IN VICTORIA NYANZA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2455, 20 March 1909, Page 9 (Supplement)

IN VICTORIA NYANZA.

25,000 Natives Bossed by an American.

Queer People Who Dress in Goatskins and Use Iron Bells to Kee" off the Devil.

How the Dead are Eaten on Lake Xangani

(By Frank Carpenter in the New Orleans “TimesDemocra£”)

Away out here in ttho heart of East Africa, 100 miles below the equator, on the biggest island in Victoria Nyanza, I find an American acting as boss. He is the only white man on the island, and ho lias surrounded him something like 25.000 natives. Ho came' out to Africa expecting to make a fortune in gold mining and ivory, but the mines did not pay and the elephants were scarce, so >he settled down out here in the wilds. His business is that of a wood-cutter, and he lias a concession to furnish fuel for the lake steamers. Ukerewe is ' densely wooded, >and r this man has a big gang of blacks cutting down tree® and carrying the ‘ wood to the shore. His home is a double hut away off by itself, a half mile from the nearest village, and not far from the little wooden pier at which our steamer is lying. .It is made of cane and thatch and has only two rooms, with a passage-way through • the centre. There are several other huts at the back jvhich are occupied by his servants. The villages in which his men live are not far away. This man’s name is Henry Seifert... He'is about thirty years of age and is well-dressed and good looking. He is very intelligent, but he seems to like his life out here among the savage people. He tells me he is paid so much for every hundred cubic feet- of wood furnished. and that his job is a profitable one. He says he has had but little trouble with the natives, and, as I went about with him over the island I coidd see that they bowed down to him everywhere. 'THE ISLAND OF UKEREWE. The Island of Ukerewe is the largest in Lake Victoria. The lake is spotted with islands. They run all round the shores, and there are several large archipelagoes. One of these is the Buvuma Islands, which fringe Napoleon Gulf, out of which flows the. great river Nile. Another is the Sesse group at the. northwest, lying south of Entebbe and running south and almost to German East Africa, and a third is this Ukerewe group away down at the southeast in the German territory.

natives. Mr. Seifert tells me that there is a herd of eleven , elephants in this part pf the island, but that the German government lias made it a penalty to shoot them, and they are not molested. During our stay here the steamer has taken on a dozen cords or so of Ukerewe wood.. This is brought on board by a gang of black natives, who carried it on their heads from the place where they were chopping the trees. The distance is, I judge, at least a mile from the landing. Both men .and women are engaged in the work, and their wages were about 4or s.cents a day. They are all under this American, who is just one foreigner among 25,000 blacks, and, notwithstanding this, bosses them all. • . THE BUVUMA ISLANDS.

I wish I cou! d show you some of theso islands about which I have been travelling for the pist few months. Kavirondo Gulf is separated iroin the lake by a fringe of islands, and it was at these we stopped on our way out from port Florence. In going to Ripon'Falls and the source of the Nile we passed through the Buvuuia islands, and we spent some time in the Sesse Archipelago as we sailed southward into German East Africa, The largest group of islands in Lake Victoria is the Sesse, which belongs to Great Britain, and next to them are the Buvuma Islands, also British, which lie at the north of the lake, making a series of big stepping stones almost across Napoleon Gulf.' The Buvurca Islands are beautiful. At a distance they might be taken for some of the Thousand Islands of St. Lawrence. Some of them are covered with grass, and others are high and well wooded. Buvuma Island, which is the chief of the group, is shaped like an octopus. - It has a centre about two thousand feet high, -and from this great green tentacles branch out into the sea. It is not unlike, the Island of Celebes in shape. This island is fertile, and it has .a large population. Its people live in thatched huts, each of which ends in a steeple, bound around with grass, The. shores are covered with banana plantations, r and' the: houses' shine luve Silver out of the green. The Buvuma natives are much like the Basogas, w'ho live on the mainland about the source of the Nile, not far away. They dress in dark cloth, and the women often wear fringes of banana leaves, which are tied to a cord about their waist. The men buy their-wives with cattle, aud every man has as many wives as he can aiford. When a man dies his wives become the propefty of hie, sons. The only exception is the real mother, who is never given to her own son, but often uncle or to the father’s brother. The women are little more than the servants of tho husband, ias is the case all -around this great lake. The inen are considered superior beings. A girl may not sit on a chair or a stool, and if there is anythiiig of that kind in the hut it is monopolised by the male members of tho family, the girls using tho ground. AMONG THE SESSES ISLANDERS. The Sesse Islands are off the slioro of Uganda, the largest of them being only three .miles from the mainland. They are governed by the King of Uganda, and have a representation in. the lukiko, or council of chiefs, at Mongo. .The principal chief gets 1000 dollars a year from the British government.

I came here from Mwanza, the chief fortified "station of the German Government Ifn this part of the. world, and our steamer coasted the island for a long distance before we -landed. Ukerewe is more tropical than any other part of the lake. The island is fringed with banana plantations and dense forests cover its hills. There are many villages along the shores, and I am told +hat the population all told is about 25,000. The people are blacks who go almost naked. They wear nothing but goatskins or bits of bark cloth, which are tied over their shoulders and around their waist. Some have a heart-shaped apron of goatskin in front and behind, . and others wear aprons of whole skins which fall to the knees, The men sometimes pull such aprons around behind them when they sit so that they serve as cushions. - Mr. Seifert calls these natives the Wakerewe. As we went about together among them we were everywhere welltreated. The people seemed quiet and they allowed me to go into their huts and make photographs. They had prominent negro features, with thick lips and flat noses. Their hair is woolly where it is left to grow, but in most cases a part of the head is fbaved close. Some of the men cut off all the wool except a lock on the crown, which they tie up with banana fibres, so that it stands like a horn, straight up on the head. Others shave the head in spots. Only a few of the people have jewellery. They are too poor to buy the costly brass and iron wire which are so much worn on the mainland. I saw one woman who had on an ivory bracelet, and a man who wore an anklet composed of a section of ivory tus’k hollowed out. Others had bits of bone and glass beads tied to their hair. Nearly „all were smeared over with grease and such as had hair so covered it with oil that the smell was pronounced. WAKEREWE VILLAGES. • The villages are composed of rude huts made of cane and poles and coveied with grass ' . They have doors at the front so low that one has to stoop to go in. ..Over , some; of the doors are iron bells, which are hung so that d an evil spirit comes it . will bump, its head against the bell .and warn tne owners and perhaps be scared away. The people are superstitutious. Jn ,y believe in devils of all kinds and witch doctors. They have little, idols before which they pray, and a part of their religion is a worship of snakes. are many poisonous reptiles here, bu the natives will. not kill them nor them out of their huts; And are saidto consider death by the bite of a suave a sure passport to heaven. Ukerewe Island has dense forests, which are just filled with monkeys.. They chattered at us out of the branches as we walked through the woods/, scampering away .as we .pointed our guns at them. There are also many hippopotami there. They live all .alpng the shores and go from there, into the country. They are. sometimes trapped . in pitfalls and then harpooned hy . the

These islands are the largest and best in all Lake Victoria. There are eixtytwo of them, of which forty-five arc inhabited. In the past they have had a large population, but ivithin two or three years the sleeping sickness lias broken out there and thousands have died. There is a large hospital on tho island, -and Avas under the control of Dr. Tvoch, the famous German diphtheria specialist, avlio came out here to study the sleeping sickness. At present the Sesse group has some good-sized settlements. The natives are farmers, and they raise bananas, com, potatoes and tobacco. Coffee groAVS wild and it is said to be good. Thd Sesse Islanders are much like the Baganda. Both sexes dress in hark cloth and the women wrap bark blankets around their bodies under the arms, leaving the shoulders and breast bare. Only tlie babies are -allowed to go naked. These people are good fishermen, and they have well-made canoes. They are manufactured from the trees of soft wood, cutting the logs . into 'boards together with leather thongs and calking them. Some such boats will, hold one hundred men. In olden times it is said that certain kings of-the Sesse group had as many as four hundred canoes. : . Speaking of the missionaries, tlie Sesse Islanders are to a large extent IioAV Christians. In the; past their country was the seat of heathenism, and the home of the famed goddess, MuEasa, who ruled at Victoria Nyanza. This goddess had a temple on the Island of Bubembe. ' Her priests were supposed to own the island, and the descendant of one of them named Gugu is now ;• • : '/• : ’ /, _ ’ •_ ' sT» • ' : 1 ’ .

ite proprietor. , Giigu has OoCO acres oi land, and is rich in banana®. The Kings of Uganda formerly sent sacrifices to Mukasa. They, contributed flocksc of sheep-_and r goats, and that in such numbers that when the royal sacrifices wore made the blood ran in streams from the gates of the templo down into tlie-lake. Miitesa, tlie, grandfather of the present King of Uganda, once sent 100 slaves, 100 women, 100 cows,hand 100 goats at one time to this goddess. THEY EAT DEAD MEN.

' It is on the. Sesse Islands that the Secret Society ol\-the Bachichi, who have the custom of eating dead human beings, is believed to have its head, and at . present all who die there are watched by tlioir relatives for eight days to prevent their being so consumed. A similar custom exists in Uganda, and also along the upper shores of Lake Tanganyika. I met a German trader during my stay .at Mwanza who had just returned after a long march from Tanganyika. During this trip lie went from Ujiji, at tlie centre of the lake, •along the eastern shore to the top, and spent some time with the natives, uo tells me that the people of the different villages there are closoly related, and that when a man dies his family at once send word to their relatives of tho neighboring villages to come and take possession of the body. They do so, and then prepare a feast of which the dear departed is the pieco de resistance. The body is cut up and roasted over the fire or boiled with bananas in an earthen pot. No one pf the village to which the man belonged is allowed to join in the horrible feast, and tho family of the dead are not-.allowed to be present. Such bodies are taken away in the , daytime, soon after death, iand the procession carrying them is one of four men who use a sack for the purpose.

These people are called the Mayema,and until recently they have accompanied Hhe burial of their chiefs with human sacrifices, ten living women being buried in each grave. The legs of the women were broken at the knees and their arms at tho elbows, and they ivere then laid fiat in the grave with the dead body of the chief on top of them. After this ten live men, aa’liosc arms and legs Avere broken in the same Avay, Avere placed oA r er the top of the chief, and the grave Avas then filled tip. My authority for this last, statement is J. F. Cunningham) a Felknv of the Royal Geographic Society of London, Avho for some years Avas one of the chief British employees in this jiart'of Africa. My German friend told me that; the officials about Lake Tanganyika ha\-e been trying to stop the practice. of eating tho dead, but that the'natives are superstitious in regard to it, and it it still #n. THE ISLAND OF THE DEAD. It was shortly after leaving the Sesse Islands that our ship coasted the shores of the Island of the Dead, Avhicb lies opposite the German military station of Bukoba. It is a little rocky mass, covering but a feAV acres, which rises out of the -lake almost straight ujiAvard for se\-eral hundred feet. There is a bluff at one end, and in this there are caves which tlie natives from the mainland use as their burial 'Vaults. They bring the bodies over in- canoes and lay them. aAvay in the caves to rest.

Farther hack in the,country the Bazibas,' as these people arc called, have public cemeteries, in ivliioh they bury their chiefs in an odd Avay. As to the ordinary people, Avhen they pass away they are Avrapped in bark cloth and are placed in deep graves, after Avhich a tree is planted over each to mark his resting place. The chiefs are buried sitting or standing, in holes in the ground.- The body is so placed that AA r hcn the earth has been throAvn back tlie surface, the man being buried up to tlie neck, as it Avere. Sometimes an earthenware pot is placed over the head to protect it, but usually there is no covering of any kind. Sentries are .set to Avatch the grave night and day for a period of two months. A brother of the dead man .comes to the grave once every day to see that the watch is properly kept, and that the head does not suffer from, the attacks of birds, Avild® beasts, or even of the domestic animals belonging to the village. At the end of the Avatchi-ng the head is buried and a iioav chief is elected.

THE GRAVES OF THE BAGANDA

I suAV- graves everyAvhere during my travels in Uganda. The people bury the dead, in their gardens and a common place of burial is at the corner or- in front of the hut. Sometimes a house is built for tlie mourners, outside the family of the deceased. The mourning usually lasts a month, and at the end of that time all disperse and go to their homes. ' Graves of this kind are usually in the banana bushes and they are often covered with dried • grass or banana fibres. The corpse is washed with banana pulp squeezed from the stem of tlie plant and is Avrapped up in bark clotli. ■ ■ ' . , --

The Buvuma Islanders bury’their in much the same way, and they also erect shelters over them. These are baby huts in which the spirits are supposed to live; they are renewed from time to time AVhcn in need of repairs. The graves are; often' marked by planting trees over them. - ' The Basukumas, among whom.l travelled about the doAver . part of Lake Victoria; • bury their dead in cattle hides. The body is wrapped up' in the sfkin of an animal, just killed) and the. grave dug right ip the eeuti's of ;V~ V/:; : ' ' ,

-I;' " - ’ * Cowyard. The poor men, avlio have no cattlq, and women and boys are often burietl- in leaves in the same locality. At the same time the meat of the slaughtered beast is roasted and eaten at the Avake; and the funeral, if thatpf a big man, ends in all groAving drunk over banana beer, Avhich they suck through straws from their gourd steins.