with increasing gravity,

" who never did work and never will work".
Human
the
nature, then,
You
same.
incapable,
it
appears,
will
is
everywhere
everywhere
find
the indolent, and the lazy
"dignity of labour"
is,
am
ornamental phrase, without

ears of undignified humanity
*'
!
the
The
afraid,
only
an
meaning
in
the
and a very large
human race are unfortunately

Now, so far as the African is
proportion of the
undignified.
concerned, any system that will convert that
happy, careless, rich child of the tropics, sleeping (without even dreaming) his time away,
into a wakeful, alert individual, anxious not
only to supply his immediate necessities, but

to
improve his own personal surrondings, and
to
promote the general improvement of his
country
I say,
any system which
will
supply
incentives to exertion and thrift, which will
convert these paupers, as civilisation would
them, into producers
call
for the mills of Lancashire,
and consumers of the products of those mills,

is deserving of the most consummate patronage

of the
125
and commercial agencies now
political
The
interested in Africa.
enterprise of increas-
more
valuable, because more widespread and more
permanent in its benefits, than that of digging
ing the
cultivation of the
soil
is
far
gold from the earth.
now
me
upon
the other problems which confront European
enterprise, and affect native conditions in
Time
will not
allow
to touch
Africa, such as the liquor traffic, the sanitary
question, the religious question,
&c.
I will only
A few years
add one remark.
memory
ago, within the easy
of
segregation,
some here
to-
day, Europe was content to leave the fertile

coasts of Africa to be tenanted only by a few
scattered savages or wild animals.
nations
are
eagerly
contending
Now,
with
the
each
other for those neglected territories, and the
England
competition
that
encounter
only in
is
its
will
infancy.
have yet to
WEST AFRICA BEFORE EUROPE.

I count myself fortunate in the opportunity
of addressing you
upon me
I belong
honour conand upon the race to which
by the position I
permitted to occupy.
As
responsibility.
as
because,
beginning of the
I recognize the great
Society.
bly
this
of the existence of the African
third year
ferred
at
this,
my
the
in
I should repeat
over again
am
at this
feel
moment
also the great
a speaker to such an assemposition
first
place,
is
it is
difficult
one
inevitable that
what you have heard over and
secondly, I may, from
my
stand-
point, put forward views that, at first sight,
may appear
to
you odd, bizarre and inappro-
priate.
As
to the repetition of the trite, I have this
consolation that the same things do not always

strike us in the
same way. The
special circum-
128
stances attending an occurrence or a state-
ment may invest it with new new meanings to

us or may suggest a different point of view.
A great deal depends upon our mental attitude
at the time of hearing or reading; them how
ideas will strike us.
Miss Kingsley,
me
in the letters
which she did
me
from time to
the honour to write to
time, insisted
upon
value of repetition,
tlie
especially of facts or ideas in connection with
Africa, which, she used to say,
rapid march
however
sure,
owing
to the
of events on that continent were
assume new force by

whether by one or by different
to
trite,
every repetitition,
persons.
As
to
whatever unconventional views
may
put forward to-day, I have the encouragement of
a distinguished member of this Society, who has

said
"If the scientific friends of Africa can only
êt to
know what
Africa really thinks, they
defy the opinions of those
who
tell
may
them what
Africa ought to think."
The
on
subject which I
this
occasion
Europe," not so
is
much
am announced
**
its
to discuss
West Africa
before
geographical, political,

commercial
or
religious questions which
and
moral
the
as
aspects,
129
a contemplation of
that portion of the British empire suggests.
The
West
precise limits of
accurately defined.
many ycârs
When
Africa are not
I studied
geography
what was generally understood

as constituting West Africa was the whole of
the line of the Western Portion of the Continent within the tropics, commencing at Cape
Blanco and forming a wide sweep around the
Gulf of Guinea to Angola, near the Southern
ago,
extremity of the Congo, thus extending up-
wards of 3,000 miles along the Atlantic with

This
an average breadth of say, 500 miles.
country, I see,
is
now
South-west Africa.
will deal
with
West
divided into
But
in
West and
this discussion, I
Africa as formerly under-
stood.
A great event
marked the opening years of
the nineteenth century,
the abolition by
Great Britain of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
An
viz.,
equally great event, I consider, marks the
opening of the twentieth century,

ganisation of the African Society.
affected the
body of the African
viz.,
the or-
The
that
first
which
Wkst Africa before Europe.
VSO
is
seen and temporal
which
this will affect the soul,
unseen and eternal.
is
The Anti-Slavery
which
Societies of the past, in
the Abori^înes
include
to rid the
Society, laboured
Protection
body of material
and glorious is the work they have

achieved and are still achieving. The African
Society may, I hope, be called a new AntiSlavery Society with a higher and more delicate
and difficult work before it. It is to me and
shackles,
every thinking African the harbinger of a great

future for Africa.
It
is
like
the song of the
nightingale after the long and dreary winter of
misconception on the part of the foreigner and

of woes innumerable on the part of the native.
on the threshold of the work
It is as yet only
to be done.
It is
alphabet of the
Faith which
ligent
world.
is
as yet only learning the
new philosophy
or the
new
to bring Africa within the intel-
and sympathetic grasp of the outside

If
it
can only be instrumental
in
ex-
ploding the fallacies which during the ages
have hindered effective and beneficent results,

it will have done a great work of which others
in the future will
reap the advantage.
And

the time
ripe for its labours.
is
"
No
131
century,"
it
has been said, '^has seen so great a change
in
our intellectual appreliension of the world
in
which we
live,
of the cumulative
In
search."
its
and the change

^
is
the result
products of scientific re-
wider apprehension of its work
and its deeper recognition of its proper

methods the England of to - day is very
dififerent from the England of two generations
ago.
It
was imagined throughout the nineteenth
century by
many
of the best friends of the
even among those
African,
who were most
strenuous in their efforts to deliver him from
bondage, that he had
physical
home no
in
his native
social organisation of his
own, that
he was destitute of any religious ideas and
any foundation of morality.

We must supply this
was said,
entirely without
Therefore,
it
**
Let us give him a religion

to save his soul and a morality to save his
body." But a deeper knowledge of the man
serious deficiency.
and of
subject
^
^^r.
his country
scientific
study of the
is
showing that Africa did not need^
A.
J.
lialfour in
Edinburgh
M'iuieic,
July, 1901.
132
this
benevolent
formulated
Africa's
in
The
interference.
creeds
Europe are not indispensable to
No
development.
spiritual
nation
or race has a monopoly of the channels which

lead to the sources of divine grace or spiritual
knowledge. " God sends his prophets unto
every clime and every race of

tions
fitted
to
men with
growth and
their
revela-
shape of
But a greater than Lowell has said

The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou
mind."^
*
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not
whence
cometh and whither
it
every one that
is
born of the
Commandments and
it
goeth
spirit.^
tell
so
is
The Ten
Golden Rule
aiê
indispensable to the usefulness, happiness,
and
the
prosperity of Africans as of every race of men,
and these are observed
in every
African com-
munity untouched by European civilisation,

and observed with a strictness and efficiency
not always found even in European
ities.
The creeds
formulated
by
of
Councils called
religious questions
spiritual
'
commun-
Europe were, as a
to
rule,
consider
and not always from any
urgency but often from a political
James Rusfel Lowell.
-John
iii.
8.

135
necessity of the times in which they occurred
and the conclusions at which they arrived were

the expression of public opinion formed under
the actual conditions of Society.
This is no
reason why these conclusions and opinions
should be authoritatively extended to other
races or countries, especially
when even
in the
countries in which
they originated, hundreds
many
object to their perpetuation
of years ago,
Why
into the present
time.
indiscriminately
introduced
should they be
into
Africa as
necessary to the salvation of the people,
we have
when
the conditions of salvation temporal
and
eternal,
worldly and spiritual salvation
laid
down
simple and comprehensible terms
in
by the Master Himself?

soever ye would that
you even so to them,

the prophets."
" All things
men should do
for this is
"If thou
what-
do
the law and
to you,
wilt enter into
life,
keep the commandments." " What doth the

Lord require of thee but to do justly and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."?
There is no fact in the modern history of
Europe in its relation to Africa more promising for both countries, and at the same time
134
more fraught with

the
ever increasing
importance
commercial and
political interests
countries
are
assuming,
Imperial
and
Europe.
viewed
Commercial
The great
than
the latter,
peril for
which
the
of the two
from
the
standpoint
of
peril to Africa lies in the
ignorance of African character on the part of

those
who attempt
to exploit the
new
field
or
government of the
This ignorance extended in the past
assert responsibility for the
people.
not less to the people than to the resources of
Thanks to
labours of the noble band
the
country.
explorers of
whom
the
magnificent
of travellers, and
our President
is
an
illust-
rious example, who, during the last 50 years,
have practically grappled
with the tangled
problem of West Africa, the Natural History
and resources of the country are getting to be

fairly understood and appreciated.
But the ma?i of the country is still an
unapproachable mystery to the outside world.
He
everywhere prima fade a stranger.

Nowhere can he by any simulation of look, by
is
any remote resemblance be lost in a foreign

crowd. In Asia, Europe, and America, he is

" spotted
at once
"
135
being
as a peculiar
sui
generis.
*
Fleecy locks and dark complexion
Cannot
but
they
forfeit Nature's claim,"
serve
the possessors
hopelessly
to
of
those attributes from
human
other class of
differentiate
haps not generally
This
beings.
noticed
the
in
men and women,
intercourse of
fact,
any
per-
ordinary
especially of
Europeans who have bên abroad, is a matter

of intense curiosity to children and untravelled
people
of
Nearly
all
travelled
race
foreign
intelligjent
foreign
in
the
to
Africans
who
have
lands
African.
have
amusing
During a visit to Blackpool many years ago, 1 went with some hospitable friends to the Winter Garden where there
experiences of
this.
were several wild animals on exhibition. I

noticed that a nurse having two children with
her, could not
where
I stood,
suspicious,
a
if
keep her eyes from the spot

looking at
not
while she heard
first
terrified
with a sort of
curiosity.
me speak
to
gentlemen who were with me.
After
one of the
Apparently
surprised and reassured by this evidence of a
136
genuine humanity, she called to the children
who were interested in examining a leopard,

" Look, look there is a black man and he speaks
Macaulay
delightful letters, that he once
in one of his
had an exper-
ience of a similar kind, which
he took as a
English."
compliment
tells
us,
me the incident was an illustration

am now endeavouring to point out
the
To
his literary pre-eminence.
to
made by
impression
the
what I
to you
of
colour of the
Negro upon the unsopliisticated of a foreign

race.
Bishop Heber says, however, that it is
not the colour so
much
as the appearance
which
the
produces
the
peculiar feelings of the foreigner at the
first
look
of the
African,
sight of him.
Scientific Europeans,
give to the subject at
whose physical
all,
to
look upon a being
characteristics are so different
from their own

peculiarities
who have any time
as
possessing also
mental
which require special study.
The
unthinking European partly from superficial
knowledge and partly from a profound
belief not
only in an absolute racial difference, but in his
own
absolute racial superiority, rushes to the

conclusion
that
this
difference
of
137
external
appearance implies not only a physical
differ-
ence, but an inferior mental or psychological
and that the man possessing it

must by assiduous culture by the European be
brought up to the level of his teacher.
constitution,
It
it
is
this
view of the case, v^hich, regarding
as pernicious in the extreme, Miss Kingsley
so strongly antagonised.
istic
With the character-
temper of her family or
tribe, as
she used
to call the Kingsleys, she determined to

this error, and,
guided by the
scientific instinct,
she wanted facts to stand upon.

to
combat
She saw that
make any effective or respectable fight for

man of Africa she must know him. She,
the
therefore, despising
all
perils
and heedless of
alLadyice, went to Africa to study the
man
in
and she chose to go where he

his own home
had not been tampered with had not been
subjected to the veneer of European manipulaNo one who
tion, but where he was himself
;
has not been amid those scenes can understand

or even imagine the discomforts and inconveniences of the enterprise
undertaken by that
intrepid lady on behalf of science
and ^human
L^
138
ity.
And
it is
as creditable to the African as
was generous in his talented visitor that she

found him in his primitive state a being as to
it
whom
she could entertain feelings of respect
and with whom she could be on terms of

friendship.
J.
But " that warm and noble heart," as Mrs.

R. Green has told us,^ *' purged by severe
training
from every
went out
to all
human
need.
to time her friends could
moment
thought,
self-regarding
.
From time
see, looking
for
depths of that solitary and
into the
what deep experiences her

Like another
had grown "
tragic soul, out of
patient charities
woman
she
of her type, though of a different race,
could
have
uttered
magnificent
that
sentiment
"
Huud
ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco."'
Mrs. Green
in
the
same
article
"
says,
true knowledge of the native proves that the

'
Journal of the African Society October, 1901.

^
Not ignorant
sympathise with the wretched.
An eminent member
honour to
Dido was
*.*
listen
how
of Buffering myself I have learned
to
Virgil AHiteidy
of the African Society,

this
address,
has
a (Carthaginian, and, tlu^refore,
Book
who
I.
me the
me that
did
reminded
to
630.
an African."
West Africa before
139
PIurope.
Negro has a mind-form
of his own, which it is

worse than useless to try and drag into what
must be a bad imitation oT a wholly

different
thing the
European mind-Jorm,
The one thing necessary is, therefore, to study
at best
Native mind without prejudice, and
the
help
development along
its
Miss Kingsley determined
thought.
what
it
my
lines
to
of
know
to " think black."
was
be learned in an arm chair at

risked
own
its
to
she says,
life,"
*'
for
It was not to
home.
I have
^*
months
at a time
one chance of my being able to know

way people were thinking round me, and
of my being able to speak to them in a way
on
this
the
that they would recognise as just, true,
and
logical."
This
is
Qui bono
'
admirable.
"
think black
ask.
*'
What
?
This
do not want
'
'*
is
the generality of people might
"
is
But to
think black,"
the good of learning to
We
an impracticable dream.
think black.
to
We
want
to
We
want to make the man who

wears the shadowed livery of the burnished
utilise black.
sun subservient
to
us.
What
logic
could
have led that courageous but visionary per-
"
West Afkica before Europe.
140
son
puzzle
desire
to
solution
of
that
useless
The
reply
Miss Kingsley was a proviup in the course of
is,
dential instrument raised
human
evolution to save Europe from imbruing
her hands in her l)rother's blood.
She dreaded,
as Europe with further light will dread, the

guilt of
if
murdering native
institutions,
and thus
not actually destroying the people, impairing
their
power of
effective co-operation with their
Every race,
alien exploiters.
it
is
now
being
recognised, has a soul, and the soul of the race
and to kill
soul a terrible
finds expression in its institutions,
those institutions
homicide.
"
is
to kill the
Fear not them which
but are not able to
kill
kill
the soul."
Europe had so long been taught

the people
who
the body
to regard
drink the waters of the Niger,
the Gambia, and the Congo,
who
dwell on the
borders of the great Lakes and roam
the
plains of Nigeria as hopelessly degraded, that

it
came
as a surprise
to not a few an agree-
able surprise to learn that tliese people had

institutions
worthy of study, of respect and of
preservation.

So
far
far as
as
West
thinking
Africa
is
Africans
141
concerned, and as
see
things,
Miss
Kingsley was the gieatest African missionary,

or missionary to Africa produced in the 19th
Century, and this because, as was said of her,

by one
who knew
her well,
'*
she gained a
knowledge of the native mind beyond any one

in this century," and she first undertook the
arduous and thankless task of battling
handed against
the
single-
conventional disparage-
ment of African institutions.

The African Society came into existence at
a time when it was most urgently needed.
Organised during a period of unprecedented
political
upheavals in connection with British
interests in the Southern part of Africa, the
attention of the British Nation was in a special
manner turned
to that Continent.
could hardly have come
earlier.
was not previously prepared

delayed
much
for
it
The Society
The nation
and had it
longer irreparable mischief might
have been done.

It
in
was felix opportunitate
the time of
accession to
its
birth.
Downing
nativitatis
It
happy
came when the
Street of unaccustomed
West Africa
142
befoiê Eukope.
energy and an ardent statesmanship had shaken

to
its
j)ast
foundation the Colonial policy of the
when
not
only
the
of
decision
the
Parliamentjiry Committee of 1805 with regard

to
West Africa had been
entirely discredited,
and not only had the duty of exploiting the

" umieveloped estates" of the Empire been
clearly
expounded and accepted, but when the
doctrine of expansion, the desirability of

" for
Colonial
and pastures new
had been forced upon the Government.
fields
**
fresh
activity
new Society appealed for recognition

to Downing Street, nor did it appeal in vain.
The Colonial Secretary, with his quick sagacity,
gave prompt official welcome to the new organisation, recognising in its programme an element
of helpfulness in the new departure being
Tlie
and by
ready response recom-
inaugurated
mending
to the co)fidence of the public at
it
large, exciting
his
an interest
the possibility of
its
in
it,
and suggesting
being rendered conducive
not only to the instruction of the Government,
but also to helping forward the mental and
moral progress of the Continent whose name

bears.
it

143
An
eminent English divine and leader of

religious thought in the English speaking world,
wrote to
me
a few months ago as follows
" I was most glad to join the African Society and think
likely to be useful.
more
of those
At
unhappy
first,
I dreaded, lest
organizations,
down
the African and to rub
it
it
should be one
which seek
to Anglicise
smooth into
nonentities all race elements ; but I knew that was not Miss
Kingsley's desire .... England cannot help even when
she declares the contrary
races after her
if
own
at last they
mould nations and

She will do it unconsciously,
ought to be possible to keep this
desiring to
pattern.
not consciously, but
it
Society within the principles
My
till
it
has laid
down
for itself."
eloquent correspondent, in connecting
himself with the African Society was largely

influenced
by the
utterances
made
inaugural meeting (June 27th, 1901),
the
at
first
by
the President, the Marqness of Eipon, and in
the letters read and the speeches of the distinguished
men who wrote and spoke on
memorable occasion.
They described and emphasised the
that
spirit
by
which the founders of the Society were actuated.

In the remarks of the noble Lord, he not only
strongly deprecated indiscriminate interference
with native customs, but indicated a tentative

or experimental or, I should probably say, a
Wkst Africa before Europe.
144
"
scientific position.
am
not quite sure,"
is
the phrase by which the noble President intro-
duced
emphatic protest.
his
This
a mental
is
attitude becoming an earnest enquirer, anxious

to
know
the truth.
It is for those intimately
acquainted with the subject, and especially as
Miss Kingsley often suggested

natives to remove
inquirers
for
the incertitude of foreign
and strengthen them
lightened faith.
Now,
if
am
lines
Africans
the audience),
(and I
if for
their en-
glad to see several

is
unable or un-
willing to teach the outside world
the Institutions and inner
in
the African educated
on European
in
educated
something of
feelings of his people;
some reason or other, he can show nothing
of his real self to those anxious to learn and to

assist
him
if
he cannot make
his friends feel
the force of his racial character and sympathise
with his racial aspiration, then
it
is
evident
that his education has been sadly defective,

that his training by aliens has done but
little
him that his teachers have surely missed

Among the
their aim and wasted their time.
meeting
and publetters read at the inaugural
for
lished iu its proceedings I have been struck
145
with the following paragraph in the letter of

Et. Hon. H. H. Asquith
"Ihe
old saying,
Ex
Africa semper aliquid novi^ has to
us a meaning which could not have been dreamt of
who
first
uttered
it.
The time seems now
organize and co-ordinate in a scientific spirit
by those
have come ta
the evergrowing
to
new field of knowledge. The Society has already

among its officers and members, administrators, economists, traders, students and it is hoped it may come in time
to be regarded as the common meeting ground of all who are
yield of this
enlisted
interested in any of the infinitely varying problems

ethical,
social
which Africa
presents.
It starts
physical^
under the
best auspices on what I hope will prove a useful and prospe-
rous career."
When
a hundred years hence, the historian
at the first centennial anniversary of the African
Society shall be looking for illustrations of the
and even prophetic

of the founders of this Institution he
truly scientific, philanthropic

spirit
will
quote the above among his aptest
illustra-
tions.
When we
consider the zeal and energy with
which generous Europeans have for the last
hundred years been trying to introduce religion

into
Africa,
it
is
interesting to look
back to
ancient times and study the place which the
Continent then occupied in the religious history

J
146
West Afkica befokb Europe.
of the world.
It
was
for
many
ages the seat
and centre of religious impulse so regarded,

it would appear, by the Almighty Himself, as
we
are taught in the Bible, and by the gods of
Greece and Home, as taught by their Poets.
The founders
Isaac, Jacob,
of the
Hebrew religion, Abraham,
Moses
received
The
struction in Egypt.
Prophets was
Egypt.
in
Great Kings and warriors went to
of Jupiter
shrine.
the
all
in helpless infancy sheltered
Africa to learn the will of
homage
religious in-
greatest of
to
Ammon.
it
We
that shrine.
at the Oracle
Alexander the Great did
and made costly
offerings at its
read of only one
Roman
man, Cato, who,

resisted the
God
far in
advance of
his
states-
time,
common sentiment of devotion to

When accompanied by Labienus,
Koman General, he approached the fane of

Jupiter Ammon, and was requested by his
a
companion
to
demand
of the Oracle to answer
certain questions as to political events at
he demurred
in
terms which showed that he
even at that time was acquainted

truth which the world only
to recognise, that
Rome,
God
is
now
is
witli
the
beginning
not confined to place
;:
Lucan^ gives the energetic reply made
or time.
to
Roman
Labienus by the
"
What would
We
all
philosopher
thou, Labienus
is
known, nor does He noed
duties are implanted
The God
of
God
is,
all
Is not
What'er we see
No
lot
His Hoi) Place
earth. Sea, Air,
and Heaven, and Virtue
wher'er we move
Let those who doubt, go ask

Their
Man
or buried His great truths
In Afric's sands.
At once
on our births
Nature ne'er confined His lessons
Here, to the few
at
yonder fane
....
moves my thoughts.
oracle confirms or
Thus Cato spoke
turned from the hallowed fane
In faith
and virtue
Ammon
to
world
voice, but that within the breast of
Our
The
dopend on God
His Will
A
147
satisfied
Ammon's
votaries
and
left
the people."
opinion, then, throughout the civilised
that
of
time
among
the
most
en-
lightened nations of Greece, Asia, and Egypt
was
that
that
*'
sands."
God
He
revealed himself only in Africa,
buried His great truths in Africa's
If Africa
is
the
^Pharsalis,
lib.
last
IX.
home
of
the
148
devil " as
first
Now
has been recently said,
it
home
thinj^s
opinion
was the
it
of God.^
of
have so changed that
some
God
that
is
it is
the
everywhere
But Africa's turri will be

come again. Europe exhausted and
exce|)t in Africa.
sure to
materialised
utterly
again resort to the
will
Dark Continent for simple faith in

the Supreme Being, and again will that greyhaired Mother of Civilization be a refuge foi:
seers who see and prophets who prophesy.
And there was ample ground for the opinion
of the Ancients. The Gods themselves, accordso-called
ing to the then popular opinion, went to Africa

to
spend their holidays among those
greatest of the
whom
the
Greek poets described as the
" blameless Ethiopians," considering them the

fittest of
Europe
mortals for divine association.
was never distinguished
the past for pious
in
impulses or religious leadership. In the greatest

tragedy of
human
history, Africa
was
repre-
sented as associated with the Divine Sufferer
going down into the valley with Jesus.

betrayed
Europe
the
gave
God-Man
Him up
into
as
the
Asia
hands of
a sheep
to
the
West Afkica bkfokk Europk.
Him
Europe slew
slaughter.
His clothes
and plundered
The following
His death.
after
149
are the impressive words of the sacred narrative
(John xix)
"
Then the soldiers (Roman soldiers) when

they had crucified Jesus, took His iârments,
and made four parts, to every soldier a part,
and also His coat now the coat was without
seam, woven from the top throuj^diout, they
;
said, therefore,
rend
it
among
that the Scripture

saith,
and
My
who
lords
whose
us not
let
shall be
it
fulfilled
which
raiment among them
Vesture they did cast
things therefore the
Now
it,
might be
My
They parted
for
themselves,
but cast lots for
(Roman)
lots.
These
soldiers did."
the racial descendants of these soldiers,
are soldiers yet
and
God's soldiers the over-
policemen
of
humanity,
believe,
apparently, with an inextinguishable faith that
they can carry this Jesus

Africa.
whom
they slew into
Experience, however, has shown that
the enterprise
is
a most
difficult
if
not im-
possible one.
One important
nowadays,
reason for this
difiicult to
say
what
is,
that
it is,
Christianity
is.
West Africa bekokk
160
It
Euhopk.
seems to depend a good deal upon forms
indeed, in
some
are
devices
parts of Cliristendom various
invented
Christians to Church.
to
allure
[professing
And, then, even among
the most earnest adherents of the
religion
there exists considerable diversity of opinion
and
these divergent
views are brought to
Africa and insisted upon by the different sects.
Who,
then,
is
to tell the poor African
particular door he
Heaven
is
by which
to enter the precincts of
It is
effective
now felt on all hands tliat the most

way open to Europe and America of
assisting in the true
and the African
is
development of Africa
on educational and industrial
lines conducted " in a scientific spirit."

this is also the
among
And
feeling of the best thinkers
non- European races.
When
HI
189G, Li
China, visited
New
Hung Chang,
Viceroy of
York, representatives of
the various Missionary Societies operating in
China, called upon him and presented an address of welcome.

beautiful, delicate
The address contained a

and well deserved tribute
the Viceroy personally
to
and to the Chinese
West Afuica befork Eukopk.

Government
for the protection
151
and patronage
accorded to the Missionaries belonging to that

country.
The Viceroy
courteous and statesman-
in his
emphasised the features of Mission
like reply,
work which have been
He
his people.
laid
of most obvious help to

special stress
upon the
educational and material advantages conferred
He
by the Missionaries.
"
As man
is
composed
said
of soul, intellect
and body,
I rightly
appreciate that your eminent Boards, in your arduous and
much esteemed work

none of the
in the
field of
I need not say
three.
China, have neglected
much about
the
first,
being an unknowable mystery, of which even our great Confucius
had no knowledge.
As
for intellect,
you have started
numerous educational establishments, which have served as

the best means to enable our countrymen to acquire a fair
knowledge of the modern
arts
and sciences of the West.
for the material part of our constitution,
started hospitals
and dispensaries
that in time of famine in
done your best

their bodies
some
for the greatest
and souls together."
your societies have
to save not only
but also the body of our countrymen.

of
the soul
I have also to add
the provinces
number
As
you have
of sufferers, to
keep
Societies can be liberally

do the great work so freely
If Missionary
supported
to
and justly commended by the Viceroy they
152
would confer inestimable benefits upon backward and non-Christian races helping them
to a profitable and comfortable material l>asis
for spiritual growth
fitting them to enjoy the
promise of this life and of that which is to
come,
in a word,
Hung Chang
the soul, which
to save
described as that
Li
"unknowable
mystery of which even the great Confucius had
no knowledge."
recent American Church paper has com-
plained that missionary offerings are to a great
extent the gifts of
women and
children. It says
" In the whole history of our Missionary enterprise

failed to find a single great offering as an
The
money
brains and the
We
of tle
we have
annual contribution.
Church have not
lu-en
who are to-day swaying

the destinies of nations, and most of these men are on our boards
enlisted.
have
men
of fortune,
and vestries, and in our convention?, national and diocesjin,

and they ought to be and can be reached. They build
churches and parish-houses, universities mu\ libraries, railways and factories, and all these are well and should bo.
multiplied
but these
men should
be
made
to
know
that
and holier, someihing ricber in

po-^silnlities an<l permanent power tlian these tilings, noble as
they are, and that is the enterprise which endeavours to biing
and bind together in the family of God all nations, races and
there
is
peoples."
soraethintj better
Quoted
in
Church Miasionary
Inielligemrer,
May, 1903.

Mr.
Andrew
Carnegie, as
has recently indicated the

as Africa
is
if
153
in reply to this,
line,
at least so far
concerned, on which these
fortune*' the brains and the
money
men
of
of the
Church " prefer to work.

The papers have recently announced the
magnificent gift of 120,000 by Mr. Carnegie
to the Trustees of the Tuskegee Institute, U.S.,
under a Negro Principal for the industrial
training of Negro youth. -^
The Tuskegee Institute is a noble monument
of the perseverance and energy of its black
founder.
No educational work in America,
either
among whites
or blacks, has given greater
satisfaction or has attained so

tion,
because
it
wide a reputa-
has demonstrated what the
African can do for himself and for others.
It
how
the
lias
taught by precept and example
ex-slave
may
comforts and
rise
in
intelligence, in material
social position.
Mr. Booker T.
Washington, the Founder, himself coming "up
from slavery," has by his own talents, energy

and thrift, reached a position unparalleled in
the history of his race in the Western HemiThese facts appealed to Mr. Carnegie
sphere.
154
with a force which has induced him to give

before his
own countrymen and
world by his enlightened munificence^
civilised
his practical sanction of the
at
the whole
Tuskegee
methods
in
vogue
for the training of African youth.
As far as lam aware, this is Mr. Carnegie's first

gift to
an alien race and
accepted by Africans
is
everywhere as a compliment to
I
am
reminded of what
propriate to refer to here
it
chapter bearing the curious
historian
in
may
not be inap-
most interesting
title
of Wealth," in the volume of
by John Richard Green,
tiieir Fatherland.
*'
of "
The Poetry
Stray Studies,"
which the eloquent
some future
who would revel in
foretold the advent at
day of a Poet
Capitalist,
the opportunities for doing good, which his
enormous wealth would supply.
Mr. Carnegie
Mr. Green's prognostications. Perhaps

the millionaire has read the stimulating pro-
realises
phecy of the historian.

his attention
should
If he has not read it
be called to
it
for the
comfort and encouragement he might derive
from
its
eloquent suggestiveness and
its
marvel-
lous coincidence with the magnificent schemes
and speculations of
liis
splcMidid ])hilanthropy. j
West Africa befokk Europe.

So
far as spiritual matters are
155
concerned the
only exotic or what ought to be called quasi

exotic religious system which has ever exerted
wide spread influence

it
Africa
in
Islam, and
has nothing to fear from any efforts to up-
root
it
in that land.
and, in
possesses inherent
It
elements of strength in
its
own code of
general lines,
its
to the African than
will
Indeed Islam
able
in a
speech
takes
Africa.
in
and Canon Scott
recent very striking and remark-
on African Missions
speech
saturated with the spirit of the times

'^
All our white
work
will
"
Then
the
work
Evangelists and priests as

into them,
into
and disciplined.
connected
with
will
it
that
said,
pass awây"
contains real prophecy, and the
to say
is
us that everything that
goes into Africa turns black
Holland
presentment
the
Christianity
Mrs. Green has told
more suited
for his acceptance.
to
of so-called Christian ethics.
the form that
morality
any form of Christianity
succumb
never
far
is
which has been presented

It
is
Canon goes on
pass to native
passes through us
men carefully trained

Somehow or other everything
these
the
high
hat
and
'
Dearly
West Africa befoke Europe.
156
Beloved/
which
will
is
drop
will
our
off
and the
be their
Hfe, will
spread and kindle like
the Native
life
and draw
life too.
fire
it in
original thing,
and
"
lay
Then it
hold on
Yes, and then
and Mohammedanism will blend

in a brotherhood one and inseparable.^
Dean Stanley, in his work on the Eastern
Church gives a chapter to Moiiaminedanism.
He includes the work of Mohammed within
that system
Owing
the limits of Christian history.
to his
breadth of view and the geniality which so
honourably
distinguished
Dean was
religion
able
cordially
which he
inferior to his
felt
writings,
his
to
to
recognise
the
in
be immeasurably
own, certain elements of noble-
ness and truth, and to diticern the racial and

social
which
necessities
gave
it
birth
and
shaped the character and aims of the prophet.
The symbol
the camel.
" the
of Islam as given in the Koran,
is
" Behold," says the sacred book,
camel how
not the horse;
it
it
is
has been created."

not the
It is
It is a creat-
ass.
ture adapted to the sands of the desert and to
waterless regions.
Kurope,
in
the
name
Religion as formulated in
of Christ,
is
the reindeer
West Africa bkfohe Europe.

snows of Lapland.
for the
157
Religion as formula-
ted by the Shemitic prophet of Arabia in the
name
of
all
the prophets
sands of Arabia and
is
the camel in the
the
in
Both
Sahara.
these will furnish stepping stones in Africa for
a higher religious
"
to.
life
than
man
has yet attained
Neither in this mountain nor yet at
Jerusalem."
" Nothing useless
is,
or low,
Each thing in its place is best

And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest,"
There
British
Africa
is
no question
Colonies
it is
of the
in
my mind
that in the
West
and
Protectorates in
first
importance to train the
minds of young Mohammedans according to

Western methods to give them access to the
instruments of Western culture, which will not
make them
hammedans, and
place
more strongly Moenable them to hold the
Christians, but
will
they should
hold
under the
British
Government in the affairs of their own country.

With more information as to the outside world,
I feel sure that the
Mohammedans
will
gradu-
ally assimilate all that is best in Christian ethics
158
without being tied down to customs which are

unsuited to
tlieir
Inspiration
not confined to things speci-
is
Every
or ostensibly religious.
fically spiritual
man and
environment.
every Institution which achieve any-
thing for humanity or labour in any direction
and
for the pr<gress
uplifting of
in spite of themselves,
tiiey
may choose
and
mankind,
in spite
are,
of whatever
to call themselves, in league
with the spiritual forces of the universe.
much
the
believe that the African Society

result of direct Inspiration as
is
as
any other
Insti-
tution which, organized under any other name,

is
designed to seek and to save the
therefore, in the
name
**
of fortune,
brains and the
who
destinies of nations
by
much abused popula-
bespeak for this Society the earnest
support of the
men
and,
of Africa and of her
long misunderstood and

tions, I
lost,
its fruits in
'*
;
money of the
are to-day swaying the
persuaded as
the future
it
shall be
am
that
known
when men will recognise that she in whose

memory it was founded and whose work it is
intended to carry out and develop was more
than a dreamer of dreams.
PLEASE
CARDS OR
DO NOT REMOVE
SLIPS
UNIVERSITY OF
OT
471
B5
FROM
THIS POCKET
TORONTO
LIBRARY
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West Africa before Europe.

WITH THOUGHTS UPON A HEALTHY IMPERIAL POLICY

or THE Innbk Tbmplk,

Advocating the m penalisation of the Gold Coast and of

Anglo-Aj'rican Argus and Gold Coast Globe speaks of it as

Mr. Walter K. Warren, LL.B., Barrister-atLaw, in

the constitution of his

West African Mail

perusal of this book."

The British and South African Gazette :" The work

Hector Macleod, Esq., M.A., late Chief Justice of the

a treasury of information as to the people among

Thf Daily News says: *' It is a treatise which commends

West %ixm befou Europe

Edward Wilmot Blyden,

From West Africa

Islam and the Negro Race.^^

African Problem^' &c.y &'c.

Barrister-at-Law^ Author of " Gold Coast

Southampton Buildings, W.C.

Address delivered before Liverpool

Reprinted from Journal of African

Address delivered before Liverpool

W^est Africa before Europe

Address delivered before the African

have read with deep interest your

agree with you in every

therein expressed are worthy the

the African Society.

Without saying that

that the thoughts

have pleasure in enclosing herewith a cheque for

the re-publication in book form of the said article

on this and kindred subjects you

In the event of your adopting the course I suggest,

thank you please

Anona Chambers, Axim, Gold Coast, some

Edward Wilmot Blyden

esteem and regard of

has done for any

African race, as upon the general work he has

for the race as a whole.

Edward Wilmot Blyden

the entire race and the entire race problem.

Washington seeks to promote the

out to him his work as a race among the

and most important of

him back unto

has been the voice of one crying in the wilderness

these years, calling upon

Africans to go back to the rock whence they

were hewn by the common Father of the

that foreign sophistry has encrusted

drop metaphor, to learn to un-

intelligence of the African.

Indies some seventy years ago and

nurtured in foreign culture, he has yet

mained an African; and, to-day he

greatest living exponent of the true spirit of

African nationality and manhood.

In the Afro- American school of thought the

the lines of progress of the white man.

African school of thought, represented by Dr.