Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Slave trade -- Africa
On 30th April, Kabba Rega sent a present of twelve elephants' tusks,
forty-one loads of tullaboon, twelve pots of sour plantain cider, and
thirty-four cows. At the same time, he complained that some of Abou
Saood's people were taking slaves in the neighbourhood of Foweera and
Kisoona.
The principal chiefs, together with Kabba Rega, assured me that Abou
Saood's people had been in the habit of torturing people to extract from
them the secret of the spot in which their corn was concealed.
Throughout Unyoro there are no granaries exposed at the present time, as
the country has been ravaged by civil war; thus all corn is buried in
deep holes specially arranged for that purpose. When the slave-hunters
sought for corn, they were in the habit of catching the villagers and
roasting their posteriors by holding them down on the mouth of a large
earthen water jar filled with gloving embers. If this torture of
roasting alive did not extract the secret, they generally cut the
sufferer's throat to terrify his companion, who would then divulge the
position of the hidden stores to avoid a similar fate. This accusation
was corroborated by Mohammed, the Cairo dragoman.
It is difficult to conceive the brutality of these brigands, who, thus
relieved from the fear of a government, exhibit their unbridled passions
by every horrible crime.
Umbogo, the interpreter, was now regularly installed in a hut within
call of my tent. This man appeared to be exceedingly fond of us, and he
was the main source of information.
He had a very lovely wife, a Bahooma, who was a light brown colour, with
beautiful Abyssinian eyes; she had been given to him by Kabba Rega, with
whom he was a great favourite.
Umbogo was very intelligent, and he took a great interest in all my
plans for establishing free trade throughout the country: but he told me
privately that he thought the idea would be opposed secretly by Kabba
Rega, who would wish to monopolize all the ivory trade, in order to keep
up the price, and to obtain the whole of the merchandise.
The great variety of goods much astonished him, and he advised me
strongly to send for a large supply of soap, for which there would be a
great demand, as a light complexion was greatly admired in Unyoro. He
said that Mohammed, the Cairo dragoman, was several shades lighter since
I had supplied him with soap; this was true, as he had been very filthy
before my arrival; but Umbogo was persuaded that the difference between
white and black people was caused by the fact of our ancestors having
always used soap, while the blacks used only plain water. This
ethnological fact having been established, I gave him a small piece, to
his great delight, as he expressed his intention to become a white man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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