106 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



In Bechuanaland one great personality dominates the social 

 horizon. Khama, king of the Bamangwato nation. 



Khama. 



next to the Barotse the most powerful section of the 

 Bechuanas, has for several decades been a true father of his 

 people, a Christian legislator in the better sense of the term, 

 and an enlightened reformer even from the secular point of 

 view. 



When these triumphs, analogous to those witnessed amongst 

 the Lacustrians and in other parts of Bantuland, are contrasted 

 with the dull weight of resistance everywhere opposed by the full- 

 blood Negro populations to any progress beyond their present 

 low level of culture, we are the better able to recognise the 

 marked intellectual superiority of the negroid Bantu over the 

 pure black element. 



West of Bechuanaland the continuity of the Bantu domain is 

 arrested in the south by the Hottentots, who still 

 Herero. VS hold their ground in Namaqualand, and farther 



north by the few wandering Bushman groups of the 

 Kalahari desert. Even in Damaraland, which is mainly Bantu 

 territory, there are interrninglings of long standing that have given 

 rise to much ethnical confusion. The Ova-Herero^ who are here 

 dominant, and the kindred Ova-Mpo of Ovampoland bordering 

 on the Portuguese possessions, are undoubted 

 HufiDamaras. Bantus of somewhat fine physique, though intellec- 

 tually not specially distinguished. Owing to the 

 character of the country, a somewhat arid, level steppe between 

 the hills and the coast, they are often collectively called 

 " Cattle Damaras," or " Damaras of the Plains," in contradistinc- 

 tion to the " Hill Damaras" of the coast ranges. To this popular 

 nomenclature is due the prevalent confusion regarding these 

 aborigines. The term " Dainara " is of Hottentot origin, and is 

 not recognised by the local tribes, who all call themselves Ova- 

 Herero, that is, " Merry People." But there is a marked differ- 

 ence between the lowlanders and the highlanders, the latter, that 

 is, the "Hill Damaras," having a strong strain of Hottentot blood, 

 and being now of Hottentot speech. 



The whole region is a land of transition between the two 

 races, where the struggle for supremacy has scarcely yet been 



