STONE-AGE AFRICA.

Shannon News, 12 February 1924, Page 4

STONE-AGE AFRICA.

ANCIENT WEAPONS _ FOUND. LIFE IN THE^CAMEROONS. A collection, of palaeolithic and neolithic axe_heads and other* implements, found by forest tracks in West Africa, are among' the. trophies which, have been, brought home by. Mr. F. W. H. Migeod, the. explorer, who has. just returned to London. fron\, a. journey through the British Cameroons, a former German colony. . , , Hunters of the Stone Age, making their way i»to a forest or wood to hew down, trees or branches, dropped axehcads here and there alongside primeval tracks, and on. the same spots, untouched and unregarded through sucessive ages, they have lain, for the Englishman at last to pick them up.

Mr. Migead has some curious stories to tell of the marriage customs of some of the tritfes. The Mbem people of British Cameroons and the Munshi, who live* south of the Benue River, a tributary of the Niger, practise a cur-ri-BIS "iorm of double marraige. When a man marries, his sister weds the brother of his bride. Should a sister be unavailable, which is rare,., he has to give equivalent service to his brotherin law by working v for him. The average value of a sister is about three | years' not very hard work. The Munshi have laws against in-ter-marriage which that are so strict that besides them the British table of aiTmities is stark simplicity. When, a marriage is afoot a family council is convened, composed generally, of elders with long memories, whose business it is to see that there, is no impediment "of relationship between the intending bride and bridegroom. Mr. Migeod puts the matter more scientifically, and the names are not his, but it is quite clear that amid the elders the discussions must have quite a British flavour. "She was a Mbunga, but her grandfather on the mother's side was one of the Okilolos of G'Bunga. They do say.that there is a strain of that Xixoxo b100d...." and so on.

The impediments are so difficult to unravel and surmount that often the, councils break up for lengthy private discussion like an Allied Conference. One tribe has traditional names ,for r , all twins, varying as they are both boys .or .girls'or mixed. "These names were given them by God," they say. Another tribes buries its dead, like : the ancient Egyptians., in a. niche opening on to a shaft sunk into tlie ground. The. bodies are. protected with bamboos, so that no.earth, may fall into the chamber and press on them/and then the shaft is filled up.

"" The, British Cameroons are passing through, a severe crisis, says Mr. Migeod., There are great. cocoa plantations on which the Germans lavished much money. Now they ' are , largely going begging. A British capitalist is understood to have; made the Government an' offer for" them,, but it was thought insufficient., The Germans are asking.to be allowed to buy back their plantations. The only difficulty is the labour question. The Germans conscripted, labour, but the natives would probably be giad to work today, as they are anxious to make some money.