IV.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO: II. Ill 



Their territory about the Lulua affluent of the Kassai is the 

 so-called Lubuka, or land of " Friendship," the theatre of a re- 

 markable social revolution, carried out independently of all 

 European influences, in fact before the arrival of any whites on 

 the scene. It was initiated by the secret brotherhood of the 

 Bena-Riamba, or "Sons of Hemp," established about 1870, when 

 the nation became divided into two parties over the 

 question of throwing the country open to foreign 

 trade. The king having sided with the "Pro- gressives." 

 gressives," the " Conservatives " were worsted with 

 much bloodshed, whereupon the barriers of seclusion were swept 

 away. Trading relations being at once established with the outer 

 world, the custom of riamba (bhang) smoking was unfortunately 

 introduced through the Swahili traders from Zanzibar. The 

 practice itself soon became associated with mystic rites, and was 

 followed by a general deterioration of morals throughout Tushi- 

 langeland. 



North of the Balubas follows the great Balolo nation, whose 

 domain comprises nearly the whole of the region 



The Balolo 



between the equator and the left bank of the Congo, " Men of 

 and whose Kilolo speech is still more widely dif- 

 fused, being spoken by perhaps 10,000,000 within the horseshoe 

 bend. These "Men of Iron" in the sense of Cromwell's "Iron- 

 sides," or " Workers in Iron," as the name has been diversely 

 interpreted (from lolo, iron), may not be all that they have been 

 depicted by the glowing pen of Mrs H. Grattan Guinness 1 ; but 

 nobody will deny their claim to be regarded as physically, if not 

 mentally, one of the finest Bantu races. But for the strain of 

 Negro blood betrayed by the tumid under lip, frizzly hair, and wide 

 nostrils, many might pass for average Hamites with high forehead, 

 straight or aquiline nose, bright eye, and intelligent expression. 

 They appear to have migrated about a hundred years ago from 

 the east to their present homes, where they have cleared the land 

 both of its forests and the aborigines, brought extensive tracts under 

 cultivation, and laid out towns in the American chessboard 

 fashion, but with the houses so wide apart that it takes hours to 



1 The New World of Central Africa, 1890, p. 466 sq. 



