Click to download PDF version: 3.87MB - Global Grey

More documents

Recommendations

Info

53 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett When the time comes for her to be handed over to her husband, one of his relations proceeds to this shimbec at the break of day, and pulls her bed out of the hut by one of its legs. If she is not yet engaged to be married, then it is her father who pulls the bed out into the open. Then all the women of the maiden's family, carrying umbrellas and clean clothes and ornaments for her, take her down to the salt water, and beat the paint off her with pliant twigs; then they proceed to the nearest fresh water stream and wash and dress. The maiden's legs are loaded with great brass rings, her arms with smaller ones, while her neck and waist are hung with all the family's coral, across her breast a coloured handkerchief is hung, and the general colour of the cloth or skirts hanging to her waist is red; an umbrella completes her outfit. Then a procession is formed, and all her friends, twirling their umbrellas, sing and march through the town or towns on their way home again. All along the route the young men in the towns come out and dance before her, presenting her with some small offering. Then she is taken to her husband, and dancing is kept up during the night. And now to return to the search for the evil doers. When it became known that the Kongo Zovo were in earnest, and meant to punish the three girls and their defilers, their families hid them away, so that the people, who were now thoroughly aroused, became very angry. The month of Mbangala Nuni (December) had nearly passed, and the sunscorched stocks of the fruitless Indian corn shook their rustling leaves in mockery around the native huts, and the shrivelled leaves of the native bean lay black and crisp upon the ruddy soil, while the sweet potato shoots planted beneath the mandioca had flowered and withered long ago. Their mandioca and their half sulky palm trees alone remained, and granted that it rained shortly, might still be saved to them. The mango trees, that during the last drought had born them two great crops of their luscious fruit, this year had scarcely deigned to bear at all. On New Year's Day, as I was on my way home, I noticed a crowd of women hooting and beating a girl, who was running away from them. That girl was one of the three. She got away to her village, and prematurely gave birth to a child. Time was given to her to recover, and January 23rd was the day marked for the great dance in Maluango's capital, when the girl and her defiler should pay the penalty due to their God, King, and country for their crime. The custom is that the crime committed shall be proved against the culprit before the King and the people assembled, and the penalty is that the culprits shall be shamed by dancing naked before all the people, who heated gravel and bits of glass and threw them at the man and girl as they ran the gauntlet. The culprits were then obliged to buy some very expensive medicine by way of a fine to appease the Bakici Baci. I do not say that death may not in some cases be the penalty, but Maluango alone has the power of life and death over free men, and the people themselves would have to answer to him if they took the law into their own.hands, and killed a sinner of this kind before a proper trial had taken place. But before the 23rd the man and the girl in question had run away. In the meantime, the people in the villages around the mission had discovered the second girl who had broken the laws of her country. So they went to her town to arrest www.globalgrey.co.uk
54 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett her. But she had run away, so they tore up the plantations round about, and eased their wrath in that way. Then the head of the mission, understanding that the. people wished to kill the girl, very properly wrote to the administrator to ask him to interfere in the matter. The administrator then arrested one of the Kongo Zovo, and kept him prisoner until the culprits should be delivered up to him. And on January 27th the culprits were brought before him, and on that morning it rained. SOME SYMBOLS. Questions of this sort are settled by the people; but in some cases the palaver is considered too important for human interference; then the man wears a badge (Pl. II, b) with various symbols upon it. The great symbols which the Fjort describe upon their carved sticks, or on their cloths, are as follows:- "Ntangu Ntangu, The Sun." Vana vamonikana ntangu mbata. ina. This sign signifies: " Even if I keep putting off talking the palaver with you, we will talk it out when the sun at midday is unclouded." Ngonde Ngonde, The Moon. Vana vantentimina ngonde katekuici. The same meaning, but at midnight when the moon shines brightly. www.globalgrey.co.uk
Page 2 and 3:
AT THE BACK OF THE BLACK MAN'S MIND
Page 4 and 5:
TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER I
Page 6 and 7:
1 At the Back of the Black Man's Mi
Page 8 and 9: 3 At the Back of the Black Man's Mi
Page 16 and 17: 11 At the Back of the Black Man's M
Page 106 and 107: 101 At the Back of the Black Man's
Page 108 and 109:
103 At the Back of the Black Man's
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218 and 219:
Page 220 and 221:
Page 222 and 223:
show all

Click to download PDF version: 3.87MB - Global Grey

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?