Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

32 THINKING BLACK
accurate African analogy is found in thinking of Benguella
as the sort of Western Zanzibar, and busy transport Bihe
as the Unyanyembe of these latitudes. This Bihean,
though, scores oflF his Eastern brother in having more
commercial initiative, whereas in the prowess of war
"clash of arms" they call it—the poor Bihean is as
famous a "woman in war" (sic) as the Arab Rugaruga
is a historic horror. The very grammar of the story tells
this tale, for the proper noun " Rugaruga " became
ultimately the proper verb (and improper, alas !) meaning
" to murder and loot," all around Lake Mweru. Both of
them professional slavers, the Bihean in the West found
himself in the grip of a much more keen economic process
than the Munyamwesi man out East. For unlike the
Bihean's Portuguese master, the fastidious and aggressive
Arab kept commerce in his own hands, disdaining a
delegate. On the other hand, the lethargic Portuguese
threw all the initiative on the bold Bihean, of course
throwing at him at the same time a few hundred pounds'
worth of guns, powder, and calico. The black factotum
thus armed with a curious power of attorney in the form
of a huge Portuguese flag disappeared '* over the hills and
fiar away" for a nine months' pacific (!) penetration of
the Interior. No sedentary Portuguese, as a rule, even
followed him to ask nasty questions, and if the man from
Lisboa ever had any curiosity about the Interior it very
seldom seemed to have crystallised into active exploration
— Silva Porto of Belmonte the great exception. Thus it
came to pass that in a quarter of a century the Bihean