Journal of the African Society

JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY NO. VII. APRIL NOTE.—There are many subjects in Africa, such as Racial Characteristics, Labour, Disease, Currency, Banking, Education and so on, about which information is imperfect and opinion divided. In none of those complicated and difficult questions has Science said the last word. Under these circumstances it has been considered best to allow those competent to form an opinion to express freely in this Journal the conclusions to which they themselves have arrived. // must be clearly understood thai the object of the Journal is to gather information, and that each writer must be held responsible for his own views. THE PROVINCE OF KABBA, NORTHERN NIGERIA Introductory—Sources of Information—Natural Features—Population— Industries—Trade—Native Governments—Law—Religion—The White Man. Introductory.—The Province of Kabba, in the British Pro- tectorate of Northern Nigeria, lies in the angle made by the river Niger where it bends southward for the last time, and has an outline roughly resembling that of a haystack or a tin-loaf. It is bounded on the north and east by the Niger ; on the west by a straight line drawn from the mouth of the Kaduna to the Southern Nigerian town of Owo; and on the south by a similar line drawn from Owo to Idah on the river. The province measures roughly ioo miles each way, and its area may there- i7 vol. a 236 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY fore be guessed at 10,000 square miles, or about one third of Ireland. Lokoja, the provincial capital, and the principal White Man's town in the Protectorate, is situated (like Dublin) on the eastern boundary, midway between north and south. It faces the con- fluence of the great tributary of the Niger, the Benue, or Binwe, itself the second river of the Sudan. Kabba, the town from which the province has been named, lies nearly in the middle. To the north-west, on the riverside, is the important town of Lokoja has been a missionary and trading centre for about half a century. Egga has also been under European influences for many years. But the interior of the province has been little visited. Journeys have been made along the western and southern boundary lines. A fort with a detachment of fifty Black troops has been stationed at Kabba, and the road between that place and Lokoja has therefore been frequently traversed. Journeys and expeditions have been made from time to time from Kabba in a south-westerly direction towards Owo and Lagos. The northern half of the province is almost a blank on the map, and the map of the southern half is sketchy and misleading. The province formed the southern limit of the empire of Sokoto, or, to speak more correctly, of the region subject to Fulani slave-raids. The district north of Kabba was effectually subdued, and brought under Mohammedan influence, while that to the south was scarcely touched. As a result of these historical conditions the upper district is peaceful, and the White Man is looked upon with some friendship as a deliverer, while the lower part of the province is quite savage, and the White Man is viewed as an intruder and an enemy, and frequently resisted. Sources of Information.—Allusions to Lokoja or Egga are to be found in missionary works, and books of travel, and the history of Sir George T. Goldie's expedition against Bida con- tains references to the town of Kabba. I have further had the advantage of reading the Report of a tour by my predecessor Captain Sharpe, CM. G., which extended .from Lokoja through Kabba to Owo, thence to Idah, and back to Kabba. THE PROVINCE OF KABBA, NORTHERN NIGERIA 237 I myself spent four months in the province as Resident, at the end of which brief period I was invalided out of the Nigerian service. The first three months I passed in Lokoja, and I then made a three weeks' tour, first to Kabba, and then round an irregular loop described within the triangle drawn on the map of the province by Captain Sharpe. In the course of this tour I passed through some thirty towns and villages, some of them not previously visited by a European. My main objects in this journey were to investigate com- plaints, redress grievances, restore and confirm the crumbling authority of the chiefs, encourage road-making and agriculture, and put down the murders and highway robberies which rendered the province unsafe for travellers. Although anxious to acquire as' much information as possible, I was necessarily obliged to approach the natives in the character of a judge and ruler, rather than in that of a scientific inquirer ; and I take this opportunity of saying that in dealing with African natives I consider it is not always wise nor practicable to play both parts at once. Scientific curiosity is likely to be misunderstood by savages, and to provoke either contempt or resentment And too great a show of respect for native institutions may easily pass into an abdication of authority, and an en- couragement to such institutions as brigandage and human sacrifice. By way of further apology for the slight and fragmentary character of these notes, I may add that I had had no previous experience of Africa, or of uncivilised races, and that I was very far from being a trained observer. The very great pressure of official work left me no time for independent study, and the sudden break-down of my health necessitated my departure before I had time to put what little information I had acquired into order. In my communications with the natives I was throughout dependent on Black interpreters. In the town of Lokoja alone there are at least half a dozen languages in common use, the principal being Nupe, Hausa, and Yoruba ; and in the interior there is a different dialect spoken in almost every town. It was consequently necessary as a rule to employ two interpreters ; and I had the painful experience in one place of 238 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY trying a man for his life, with a chain of three interpreters interposed between the prisoner and myself. My regular interpreter was unfortunately a Christian, and consequently not a trustworthy guide where native beliefs were concerned. Natural Features.—The Province of Kabba is situated well above the delta of the Niger, the Benin country coming between it and the sea coast. It is for the most part hilly, a condition which may seem to account for the bend taken by the river. The hills do not take the formation of regular ranges, but of irregular groups and peaks, though here and there the road led through a pass between two hill ridges. In the south- east corner the hills are more closely massed than elsewhere, forming the Egbira highlands. In the central region it is common to encounter a solitary hill rock, rising like an island from the characteristic low flat plain of Africa. I did not come across any summit of a greater elevation than about two thousand feet, so far as I could judge. The hills are rocky, in striking contrast to the black alluvial soil of the plains, suggesting that they may at some remote period have been islands at the mouth of the great river, which deposited its sediment over the intervening spaces. The name of one hill village, the houses of which are wedged in crevices of the rock, is Chokku-chokku, i.e., Rocky-rocky, apparently the native way of saying Very-rocky. In some places the hills terminate in steep faces of naked rock, suggestive of sea-washed cliffs. I regret that I cannot say anything as to the character of the rock itself. The native word for the isolated peaks, which are the most striking feature of the province, was translated " stone " by my interpreter, and the word was a most appropriate one. Many of these "stones" are most impressive, and well worth a journey to see. The Stone of Ieri, a day's march south of Kabba, rises like a gigantic tombstone behind the town. Still grander is the superb Stone of Semarika. Seen across the plain this mountain assumes the aspect of a single enormous boulder, half a mile or a mile long at the base, and a couple of thousand feet high, in the shape of a dromedary crouching on the earth, bearing two giant humps on its back. Apart from the memory of a rather exciting morning spent on the top, the THE PROVINCE OF KABBA, NORTHERN NIGERIA 239 natural grandeur of this majestic rock was sufficient to make an indelible impression on my mind. Further south is an interesting group known by the name of Itua or Etwa—these different spellings represent pronunciations differing according to the race and dialect of the speaker. This group seemed to be composed in a circle of hills surrounding a basin from which rose a central peak, the whole formation thus resembling the crater of a volcano. I deeply regretted that my knowledge of geology did not enable me to decide whether I was in the presence of basaltic or limestone or other strata. In some places I picked up fragments of brilliant white quartz, which I examined vainly for traces of ore. On the top of the rock hill of Okpe', near the southern border, I came upon a pond swarming with turtle, which measured from six to twelve inches. On the same hill I picked up two brown shells, roughly resembling whelks, but more than twice as large.

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