In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of EquatoriaStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Emin Pasha, 1840-1892
Still advancing to the north we behold an immense snowy range.
It is an impassable barrier; we deflect our march to the west, and find
this Mtusi type numerous, and stretching up to the foot of the
mountains, and to dense, impenetrable forests unfit for the herding of
cattle; and at once the Caucasian type ceases, and the negroid features,
either coppery, black, or mixed complexion--the flat nose, the sunken
ridge, and the projecting of the lower part of the face--are dumb
witnesses that here the wave of superior races was arrested. We retrace
our steps, ascend to the upland and skirt the snowy range eastward, and
over a splendid grazing country called Toro, Uhaiyana, and Unyoro, we
see the fine-featured herdsmen again in numbers attending their vast
herds, and the dark flat-nosed negroid tilling the land with hoes, as we
saw them further south. After passing the snowy range on its northern
extremity, we proceed west across the flat grassy valley of the Semliki
to other grassy uplands parallel with Unyoro, but separated from it by
the Albert Nyanza; and over this pastoral region are living together,
but each strictly adhering to his own pursuit, the herdsmen and the
tillers of the soil. During our travels from Usumbwa the herdsmen have
changed their names from Watusi to Wanyambu, Wahuma, Waima, Wawitu, and
Wachwezi. That is, they have accepted these titles in the main from the
agricultural class, but whether in Ankori, or among the Balegga and
Bavira, or dwelling with the Waganda or in Unyoro, they call themselves
Watusi, Wahuma, or Wachwezi. In Karagwé, Ankori, or Usongora, they are
the dominating classes. Their descendants sit in the seat of power in
Ihangiro, Uhaiya, Uganda, and Unyoro; but the people of these countries
are an admixture of the Zulu and West African tribes, and therefore they
are more devoted to agriculture. When, as for instance, tribes such as
Waganda, Wasoga, and Wakuri have been left to grow up and increase in
power and prosperity, we have but to look at the sea-like expanse of the
Victoria Nyanza, and we see the reason of it. No further progress was
possible, and the wave of migration passed westward and eastward, and
overlapped these tribes, and in their progress southward dropped a few
members by the way, to become absorbed by the members of the
agricultural class, and to lose their distinctive characteristics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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