Badagry

“ Badagry, in 1850, contained about 11,000 inhabitants. The Sierra Leone emigrants, at the former city, numbered three thousand, and, at the latter, several hundred. At the period when the emigration commenced, and for several years afterward, the slave-trade prevailed on the coast; and the people of Badagry and Abbeokuta were engaged in supplying the market with slaves. This led them to wage frequent wars, and kept up feelings of hostility throughout the country. In these slave hunts, the people of Lagos bore a conspicuous part. ”

“ Shortly after this Ikorudu trip I took advantage of the sailing of a small steamer belonging to a mercantile firm at Lagos to proceed to Badagry, which lies to the west, up the Victoria lagoon. It is thirty-three miles from Lagos as the crow flies, but the tortuous nature of the only navigable channel makes the distance very much greater for bipeds not possessed of wings. ”

“ Their history ran as follows:—About twenty years ago the son, my interpreter, was captured in the Annagoo country, and was carried down to the coast, not by the Dahomans, but by the King of Badagry’s people. From Badagry he was shipped on board a slaver for the Brazils, but the ship was taken by an English cruiser, and brought into Sierra Leone. Here, with five hundred more, he was liberated and educated; but, unfortunately, his education proved more to his disadvantage than otherwise, as it tended to aid his villanous disposition. ”

“ Owing to differences however with Kosoko, the king of Lagos, a bloodthirsty despot who had dethroned his uncle Akitoye and murdered some two thousand of his friends and adherents in cold blood, the Egbas of Abbeokuta had been obliged to use Badagry, a small independent township some thirty-five miles to the west of Lagos, as their port; doing so at great inconvenience to themselves, as communication between Abbeokuta and Badagry could only be carried on by means of difficult roads, over which all goods and produce had to be carried upon the heads of men and women. ”

“ After waiting about two hours for carriers, the old caboceer said with the most invincible gravity that he would not procure a single carrier, alleging that he had not received enough for a present. We then declared we would return to Badagry, and let the king know of his conduct, and made a show of going that way; but the old caboceer was not in the least moved. Poor Captain Adamooli, however, prostrated himself before me, laid hold of my legs, and said he should lose his head if I went back. I therefore returned, and he loaded his own people; the old wretch not giving us a single man. ”

“ A curious feature of the lagoon between Badagry and Porto Novo is the large number of floating grass islands which one passes. Some of them have sufficient stability to admit of persons walking about on them, and, were they but cultivated, would be not unlike the chinampas of the Aztecs on the lake of Mexico. They impede the navigation a good deal, as no steamer could force its way through them, and détours have to be made to avoid them, which frequently result in the repose of a sand-bank being rudely disturbed by the stem of an erring vessel. ”

“ At eight in the evening the sultan came, accompanied by the midaki, and one male slave. He began again about Youri; but I repeated what I had said before. He then asked me if the king of England was a great man. “Yes,” I said, “the greatest of all the white kings.” “But,” says he, “you live on the water?” “Oh no,” I said, “we have more land than there is between Boussa and Badag (as they call Badagry) , and more than five thousand towns.” “Well,” says he, “I thought, and always have heard, that you lived on the water. How many wives has the king?” “Only one wife,” I said. ”

“ Richard Lander, though without any scientific attainments, had exhibited such capacity for exploration that the British government decided to send him out to determine the course of the lower Niger. In the expedition he was accompanied by his brother John, by trade a printer, and better educated than Richard, who went as an unsalaried volunteer. Leaving England in January 1830, the brothers landed at Badagry on the Guinea coast on the 22nd of March. They then travelled by the route previously taken by Clapperton to Bussa on the right bank of the Niger, reached on the 17th of June. ”

“ Thus, in 45 years after the founding of Sierra Leone, and 24 after the abolition of the slave-trade, was the basis of this mission broadly and securely laid. Since that period it has been extended eastward to Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos. In connection with all these missions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone, the Episcopal Church, in 1850, had 54 seminaries and schools, 6,600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and 7,500 attendants on public worship. Of the teachers in the schools at Sierra Leone, it is worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans, while fifty-six were native Africans. ”

“ It would seem, indeed, as if the whole of the Yoruba territory were bidding the missionary welcome, and encouraging him onward in the work of its evangelization. [35] The Gospel, it is true, still meets with opposition; but the chiefs, mostly, are friendly and send their children to the schools. Open persecution is no longer permitted; and, but for the continual apprehension of another attack from Dahomey, the missionaries would seem to be secured against farther interruptions.
But while the missions are prosperous at Abbeokuta, far different have been the results at Badagry. ”

“ Many, it appears, were taken away at the age of twenty or twenty-four years, consequently they can give a full account of their route to Badagry, where they were shipped. They are by far the most industrious people I have found. Several very fine farms, about six or seven miles from Whydah, are in a high state of cultivation. The houses are clean and comfortable, and are situated in some of the most beautiful spots that imagination can picture. It is truly gratifying to find unexpectedly a house where you are welcomed in European fashion, and asked to take refreshment. ”

“ The great man is never without one, and it appeared to me a boy was appointed to take care of him. In no other country of Africa, that I have been in, is this faithful animal treated with common humanity.
Owing to a Brazilian brig having arrived at Badagry for slaves, the people here have been preparing themselves for two days to go on a slaving expedition to a place called Tabbo, lying to the eastward. ”

“ Quoth the Badawi, “We have not eaten to-night. Hast thou brought the honey-fritters?” Whereupon the Wali raised his eyes to the cross and seeing the Badawi hung up in the stead of the old woman, said to the watchmen, “What is this?” “Pardon, O our lord!” “Tell me what hath happened.” “We were weary with watching with thee on guard and said:—Dalilah is crucified. So we fell asleep, and when we awoke, we found the Badawi hung up in her room; and we are at thy mercy.” “O folk, Allah’s pardon be upon you! She is indeed a clever cheat!” ”

“ Among the Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, when a death has taken place, the sins of the deceased are laid upon a buffalo calf. For this purpose the people gather round the corpse and carry it outside of the village. There an elder of the tribe, standing at the head of the corpse, recites or chants a long list of sins such as any Badaga may commit, and the people repeat the last word of each line after him. ”

“ The coats, good thick blankets, and gold ear-rings, which most Badagas now possess, can only, I think, point to their prosperity, while their constant feasts, and disinclination to work on Sundays, show that the loss of a few days' pay does not affect them. On the other hand, a former Native official on the Nilgiris writes to me that "though the average Badaga is thrifty and hard-working, there is a tendency for him to be lazy when he is sure of his meal. When a person is sick in another village, his relatives make it an excuse to go and see him, and they have to be fed. ”

“ The best character of the Badawi is a truly noble compound of determination, gentleness, and generosity. Usually they are a mixture of worldly cunning and great simplicity, sensitive to touchiness, good-tempered souls, solemn and dignified withal, fond of a jest, yet of a grave turn of mind, easily managed by a laugh and a soft word, and placable after passion, though madly revengeful after injury. ”

“ Badger when she was first brought from Jezeerah, that she had been taken into our house, and treated as one of the family up to the time of our departure from Mosul. She had heard of my arrival while at Minyanish her native village, and had walked three hours through the snow, carrying with her a present of raisins, walnuts, and eggs, in token of her gratitude. She had grown but little in stature, though now about thirteen years old, but there was the same calmness in her look, the same unaffected simplicity in her carriage, the same attractive sweetness in her voice. ”

“ The serpents came to the badger's wauzh, [26] and decided to watch. "We will starve him out," said they; so they continued watching. Manabozho told the badger to make an opening on the other side of the mountain, from which he could go out and hunt, and bring meat in. Thus they lived some time. One day the badger came in his way and displeased him. He immediately put him to death, and threw out his carcass, saying, "I don't like you to be getting in my way so often." ”

“ Now this Badawi was a base born churl, a highway thief and a traitor to the friend he held most fief, a rogue in grain, past master of plots and chicane. He had no daughter and no son and was only passing through the town when, by the decree of the Decreer, he fell in with this unhappy one. And he ceased not to hold her in converse on the highway till they came without the city of Jerusalem and, when outside, he joined his companions and found they had made ready the dromedaries. So the Badawi mounted a camel, having seated Nuzhat al-Zaman behind him and they rode on all night. ”

“ It is heady as the “Golden Wine” of Libanus, to the tongue water and brandy to the brain—the clean contrary of our nineteenth century effusions. Technically speaking, it can be vehicled only by the verse of the old English ballad or by the prose of the Book of Job. And Badawi poetry is a perfect expositor of Badawi life, especially in the good and gladsome old Pagan days ere Al-Islam, like the creed which it abolished, overcast the minds of men with its dull grey pall of realistic superstition. ”

“ A large share of the agricultural labours falls to the lot of the women, who, as in all heathen countries, are made the drudges of the family. Although neat in their villages, the Badagas cannot be praised for cleanliness of person or of dress. As they are in the habit of oiling their bodies, and not in the habit of washing their robes, the latter become so fragrant in the process of time, that a blind man would have no difficulty in telling when a Badaga passed him in the road. ”

“ Then Badoura gave orders, and Camaralzaman, still in his workman's dress, his body wasted with grief, and his face and hands soiled with the defilements of his long voyage, came and stood before her. As soon as she saw him her heart leapt with joy, but she feared to reveal herself, for how would it appear to her emirs and chamberlains were she before all eyes to throw herself into the arms of a common gardener. Therefore, retaining her disguise, she spoke to him as a King should do to a peasant, and in a man's voice. ”

“ Her labour in the field is considered to be worth one rupee per day, while an average male Badaga earns merely three annas. A Badaga woman, who has not her own acres to cultivate, finds work on some other lands. She thus works hard for her husband and family, and is quite content with the coarsest food — the korali (Setaria italica) flour—leaving the better food to the male members of the family. This fact, and the hard work the Badaga women have to perform, may perhaps account to some extent for the slight build of the Badagas as a race. ”

“ If the evidence is false, it is believed that some evil will happen to him."
The name Badaga or Vadugan means northerner, and the Badagas are believed to be descended from Canarese colonists from the Mysore country, who migrated to the Nīlgiris three centuries ago owing to famine, political turmoil, or local oppression in their own country. It is worthy of notice, in this connection, that the head of the Badagas, like that of the Todas and Kotas, is dolichocephalic, and not of the mesaticephalic or sub-brachy-cephalic type, which prevails throughout Mysore, as in other Canarese areas. ”

“ Standing up before the assembled Badagas, an elder says “To-day we have acted up to the observances of our ancestors and forefathers. New ones should not be considered as old, or old as new. There is not a man carrying a head (wise man) , or a woman carrying breasts (wise [121] woman) . May he become united with the men of his clan and caste.”
The funeral rites of the Udayas differ in some important details from those of the Badaga sub-division. The buffalo catching, and leading the animal round the corpse, are omitted. ”

“ They eat raw flesh, and milk is their usual drink. Their habits are vile and filthy; but they run with wonderful swiftness. They fight afoot or on horseback, darts being their chief weapons, and are almost continually at war with their neighbours.
[Footnote 329: Badwi, or more properly Badawi, signifies a dweller in the field or in the desert; corruptly called by us Bedouin.--Astl.]
By day-light of the 10th May we weighed anchor from the port of Igidid [330] , and an hour before sunset we fastened our barks to a shoal about four leagues south of Farate. ”