QL Notes on African Categories IRLF B 3 bMfl BY R. E. DENNETT AUTHOR OF Nigerian Studies," " At the Back of the Blackman's Mini; MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 191 1 One Shilling Net ALVMNVS BOOK FVND BIOLOGY UBRARY NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO ATLANTA . SAX FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO NOTES ON : WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES BY R. E. DENNETT AUTHOR OF 'Nigerian Studies," "At the Back of the Black Marts Mind MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON IQII RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.l AND niJN'GAV. SUFFOLK. TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER ELEANOR DENNETT (n& GARFORTH) . PREFACE I CANNOT help referring to the sympathetic and learned review of At the Back of the Black Mans Mind by Dr. A. Van Gennep in the Revue de .FHistoire des Religions. On page 224, however, he states that Miss Werner, in a review of the same book, had been clever enough to point out that there were a number of discordances between my Xivili and Bentley's Congo. On this occasion I have not found it necessary to use Xivili and have gone to Bentley for my words, hoping in this way, by using a language the dictionary of which is easily obtained, my work may be of more general interest and more easily criticised. Mistakes are sure to be found, but they will some day be corrected, and I can only hope that such as they are they will not interfere very much with the end Van Gennep, Miss Werner, and others have in common with myself, i.e. the philological foundation of the categories I have noted as existing at the back of the Black man's mind. Miss Werner, who was at one time inclined to look upon my work as fantastic, is now greatly helping to push on Van Gennep's endeavour, and in her paper viii PREFACE entitled The Names of Animals in the Bantu Languages writes : " Van Gennep lays stress on the importance of studying the noun classes of the Bantu languages from a new point of view. The ideas underlying this arrangement have long been a puzzle to philologists Most attempts in this direction have been more or less fantastic in character and were, M. Van Gennep thinks, foredoomed to failure because they approached the question from a purely European point of view. The solution, he suggests, may lie along the lines indicated by Mr. Dennett in At the Back of the Black Mans Mind (now supplemented by Nigerian Studies] — viz. : in discovering the logical system of the Bantu — the principle on which they classify the facts of the visible world so far as these are known to them. ' Ce systeme de classification des choses de 1'univers, phenomene de 1'ordre social, entraine une classification correspondante des mots designant ces choses.' " We may remark, in passing, that considerable light is likely to be thrown on this subject by M. Torday's researches among the Bushongo, whose system of sacred animals, intimately connected with their social organisation, seems to complete and explain the information obtained by Mr. Dennett from the Bavili, and the hints as to the Warrendi contained in P. Van der Burght's work, to which M. Van Gennep refers at the end of his Essay." (Revue des Iddes, January i5th, 1907.) I have for the last thirty years been deeply interested in the working of the mind of the Black PREFACE ix man in the Congo and Nigeria, and little by little I have discovered a formula which I maintain is at the back of his mind and has been the foundation of his religious and social systems. And the more I read of the efforts of great minds at home scientifically to put the subconscious in its proper place, the more I feel the need of their help in my studies. It is therefore more in a tentative way that I bring forward what seems to me a very remarkable lesson that I have learnt from the native of Africa, namely, that his natural religion and form of government is, in my opinion, rather the result of instinct and the sub- conscious than of any direct effort of his brain, although it would appear that at some period or other a classi- fication of his ideas may have been drawn up by his priests or some prophet or philosopher. CONTENTS PAGC- THE FORMULA i THE CATEGORIES 4 BANTU AND BAVILI PREFIXES 8 INFANCY AND THE PREFIXES 13 THE PRIMITIVE WEST AFRICAN 16 THE BEGINNING OF ANIMISM 21 His RELATION TO ANIMALS 25 ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN IN CONNECTION WITH THE CATEGORIES 29 LATERAL DEVELOPMENT, PHYSICAL MAN 40 THINKING MAN 45 PROPAGATING MAN 47 EMOTIONAL MAN 49 SENTIENT MAN 52 WORSHIPPING, LAW-ABIDING MAN 55 GOD AND MAN 57 MAN AND THE MORAL LAW - 5& CONCLUSION 64- NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES THE FORMULA THE formula which I give in " At the Back of the Black Man's Mind" is formed perpendicularly of i + 6 + i or eight parts. Each of these parts have a complementary extension of three parts, making it 4 + (6x4) + 4, or of thirty-two parts in all. It is as under : o — 1 6 parts 1 6 parts 132 parts The meaning of the formula appears to me to be that all things created, procreated or produced must 2 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES proceed in their creation, procreation, or production in accordance with the order therein expressed, i.e. 0 God, in the far past, caused 1 that which was at rest and which is to become the mover towards a certain intermediate effect, 2 & 3 that the intermediate causes of this inter- mediate effect are two coordinates, i.e. the actor and the instrument, 4 which by coming together in a certain place cause an intermediate effect. 5 This puts a new cause in motion in a certain manner 6 & 7 which by means of two intermediate causes which are coordinate and progressive as action and quality 8 cause the final desired effect. As the filling in of the complementary parts in the lateral developments is not absolutely necessary to prove that the thoughts expressed in the perpendicular developments of the categories agree with the classes in their language, I will not attempt to fill them in. I will in this study simply show how the classes in the language of the Bavili prove that there is a natural basis for the philosophy as expressed in the categories not only of the Congo but also of that which I have discovered to exist in Southern Nigeria. I may mention that whereas the Congo is 6° south of the Equator, Southern Nigeria is about the same degree north of it, and that intercommunication between such places so far apart in primitive times was very difficult THE FORMULA Both countries may have been affected by some movement from the interior. As I shall be constantly using the terms (a) Leading names, (6) Perpendicular development, (c) Complementary parts, (d) Lateral development, it will be well for my reader clearly to understand what I mean by these terms, and I hope that a glance at the figures below may show my meaning and their position in the formula. Leading Names. Three Complementary Parts. Perpendicular development The Formula. Lateral Developments. B 2 THE CATEGORIES. CATEGORIES seem to have been the cause of very much discussion from very early times. The Hindus lay down six categories. These are called "The Six Categories of Kanada " and are those of substance, quality, action, genus, individuality and concretion. Aristotle gave us ten categories, and the world wants to know why ten and whence did they come. From Aristotle we come to Kant, who made the categories the kernel of German philosophy which Hegel assimi- lated and carried to a higher stage. Then we have Hermann Ulrici working out a system of categories which those of Charles Bernard Renouvier, the able French logician, somewhat resemble. Professor G. F. Stout defines categories (Manual of Psychology, vol. n, pp. 12 foil.) as forms of cognitive consciousness, universal principle, or relations pre- supposed either in all cognition, or in all cognition of a certain kind. Now in "At the Back of the Black Man's Mind" and " Nigerian Studies " I have tried to show that certain great categories of thought exist. These conclusions I drew from their folklore and primitive form of THE CATEGORIES 5 philosophy and government. My observations have been ridiculed by some, while others say that such ideas never existed in the Black Man's mind until I put them there. Well, I shall endeavour to demonstrate that they exist in the classes into which the Bavili and Bakongo divide their language, and I take it for granted that no one will honour me by saying that I drew up the language of the Bavili (people of Loango now part of Congo Fran^ais). In " Nigerian Studies" I have pointed out how the form of government in existence there depends on or agrees with this philosophy of the Bantu. The Prophet I fa, now deified, but once probably a Mohammedan priest, evidently adopted the form in his endeavour to lift the pagan from a belief in many nature powers to a belief in One God. He may be said to have been a kind of Yoruba Moses. Briefly, the form of government in Yorubaland, Southern Nigeria, is composed of the following officers : 1. The Queen Mother and three courtiers. The King and three officers. The War Chief and three officers. The Prime Minister and three officers, or sixteen personages in all. 2. The Prime Minister (who both in the Congo and Nigeria need not be a prince) becomes the head of a Council, and he is helped by three officers The Prime Minister and each of these again have three assistants or courtiers, thus forming another set of sixteen. 6 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES 3. The Council is formed of six pairs of elders and their twelve Orishas or deified ancestors, or twenty-four parts in all. The formula may thus be mathematically expressed as 4 + 4 + (6 x 2), that is not counting the followers, or complementary parts. The nature powers, still worshipped by the followers of I fa the Nigerian Revealer, are 4. Creative deities coinciding with the King's court. 5. Procreative deities coinciding with the Prime Minister and his three great officers. 6. Pairs of created elementary powers representing water, earth, etc., coinciding with the Council of the Prime Minister. These gods and powers are connected with the seasons and dominate birth, marriage, and tabu ceremonies in such a way that it is impossible to separate them from the religious rites and all that the natives hold most sacred. Further, they are not only nature deities but they are also looked upon in many cases as the deified ancestors of the people in their different categories as kings, chiefs, priests, fishermen, hunters, farmers, etc.1 Through the seasons, and the names of the divining palm nuts and their meaning, and in other ways, I have shown that the religious and social ideas of the Yoruba can be reconciled with those of the Bavili as 1 I have written in general terms purposely, but those who are interested in this matter and wish to know the names of the Gods and Rulers will find them in " At the Back of the Black Man's Mind " and " Nigerian Studies." THE CATEGORIES 7 given in my book " At the Back of the Black Man's Mind." In the following pages I propose proving that these categories can be shown to exist in the classes into which the language of the Bavili is divided by certain prefixes. After having set forth the prefixes, I shall precede my studies in the classes themselves by a short account of what I believe to have been the West African's primitive life. Remember that I am dealing with a poetic and imaginative people, and without the exercise on the part of the reader of a certain amount of primitive imagination what follows will hardly appeal to him. BANTU AND BAVILI PREFIXES THE language of the Bavili is a dialect of the one spoken by the people of the Congo, as a section of the great Bantu tongue, and is agglutinative. The nouns in this language are always immediately preceded by prefixes, much as nouns in English are followed by the suffixes : ness, dom, tion, ance, ly and ity. All the pronouns, adjectives, and verbs receive the same prefixes as the noun which is the subject of the sentence, so that we need not dilate upon the important part they play in the speech of the Bavili and the Bantu generally. Anyone who has looked into the grammars of the different dialects of the Bantu will be struck on the one hand by their similarity, and on the other by the want of order displayed by the different grammarians in their arrangement of the prefixes. In 1659 a grammar by Fr. Hyacinth Brusciotto de Vetralla, Prefect of the Catholic Church in the Congo, was published in Rome "for the more easy understanding of the most difficult idiom of the people of the Congo." Mr. Bentley gave us his remarkable dictionary and grammar of the Congo dialect in 1887, and BANTU AND BAVILI PREFIXES 9 Monseigneur Carrie presented us with his excellent " Grammaire de la langue Fiote, dialecte du Ka Kongo " in 1888. In his comparative grammar of South African languages, Bleek (1862) compared the concord pre- fixes of twenty-five Bantu languages and gave his " standard " as under : — I. Singular. Mu Plural. A or Ba 2. N Thin or tin. 3- Mu Mi 4- Ki Pi 5- Di Ma 6. Ku Ma 7- Lu Tu 8. U or Bu U or Bu M Ma 9- Pa Mo 0. Ka The following are the differences between this standard list and that of the Bavili, so far as my knowledge will take me : — No. i. No change. No. 2. N and M as light nasals preceded by the letter e take the prefix Zi instead of Thin or tin. No. 3. No change. No. 4. Ki the Bavili pronounce Xi or Tchi and it makes Bi in the plural instead of Pi. This difference is insignificant, especially when io NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES we remember that the ancient missionaries spelt Kabinda Capinda. No. 5. The Bavili place Li for Di, the plural being the same. No. 6. No change. No. 7. No change. No. 8. No change. No. 9. The Bavili have Va singular and Mu plural. The Va form, however, appears to me to be anterior to Pa, the development. The Fjort do not like saying Mva Mva and say Mpa Mpa in its place.1 Mr. Bentley tells us "Mp is nearly always the result of a combination of M and V, the V having become P according to euphonic law. If M were under 1 The Kongo people also object to the combination of F with A or E in initial syllables, and in such cases U or W intervenes. A is often a contraction for la, as in the word Za for Zia. Fa, then, may be said to stand for Fia, and so Fia or Fa may be written Fwa. The word Fwati (little), has just the opposite meaning to the word Mpampa (much), so that in an indirect way we arrive at F as the diminutive of V ; hence, perhaps, Mr. Bentley's Class 15 — Fi he calls a sign of the diminutive. The word Varna, plural Muma (Bavili, a place), is given by Mr. Bentley as Vuma (Kongo) and means space, while Fulu has the sense of an enclosed space and remains Fulu in the plural. Mpulu again means the scrotum, while Mpuma has the meaning of a man who is as free (as space) from all Xina (pi. Bina) or things for- bidden. Thus we have the opposites :— Vuma, space Mpuma, a man free, etc. Fulu, room Mpulu, the scrotum. The change caused by P taking the place of V or F in these words then appears to be the giving of a finite and limited sense to a word otherwise referring to the infinite or something greater. BANTU AND BAVILI PREFIXES n any circumstances removed, the P reverts to V." Thus : — Mpaku lu Vaku Mpunda Vunda Mpila Mvila. No. 10. Ka. This prefix no longer appears in colloquial Xivili, and it is possible that the euphonic N's or M's which precede the Ka sound, may have caused it to disappear and have then carried it off into that class of light nasals which makes its plural in Zi. I am, however, rather inclined to think that at one time it may perhaps have been a part of the Ki-Bi class, the Ki or Ka, for euphonic reasons making Mi in the plural (see Bu, plural Ma or Mi). Thus we have the word Koko, hand, for Kioko, Mioko in the plural. This Mi being possibly an older form of Bi. This con- nection between Bi and Mi and I becomes more apparent when we learn that all are abbreviated forms of Imbi. Thus a stranger Muegne, plural Begne. So much then for the differences between Bleek's standard list and the prefixes now in use among the Bavili. In the following notes I will endeavour to take what I think is the psychological order of the pre- fixes ; we may then see whether thjs order agrees 12 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES with the order of the categories as given in " At the Back of the Black Man's Mind" and " Nigerian Studies" or not, i.e. the order of procreation and the seasons. If it does, then I think we may conclude that the so-called Christian influence, which some of my critics suggest, must date back many thousands of years, and that its connection, even with Genesis, must be a very remote one. For, as I have said before, I lay no claim to the creation of the order of the seasons, upon which order the categories of thought, both among the Bavili and the Yoruba, seem to me to depend. INFANCY AND THE PREFIXES I THINK we can liken the primary stage in the development of the race to the infantile stage in the growth of the individual. It will be interesting to discover if words can be found in Xivili or Bakongo to express the " perpendicular " progression in the growth of the baby from its birth to the time that it begins to speak, and so prove itself in the native fashion of thinking as something more than a mere animal. In considering this stage we must remember that the child originated from its father, or, as some primitive people thought, in some life-giving stone or tree. There should then be a class for this originating power ; we shall mark this down as the " O " class. There never has been any doubt as to the mother being the means through which the child is born. She received the seed, or inspiration, from without herself, and it became confined within an enclosed place. 1. Va — Mu. — Varna, space, — plural Muma may be taken as standing for this operation. We shall call this class number i. The child is born. 2. Mu — Mi. — It has life (Moyd), breath (Mula), as it takes in the air (Mwela] of heaven. The accoucheur 13 14 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES (Mbussi) helped to bring it into the world. This is the Mu — Mi class, which we shall number 2. 3. Xi or Ki, plural I or Yi or Bi. — In its early infancy (Kindeka) it utters a faint sound (Xinzuzukulu), and shows its affinity (Kiyitu) to humanity (Kiwunlu) by certain signs of intelligence (Kibalanga). This is the Xi or Ki, plural Yi or Bi, class, which we shall call number 3. 4. Li or Di or E, plural Ma. — Then it imbibes milk (Lidenvuene) from its mother's breast (Ebeni), and so grows. This is the E, Di, or Li, plural Ma, class, which we shall number 4. 5. Lu — Tu. — It now begins to feel and touch things, and so obtain pleasant or unpleasant sensa- tions (Luiuu, plural Tutuu). This we shall call the 5th class. 6. Ku — Ma. — It begins to find the use of its legs (Kulu-Mahi), and by using its powers of sight, etc., it begins its first lessons in mimicry (Kusokolola). This is our Ku — Ma or 6th class. 7. Bu — Ma. — Then it uses its capacity (Buzabu^ plural Mazabu) and activity in climbing and playing and making things. This is the Bu — Ma and our 7th class. 8. Mu — Ba. — And finally as it speaks it becomes entitled to be included in the class of persons as a child (Muana, plural Bana) ; this is the Mu — Ba or 8th class. But outside these classes the Bavili have two classes : one into which foreign words are placed, which make their plural by adding Zi to the singular, INFANCY AND THE PREFIXES our 9th class, and another, or that of plural nouns such as Zambiy1 used in a singular sense. As Zambi, a developed idea of God, comes to mean the Creator of heaven, the waters and the earth, as the one in whom are all things, we will call this loth class the " O " class, and in trying to explain the philosophy of the classes and categories it shall be understood that these Qth and loth classes stand outside the intermediate 8 classes. The classes in this order now stand as under : — " O " plural nouns with singular meanings, i— Va— Mu 2 — Mu — Mi 3— Ki— Bi or Yi or I 4 -Li or E or Di plural Ma 5 — Lu— Tu 6— Ku— Ma 7— Bu— Ma 8— Mu— Ba 9 — N or M plural Zi 1 The word Zambi is derived from Zi plural sign : — la = four Zia or Za = fours Imbi = personal essence Zambi = God. Zambi is the personal essence of the "fours" which appear so often in the Bavili philosophy. He is here in the loth class as the one in whom are all things. In the same way among the Yoruba, Olorun is the owner of the heavens, the origin of all the personalities or dead ancestors figured by stars in the heavens. THE PRIMITIVE WEST AFRICAN IN preanimistic times two great needs urged man on to a development of which he little dreamed. Hunger forced him to the search for food, and desire impelled him to copulation. The elements existed ; they constituted his environment ; and they con- sequentially affected him : and he trapped fish in the rushing waters of subsiding floods and streams. He also trapped the young of animals ; and later he hunted them, having no other weapon beyond a pointed stick. His sense of hearing developed, and he was quick to catch the slightest noise made by the fish in traps in the water or the young animals on earth. He mimicked the cry of animals and called them near enough to him to pierce them with his pointed stick. Now, even to this day, on the West coast of Africa, the great time for fishing and hunting is just after the rains until the rains commence again ; that is, during the four to five months comprising the dry season. Man's sense of taste or his need for food cannot then be dissociated from the occupation of trapping and hunting from the dry season, the senses of hearing and calling from the elements of water and earth. 16 THE PRIMITIVE WEST AFRICAN 17 I have shown that in Yoruba the words used for the senses of smell, sight, and touch are all included in words meaning to copulate. Like the animal he was, primitive man was led by his sense of smell towards women at a certain period ; he saw them, pursued them, and came into contact with them. This was at the season of the year just following the season of fish and flesh ; and, so, just as the rains commenced. Man in this animal stage of existence was probably a wanderer on the face of the earth. Attracted by his sense of smell, he, with other males, was drawn towards a female, fought his competitors, and instinctively satisfied his desire, and then left the female to her own devices. She in time conceived and brought forth a child. At this time she possibly in no way connected her conqueror with the event that made her a mother. Like other animals, she tended her offspring until such time as it could look after itself, when she left it or it left her. This process would be repeated until she was past bearing, when men would no longer approach her, and she finally was killed or then, lost or helpless, she died unmourned and forgotten. There are enough traces left in Africa of this wandering life and indifference to the death of the old to enable us to picture the sad existence of such a mother. Even where people in Africa are settled and living in villages this neglect of the old, who have outlived their usefulness and their relations, is often brought to our notice as we travel through the country and meet starved old women by the wayside, either dead or trying to walk to some far- c 1 8 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES off town, where they think or know that some com- passionate relation may, perchance, still live. In such cases love has been outlived and there is no horror of death. I said " sad existence " ; but, while it looks and is sad from our point of view, it would, in those far-off animal days, be a natural state of affairs and no one would be sad about it. The mother, however, owned the children so long as she could keep them, and they in their wanderings, if they ever thought about it, would never connect a father as the cause of their being, but would look on and consider the mother as their sole progenitor. As Hartland in his Primitive Paternity says : " Birth is a phenomenon independent of the union of sexes. By this it is not meant that, at the present time, every- where among such peoples physiological knowledge is still in so backward a condition that the co-operation of the sexes is regarded as a matter of indifference in the production of children. That would be to contradict the facts. To-day the vast majority of savage and barbarous natives are aware that sexual union is ordinarily a condition precedent to birth. Even among such peoples, however, exceptions are admitted without difficulty : and there are peoples like certain Australian tribes who do not yet understand it. Their state of ignorance was probably once the state of other races, and indeed of all humanity. The history of mankind so far as we can trace it, whether in written records or by the less direct, but not the less certain methods of scientific investigation, exhibits the slow and gradual encroachments of knowledge on the THE PRIMITIVE WEST AFRICAN 19 confines of boundless ignorance. That such ignorance should once have touched the hidden springs of life itself is no more discredible than that it should have extended to the cause of death." I think we may trace to this period of " Mother- right " the fact that many primitive people in Africa still trace their descent through the mother branch of the family, where the nephew succeeds to his uncle's rights and possessions. And so far as my experience goes " Father-right " is in Africa, comparatively speak- ing, a modern invention due to Mohammedan or Christian influence. So strong was " Mother-right " in the Congo that I can remember a trader's factory being attacked because he had sent his daughter by a native woman to Europe to be educated ; and until quite lately a father among the Bavili could only say he owned those of his children he had redeemed. (See At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, page 41.) It may be well said then of Africa, as Hartland says in Primitive Paternity. "The conclusion seems irresistible that Father-right is traceable not to any change in savage or barbarous theories of blood relationship, but to social and economical causes." But there succeeded to this state of hunger, wander- ing, and haphazard propagation, when life, danger, death, and mystery, though experienced, were not thought about, a time when man and woman became companions, and finally found it necessary or con- venient to live together in a more or less settled state. c 2 THE BEGINNING OF ANIMISM HIS VENERATION FOR STONES AND TREES IN Benin, wooden images are sacred to some river spirits, such as Ovia, Ovatu, Ibwili, and Erede ; while stones are found in the groves of the spirits of the Rivers Okwhai, Olokun, Ake, Okbi, Okunwan, Akwiaon, Okwa, and Ogha. All wooden figures representing their ancestors are called by the people Elimi or Enimi. Men of science take us back to electrons in the kingdom of matter, to protophyta in the vegetable kingdom, and to protozoa in the animal. Life is evident in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and men of science now tell us that the mineral kingdom may also be living matter. It is no use our talking to the uneducated native of Africa about electrons, proto- phyta, or protozoa ; but, when we tell him that stones and trees, as well as animals, have life in them, he looks upon us with a certain amount of compassion, as if to say : " Have you just found that out ? I have been trying for centuries to tell you this, but you have told me that my belief is simply superstitious." Yes, subconsciously, the so-called savage or primitive man has for a long time believed implicitly in the truth of 20 THE BEGINNING OF ANIMISM 21 this speculation of the laboratories. In this stage of man's development, it may truthfully be said that instinct is fast passing into individual and racial intelligence. Darwin told us long ago that the differ- ence in mind between man and the higher grade of animals, great as it was, was certainly one of degree and not of kind. I wonder who was the better inter- preter of nature : the native of Africa who humbly felt himself part of these kingdoms, or the arrogant westerner who called the unstudied instinctive conclusions of the native superstition. Not only does the native suffer, but those observers who see in his instinctively built up institutions something worth studying are regarded by the westerner as creatures suffering from some mental delusion, a kind of " disease not unknown among Europeans who have lived a long time in savage countries." And when such a person has learnt something of the progress of science, and has suddenly been confronted with the inner meaning of what he calls symbolism — which may be said to coincide with the scientific progress he has read about — he accuses the diseased ones of putting ideas into the Blackman's mind, or satisfies his arrogance by calling the description fantastic. This kind of person has not learned that the sprouting of intelligence in primitive and civilised man respectively is the same : and he is not ready to accept a truth, wrapped up in symbolic or poetic language ; because he himself would not have so expressed it. He has no pity for the ignorance of 22 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES primitive man whose want of twentieth century vocabulary has not permitted him (primitive man) to express a truth in twentieth century language. The Bini woman desirous to become a mother goes to a sacred stone and invokes it accordingly. " Call me not 'stone,' " answers the stone, " I am a being : " and he grants her prayer. The Oni of Ife asserts that when the Creator had finished making the world He turned to stone again. Herbert Spencer quoting Piedrahita (Sociology i-i page 1 80) says "the Laches worshipped every stone as a god, as they said they had all been men, and that all men were converted into stones after death, and that a day was coming when all stones would be raised as men." A Chukchi female Shaman showed a recent scientific traveller a stone of peculiar shape which she called her husband. {Primitive Paternity, page 119, Hartland.) An egg-shaped pebble of quartz two inches long by an inch and a half in greatest diameter was formerly used in the western division of Sandsting parish as a cure for sterility. (Ibid, page 79.) Beneath a chair (which is of stone and much worn) in Finchale Priory Church in the county of Durham is shown a seat, said to have the virtue of removing sterility and procuring issue for any woman who, having performed certain ceremonies, sat down therein and devoutly wished for a child. (Ibid, page 129.) The truth buried in all this is that stones were and still are believed to have a living principle in them. THE BEGINNING OF ANIMISM 23 Our men of science now tell us that stones may have life in them, and although we may not believe in their magic influence it is certain that Africans as well as ourselves use iron " to make us strong" as they say, and many other minerals as medicines. Trees are planted over the graves of chiefs in Benin City, and in many other places in Africa, and we may presume that in many towns which once existed but of which there are few traces the same custom held good. These spots are in many cases covered with dense bush, among which are the sacred trees, some of which are still looked upon as the home of the soul of some departed ancestor by his descendants now living in other places. Trees are said to grant children to women. " As in the case of trees," writes Hartland in Primi- tive Paternity, " so also plants of smaller growth have been referred to transformations of sacred or mysterious personages. " The various legends of the origin of maize are too well known to need repetition. The Brazilian legend of the manioc is similar. It was a maiden born to a chiefs daughter who had never known man. She grew to maturity in a year, died without disease, and was buried in her mother's house. The grave was watered every day according to the ancient custom of the tribe, and in due course a plant grew up from it, flourished and bore fruit. . . . " A scene portrayed on the walls of a chamber in the Great Temple of I sis at Philae represents the dead body of Osiris with stalks of corn springing from it, 24 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES while a priest waters the stalks from a pitcher in his hand." Frank in " Modern Light on Immortality" says: " The element of the tree worship undoubtedly evinces the aboriginal origin of the Druidical worship ; for it is easily traced through the entire Scandinavian mythology." It is Odhinn who with his two brothers goes forth throughout the world to find Ask and Embla, the ash and the elm. Finding these stocks void of life, they breathed into them the living spirit, and from their bosom sprang the human race. HIS RELATION TO ANIMALS AGAIN, among the Yoruba we find Iro, the chim- panzee, confused with Oro, the departed spirit of the first father. They say that Iro had the power of sacrificing to the Orishas in such a way that he could obtain children for the sterile and barren. He killed one of his master's children, ran away, and became a chimpanzee ; and now if anyone wants a child from Oro he will get a ram and peto (corn beer) and take them to the Oro grove and ask the master of Iro to take the offering to him. " The Moors consider it wrong to kill a monkey, because the monkey was once a man whom God changed into his present shape as a punishment for the sin he committed by performing his ablutions with milk. The Chukchi of North- Eastern Siberia believe that if a person is cruel to brutes his soul will after his death migrate into some domestic animal." (The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas, Westermarck.) Here then we find that the souls of human beings are as it were degraded back to animals on account of their brutality ; and I think it is worth while to note that while the primitive man feels himself much more 25 26 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES closely related to the animal world than does his civilised fellow creature, he still looks upon it as an inferior world to his — a place for brutes that good men dislike and fear. Egyptian gods taking advan- tage of this fear are said to have turned themselves into beasts to keep men in order. " The adoration and worship of beasts among the Egyptians," says Diodorus, " seems justly to many a most strange and unaccountable thing and worthy enquiry : for they worship some creatures even above measure, when they are dead as well as when they are living ; as cats, ichneumons, dogs, kites, the bird Ibis, wolves, and crocodiles, and many other such like." He informs us of the extraordinary expense and care to which the priests put themselves when providing for the living animals, and even still more extravagant labour to which they went in observing the obsequies of the sacred animals. He says : " No similar worship was to be found among any of the ancient people. . . . ." Evidently in some way all these ceremonies point to some occult relation or conception of some common derivation between man and beast, which is not apparent but must be deduced from concomitant circumstances. Diodorus hints — " that the first gods were so few, and men so many above their number, and so wicked and impious, that they were too weak for them, and therefore transformed themselves into beasts and by that means avoided their assaults and cruelty. But afterwards they say that the kings and princes of the earth (in gratitude to them for the first authors of HIS RELATION TO ANIMALS 27 their well being) directed how carefully those creatures whose shapes they had assumed should be fed while they were alive and how they were to be buried when they were dead." (Frank's Modern Light on Immortality, p. 88.) In the Congo, among the Bavili, the Leopard has a Court ; certain other animals holding the same offices, which are called by the same names as persons of the King's Court ; the Mfumu or king calling him- self the Leopard. Among the Yoruba, the only person allowed to call himself the Leopard is the Alafin of Oyo. (For more about the Leopard see Nigerian Studies, At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, and The Folklore of the Fjort. ) On the other hand, a grandfather in Abeokuta who loved his grandson's wife told her that after his death he would come back to the world as her son. And a slave in Benin City who was very basely treated by his mistress, whom he hated, threatened to come back to life again as her son as a punishment for her cruelty —and, as all the Benin world knows, he fulfilled his threat and is now in that city giving his mother a fearful time of it. He insists on going to market with her, and cries for all he wants until she gives it to him. The souls of the dead are thus seen to have departed into stones, trees, and animals, and sterile men and barren women can by prayer obtain life- giving powers from either of these representatives of the three kingdoms. The native thus recognises three sources of life : that which is in the stones, that 28 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES which is in the trees, and that which is in man the representative of the animal kingdom ; but these sources of life are rather the ancestors of the native than the intrinsic life of the stones or trees them- selves. The stone or tree is, in many cases, to the soul of the ancestor what the body is to the life and soul of living man. I have sketched the primitive African animated by the desire to eat, to drink, and to copulate ; and I have briefly shown how his thoughts became associated with the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, which he had come to connect with his desires. The desire for existing things and the desire for copula- tion and the means for satisfying these desires were present to primitive man long before he had come to see any connection between procreation and produc- tion ; and it was only after he had stored observa- tions of the growth of plants and the order of the seasons, and had drawn conclusions from his observa- tions, that he came to grasp any idea of this connection. ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN IN CONNECTION WITH THE CATEGORIES AFTER many years of gradual development man started to plant, and he did so at the season of the year which his ancestors had handed down to him as the marriage season. Man had now entered well into the animistic stage of his existence ; and the hunter had developed not only into a farmer, but also into a medicine-man. Man also, though perhaps still more or less of a wanderer, had settled down during the rainy season and lived with his wives and family. He watched the seasons, and noted that after having copulated and planted his wife conceived and plants germinated ; his wife became pregnant, and the earth yielded its fulness or harvest ; and, finally, as the fruits of trees rotted, so his wife either died with the dying rainy season or then lived through the dangerous 7th and 8th months, and finally gave birth to her offspring just at the time of rest and before he had to go trapping fish and hunting animals again. This all seems to me a perfectly natural development of that sympathetic magic of which we hear so much as existing between procreation and production and the seasons. 3o NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES The dry season we have already connected with trapping and hunting, and the sense of hearing and calling ; and the senses of smell, sight, and touch have been associated with copulation. The rainy season cannot be dissociated from the progression of procreation and production. Marriage and farming may be said to have produced the priest, the doctor, and the farmer. The necessity of exchange of products brought forth the markets and the buyer and seller. And the necessity of better implements of hunting, war, and farming produced the blacksmith and other mechanics. And in this way the progress of civilisation may be said to be perpendicular,1 and should fall into the order as already given in the infantile stage of man. I will now give you a list of words in each of the different classes, which clearly shows that each class is intimately connected with the categories as given in At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, i.e., ( Water \ ( Earth ^j f Rainy season! i] 2J 3 ^Marriage (Fishing, etc. J [Hunting, etc.J [Planting f Motion 1 (Action \ (Travail j 4-j 5 J Pregnancy 6 j Life [Conception J [Harvest [Death I am dealing here, it must be remembered, solely with what I have called the perpendicular develop- ment ; and if I am allowed I will go further and say 1 For my meaning of the word "perpendicular" see page 3, formula <£. ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN 31 that the meaning of the words, which form the pre- fixes Nos. 2, 3, and 4, in themselves refer to the main headings of the three categories — Water, Earth, and Planting. (2) Mu— Mi . . . Mu = Sea. (3) Xi or Ki — Bi . . Xi or Ki is sometimes translated as "at the house of." And is earth, and in the word Anciama or Xama, the rain- bow, we have Xi taking the place of ANCI, earth. (4) Di or Li — Ma . Di or Li are roots of the words Dia or Lia, which mean food. THE LIST OF WORDS. Category — Water Class (2) Mu or M and N, plural Mi. Next to the " Revelation " or space class VA — MU, we have that which is revealed Muinda, pi. Minda, or that which shines. The verbs in this class are formed in many cases by Onomatopoea, i.e., the sea or that which U.U.U's or roars, Mu, pi. Miu\ the stream that Bu Bu Bu's or babbles and flows ; the rain that falls Nnoka, pi. Minoka ; the steam that rises from hot food that smells Muku, pi. Miuku ; salt that has been evaporated from the sea Mungwa, pi. Miungwa ; Muali fibre from which traps are made; Ntambu, pi. Mitambu, a trap or that which is tied ; Mushinga a belt; Nleki the fisherman. 32 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES The child now adolescent (Ntenda, pi. Mitenda) is blessed with a heart (Ntima) and a soul (Mwanda). He has learnt to associate the sound of the bell with announcement (Nsamu) ; the sound ( To) of the arrow as it flies through the air with the one who shoots (Munta) \ the sound of speech and the mouth (Nua). The name of this season is Mwici, and it is composed of two months called the depth of salt water and of fresh water. Philologically then this Mu — Mi class has been clearly shown to be connected with the fishing season and my category headed Water. The following are the names of fish, animals, etc., in this trapper class : Nsangi whitebait ; Ngola catfish ; Nzonji small scaly fish ; Mbete slug ; Nkala crab ; Nygungu spider ; Nsusu Ankiengele water spider ; MfuLu tortoise; Mbambi lizard ; Mboma black python ; Mpidi an adder; Nzau elephant; Nguvu hippopotamous ; Ngulu pig ; Ngombo the wild ox ; Mpakasa a buffalo ; Nkombo a goat ; Nkoko a goat ; Mpiti a small gazelle-like antelope ; Mbumba a cat ; IVLbwa a dog ; Mpuk^l rat ; Ngulumaci manatee ; Nsekele rabbit ; Nkewa, Nkima monkeys ; Mkusu parrot ; Nduwa plantain-eater ; Ngono crow ; Nuni-Eyanga a stork ; Nkitikiti a moorhen ; Nsunguluwa kingfisher ; Nsusu a fowl ; Nkelele a guinea -fowl ; Mbobobo a wood pecker » Ndiedie a small blue bird. We naturally expected a large number of fish and animals in this " trapping" class, as well as in the hunting class which follows it. ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN 33 Category — Earth. Class (3) Ki or Xi (Tchi), plural Bi. In this class we find words expressing office, agency, or condition, or words which in their English equivalents end in the suffixes ship, ness, dom — Xitinu kingship, from Ntinu a king. When nobles in Loango speak of the earth they use the word Xivili, which is also the name of their language. The centre of digestive thought Xifundi is often said to be the stomach Xivumu. Xizuissu means right, — reason he calls Xizonza, and intelligence Xibalanga (the verb Zonza meaning to disagree and Balanga to keep on hardening). Xinsu is a sign ; Xizala a nail of the finger; Xisa a picture; Xina a thing forbidden; Xibunzu esteem; Xidunzindunzi tete-a-tete. Grass is called Xititi, and firewood Xixi. This category falls into the place of the season of two months (Xicivu) called Bunji, the end of the cold dry season nearing the end of the hunter's season and the beginning of the rains. The ancient hunter used either a cudgel Kodi or Bota, and later on a kind of hatchet Xitali ; he gained access to young animals by mimicking their mother's call or cry Dilu. He was thus a great deceiver Mvuni. Small showers Wangawanga warn the hunters and fishermen that it is time for them to leave their hunting-camps and return to their villages to repair their houses. In this Ki — Bi class we have the deceitful little 34 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES gazelle-like antelopes Kinkuba- and Kimpiti, the cat Budi and the hyena Kimbungu, the water rat Kondana-Mpati, the rat Kimbwa, the buzzard hawk Kimbi, the kite Kimbembe, the owl Kutukudia, cock bird of the whydah Kinsengwa^ the sand-martin Lekamayenga, the partridge Kinkwavi, the quail Kimbimbi, the green snake Kinzengele, the small snake Kimbanda, the adder Minamaki, the tadpole Diokolo, the frog Xidi, the toad Kiwula, a small fish fizdfc', the shrimp Kimbidingi, the firefly Minikama- lenge, the dragon-fly Venga Mpunza, the mantis Xikansatnbi, the grasshoppers Vengela, Kintele, Kinxiamaji, and Kisasi', the caterpillar Kimpiatu, the unicorn beetle Kinkakala, the small beetle destructive to skins Kulukuku, and the cicada insect Kintendela. The generic name for small insects Kinzanzala, the jigger Z^^flfe, the bug Kinsekwa, the winged ant Yinswa, the black stinging ant Kiansudi. Category — Marriage and Planting. Class (4) E or Di or Li, plural Ma. The beginning of the rainy season Nvula is the period of evolution and production. Drizzle Liwunge covers the head of the fisherman, and the dew Lidime in the early morning still glistens like pearls on the grass. The first rains come as a surprise Lixivi, and husbands hurry to fix the king post Likunji of the shelter Lilondo to protect their wives from the heat Libabala of the sun so like that of a furnace Esoka, and young males Eyakala who have passed through ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN 35 the house of circumcision Lilongo search for mates. This is the season of marriage Likwela, vagina Likota and scrotum Likata, and the smell that the first rains cause the earth to give forth, a smell of a slightly musky odour, is said to suggest (Liambu — suggestion) thoughts of marriage to virgins and animals that have not yet given birth to young Esundi\ gentleness Malembe gives way to anger and passion Likaxi and Likudi, and the virgin's breasts Libeni are developing and she is ready to become a breeding animal Lixina. Men having married make a fence of papyrus Liwu around their wives' huts. This is a time of imagina- tion when men's thoughts are lightly turned to love and marriage. They marry and think of offspring. But it is not only a season of marriage, but also one of sowing and planting ; the woman takes care of her hen's eggs, and her thoughts are carried to the time when these eggs Liaxi will become chickens. She plants her seed Linsansa and thinks of the harvest she will reap from her fields Lima and farm Liyangala, such as corn Lisa, pumpkin Lilenge, sweet potato Livuta, ground nuts Liakila, beans Limbandi, cassava Edoko, the plantain Dinkongo. All these thoughts of the good time coming are a source of gladness and joy Liyanji. Man still hunts, but round about his farm and with dogs " Eveta" The earth produces the edible fungi Libalantoto and Etumbudia, and dead fish Etidi float down the rivers. This they cook in pots placed on three stones Makukwa. Sheep Limeme are now kept, and in this (E, Li, Di, plural Ma) class we have the following animals, etc., in addition to the D 2 36 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES sheep : Ekombe the civet, Dievwa the jackal, Ebulan- sunga the flying squirrel ; the rats Etonga, Etumpu, and Esunjia ; the mouse Etutu. The hornbill Epanji, the pelican Elembe, the whydah bird when not in plumage Eseke, the dove Eyembe. The small juju omen bird Ekuluntietie, the lizard Ekolombo, the cerastes viper Euta, the tadpole Etakangola, the bull- frog Esundu. The snipe fish Eleka, the spider Esangangungu. The carpenter-bee Efungununu, the hornet Dingungu, the blowfly Ekulumbwanji, and the flies Evukunia and Evekwa. Ekonko is the generic name for grasshoppers, and the large one with purple wings is called Ebangia. The caterpillars Ebanda- Nzaji Elamalama belong to this class. The white working ant Ekeketele, and the one that eats it the Elendeji also. Category — Season of Conception and Germination Class 5 (Lu, pi. Tu). This class of prefix gives a collective noun a special and divided sense. Mbu, the sea, an open space, becomes Lumbu, the enclosed space where man keeps his wife. It is the end of one period and the beginning of another, as in fermentation, and so a kind of new birth (Luwutilu}. The seed sown moves on to a stage of germination (Luwalumukd), and man, having come in contact or touch (Luviakana) with woman, conception (Luyinita) takes place. Most words ending in English in " tion " expressing ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN 37 the manner of the action or movement of the verb belong to this Lu — Tu class. Sickness (Luhika) overcomes the wife, and man's love (Luzolu) and desire (Luvuilu) cause him to build the fence (Lumbu) round her hut to guard her from the fury of beasts (Lonzo) and wind (Lunga). Man cannot remember his birth (L,uwutilu)> nor the beginning of things (Lubantumu). He may retain a vague impression of the time when he was carried in a sling (Lusembe) on his mother's back. He can perhaps recall the time when he ceased to crawl, and the action of walking (Luliatu) commenced. He remembers quite well the passing away of childhood, and when he reached the adult state (JLumbiUu)^ and when he first wore an apron of leaves (Lukumfu). Then came that craving (Lumpeme) for mutual affec- tion (Luzolanu] and its fulfilment in marriage (Longd) and conception (Lukumit) ; and now that his wife has conceived he must appease the father thunder-god in heaven, who taught him to make the hatchet and axe (Luaji\ and make him an offering (Lutambiku), and see to the purification (Luveleleso) of his wife. I There are few or no animals, etc., in this class. Category of Harvest and Pregnancy Class 6 (Ku— Ma) This is the season of harvest and pregnancy during which the Diviner is very busy. Speaking psycho- logically, all the parts of the body are full of action in some way ; and omens are figured to the Bavili by birds, frogs, snakes, and colour, and every sense is in 38 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES this way touched. Some omens predict evil, and others safety. These omens guide the fisherman and the hunter when in their search for food. They help man to discover evil-doers. They portend death — but perhaps their principal use is that they cause man to stop and think before he undertakes anything or acts. This season of harvest is well represented by this class of nouns which reproduces in a substantive form most of the verbs in the language. Ku — Ua to hear. Ku Uu a place where a thing is heard. Ku Tu an ear. Ta is to say or tell. Ku Ta to collect an assembly of people in a place where the thing is heard , this is generally in the market- place. This season of harvest or reaping (KusaZa) is repre- sented by the deity or power Kung^^, (an amassing). Having plenty of food, this is a time when man enjoys good health, sturdiness, and strength (Kumamd). The coming of harvest or pregnancy is awaited with great anxiety, more especially in time of dryness (Kwijima), when shortness (Kufama) brings groaning (Kungd) in the place (Kuma) where food should be sold. This is a time of selfishness (Kuyindula) and pretence (Kuvunina), sometimes of suicide (Kuvondd). Inquiry (Kunkd] is made, and homage (Kunda) is paid to the power (Kungu) presiding over this season, and repent- ance and remorse (Kubanza) is evident everywhere, and then comes the dawn (Kuma) of a brighter day, and order (Kumpama or Kubama) reigns once again. There are apparently no animals in this class, and ANIMISTIC PLANTING MAN 39 but one bird, so far as I know, the Nketeidenge. This is strange, as we might have expected the birds, etc., acting as omens to have been present. Category of Travail and Construction. /WorU Class7 *j c "5 •2« vj "c/3 rt < <5 J a, E "S •f i— i *l H C/2 o "5 _ c "C 13 ^ O c •d ca ^ 1 1 1 (8 5 < § 1 c s. QJ £ 1 1 2 h 1 a .2 U ;nsion 1 ^ W £? o* f» ^ r3 .« 0) w 0 ilia Ctt C^' ^^ ^5 u § O ? 1 c o § "I & Nzambi § 1 i -g 1 I ^ z & s Determi "3 cr c Knowlc "c o 1 c t c _0 - — c o "^ »J J- .2 "£ "3 o 1 c u- s ^ § a> u tn g Ei u JC M « S 5 U O u S 5 o HI M ro TJ- U"> vo r^ 00 ON 6o NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES 2. Anyone who leads one astray by making false pictures, prevents production, and is as evil as the Mbambingombi monitor lizard. 3. Xibika-Bakolu silence as to the name of the King and God is figured by the spitting viper Mpili, who kills those who by their noise and foolish talk disturb his rest. 4. The restless fowl or cock Susu 1 is said to remind the chief to rest on the fourth day. 5. And Bed, the silver fish, possibly owing to the damage it does to the net of its master fisherman, has become the sign of resistance to parental authority. 6. The shark Nkwimbi reminds them that it is wrong to murder. 7. Nvuli the water buck is like the woman who listens to the adulterer who would ruin her. 8. Ngulubu is the pig that steals food in the market place. 9. Nkufu is the tortoise, who is always throwing the blame of his own evil actions on to his neighbours. 10. Nvubu is the greedy hippo, who appears to the Bavili to covet all he sees. Things like the actions of these creatures they must not do. The order above is that of the Ten Commandments as given by Moses, and I have adopted it so that we may readily compare the moral ideas of the Bavili with those of the Israelites. 1 See pages 214 and 245 "At the Back of the Black Man's Mind." MAN AND THE MORAL LAW 61 The West African believes in a Supreme God. He believes also in intermediate powers, as the man of science believes in the motion that was caused by the first cause in the beginning, and here he differs from the positivist. He certainly does make images, and they are to be seen in his sacred groves. The groves themselves are dedicated to " powers," much as Churches are dedicated to saints, who are said by certain Christian sects to intervene on behalf of worshippers of God. The taking of the name of God or King in vain is prohibited by the West African generally. They rest on the fourth and not on the seventh day, and here their law differs in detail from that of Moses. It seems to me that the Bavili, at any rate, rests on the fourth day because this is the period when according to his philosophy God's work of creation ceased. Natural development under His guidance carried on His work to completion also in the fourth period. The West African knows that it is right to honour his parents. He knows that it is wrong to kill, commit adultery, to steal, and bear false witness. And finally, he knows that it is wrong to covet. Broadly speaking Xina Xivanga Nzambi covers the first 3 Commandments Xina Va Xifumba „ the 4th and 5th „ Xina Nkaka „ the 6th, yth, 8th and 9th Com- mandments Xina Nsoxt covers the loth Commandment Their law Xina Mvila against wrong marriage is not included in the Ten Commandments of Moses. 62 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES Now let me try to reconcile the natural order of the categories as they have fallen into their places in the acrostic fashion they have, in accordance with the prefixes in their language, with this order of the Moral Law. The first three categories are governed by the prefixes : — 1. Plural noun Zambi. 2. Va-Mu class connected with space and the winds. 3. Mu-Mi class connected with equity and moral ideas. These are all Godlike ideas, and I have shown that sins against these ideas have been summed up by the Bavili under their Xina, Xivanga- Zambi or God the creator class. The fourth and fifth lateral categories are those of instrument and of place. 4. Xi or Ki or I plural Bi or Yi class connected with reason and truth. 5. Di, Li, E plural Ma class relating to marriage and supplication. These two classes have to do with the law of rest on the fourth day, when the father sees that his fetishes are in order, and prays for his people and the honouring of their parents by the offspring. This is covered by the class Xina Va Xifmba. 6. 7, 8 and 9, refer to the manner, action, quality in law-abiding man. He commits murder or adultery, or MAN AND THE MORAL LAW 63 theft, or bears false witness — the process is the same, he must 1. Class Lu — Tu (i) Propitiate those he has sinned against. 2. ,, Ku — Ma He must do (2) homage and repent, and he 3. „ Bu — Ma must be (3) obedient and abide by the 4. „ Mu — Ba judgment and become a (4) law-abiding, truthful man. These 6th, yth, 8th, and 9th Commandments are covered, as we have noted, by the class Xina Nkaka. The last class is the general one into which all foreign words are placed, N or M making Zin or Zim in the plural. Man must not covet all these things which are not his — Xina Nsoxi. CONCLUSION IN conclusion let me repeat that the natives of Africa like other human beings have divided ideas first of all into two great divisions. For example, mankind is of two kinds, the Sons of God (their first ancestor), and Slaves ; good people and bad ; light and darkness ; day and night ; spirit and matter, and so on. The next division of their thoughts is where they are divided into families of fours. The four in each family are represented by the ancestor, the mother, the father, and the offspring parts, or the from, through, of, and in, in all things. Four sets of these families form a group of sixteen, and two of these groups fill in a " formula." One of these groups is the outward and visible manifestation of the other, which may be invisible, but they cannot be separated one from the other. A man may be struck by a stone thrown from the arm or sling by some one from some place which is to him invisible. The injured one, however, feels the blow and has an idea of the manner in which the stone was thrown. He is sure the action was that of throwing, experience has taught him so much. Pain assures him that he is hurt. He is conscious of the 64 CONCLUSION 65 presence somewhere of an invisible enemy, and he does his best to discover him so that he may know why this person has acted in this way. In other words, action cannot be separated from the doer or actor. Now the result of many years' study of the West African's mode of thought leads to the conclusion that he is (in however backward a state) a scientific, religious, and law-abiding man, and in this way he is fundamentally at one with other human beings all over the world. Let me substitute for the words Religion, Science, and Law, those of Instinct, Reason, and Habit. It is easy to understand that Habit is where Reason and Instinct meet ; and as the native would say, it is their offspring. That is to say, Habit is of the instrument Reason, through the doer Instinct, and this Instinct (to fall in with the African's philosophy) must have an ancestor from which it has come. Let us call this ancestor Personality. Then under the heading Personality we have the parts Instinct, Reason, and Habit. These four are invisible : how can man know that they exist ? The manner in which he is made to know that a something we call Instinct exists is by Sensation or Impression. Reason comes to him by Experience and Movement, and Habit by Capacity and Thought, and in this way he shows himself to be a knowing or conscious being. He is quite at liberty to ignore his Instinct and Reason, and he may refuse to submit to Habit, but he must take the consequences. His family will call him irreligious, ignorant, and criminal. F 66 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES Let me now write down the four invisible and four visible parts of this category : — Personality Instinct or Religion Reason or Science Habit or Law Impression or Sensation Experience or Movement Capacity or Thought Consciousness Now this category of Personality is in itself a result, and it has in it parts of three previous categories which we shall call the (a) from, (b) through, (c) of, categories. Let us first consider the "of" category. Religion or Instinct is of Receptivity ; Reason or Science is of essentiality ; Habit or Law is of order or place. Impression is of manner ; Experience is of action ; and Capacity is of quality. Through. Instinct or Religion comes to man through the heart or soul ; Reason or Science through the body ; Law or Habit through the medulla oblongata ; Impression through the Pons Varolii ; Experience through the cerebellum ; and Capacity through the cerebrum. CONCLUSION 67 From. Instinct or Religion man feels must have been inspired by some perfect spirit ; Reason or Science must have originated in man from some Omniscient source ; Habit or Law from the order in creation (the seasons), the Word that ordered all things; and this is made evident to conscious man, because he is impressed by the manner in which the world has been designed ; he feels that this design manifests the great conceiver the cause of his instinctive religion. In all actions which he experiences he recognises the movements of the Omniscient ; and in his capacity to build up Habit and Law he is conscious that he is really submitting to the Will of the God from whom, through whom, of whom, and in whom are all things. Let me express these ideas in the formula of the Bavili. It must stand for an example of how the lateral developments may perhaps be filled in. o God 32 parts 16 16 From Through I Creator (space) Substance Of In Spirit Person 2 Conceiver Heart l Receptivity Instinct or Religion 3 Omniscient Body2 Originality Reason or Science 4 Word (place) Medulla oblongata Order Habit or Law 5 Design Pons Varolii Manner Impression or Sensation 6 Motion Cerebellum Action Experience or Movement 7 Will Cerebrum Quality Capacity or Thought 8 Image of God Substance Spirit Person 9 Other things 1 Heart represents Circulation, Respiration, and Inspiration. 2 Body stands for Bones, Muscles, Nerves. 68 NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES I now feel that I have written enough to point out the importance of the study of these categories at the back of the Black man's mind, and many as my errors and discordances may be, I cannot help feeling that I have at least been able to supply the future African philosopher with enough matter to guide his thoughts in the right direction towards the restoration of a most beautiful natural philosophy, which has led the West African step by step to acknowledge one God as the Ruler and Creator of the Universe, and one moral law, which is common to all mankind, as his guide to good conduct. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. NON-CIRCULATING BOOK BIOLOGY LIBRARY G 886716 HOLOGY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY