Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic OceanStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 2 (of 2) : $b or, The sources of the Nile around the Great Lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904 -- Travel -- Africa, Central
Here we behold all the wealth of the Tanganika shores. The Wajiji, who
are sharp, clever traders, having observed that the Wangwana purchased
their supplies of sweet potatoes, yams, sugar-cane, ground-nuts, oil-
nuts, palm-oil and palm-wine, butter, and pombé, to retail them at
enormous profits to their countrymen, have raised their prices on some
things a hundred per cent. over what they were when I was in Ujiji last.
This has caused the Wangwana and slaves to groan in spirit, for the
Arabs are unable to dole out to them rations in proportion to the prices
now demanded. The governor, supplied by the Mutwaré of the lake district
of Ujiji, will not interfere, though frequently implored to do so, and,
consequently, there are frequent fights, when the Wangwana rush on the
natives with clubs, in much the same manner as the apprentices of London
used to rush to the rescue or succour of one of their bands.
Except the Wajiji, who have become rich in cloths, the rural natives
retain the primitive dress worn by the Wazinja, Wazongora, Wanyambu,
Wanya-Ruanda, Kishakka, Wanyoro, and Wanya-Nkori, Wasui, Watusi, Wahha,
Warundi, and Wazigé, namely, a dressed goat-skin covering the loins, and
hanging down to within six inches above the knees, with long depending
tags of the same material. All these tribes are related to each other,
and their language shows only slight differences in dialect. Moreover,
many of those inhabiting the countries contiguous to Unyamwezi and
Uganda have lost those special characteristics which distinguish the
pure unmixed stock from the less favoured and less refined types of
Africans.
Uhha daily sends to the market of Ujiji its mtama, grain (millet),
sesamum, beans, fowls, goats, and broad-tailed sheep, butter, and
sometimes oxen; Urundi, its goats, sheep, oxen, butter, palm-oil and
palm-nuts, fowls, bananas, and plantains; Uzigé—now and then only—its
oxen and palm-oil; Uvira, its iron, in wire of all sizes, bracelets, and
anklets; Ubwari, its cassava or manioc, dried, and enormous quantities
of grain, Dogara or whitebait, and dried fish; Uvinza, its salt; Uguha,
its goats and sheep, and grain, especially Indian corn; rural Wajiji
bring their buttermilk, ground-nuts, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bananas
and plantains, yams, beans, vetches, garden herbs, melons, cucumbers,
sugar-cane, palm-wine, palm-nuts, palm-oil, goats, sheep, bullocks,
eggs, fowls, and earthenware; the lake-coast Wajiji bring their slaves,
whitebait, fresh fish, ivory, baskets, nets, spears, bows and arrows;
the Wangwana and Arab slaves bring slaves, fuel, ivory, wild fruit,
eggs, rice, sugar-cane, and honey from the Ukaranga forest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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