CIVILIZATION OF THE NEGROES.
THE Negro tribes of which Europeans have most knowledge are those between the Great Desert and the Bight of Benin. Tlie Northern tribes, bordering on the desert, are much further ad- vanced in civilization than those bordering on the ocean. The empire of the Ashantees does not date far back, yet it is apparently the first state among the Southern Negroes which comprehended more than one town or tribe. The Negro dynasty of Timbuctoo, on the other hand, appears to have ruled over an extensive terri- tory as early as the eleventh or twelfth century. There seems also to be more of humanity among the Northern than the Southern Negro states : the governments of Bornou and Sackatoo present a favourable contrast to that of the A shantees.
The difference is more than superficial: it is not confined to the accidental founding of one or two dynasties, but becomes more ap- parent the more closely the framework of society is examined. The revolutions among the petty African states all proceed from the North. The rich and enterprising Negro traders are from the North, and make ventures among the Southern tribes as among barbarians, by trading with whom for their raw produce great gains are to be got at considerable personal hazard.
Looking closer into this superior civilization of the Northern Negroes, it is found to arise in a great measure, if not exclusively, from their intercourse with the Arabs. The most intelligent and enterprising of the Negro tribes, and the most intelligent and enter- prising individuals among the rest, are generally found to have embraced the Mahometan religion. Even where it is not avowed, many of its moral doctrines and many of the political institutions of the Mahometans are found to have penetrated. The titles of dignity in the villages of many of the idolatrous Negroes are cor- ruptions of those which prevail among the Arabs on the coast of the Red Sea.
Since the time that the Portuguese passed Cape Bojador, the in- tercourse of European Christians with the Southern Negroes has been as close and frequent as that of the Arab Mahometans with the Northern. The nature of that intercourse has not been very dissimilar—an interchange of peaceful traffic, violent kidnapping of slaves, and occasional fits of religious proselytism. How comes it that the Negroes who have come in contact with the Arabs have been so much more benefited than those who have come in contact with the Europeans ?
The Negroes, though regarded by the Arabs as an inferior race, much in the same way as by the Europeans, have nevertheless been treated by them in some respects more on a footing of equality. By the law of Mahomet, no true believer can be made or kept a slave. This law has doubtless been often evaded, but not always. The peculiar character of slavery among Eastern nations, (so well de- scribed by Lord PONSONBY,) was often favourable to the observation of the law ; the confidential slave being easily received into the bosom of a family, or raised to high employments in the state. These circumstances have kept the line of demarcation between the Arab and the Negro less sharp and harsh than that between the European and the Negro. But perhaps, more than any thing else, the pilgrimage to Mecca, incumbent upon every good Ma- hometan, has proved an effective instrument for carrying civilization into the heart of Africa. Such religious journeys have from all antiquity been combined with mercantile speculation. Among rude nations this was necessarily the case; for it was only by barter that the pilgrim could obtain the means of subsistence ; and this necessary traffic suggested and kept alive the desire of trading for profit. The wealthier Negroes became thus accustomed to travel as merchants ; the poorer were obliged to support themselves during the pilgrimage by labour. BURKHARDT has some in- teresting notices of this class of the Tekrouri, (so the Negro pilgrims are called,) of their adventures and industry. At Jidda and at Mecca, while awaiting the great festival-days, they work for their livelihood, and also to acquire the means of travelling back to their own country. Some of them extend their travels to Medina, to Jerusalem and Cairo, partly out of reli- gious considerations, partly for the sake of gain. The habits of industry and accumulation thus acquired—the knowledge of the world obtained by travel—the constant supply of individuals trained in this school by each recurring annual pilgrimage to Mecca—these are the sources of the superiority of the Northern over the Southern Negroes. Many of the unamiable features of a low grade of civili- zation are thus developed ; many of the vices of old societies are carried back into Negroland : but the Negro is taught to think for himself, and act with a view to the future, and made a man of.
The better morality (practical as well as theoretical) of the European race, ought to make them more advantageous associates for the Negro than the Mahometans : and they would be, could their intercourse with them be placed on a somewhat similar foot- ing. There is but one way in which this can be accomplished. The Negro pilgrim is secure of not being made a slave the Negro who should now visit the British Colonies, in which no slave can exist, would enjoy the same security. The Negro who visits Mecca (quite as often from a spirit of enterprise or love of gain as from religious motives) contracts practically superior notions and habits to what he could have gained at home : the coast Negro visiting the British West Indies for a few years would do the same. The Mahometan religion has been spread in Africa not so much by Arab missionaries as by Negroes who have caught it (if we may use the expression) by living for a time among Mahometans. It is ever thus : they who convert a nation must belong to that nation ; missionaries of a race trained in a higher and purer faith can with difficulty make themselves understood: the half-enlightened native is the most efficient apostle of a new faith because he speaks the ideas as well as the words of those he addresses. The Gauls, Britons, and Germans, who served in the Roman army, became in a measure Roman citizens and Christians by living in the provinces, but remained Gauls, Britons, and Germans ; and when they returned as veterans to their homes, met their kindred half-way, and elevated them to their own imperfect civilization. It was by this unnoticed, gradual process, that the foundations of European civilization were laid ; and so must it be with Africa. The free African labourer, when he returns to spend his earnings at home will carry fragments of Christian morality, which he has picked up by associating with Christians of his own complexion : one seed after another of Chris- tian doctrine will be carried to their dark homes by those birds of passage, as well as something of provident and perseveringly in- dustrious habits. Much of vulgarity, much of coarse vice will be imported ; but at the same time, a humane, proud, independent public opinion, will grow up in Africa. Societies of men will arise unwilling either to be slaves or to make slaves. The slave-trade will be put an end to, because the slaver of European race will find none in Africa willing to deal with him, at the same time that the prosperous condition of the Free-labour Colonies will render the Whites less desirous to purchase of him.
Without entering into controversy on the capabilities of the African race, experience has shown in the case of the Mahometan Negroes, that they are capable of a higher civilization than they have yet been taught (at least in Africa) by their intercourse with Christians. -
If these remarks are correct—and the sources of information are open to all—the cause is evident : the less humane and less en- lightened Arabs have stumbled by accident, as it were, upon a better plan for civilizing Africa than the philanthropists of Europe have hitherto tried. They have associated with the Negroes as with fellow-men ; while even the friends of the Africans among the Christians have sought to isolate them from intercourse with Whites. The measure proposed not long ago for securing a steady supply of free labour to our West Indian Colonies, will, if adopted, place our relations to the Negroes upon the same footing as that of the Arabs as nearly as possible considering the difference of our customs and habits of thought. If, therefore' the desire to promote the happiness of the Negroes, of which we hear so much, is not mere empty declamation, or worse—the watchword of a faction— that measure will be allowed a fair trial.
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