Togoland

“ We are now bound for Sansane-Mangu, the northernmost Government station in Togo, by way of Kadjamba and Nali, and are in the heart of the Togoland Sudan. The days are intensely hot, and the nights seem to get colder and colder. This morning, for instance, the frost lay thick on the ground, so that we shivered under our thick wraps. ”

“ AMONG THE SUMBU SAVAGES We carried out our intention, as narrated at the end of the last chapter, and stayed at Sumbu several days, making short excursions into the surrounding country, and a dash north-east as far as the French frontier. We have now traversed Togoland from end to end, and I can flatter myself that I am at all events the first white woman to go farther than Sokode, and only one or two, at most, have ever been so far as that.
The people about here are a very wild and mixed lot. ”

“ The physical features are very similar to Togoland, but much of the interior is mountainous—the foothills and fertile slopes being covered with dense vegetation.
There is the usual German population of officials and merchants—1,871 in number; and a native population of 2,500,000.
While not so prosperous as Togoland, Kamerun has nevertheless been developed on the usual German plan of officialism; but the natives have not proved so tractable. It is possible that the Dualla tribes still feel the disappointment at having their petitions for protection by Great Britain ignored ”

“ One needs to spend, as I had done, two or three months traversing the brown sun-baked veldt of the northern Togoland282 Sudan, in order to fully enjoy the sight of these verdure-clad mountains. Here one seemed alone with Nature, and with Nature's God. There was no village near, only a few resident negroes to look after the rest-house for European travellers, and its native equivalent, the songu. ”

“ Togoland enjoys the distinction of being the smallest and at the same time the most prosperous of the German Colonies. The Colony is 33,700 square miles in extent, with a coastline of only thirty-two miles, reaching from Lome, on the [Pg 115] border of the British Colony of the Gold Coast, to Grand Popo on the boundary of French Dahomey.
The French Colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger are the northern boundary; while it is bounded on the east by French Dahomey and by the British Gold Coast on the west. ”

“ In German Togoland the natives must give twelve days a year, or commute this by paying six marks; but the labour can only be used upon roads and bridges in the district in which the labourers reside. Almost identical regulations prevail in the French and Portuguese Congo. These regulations—qua regulations—are unobjectionable and, after all, only assume powers exercised for generations by the chiefs. In practice, however, under the term works of “public utility,” frequent and irregular demands are constantly being made to the irritation of the people. ”

“ Todmorden (25) , a cotton town prettily situated amid hills on the border of Lancashire and Yorkshire, on the Calder, 21 m. NE. of Manchester; coal abounds in the vicinity.
Toga, an outer garment, usually of white wool like a large blanket, folded about the person in a variety of ways, but generally with the right arm free, thrown over the left shoulder, and hanging down the back; it was at once the badge of manhood and Roman citizenship.
Togoland, a German protectorate on the Slave Coast, in Upper Guinea, Gold Coast Colony on the W., and Dahomey on the E.; exports palm-oil and ivory. ”

“ In their other West African dependency of Togoland the Germans, imitating the policy of the British Administration in Nigeria and the methods of the British Cotton Growing Association in that dependency and in Uganda, had succeeded in getting cotton growing for export started as a native industry by native farmers in their own right. ”

“ Even in Mangu, however, the price varies. A young and attractive girl of thirteen or fourteen may possibly be worth a sovereign. Girls marry young in West Africa. On the other hand, a strong and experienced woman who is a good cook and housewife, has also a good market value. Practically every soldier in Togoland buys as many wives as he can afford. The German Government—very wisely, I think—does not attempt to interfere with native domestic customs, of which polygamy is one of the oldest and most deeply-rooted. The women do not object in the least. ”

“ The curiosity aroused by my advent in the villages along this usually little frequented route was very great; more so, in fact, than anywhere else in Togo. Everywhere crowds of natives lined the roads to see me pass, the women "ul-ul-ulling" a wild welcome, the men capering and singing. While at the more important places, regular demonstrations of welcome were organised, as though for royalty itself. Thus, at Tschopowa, at a distance of fully three miles from the village, there awaited us a great crowd of natives, all dressed in their best. ”

“ Besides, in the days when inter-tribal fighting was the normal state of affairs in Togoland, the women naturally greatly outnumbered the men; for although in no single one of these perpetual little wars was the death roll on either side considerable, the sum total of fatal casualties soon mounted up, and the adult males were, therefore, always in a minority as compared201 with the adult females. Consequently, if monogamy were the rule, many Togo girls would have been, in the old days, condemned to a life of celibacy, and a celibate female amongst savages is unthinkable. ”

“ Here there is a rest-house, one of the old square Sudan stations. It is quite an imposing-looking place, and beautifully clean. Two square huts for sleeping in form one side of a hollow square, the other three sides being formed by the huts intended to accommodate the native dependents of European travellers. In the middle is a mess hut for the rainy season. During the dry season in Togoland, of course, as elsewhere in Africa, one eats invariably out-of-doors, usually under a verandah, if there is one, if not, under the awning of one's tent, or beneath a tree. ”

“ Kamerun stretches into the interior to Lake Tchad, in the direction of which a railway has been built for 400 miles.
The trade of the Colony in 1912 amounted to £1,629,895 imports and £1,102,803 exports, the latter being the usual tropical products.
Cotton is known to have been grown and cultivated round about Lake Tchad for centuries, and agricultural experimental stations have been established in the lake districts. As in Togoland, the agriculture is all in native hands. ”

“ Captain von Hirschfeld, who, throughout this and our subsequent stay at Mangu, was hospitality personified, had got everything ready for us. A nice house was placed at our disposal, all swept and garnished, very large, airy, and roomy, with a fine broad verandah. Close by our house was an extraordinary-looking building of native construction called Tamberma Fort. This was built many years ago by a tribe of natives of that name, who live in the extreme north-eastern corner of Togoland. These Tamberma were, and still are, a very wild, warlike, and truculent people. ”

“ Nearly the whole of the agriculture is in the hands of natives, some of whom have plantations of their own. Only 250,000 acres are in the hands of Europeans, and less than a quarter of these are cultivated.
The hardships inflicted on the native, however, are forgotten by the German trader in his excessive eagerness to get as much as he can out of him; and this has resulted in some rubber-collecting districts in depopulation and a consequent falling off in the production.
[Pg 117]
The principal exports of Togoland are india-rubber, palm-oil and kernels, cotton and cocoa. ”

“ Not until long afterwards did it transpire that the interpreter, fearing for his own skin, had interpreted all his abusive terms into eulogistic ones, "long slab of misery" becoming "tall and strong chief," and so on.
Well, the promised ten carriers turned up, making twenty-two in all, and Schomburgk sent me on with these, and one of the soldiers, he remaining behind with the interpreter and another soldier. After leaving Kugnau, the scenery changes. We are now quitting the Togoland Sudan, and going back to the more thickly-wooded part of the country. The scenery is magnificent. ”

“ Meanwhile Italy had put in its caims for a share in the spoil, and the eastern horn of Africa, together with Abyssinia, fell to its share, though it soon had to drop it, owing to the unexpected vitality shown by the Abyssinians. In the same year (1890) agreements between Germany and England settled the line of demarcation between the Cameroons and Togoland, with the adjoining British territories; while in August of the same year an attempt was made to limit the abnormal pretensions of the French along the Niger, and as far as Lake Chad. ”

“ I slept fairly well through my first night in the African bush, having previously learnt to lie perfectly straight and still on the narrow camp bedsteads that are everywhere in vogue in Togo. If one wriggles about under one's mosquito-net, or throws one's arms about, the bloodthirsty little brutes are sure to get at one, and then woe betide the sleeper. He, or she, becomes the sleeper awakened with a vengeance. ”

“ Our object was to film scenes and plays of native51 life amongst absolutely virgin and unspoiled surroundings, and to this end we intended to penetrate to the extremest northern confines of Togo, as far at least as the borders of the French Sudan. As I have already intimated, no white woman had ever travelled so far afield in this part of Africa before, but we anticipated little difficulty or danger on this account, the natives being reported as quite friendly everywhere along our proposed line of route. ”

“ DAHOMEY (Fr. Dahomé) , a country of West Africa, formerly an independent kingdom, now a French colony. Dahomey is bounded S. by the Gulf of Guinea, E. by Nigeria (British) , N. and N.W. by the French possessions on the middle Niger, and W. by the German colony of Togoland. The French colony extends far north of the limits of the ancient kingdom of the same name. With a coast-line of only 75 m. (1° 38′ E. to 2° 46′ 55′′ E.) , the area of the colony is about 40,000 sq. m., and the population over 1,000,000. As far as 9° N. the width of the colony is no greater than the coast-line. ”

“ The Union of South Africa, as you have seen, has taken over German South-West Africa; Great Britain has assumed the control of all German East Africa with the exception of Ruanda and Urundu, which have become part of the Belgian Congo. Togoland is divided between France and Britain, while the greater part of The Cameroons is merged into the Lower French West African possessions of which the French Congo is the principal one. Britain gets the Cameroon Mountains.
The one-time Dark Continent remains dark only for Germany. [Pg 102]
VICTORIA FALLS — Photograph Copyright British South Africa Co. ”

“ The bead necklace supports a whistle by means of which the natives can signal messages from village to village, and even call one another by name, using a sort of Morse telegraphic code invented by themselves.
The Konkombwa villages round about here are the prettiest and neatest I have seen in Togo. They are quite small, consisting mostly of from five to ten huts, and each little community seems to be more or less self-contained. The social system under which they live, in fact, may be best described as a blend of the communal and the patriarchal. ”

“ It is the force of contrast. If a European could be transported straight from such a climate to that which prevails in the dry season at Aledjo, he would probably laugh to scorn its claim to be entitled the Switzerland of Togo. But to poor, jaded me, it was as the very elixir of life itself.
And it is not the climate only. Aledjo itself is a beautiful place, and beautifully situated on a lofty plateau nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. Here Dr. Kersting has built for himself an everlasting monument. ”

“ All African sovereign States, Colonies, Protectorates and Trust territories, with the exception of Togolands, Spanish Guinea, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, Gambia and the French Cameroons, have been opened. ”

“ None of our boys were left stranded; they all got jobs. Alfred, our interpreter, and Asmani, Schomburgk's personal servant, took service with Baron Codelli at Kamina. Messa, the cook, got employment in the Duke of Mecklenburg's kitchen. Indeed, no boy who has been for any length of time with Europeans, and has a good character, need be long out of employment in Togo. A character, however, is an essential thing ”

“ Nowadays any happening in the least out of the common is referred to as a palaver. If, for example, you go to buy a horse—that is a "horse palaver." Does the cook spoil or steal your rations? There follows a "cook palaver." And so on. Most frequent of all, however, are the woman palavers, for my fair but frail sex was, I found, the cause of fully as much trouble in Togo as it is generally credited with being elsewhere. ”

“ The first part of our journey was along a picturesque native path, just wide enough to allow two people to ride abreast, and bordered on either side by open bush country. About half-way between Bapure and our next halting-place at Gerin-Kuka, however, we crossed a river, the Dakpe, which forms the boundary between the Sokode and the Mangu districts, and immediately found ourselves on a broad, well-kept Government road. I didn't like it at all. The tortuous native tracks, winding in and out, may not be so good for quick or easy travelling, but they possess the charm of the unknown. ”