movement towards the south. A tall black race, the
finest of all, with woolly hair but Caucasian features,
the Bantus or Abantus, since named by the Mussul-
mans Cafr, Kaffirs, or infidels, descend along the
Zanzibar and Mozambique coasts, people the west of
Madagascar, and cover the shores of the Indian Ocean
from the Zambesi River to the river of the Great Fish ;
important fractions of Bantu people ascend the great
Zambesi River, and even gain the Atlantic coast : these
are the Bechuanas in the centre, the Damaras in the
west. These Kaffirs, destined later to fall under the
yoke of England or of the free republics of the Dutch
Boers (Orange Free State and Transvaal), took the
place of the earlier occupants, the Hottentots or Khoin,
and the Bosjesmans or Bushmen, doubtless of some-
what mixed, blood, forming the bulk of the population
in the west of Cape Colony; the latter were driven
back into the desert of Kalahari, and confined on the
north and east by the Bechuanas, on the west by the
Damaras and by the Namaquois Hottentots, and on
the south by the Griqua Hottentots and the white
inhabitants of Cape Colony.

Neither the Hottentots nor the Bushmen are
Negroes. It has been conjectured that the first are
half-castes of Bushmen and Kaffirs, and also an attempt
has been made to connect them with the mixed races
of the north of Africa; but difierences of language
and feature render both opinions doubtful ; it is only
proved that the names of places in Kaffraria are still
Hottentot. It is probable that before they were driven
out by the Kaffirs the Hottentots themselves had dis-
possessed the Bushmen, whom they call Sab and San^
or natives. These last are interesting by their very



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1 60 Distribution of Languages and Races.

depth in the scale of human beings ; they are among
the poorest specimens of the genus homo. Fritsch
affirms that those who gave them their name, " men of the
bush," wished to intimate that they are creatures inter-
mediate between the man and the ape. Without shelter,
even the most rudimentary hut, without chiefs, laws,
or worship, neither tillers of the goil nor shepherds,
wandering in small clans or isolated families, they live
solely by hunting and pillage, on roots, fruit, honey,
ostrich eggs, the larvas of ants, locusts, reptiles, &c.,
gathered by the women. Always hungry, they eat
all that they can find, and their flattened bellies
become enormous in a short time, to return to their
original condition in a few hours. These alternations
of repletion and inanition furrow their skin into pro-
found wrinkles, in which collects the grease with
which tbey anoint their bodies as a protection against
mosquitoes. They weave a few mats, and manufacture
their weapons, which, however, they do not forge ; they
work the cold iron with flints. The dog is their only
domestic animal. The Bushman is little, pot-bellied,
his skin of a dirty yellowish-brown. His forehead is
straight, but his brain very small ; his thin hair is
rolled up into little balls like pepper-corns ; his nose
flat, his mouth protruding; his chin retreating under
his thick lips, which do not meet. The women are
frightful ; the famous Hottentot which may be seen
at the Museum is a faithful copy of the form of a
Bosjesman woman who died in one of our hospitals.
This unhappy race, which is unfortunately of pure
blood, has nevertheless certain qualities. The mother
loves her children ; the man is lively, gay, obstinate ;
hunted by hunger, killed without mercy by his stronger
neighbours, whose territory he is constantly invading,



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African Races and Languages, i6i

he is accused of being fierce and revengeful Who
would not be so under like circumstances?

We have made the tonr of the coasts of Africa ;
the centre remains to be considered, the great plateau
bounded on the east by a series of great lakes, Nyassa,
Bengueolo, Tanganyika, Victoria and Albert Nyanza,
traversed at the equator by the vast curve of the Congo,
watered on the north by the marshy affluents of the
Nile. This immense region has been traversed and
partly made known by explorers, Speke, Livingstone,
Baker, Stanley, Cameron, Brazza, and others, whose
narratives are familiar to us. This region abounds in
inhabitants of every height and build, of every shade of
colour between ebony and light chocolate ; dwarfs like
the Akkas, who were figured on the Egyptian monu-
ments, and who appear to be only less savage than the
Bushmen ; cannibals like the Niam-Niam of Schwein-
furth, a race whose peculiarity of costurcie caused them
to be taken for men with tails; courageous tribes,
such as the Monboutous; finally, some attempts at
absolute monarchy, notably Uganda. But nowhere is
there any trace of what we call civilisation, of artistic
or intellectual culture. The future of all this inferior
humanity, vigorous and perhaps susceptible of improve-
ment, if Islam and Christianity would abstain from
fighting for its unconscious soul, if drunkenness, theft,
and murder were not encouraged by the Arab traders
in their greed for ivory and slaves, is one of the great
problems which the Northern nations have to solve.
Are there enough men in Europe to rule and educate
these inert multitudes, and would it not have been
wiser to leave them to themselves ? These are prob-
lems of which the solution will not be seen by any
one now living.



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1 62 Distribution of Languages and Races.

The distribution of the four or five hundred dialects
spoken in Africa corresponds fairly well to the above
rough sketch. They may be classed in six or seven
groups, according to the scheme laid down by Barth,
Appleyard, Bleek, Fr. Mtiller, Hovelacque. In the
north the Semitic and Khamitic languages prevail ; to
the first belong ancient Ghez and Amharic, or modern
Abyssinian ; to the second, the Berber idioms, the
Egyptian of the Pharaohs, Coptic, and finally the
Ethiopian branch: Somali, Galla, Bedja, Saho, Dan-
kali, Agaou. Immediately to the west the Nubian lan-
guages are spoken by the inhabitants of the basin of
the Upper Nile and of a part of Khordofan ; Nubian
or Kensi, Dongolavi, Toumali, Koldadjo. From Lake
Tchad to the middle basin of the Senegal, a distance
of 2250 miles, extends Peiil or Poul, entirely distinct
from the families which it traverses or borders. Be-
tween the equator and the Sahara, from the lakes of
the Upper Nile to the Atlantic, the Negro dialects,
properly so called, prevail: (i.) The Dinka group
(Bari, Bongo, Chillouk, Nouer, &c.), the poorest of all,
hardly issued from the monosyllabic stage; (2.) The
Bornou of Lake Tchad ; (3.) The Haoussa of the
Soudan, a more advanced language, rich in dialects;
(4.) Sonrai, towards the great elbow of the Niger;
(5.) Wolof on the Senegal, Mandingue or Malinke on
the Gambia, Feloup in Guinea ; (6.) Krou, Egbe, and
Ibo along the Gulf of Benin and the ocean.

The most important and clearly limited family is
the Kaffir or Bantu, which extends over all Eastern
Africa, and south of Zanzibar penetrates as far as the
Atlantic, between the Zambesi and the Congo, and
even, crossing the equator, comes in contact with the
Guinea languages. Its eastern branch comprehends



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African Races and Langtcages. 163

the dialects of Zanzibar and Mozambique, of the Zam-
besi and Kaffraria, Swali, Zulu, and KaflSr; a second
central branch is represented by Tekesa and Setchuana.
To the third branch belong, beginning in the north,
the language of Femando-Po, Mpongue (spoken in
Gaboun), Dikele, Isubu, Congo, Angolian, and Herero
or Damara. South of Herero the Nama, Kora, and
Griqua dialects form the Hottentot group, the neigh-
bours of the Bushmen.

Before giving the characters of a few of these lan-
guages, of which I have wished to give at least the
principal names, let us see first if there are any features
common to all. Here is one, very general in the
agglutinative class, a dislike to the accumulation of
consonants; the African prefers syllables terminated
by vowels, and in the groups of the north or of the
extreme south, where final consonants exist, it is easy
to trace the language back to an earlier period when
the final vowel had not been dropped ; just as, by
poetical license or rapid pronunciation, most Italian
words may lose their final vowel. From this rhythmic
and euphonic point of view the African languages are
called alliteral. But it would he a mistake to regard
the multiplicity of vowels as a certain guarantee of
softness and harmony. Most of the African dialects
possess gutturals and very hard aspirates, and espe-
cially a number of confused nasal consonants, which
our alphabets are obliged to render by two letters, 71^,
nk, nd, rUj mb, mp, &c. ; these commonly occur at the
beginning of words.

In so far as they are agglutinative and alliteral, the
African tongues resemble the Dravidian, Malay, Fin-
nish, and Turkish groups. It is a moral resemblance,,
the sign of the same intellectual level, manifested



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164 Distribution of Languages and Races,

at the moment when the languages were fixed by a
similarity of method.

Africa was a centre of production ; its human and
linguistic types, wide as are the difierences among
them, are manifestly autochthonous. The Mediter-
raneans of the north and the Semites who have pene-
trated the eastern frontier have exercised on the black
and yellowish masses a certain influence, but rather
physical than intellectual.

The avoidance of an accumulation of consonants is a
trait common to all these languages ; there is another,
this time a matter of grammar. They have a strange
conception of number and gender. The African lan-
guages generally divide objects into two categories,
animate and inanimate. They again divide the animate
into two classes, not according to sex, but according
to intelligence, that is to say, into men and brutes ;
thus they have a neuter, and two degrees correspond-
ing to a rude classification of the living world, but
they have no masculine and feminine properly so called.
With regard to number, some have two plurals^ apply-
ing the one to things of the same nature, the other to
a collection of miscellaneous objects.

From likenesses we pass to differences. One is
sufficiently marked to claim consideration at the
outset, since it separates into two irreducible groups
the Guinea system and the Kaffir system. The latter
places before the root or theme the syllables which
modify or define its sense, the other employs suffixes,
or rather places after the radical the particles which
correspond to our verbal terminations and case-end-
, ings. Prefixation, which is not rare in the languages
of Europe and Asia, but which here is exclusively em-
ployed, constitutes the originality of the Bantu group.



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African Races and Languages. 165

Bosjesman and Hottentot, whose relationship, al-
though not proved, is nevertheless probable, are
distinguished by a very remarkable peculiarity of
pronunciation, the clucking of the tongue against the
palate, cheeks, or the teeth ; these sounds are called
hliks^ and are very varied and diflScult to reproduce.
There are six or seven in Bosjesman ; Hottentot has
only four left, of which some traces are found in
certain KaflSr dialects. Livingstone reports that he
recognised the Bosjesman patois in the neighbour-
hood of the great lakes, fai* to the north of their
present home. Other authors think that they trace
analogies between Hottentot and some of the Nile
dialects. It is on such data, somewhat uncertain,
that is based the probable opinion of the slow retreat
of the Bushmen before the Bantu invasion. The ex-
treme antiquity of these tribes is moreover attested
by the Idiks^ in which we trace a resemblance to the
sounds produced by angry or excited monkeys.

The language of the Bushmen proper is very little
known ; that of the Hottentots, Bushmen with an ad-
mixture of other blood, and somewhat more civilised,
has been a good deal studied. It is rich and varied in
sound. Although complex in appearance, the formation
of the words does not exceed the ordinary methods
of agglutination. The root is always placed first, fol-
lowed by the derivative elements. Thus, since the
suffix differs with the subject, object, or vocative, and
since each suffix has three forms corresponding to
the singular, dual, and plural, it follows that a single
word can have nine different forms ; but the root
remains and gives the sense. The function of the
various suffixes is easily recognised, and, compared to
the simplest Indo-European declension, the Hottentot
12



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1 66 Distribution of Langjiages and Races.

machinery is simple to childishness. Like Chinese
and Annamite, Hottentots have numerous homophones,
that is to say, words which have the same sound and
correspond to several meanings; these are distinguished
by intonation. Thus the word iatft signifies, according
to the intonation, obscurity, place, or linen. Accent
also helps to the comprehension of the language ; it is
always placed on the first or root syllable ; in com-
pound words, that is to say, when two or more roots
precede the suflSx, the accent remains on the princi-
pal word, on the first syllable.. Hottentot is, like the
language of the Bushmen, in process of extinction ;
its principal dialect, Nam a, is spoken by not more
than twenty thousand individuals.

We have enumerated above the principal divisions
of the KaflSr family. Its dialects may be traced back,
both by grammar and by vocabulary, to a common
origin, a mother - tongue of which these are the
varieties. It is remarkable not only for the use of
prefixes, but also for the almost inflected character of
its vowel system. This group is in this particular
much in advance of most agglutinative languages.
Here are a few examples of both characteristics. In
Kaffir the prefixes of the singular are um and Hi ; of
the plural, aha^ ama. Ntu, man, gives um-ntu, the
man, aba-ntu, the men ; zvi, word, ili-zvi, the word,
amazvi, the words. Hence the name of the Zulus is
A ma- Zulu, and the prefix ama constantly recurs in the
narratives of travellers, when they give the names of
the tribes of East Africa. The suffixes of case are
also prefixed.

Various forms of the word man in the singular and
plural will give a sufficient idea of the phonetic
variation. The word is tu, often nasalised into ntu.



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African Races and Languages, 167

The suffixes are, as we have just said, nm and aba or
aina. Now we find in the singular in Zulu iimu-ntu ;
in Congo, omu-ntu ; in Tete, mu^nttu ; in Kisambala,
mU'Tdu ; in Isubu, Tno-tu ; and in the plural respec-
tively aba-ntu, wa-ntu, ba-tu. Herero, which is softer
in sound, has ova-ndu, va-ndu. The Va-Herero have
the unfortunate custom of filing the front teeth of
the upper jaw, and of extracting the four correspond-
ing teeth of the lower jaw. Hence their lisping pro-
nunciation, which resembles the imperfect speech of a
child, has no liquids and no true sibilants. Z, r, s,/, are
wanting, and their z halts, between the hard and soft th.
These Bantu languages. Max Muller tells us, from
the data furnished by Bleek, are generally alike in the
simplicity of their syllables, which begin by a single
consonant, preceded by a half-articulated vowel,
perhaps the remains of an atrophied suffix, or by a
double consonant {pt^ kt, ks), or by a nasalised con-
sonant, or accompanied by a clucking of the tongue,
or followed by the semi- vowel w. All these groups are
considered very simple. Lastly, the syllable cannot
end in a consonant. Baptize becomes bapitizesha;
gold, igolide ; camel, nJcaraela; bear, ibere; priest,
mperedte; kirk, ikerike; apostle, mposile; sugar,
isugile; English, ama-nge-si. These examples are
given by Appleyard. The differences between Kaffir
and its dialects consist almost entirely in changes
of consonant, often very unexpected changes. Thus
Sechuana is wanting in the hard g and the soft s, both
found in Kaffir ; on the other hand, it possesses the r
where Kaffir has only an /. Kaffir prefers the sounds
6. ^) Sfy ^> ^; Sechuana the stronger consonants p, t, k,
/, & The consonantal diphthongs of Kaffir and the
Mpongue group, such as mb, ts, are hardened in



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1 68 Distribution of Languages and Races,

Sechuana into 'p. The dentals permute with the
Unguals.

We must note a peculiarity which has contributed
not a little to the confusion of the Bantu dialects.
"The KaflSr women/' says Appleyard, "have many
words peculiar to themselves. This is the result of a
custom called ukuhlonipa, which forbids them to pro-
nounce those words in which is found a sound which
also occurs in the names of their nearest male re-
latives." . An analogous custom, tepi, which banishes
from the language of Tahiti the syllables which com-
pose the names of the kings and queens, has also
existed among the ancient Kaffirs. Thus the Ama-
mbalu, out of respect for their chief U-la-vga, replace
the word ilanga, sun, by the word isota. For a similar
reason the Amagqunu-kwebi use the word 'mmelaf
immela, instead of *si-she-tshe, which is the general
term for knife. It is easy to imagine the confusion
which such quaint customs have produced, repeated
throughout long generations. It is curious to find
these puerilities among two such different races as the
Kaffirs and the Polynesians. Max Muller, in pursuit
of his chimeras, Turanianism and Monogenesis, sees in
the phenomenon the result of I know not what ethnic
relationship. I am rather inclined to regard this coin-
cidence as the effect of a similar social and mental
condition, the servile and superstitious respect of
chiefs and ancestors. We may also add, a naive ten-
dency to create new words, to vary and maltreat old
words; a tendency which is visible in the various slang
dialects, and noted also among the Indians of America.

We will not leave the Kaffirs, who represent the
highest elements of the negro race, without some
further study of their intelligence, without giving some



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African Races and Languages. 1 69

examples, for instance, of the way in which they pass
from the concrete to the figurative sense. It is a
well-known phenomenon, and may be seen in all
languages. But it is impossible to insist too much
upon the metaphorical origin of language. Beta, to
beat, to strike, becomes, to punish, to judge; dMe-la-
7va, to eat in company, is to have friendly relations ;
/a, to die, to be ill, to languish ;* hlcUa, to be seated,
to live, to dwell, to remain ; iMadi, bush, shelter (a
reminiscence of the Bushmen); ingccda, winged ant,
skill, rapidity ; inncwadi, a reed, book, vessel ; inja,
dog, an inferior ; kolwa^ to be satisfied, to believe; lila,
to weep, to deplore; mnandi, soft to the touch, content,
agreeable ; gauka, to be broken in two, to be dead or
stupefied; umsila, tail, courtier, or court messenger;
aJcasiboni, he does not see us, he despises us ; nihela
indMebe, to give ear, to listen ; ukudUa ubomi, to eat
life, to live ; uhitdhla umntu, to eat a man, to confiscate
his goods ; ukumgekeza inkoloh, to break the head, to
weary, to bore ; nkunuka umntu, to smell some one,
to accuse him of witchcraft.

The Bantu peoples are not related to the Negroes
of Guinea, of Senegambia, of the Soudan, at any rate
in language. There is no similarity between their
vocabulary and that of the numerous Negro groups
of which I have given the most important. Their
grammar also separates them by the exclusive use
of prefixation. They have the privilege of forming
a linguistic family, and of lending themselves to the
study of comparative philology.

Elsewhere in Africa we find nothing but dispersed
and isolated groups ; more than twenty little groups
divided up into tribes and dialects succeed and inter-
mingle with each other from Gaboun to Morocco,



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1 70 Distribution of Languages and Races.

from Lake Tchad to the Atlantic. The most central,
towards Bornou and Kan am, has been scientifically
studied by Dr. Barth (1862). The most important
dialects are Kanuri, with five cases and numerous
verbal forms. Barth thinks it has some relations with
Egyptian, Coptic, and even Finnish, but especially with
the languages of the coast, Odji, Fanti, and Ashanti.
Teda, in spite of the difference of the pronouns, is
closely allied to Kanuri. Haoussa, a harmonious
language, belongs to a mixed race, industrious and
evidently superior to the neighbouring tribes; it is
understood in the markets from Timbuctoo and even
into Senegambia. Barth has translated into Haoussa
the second chapter of St. Matthew. Shall I name
also Fufulde or Fulfude, Songui, Logona, Wandala,
Bagrimma, and Maba, Tibbu, Goura, Legbe, Roama,
Kasm, Gbali, and the nine barbarous patois which are
spoken round Lake Tchad ?

Among the innumerable dialects spoken in Guinea
and Senegambia we will mention only those of which
the knowledge is important to the French military occu-
pation : Mandingue, Malinke, Dialonke, with thirteen
dialects, on the Gambia and the Niger ; Eiwe or Egbe,
studied by the missionary Stein mann, with which is
connected the idiom of Dahomey ; finally, Wolof, Serere,
Bidchoro, &c., spoken in Cayor and in the French
colony of Senegal. Eiwe is alliteral ; the Euglish word
school becomes su-ku, and the German Fenster^ fesre,
Wolof presents the same character ; it is, moreover,
very nasal, without being therefore less harmonious
and rhythmical. Markedly agglutinative, it obtains by
means of divers suffixes seventeen voices to the verbs,
and several shades in the meaning of the nouns,
according as the object is near or far.



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Africaii Races and Languages. 171

Throughout the Malinke territory we find Peul or
Poul, which is supposed to be connected with the
Nubian group, and through that perhaps with ancient
Egyptian. But too many changes have taken place
during three or four thousand years, over a distance of
more than 2000 miles, to make it possible that any of
these hypotheses should ever be confirmed. However
this may be, the eastern origin of the race admits of
no doubt. The language is totally foreign to the
peoples which this race has conquered or dominated ;
that which it has in common with Wolof and Serere
is the result of reciprocal borrowing, and is noticeable
especially in certain dialects of Poul : Foutatoro, Pouta-
djallo, Bondu, Sokoto. It were as reasonable to connect
it with Arab because Islam has introduced into it a
number of terms relating to religion, law, and similar
subjects.

Ponl has no guttural aspirates, and it rejects also
ch and j. Its conception of gender is approximately
that which we indicated above. Beings are divided
into two categories, which Faidherbe calls the human
and brute genders : in the one animals and inanimate
things, in the other all which belongs to humanity.
This capital distinction gives to the declension an
appearance of complexity ; there are two singulars and
two plurals. The nouns, adjectives, and participles which
belong to th© human gender, end in in the singular,
this vowel is an agglutinated pronominal root : gorko,
man ; in the plural these words end in he (they). In
the brute gender the singular is marked by a vowel,
or by the suffix am ; the termination is rare. The
plural of the brute gender varies, and certain euphonic
laws seem to play a great part in the agglutination of
the terajinations with the root. The initial consonants



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172 Distribution of Languages and Races.

of the word in the singular raay permute with others
when the word is in the plural. The verb remains
much simpler, and the analysis of its component
elements is easy. The syntax is not complicated ; the
order of the words in the sentence is determined by
the succession of ideas. Thus the name of the pos-
sessor is preceded by the name of the thing possessed ;
the object, direct or indirect, follows the verb. It will
be seen that the real difficulty of Poul consists in the
great variety of the laws of euphony.

On the left flank of Poul, and not far from its pro-
bable birthplace, the Dinka family vegetates; poor
and almost monosyllabic, it suffices for the true savages
of the Bahr-el- Abiad and of the left bank of the Upper
Nile, Bongos, Dinkas, Monbottos, Nouers, Niam, who
are still cannibals, A little farther north we find the
Nouba group, of which it would be of great value to