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1 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
PREFACE
THE object of this little work is twofold. In the first place I wish to show that, concurrent
with fetishism or Jujuism, there is in Africa a religion giving us a much higher
conception of God than is generally acknowledged by writers on African modes of
thought. And, in the second place, I am anxious to make clear the vital importance of the
kingly office to the African communities.
This concurrence of fetishism and a higher religion is nothing new, and as our
knowledge of primitive and degenerate people increases it will probably be found to be
quite common, if not the rule. "Traces of ancestor worship and fetishism have in all ages
been found among the Israelites, especially among those of the northern kingdom; this
is abundantly proved," writes Professor Fr. Hommel in his Ancient Hebrew Tradition
Illustrated by the Monuments, by various passages in the Old Testament literature, but it
is no more an argument against the concurrent existence of a higher conception of the
Deity than the numerous superstitious customs and ideas still prevalent among the
lower orders of almost every civilised country of the present day are arguments against
the existence and practical results of Christianity."
The lasting effect of missionary effort in Africa must depend to a very great extent on
the grasp the missionaries are capable of obtaining of this higher conception of God
which the natives of Africa in my opinion undoubtedly have, and the use they may make
of it in manifesting God to them as the one and only true God, and not merely the white
man's God.
The work of the government of the natives must also be greatly simplified if once the
importance of the kingly office is recognised. Their higher conception of God cannot be
separated from the kingly office, for the king is priest as well. Rotten and degenerate as
an African kingdom may have become, its only hope of regeneration rests in the
purification of the kingly office and of the ancient system of government attached to it. I
say ancient advisedly, because it seems to me that during the last few centuries Africa
has been having a very bad time of it, and anarchy and usurpation have been busy
upsetting older and purer customs. The disorganisation of the indigenous political
fabric gives so great an opening for political adventurers of a cunning type to step in
that the government of the country through the natives., on so-called native lines,
becomes almost an impossibility for a foreign government.
However humble this contribution to the better understanding of the working of the
African mind may be, it is hoped that it may be accepted as an attempt to uplift those
who are not already above personal and petty prejudices to the possibility of crediting
the Africans with thoughts, concerning their religious and political system, comparable
to any that may have been handed down to themselves by their own ancestors.
In giving to this work the title of At the Back of the Black Man's Mind, I rather wish to
imply that I should like to get there than to assert that I have actually solved all the
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