[Contents]CHAPTER I.BANTU TRIBESThe Bantu race comprises one great family extending over all Central and South Africa, South of a line drawn roughly from the Kamerun to the Pokomo River, but excluding the South West corner—Great Namaqualand and Western Cape Colony—which from time immemorial has been occupied by Hottentots.Although strictly speaking the term “Bantu” is philological, and this classification based on linguistic grounds, and although the different tribes it embraces show largely but in varying degrees that they result from a mixture with oriental or negro blood, yet the similarity of speech, custom and religion, warrant our treating them collectively as one homogenous ethnological group.[2]It is now a generally received opinion that the Bantu originally emanated from a region in the Congo basin, probably north of that river where it receives the tributary Mubangi, and that the Europeans first met the Kaffirs as the vanguard of this invading army when their long march southward to the furthest extremity of the Continent was nearly completed.The Ova Herero when burying their dead place the corpse with the face turned towards the north “to remind them whence they originally came,” and the bodies of the Bechuana are made to face in the same direction. No such custom is recorded among the Zulu or Kaffir but we have other evidence that the exodus southward of the tribes who fled before the devastation of Tshaka was but the continuance of a migration from a more northerly region.The testimony of the Arabian geographer of the tenth century El Masudi shows that what we now call the Kaffir tribes had not at that time advanced south of Zanzibar, the country of Zenj as it was then called. In the sixteenth century shipwrecked mariners from Portuguese vessels thrown on the inhospitable coasts stretching from Cape Agulhas to[3]Delagoa Bay found Kaffirs as far south and west as the Umtata River, but no further. At the end of the seventeenth century however they were found by the Dutch beyond the Great Fish River intermarrying with the Hottentots.The Ova Herero and Ovampo probably represent other branches of Bantu who took a morewesterlydirection, and the Bechuana formed, it is likely, a more recent wave of invasion, in its turn moving southward but by a more central route.Whatever the cradle of their race, the Kaffirs are now located in the region situated between the Great Fish River, the Kathlamba or Drakensberg mountains and their outlying spurs and subsiding ranges; the northern boundaries of the Portuguese settlements around Delagoa Bay, and the Indian Ocean. Those tribes most intimately connected with the history of the Cape still occupy territory partly within the bounds of the Colony proper—the divisions of Queenstown, Woodhouse Glen Grey, Cathcart, Stutterheim, Komgha, King Williams Town, East London, Peddie, Victoria East and Fort Beaufort—and partly in the region lying between the North Eastern[4]Frontier, Basutoland, Natal and the Ocean and known as the Transkeian territories of Tembuland, Pondoland and East Griqualand. They are named as follows: Aba-Tembus ama-Mpondo, ama-Mpondumise, ama-Ntinde, ama-Ngqika, (Gaika), ama-Ndhlambe and ama-Gcaleka. The three last spring from one large tribe, the ama-Rarabe, and comprise with the ama-Ntinde the “fighting ama-Xosa” of the Kaffir Wars. These are the tribes to which Dr. Hewat’s researches more particularly refer. Their chiefs trace back their origin to the common ancestor Zwide who lived about Cromwell’s time, perhaps earlier. There are a few isolated and comparatively insignificant classes who have separated through feuds and quarrels from the main tribes, or have mingled with the Hottentots by inter-marriage, such as the ama-Qate (or ama-Xesibe), ama-Baca, and ama-Gqunukwebe; and we must not omit to mention the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi, and aba-Mbo classes who were formerly large tribes occupying at one time Natal and perhaps Zululand and from whom are derived the Fingoes of the Cape Colony—also referred to by Dr. Hewat—the Natal Kaffirs, the Zulus, and the Matabele of Rhodesia.[5]The aba-Xosa and aba-Tembu tribes with whom we first came into contact, the pioneers of the Kaffir advance southward are supposed to show least modified and developed the distinguishing characteristics of their race. Their lighter colour argues a slight admixture of Hottentot blood and their intercourse with this race was doubtless considerable. From it they have borrowed the clicks which distinguish their speech from other Bantu dialects. In other respects their language is archaic and free from phonetic decay compared with that of other tribes such as theSwahili. Their pursuits were exclusively those of the hunter and herdsman, war and hunting were their pastimes, cattle tending and cattle rearing the serious business of their lives. Indeed cattle mainly constituted their wealth and everything connected therewith was deemed of the highest importance. Herding and milking were privileged labours jealously confined to the men, who also took much pride in training oxen for racing purposes.It is not surprising to find therefore that their skill as veterinary surgeons was considerable and quite equal to that which Dr. Hewat has shown they possess as medical practitioners and surgeons.[6]Maize or Indian corn [Zea mais, Kaffir “Umbilo”] which the Kaffir somewhat recently used for food in addition to their milk and flesh diet and millet a Kaffir corn [Hotcus sorghum “Mabele”] from which they still make “beer” were grown and consumed to a much greater extent by the Fingoes.These refugees (ama-mfengu i.e. wanderers) remnants of the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi and aba-Mbo who formerly occupied the territory now comprising Natal, from which they were driven some seventy or eighty years ago by Tshaka show a much greater capacity for agricultural pursuits. Besides growing extensive patches of mealies and millet they cultivated pumpkins, and some of them the imphie, or wild sugar cane [H. Saccharatum.] Moreover in addition to cattle and poultry they reared sheep and a small kind of goat. A softer climate and soil more fruitful than are characteristic of Kaffraria south of the Kei River most likely induced these classes to resort to avocations more agricultural than those of the savage Xosa and Tembu tribes.There is one tribe mentioned by Dr. Hewat to which I have not yet referred, and that is the Basuto.[7]The Basuto speak a dialect so distinct from that of the Kaffir that individuals of these tribes have as much difficulty in understanding each other as a Dutchman would have in understanding a German. They are a branch of the Bechuana group of Bantu which comprises the Barotse, Bamangwato, Batlapin, Barolong and other tribes. Unlike most of these which are tribes of pure descent ruled by a succession of hereditary chiefs the Basuto is composed of fragments of manyfugitivepeoples who escaped from the armies of Tshaka and Unsilikazi (Moselekatze) and had taken refuge in the mountainous regions of the Drakensberg and Maluti, and were welded together into a nation by Moshesh. This chief like Romulus of old created a sanctuary for all outcasts and broken men and by the judicious use of war and diplomacy not only preserved an independence against the threats and attacks of neighbouring tribes but dexterously held his own against both Boer and British. By his astute rule for which since his death British control has gradually been substituted, a country which was once a mere colluvies gentium is now as compared with other native territories a well ordered state, the home of a homogeneous[8]population forward in the arts of peace and formidable in war.The slopes of the Maluti and the basin of the Caledon are depastured by cattle or covered with wheat or other grain owned by a peasantry each member of which is a good customer to the Colonial trader and possesses his pony,his saddle and his rifle.One must not however jump to the conclusion that the average Mosuto has raised himself in intellectual capacity or freedom from sensualism and superstition far above the other Bantu tribes. Good government has however so improved his material condition and raised his standard of comfort that it may at least be said that the seeds ofcivilizationare sown on favourable soil.I am indebted to Mr W. Hammond Tooke, of the Cape Civil Service, for the foregoing facts relating to the ethnology of the “Bantu Tribes.”[9]
[Contents]CHAPTER I.BANTU TRIBESThe Bantu race comprises one great family extending over all Central and South Africa, South of a line drawn roughly from the Kamerun to the Pokomo River, but excluding the South West corner—Great Namaqualand and Western Cape Colony—which from time immemorial has been occupied by Hottentots.Although strictly speaking the term “Bantu” is philological, and this classification based on linguistic grounds, and although the different tribes it embraces show largely but in varying degrees that they result from a mixture with oriental or negro blood, yet the similarity of speech, custom and religion, warrant our treating them collectively as one homogenous ethnological group.[2]It is now a generally received opinion that the Bantu originally emanated from a region in the Congo basin, probably north of that river where it receives the tributary Mubangi, and that the Europeans first met the Kaffirs as the vanguard of this invading army when their long march southward to the furthest extremity of the Continent was nearly completed.The Ova Herero when burying their dead place the corpse with the face turned towards the north “to remind them whence they originally came,” and the bodies of the Bechuana are made to face in the same direction. No such custom is recorded among the Zulu or Kaffir but we have other evidence that the exodus southward of the tribes who fled before the devastation of Tshaka was but the continuance of a migration from a more northerly region.The testimony of the Arabian geographer of the tenth century El Masudi shows that what we now call the Kaffir tribes had not at that time advanced south of Zanzibar, the country of Zenj as it was then called. In the sixteenth century shipwrecked mariners from Portuguese vessels thrown on the inhospitable coasts stretching from Cape Agulhas to[3]Delagoa Bay found Kaffirs as far south and west as the Umtata River, but no further. At the end of the seventeenth century however they were found by the Dutch beyond the Great Fish River intermarrying with the Hottentots.The Ova Herero and Ovampo probably represent other branches of Bantu who took a morewesterlydirection, and the Bechuana formed, it is likely, a more recent wave of invasion, in its turn moving southward but by a more central route.Whatever the cradle of their race, the Kaffirs are now located in the region situated between the Great Fish River, the Kathlamba or Drakensberg mountains and their outlying spurs and subsiding ranges; the northern boundaries of the Portuguese settlements around Delagoa Bay, and the Indian Ocean. Those tribes most intimately connected with the history of the Cape still occupy territory partly within the bounds of the Colony proper—the divisions of Queenstown, Woodhouse Glen Grey, Cathcart, Stutterheim, Komgha, King Williams Town, East London, Peddie, Victoria East and Fort Beaufort—and partly in the region lying between the North Eastern[4]Frontier, Basutoland, Natal and the Ocean and known as the Transkeian territories of Tembuland, Pondoland and East Griqualand. They are named as follows: Aba-Tembus ama-Mpondo, ama-Mpondumise, ama-Ntinde, ama-Ngqika, (Gaika), ama-Ndhlambe and ama-Gcaleka. The three last spring from one large tribe, the ama-Rarabe, and comprise with the ama-Ntinde the “fighting ama-Xosa” of the Kaffir Wars. These are the tribes to which Dr. Hewat’s researches more particularly refer. Their chiefs trace back their origin to the common ancestor Zwide who lived about Cromwell’s time, perhaps earlier. There are a few isolated and comparatively insignificant classes who have separated through feuds and quarrels from the main tribes, or have mingled with the Hottentots by inter-marriage, such as the ama-Qate (or ama-Xesibe), ama-Baca, and ama-Gqunukwebe; and we must not omit to mention the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi, and aba-Mbo classes who were formerly large tribes occupying at one time Natal and perhaps Zululand and from whom are derived the Fingoes of the Cape Colony—also referred to by Dr. Hewat—the Natal Kaffirs, the Zulus, and the Matabele of Rhodesia.[5]The aba-Xosa and aba-Tembu tribes with whom we first came into contact, the pioneers of the Kaffir advance southward are supposed to show least modified and developed the distinguishing characteristics of their race. Their lighter colour argues a slight admixture of Hottentot blood and their intercourse with this race was doubtless considerable. From it they have borrowed the clicks which distinguish their speech from other Bantu dialects. In other respects their language is archaic and free from phonetic decay compared with that of other tribes such as theSwahili. Their pursuits were exclusively those of the hunter and herdsman, war and hunting were their pastimes, cattle tending and cattle rearing the serious business of their lives. Indeed cattle mainly constituted their wealth and everything connected therewith was deemed of the highest importance. Herding and milking were privileged labours jealously confined to the men, who also took much pride in training oxen for racing purposes.It is not surprising to find therefore that their skill as veterinary surgeons was considerable and quite equal to that which Dr. Hewat has shown they possess as medical practitioners and surgeons.[6]Maize or Indian corn [Zea mais, Kaffir “Umbilo”] which the Kaffir somewhat recently used for food in addition to their milk and flesh diet and millet a Kaffir corn [Hotcus sorghum “Mabele”] from which they still make “beer” were grown and consumed to a much greater extent by the Fingoes.These refugees (ama-mfengu i.e. wanderers) remnants of the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi and aba-Mbo who formerly occupied the territory now comprising Natal, from which they were driven some seventy or eighty years ago by Tshaka show a much greater capacity for agricultural pursuits. Besides growing extensive patches of mealies and millet they cultivated pumpkins, and some of them the imphie, or wild sugar cane [H. Saccharatum.] Moreover in addition to cattle and poultry they reared sheep and a small kind of goat. A softer climate and soil more fruitful than are characteristic of Kaffraria south of the Kei River most likely induced these classes to resort to avocations more agricultural than those of the savage Xosa and Tembu tribes.There is one tribe mentioned by Dr. Hewat to which I have not yet referred, and that is the Basuto.[7]The Basuto speak a dialect so distinct from that of the Kaffir that individuals of these tribes have as much difficulty in understanding each other as a Dutchman would have in understanding a German. They are a branch of the Bechuana group of Bantu which comprises the Barotse, Bamangwato, Batlapin, Barolong and other tribes. Unlike most of these which are tribes of pure descent ruled by a succession of hereditary chiefs the Basuto is composed of fragments of manyfugitivepeoples who escaped from the armies of Tshaka and Unsilikazi (Moselekatze) and had taken refuge in the mountainous regions of the Drakensberg and Maluti, and were welded together into a nation by Moshesh. This chief like Romulus of old created a sanctuary for all outcasts and broken men and by the judicious use of war and diplomacy not only preserved an independence against the threats and attacks of neighbouring tribes but dexterously held his own against both Boer and British. By his astute rule for which since his death British control has gradually been substituted, a country which was once a mere colluvies gentium is now as compared with other native territories a well ordered state, the home of a homogeneous[8]population forward in the arts of peace and formidable in war.The slopes of the Maluti and the basin of the Caledon are depastured by cattle or covered with wheat or other grain owned by a peasantry each member of which is a good customer to the Colonial trader and possesses his pony,his saddle and his rifle.One must not however jump to the conclusion that the average Mosuto has raised himself in intellectual capacity or freedom from sensualism and superstition far above the other Bantu tribes. Good government has however so improved his material condition and raised his standard of comfort that it may at least be said that the seeds ofcivilizationare sown on favourable soil.I am indebted to Mr W. Hammond Tooke, of the Cape Civil Service, for the foregoing facts relating to the ethnology of the “Bantu Tribes.”[9]
CHAPTER I.BANTU TRIBES
The Bantu race comprises one great family extending over all Central and South Africa, South of a line drawn roughly from the Kamerun to the Pokomo River, but excluding the South West corner—Great Namaqualand and Western Cape Colony—which from time immemorial has been occupied by Hottentots.Although strictly speaking the term “Bantu” is philological, and this classification based on linguistic grounds, and although the different tribes it embraces show largely but in varying degrees that they result from a mixture with oriental or negro blood, yet the similarity of speech, custom and religion, warrant our treating them collectively as one homogenous ethnological group.[2]It is now a generally received opinion that the Bantu originally emanated from a region in the Congo basin, probably north of that river where it receives the tributary Mubangi, and that the Europeans first met the Kaffirs as the vanguard of this invading army when their long march southward to the furthest extremity of the Continent was nearly completed.The Ova Herero when burying their dead place the corpse with the face turned towards the north “to remind them whence they originally came,” and the bodies of the Bechuana are made to face in the same direction. No such custom is recorded among the Zulu or Kaffir but we have other evidence that the exodus southward of the tribes who fled before the devastation of Tshaka was but the continuance of a migration from a more northerly region.The testimony of the Arabian geographer of the tenth century El Masudi shows that what we now call the Kaffir tribes had not at that time advanced south of Zanzibar, the country of Zenj as it was then called. In the sixteenth century shipwrecked mariners from Portuguese vessels thrown on the inhospitable coasts stretching from Cape Agulhas to[3]Delagoa Bay found Kaffirs as far south and west as the Umtata River, but no further. At the end of the seventeenth century however they were found by the Dutch beyond the Great Fish River intermarrying with the Hottentots.The Ova Herero and Ovampo probably represent other branches of Bantu who took a morewesterlydirection, and the Bechuana formed, it is likely, a more recent wave of invasion, in its turn moving southward but by a more central route.Whatever the cradle of their race, the Kaffirs are now located in the region situated between the Great Fish River, the Kathlamba or Drakensberg mountains and their outlying spurs and subsiding ranges; the northern boundaries of the Portuguese settlements around Delagoa Bay, and the Indian Ocean. Those tribes most intimately connected with the history of the Cape still occupy territory partly within the bounds of the Colony proper—the divisions of Queenstown, Woodhouse Glen Grey, Cathcart, Stutterheim, Komgha, King Williams Town, East London, Peddie, Victoria East and Fort Beaufort—and partly in the region lying between the North Eastern[4]Frontier, Basutoland, Natal and the Ocean and known as the Transkeian territories of Tembuland, Pondoland and East Griqualand. They are named as follows: Aba-Tembus ama-Mpondo, ama-Mpondumise, ama-Ntinde, ama-Ngqika, (Gaika), ama-Ndhlambe and ama-Gcaleka. The three last spring from one large tribe, the ama-Rarabe, and comprise with the ama-Ntinde the “fighting ama-Xosa” of the Kaffir Wars. These are the tribes to which Dr. Hewat’s researches more particularly refer. Their chiefs trace back their origin to the common ancestor Zwide who lived about Cromwell’s time, perhaps earlier. There are a few isolated and comparatively insignificant classes who have separated through feuds and quarrels from the main tribes, or have mingled with the Hottentots by inter-marriage, such as the ama-Qate (or ama-Xesibe), ama-Baca, and ama-Gqunukwebe; and we must not omit to mention the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi, and aba-Mbo classes who were formerly large tribes occupying at one time Natal and perhaps Zululand and from whom are derived the Fingoes of the Cape Colony—also referred to by Dr. Hewat—the Natal Kaffirs, the Zulus, and the Matabele of Rhodesia.[5]The aba-Xosa and aba-Tembu tribes with whom we first came into contact, the pioneers of the Kaffir advance southward are supposed to show least modified and developed the distinguishing characteristics of their race. Their lighter colour argues a slight admixture of Hottentot blood and their intercourse with this race was doubtless considerable. From it they have borrowed the clicks which distinguish their speech from other Bantu dialects. In other respects their language is archaic and free from phonetic decay compared with that of other tribes such as theSwahili. Their pursuits were exclusively those of the hunter and herdsman, war and hunting were their pastimes, cattle tending and cattle rearing the serious business of their lives. Indeed cattle mainly constituted their wealth and everything connected therewith was deemed of the highest importance. Herding and milking were privileged labours jealously confined to the men, who also took much pride in training oxen for racing purposes.It is not surprising to find therefore that their skill as veterinary surgeons was considerable and quite equal to that which Dr. Hewat has shown they possess as medical practitioners and surgeons.[6]Maize or Indian corn [Zea mais, Kaffir “Umbilo”] which the Kaffir somewhat recently used for food in addition to their milk and flesh diet and millet a Kaffir corn [Hotcus sorghum “Mabele”] from which they still make “beer” were grown and consumed to a much greater extent by the Fingoes.These refugees (ama-mfengu i.e. wanderers) remnants of the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi and aba-Mbo who formerly occupied the territory now comprising Natal, from which they were driven some seventy or eighty years ago by Tshaka show a much greater capacity for agricultural pursuits. Besides growing extensive patches of mealies and millet they cultivated pumpkins, and some of them the imphie, or wild sugar cane [H. Saccharatum.] Moreover in addition to cattle and poultry they reared sheep and a small kind of goat. A softer climate and soil more fruitful than are characteristic of Kaffraria south of the Kei River most likely induced these classes to resort to avocations more agricultural than those of the savage Xosa and Tembu tribes.There is one tribe mentioned by Dr. Hewat to which I have not yet referred, and that is the Basuto.[7]The Basuto speak a dialect so distinct from that of the Kaffir that individuals of these tribes have as much difficulty in understanding each other as a Dutchman would have in understanding a German. They are a branch of the Bechuana group of Bantu which comprises the Barotse, Bamangwato, Batlapin, Barolong and other tribes. Unlike most of these which are tribes of pure descent ruled by a succession of hereditary chiefs the Basuto is composed of fragments of manyfugitivepeoples who escaped from the armies of Tshaka and Unsilikazi (Moselekatze) and had taken refuge in the mountainous regions of the Drakensberg and Maluti, and were welded together into a nation by Moshesh. This chief like Romulus of old created a sanctuary for all outcasts and broken men and by the judicious use of war and diplomacy not only preserved an independence against the threats and attacks of neighbouring tribes but dexterously held his own against both Boer and British. By his astute rule for which since his death British control has gradually been substituted, a country which was once a mere colluvies gentium is now as compared with other native territories a well ordered state, the home of a homogeneous[8]population forward in the arts of peace and formidable in war.The slopes of the Maluti and the basin of the Caledon are depastured by cattle or covered with wheat or other grain owned by a peasantry each member of which is a good customer to the Colonial trader and possesses his pony,his saddle and his rifle.One must not however jump to the conclusion that the average Mosuto has raised himself in intellectual capacity or freedom from sensualism and superstition far above the other Bantu tribes. Good government has however so improved his material condition and raised his standard of comfort that it may at least be said that the seeds ofcivilizationare sown on favourable soil.I am indebted to Mr W. Hammond Tooke, of the Cape Civil Service, for the foregoing facts relating to the ethnology of the “Bantu Tribes.”[9]
The Bantu race comprises one great family extending over all Central and South Africa, South of a line drawn roughly from the Kamerun to the Pokomo River, but excluding the South West corner—Great Namaqualand and Western Cape Colony—which from time immemorial has been occupied by Hottentots.
Although strictly speaking the term “Bantu” is philological, and this classification based on linguistic grounds, and although the different tribes it embraces show largely but in varying degrees that they result from a mixture with oriental or negro blood, yet the similarity of speech, custom and religion, warrant our treating them collectively as one homogenous ethnological group.[2]
It is now a generally received opinion that the Bantu originally emanated from a region in the Congo basin, probably north of that river where it receives the tributary Mubangi, and that the Europeans first met the Kaffirs as the vanguard of this invading army when their long march southward to the furthest extremity of the Continent was nearly completed.
The Ova Herero when burying their dead place the corpse with the face turned towards the north “to remind them whence they originally came,” and the bodies of the Bechuana are made to face in the same direction. No such custom is recorded among the Zulu or Kaffir but we have other evidence that the exodus southward of the tribes who fled before the devastation of Tshaka was but the continuance of a migration from a more northerly region.
The testimony of the Arabian geographer of the tenth century El Masudi shows that what we now call the Kaffir tribes had not at that time advanced south of Zanzibar, the country of Zenj as it was then called. In the sixteenth century shipwrecked mariners from Portuguese vessels thrown on the inhospitable coasts stretching from Cape Agulhas to[3]Delagoa Bay found Kaffirs as far south and west as the Umtata River, but no further. At the end of the seventeenth century however they were found by the Dutch beyond the Great Fish River intermarrying with the Hottentots.
The Ova Herero and Ovampo probably represent other branches of Bantu who took a morewesterlydirection, and the Bechuana formed, it is likely, a more recent wave of invasion, in its turn moving southward but by a more central route.
Whatever the cradle of their race, the Kaffirs are now located in the region situated between the Great Fish River, the Kathlamba or Drakensberg mountains and their outlying spurs and subsiding ranges; the northern boundaries of the Portuguese settlements around Delagoa Bay, and the Indian Ocean. Those tribes most intimately connected with the history of the Cape still occupy territory partly within the bounds of the Colony proper—the divisions of Queenstown, Woodhouse Glen Grey, Cathcart, Stutterheim, Komgha, King Williams Town, East London, Peddie, Victoria East and Fort Beaufort—and partly in the region lying between the North Eastern[4]Frontier, Basutoland, Natal and the Ocean and known as the Transkeian territories of Tembuland, Pondoland and East Griqualand. They are named as follows: Aba-Tembus ama-Mpondo, ama-Mpondumise, ama-Ntinde, ama-Ngqika, (Gaika), ama-Ndhlambe and ama-Gcaleka. The three last spring from one large tribe, the ama-Rarabe, and comprise with the ama-Ntinde the “fighting ama-Xosa” of the Kaffir Wars. These are the tribes to which Dr. Hewat’s researches more particularly refer. Their chiefs trace back their origin to the common ancestor Zwide who lived about Cromwell’s time, perhaps earlier. There are a few isolated and comparatively insignificant classes who have separated through feuds and quarrels from the main tribes, or have mingled with the Hottentots by inter-marriage, such as the ama-Qate (or ama-Xesibe), ama-Baca, and ama-Gqunukwebe; and we must not omit to mention the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi, and aba-Mbo classes who were formerly large tribes occupying at one time Natal and perhaps Zululand and from whom are derived the Fingoes of the Cape Colony—also referred to by Dr. Hewat—the Natal Kaffirs, the Zulus, and the Matabele of Rhodesia.[5]
The aba-Xosa and aba-Tembu tribes with whom we first came into contact, the pioneers of the Kaffir advance southward are supposed to show least modified and developed the distinguishing characteristics of their race. Their lighter colour argues a slight admixture of Hottentot blood and their intercourse with this race was doubtless considerable. From it they have borrowed the clicks which distinguish their speech from other Bantu dialects. In other respects their language is archaic and free from phonetic decay compared with that of other tribes such as theSwahili. Their pursuits were exclusively those of the hunter and herdsman, war and hunting were their pastimes, cattle tending and cattle rearing the serious business of their lives. Indeed cattle mainly constituted their wealth and everything connected therewith was deemed of the highest importance. Herding and milking were privileged labours jealously confined to the men, who also took much pride in training oxen for racing purposes.
It is not surprising to find therefore that their skill as veterinary surgeons was considerable and quite equal to that which Dr. Hewat has shown they possess as medical practitioners and surgeons.[6]
Maize or Indian corn [Zea mais, Kaffir “Umbilo”] which the Kaffir somewhat recently used for food in addition to their milk and flesh diet and millet a Kaffir corn [Hotcus sorghum “Mabele”] from which they still make “beer” were grown and consumed to a much greater extent by the Fingoes.
These refugees (ama-mfengu i.e. wanderers) remnants of the ama-Bele, ama-Zizi and aba-Mbo who formerly occupied the territory now comprising Natal, from which they were driven some seventy or eighty years ago by Tshaka show a much greater capacity for agricultural pursuits. Besides growing extensive patches of mealies and millet they cultivated pumpkins, and some of them the imphie, or wild sugar cane [H. Saccharatum.] Moreover in addition to cattle and poultry they reared sheep and a small kind of goat. A softer climate and soil more fruitful than are characteristic of Kaffraria south of the Kei River most likely induced these classes to resort to avocations more agricultural than those of the savage Xosa and Tembu tribes.
There is one tribe mentioned by Dr. Hewat to which I have not yet referred, and that is the Basuto.[7]
The Basuto speak a dialect so distinct from that of the Kaffir that individuals of these tribes have as much difficulty in understanding each other as a Dutchman would have in understanding a German. They are a branch of the Bechuana group of Bantu which comprises the Barotse, Bamangwato, Batlapin, Barolong and other tribes. Unlike most of these which are tribes of pure descent ruled by a succession of hereditary chiefs the Basuto is composed of fragments of manyfugitivepeoples who escaped from the armies of Tshaka and Unsilikazi (Moselekatze) and had taken refuge in the mountainous regions of the Drakensberg and Maluti, and were welded together into a nation by Moshesh. This chief like Romulus of old created a sanctuary for all outcasts and broken men and by the judicious use of war and diplomacy not only preserved an independence against the threats and attacks of neighbouring tribes but dexterously held his own against both Boer and British. By his astute rule for which since his death British control has gradually been substituted, a country which was once a mere colluvies gentium is now as compared with other native territories a well ordered state, the home of a homogeneous[8]population forward in the arts of peace and formidable in war.
The slopes of the Maluti and the basin of the Caledon are depastured by cattle or covered with wheat or other grain owned by a peasantry each member of which is a good customer to the Colonial trader and possesses his pony,his saddle and his rifle.
One must not however jump to the conclusion that the average Mosuto has raised himself in intellectual capacity or freedom from sensualism and superstition far above the other Bantu tribes. Good government has however so improved his material condition and raised his standard of comfort that it may at least be said that the seeds ofcivilizationare sown on favourable soil.
I am indebted to Mr W. Hammond Tooke, of the Cape Civil Service, for the foregoing facts relating to the ethnology of the “Bantu Tribes.”[9]