The natives of British Central Africa

When you steam up the Shiré, you pass on the first, second, or some subsequent day (according to the state of the river and the capabilities of your craft), after turning out of...

The Angoni are placed last, as being the most recent arrivals in the country. They are, as will be explained later on, rather a ruling caste than a distinct race. The Makololo,...

In 1894 swarms of locusts, for the first time in thirty years, came down on the Shiré Highlands and consumed all the crops in the native gardens—even attacking at last the white...

So far as we can get at the notions of the Bantu about creation, they do not seem to have thought that this world ever had a beginning. All the stories one has met with assume i...

This district lies between the Kirk Mountains on the west and the Zomba range on the east, and the part I am thinking of is a fertile plain, slightly undulating in parts and cro...

All Bantu tribes regard the passage from childhood to adult life as a solemn event to be marked by more or less elaborate ceremonies. These vary in different places, and some ma...

I have already mentioned the _Nkalango_ thickets or groves, where the Anyanja bury their dead. I have entered several of these, but saw no signs of recent use—or anything to ind...

The principal crops cultivated in British Central Africa are maize, millet (of several kinds), rice, ground-nuts, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, yams, pumpkins, several kinds o...

The languages spoken in British Central Africa belong to the great Bantu family, which, as is now known, occupies (with a few exceptions) the whole continent of Africa south of...

We have mentioned that one of the great amusements, both of children and grown-up people, is story-telling—_ku imba ntanu_. This means literally ‘to sing a story,’ and points to...

Both Yaos and Anyanja trace descent through the mother, and cannot marry within their own clan, which is, of course, the mother’s. The Yao clans are still clearly known and name...

Slaves are not distinguished by any special mark, badge, or dress. They may possess property (such as cloth, guns, and ivory), as their owner frequently allows them to keep part...

The Yaos believe themselves to be descended from the same stock as the Anyanja, Anguru, and Awisa, while they count the Angoni as a different race, and do not profess to know wh...