East African Folk Lore.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1922, Page 4

East African Folk Lore.

— | The layman no less than the anthropologist, will find much to interest him in “Bantu Beliefs and Magic,” by Mr C. AV. Hobley. The author writes with peculiar authority on the subject. Ho has spent many years in East Africa in the Civil Service, and was formerly the Senior Provincial Commissioner in Kenya colony. His official duties brought luim into close contact with the natives, whose confidence lie gained and who helped him in his researches. The Kikuyu in particular proved most zealous collaborators. AA'hcn Mr Hobley’s inquiries touched upon mysteries which may not he revealed to the outsider they urged him to become a recognised elder of the tribe in order that they could give him the information which must be withheld from the unititated. He took their advice and remarks that bis election proved of the utmost value. Mr Hobley examines Bantu folklore, religion, and customs very minutely—some of the customs, by the way, are extremely curious—and again and again he notes a striking resemblance between East African and Semitic rites and ceremonies. How are these similarities to be explained? Are they due to parallel and independent development in the Afiican and the Semitic races? Or are they the consequence of the invasion of Africa, either by a Semitic people, or at all events by a people imbued with the principles of Semitic religion? Mr Hobley analyses tlie evidence advanced in support of either alternative and is inclined to accept tiie former. He dismisses as highly improbable a third

theory that the ancient Semitic beliefs have originated in East Africa, and spread from there to Arabia. Yet, as Sir J. G. Frazer points out in the introduction, recent investigations in this region, particularly with regard to the veins of iron and gold which were at one time worked by idle natives. tend to show that East Central Africa, including the region of the Great Lakes, was an extremely ancient seat of a rudimentary civilisation, the seeds of which may have been carried to remote parts of Europe and Asia. Tt is thought, indeed, that the art of forging iron was invented in tropical Africa, long liefore Europe had attained to the discovery and manufacture of bronze. It has even been suggested that the ingenious smith who first- fused tin and copper into an alloy may have borrowed the hint from the process of working iron which be had learned in Africa.

i Air Hoblev records many quaint superstitions, *and it is interesting to note that one of the most widespread goes by be name of “thabu,” and appears to be almost identical in character with the I’ovlnesian “taboo” and t/hc Maoii “tapu.” Tn bis last chapter lie discusses the position of native affairs in East Africa after the Great , AVar, and the problems which the ad--1 ministration has to face. He remarks on ihe spread of Tshiniism and the | growth of national aspirations among the native Africans. He declares that Africa lias not escaped the disturbing j effects of the Great AA’ar any more tllian tho rest of the world, and that the future of the relations of black and white needs most thoughtful consideration. And in this connection Sir J. G. Frazer emphasises the practical value of such anthropological studies as that which Mr Hobley lias written. They enable those who are ehnrg ed with the maintenance of order and the administration of justice among the natives to gain ail insight into the l .1 ’j .1 ? .1 _ r ; 1 i it.

habits and ideas of the people, thus greatly faeilitaing the task of government.. Indeed, without some such knowledge of the natives’ point of view it is impossible to govern him wisely and well. The savage wav of thinking is as the poles apart from that of the civilised man; it is “by no means simple, but, on the contrary, highly complex and cannot he understood without long and patient study. To legislate for savages on European principles of law and morality is always dangerous and not seldom disastrous. . . . Native customs have grown up through long experience and adaptation to natural surroundings; they correspond to beliefs which whether ill or well founded, are dcenl.y roofed in the native mind, and the attempt to discard (hem for others which have been developed under totally different conditions may injure the people instead of benefiting them.” It is this danger that the anthropologist enables the Administrator to avoid.