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The Influence of the Kingdom of Kongo on Central Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2012
Extract
The methodical investigation of African customs and institutions, which, notwithstanding tardy official recognition, has made such rapid strides within the last twenty or thirty years, brings us constantly up against phenomena which upset our most cherished theories. The best text-books have taught us that the method of making fire by the stick-and-groove method belongs to Oceania, and it is most disconcerting to come across some African tribe, like the Tophoke, right in the centre of the continent, who practise it and know no other. The features of a Bena Lulua display unabashed curvilinear scorings which by all rights ought to adorn the face of some Maori. The Boloki employ a method of casting which is, but for its crudeness and the distinction that vegetable matter is used instead of wax, based practically on the same principles as the cire perdue process of higher civilizations. How is it that the Warega disdain the timehonoured African institution of slavery in whatever form and have social grades which find their nearest counterpart among the Edo and Ibo, twelve hundred miles west? Shall we ever find explanations for these and many other ethnological problems? The greatest difficulty we have to face when investigating matters of the past in Africa is the entire absence of dates: the African has never kept an account of time, which has always been of but little value to him, and consequently the co-ordination of various events becomes extremely laborious, if not impossible.
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- Copyright © International African Institute 1928
References
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