THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE BANTU AS ILLUS- 

 TRATED IN THEIR PROVERBIAL SAYINGS. 



By James McLaren, M.A. 



By the Bantu we mean the numerous and virile dark race 

 which forms, perhaps, 99 percent, of the native population of South 

 and Central Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to 5° North 

 of the equator. They number in round figures about 100 millions, 

 and speak nearly 200 languages, besides dialects ; biit all these 

 languages have an essentia 11 v similar structure, and show a close 

 family likeness to one another. 



The forms to which Bantu literature was mainly confined 

 until recently were those of the folk-tale or fable, the praise-song 

 or eulogy, and the problem or maxim. To these have been added 

 recently, among the tribes which have come into closest contact 

 with Europeans, translations, news])aper compositions, mostly of 

 an ephemeral character, and tentative eft'orts at the writing of 

 short stories and poems. 



The neglect of Bantu literature in the past has been almost 

 absolute. The farmers were too much occupied with the constant 

 struggle against famine and flood and the numerous diseases tliat 

 affect stock in a warm climate, or against the aborigines them- 

 selves, to give much attention to their literature, even when they 

 could speak their language. The commercial and mining classes 

 were too bu.sy gathering the gold and diamonds in which Africa 

 is so prolific to look for tlie nuggets of thought which have been 

 concentrating through the centuries or the sparkling gems that 

 have been struck out in the eloquence of some native orator, and 

 have been treasured up in the memory of succeeding generations. 

 It has been left to a missionary here and there, or a teacher in some 

 missionary institute, or a Government official with literary tastes, 

 to make some eft'ort to collect and exhibit them. 



In work of this kind men of German race have in recent 

 years taken the preponderating part. Bleek, Kro])f. Seidel, Ende- 

 mann, Meinhof are leading names. Now that the activities of 

 the Germans in Africa are curtailed to a large extent, whether 

 temporarily or permanently, there is all the more need for other 

 workeis to bestir themselves in the study of these numerous lan- 

 guages, and in the collection and recording and translation of that 

 literature which throws almost the only light that is available on 

 the history of the southern half of the Dark Continent in bygone 

 ages. The opportunity is rapidly passing. It is a remarkable and 

 a disquieting fact that there should be chairs of l^antu, or at least 

 African, languages, in Hamburg and Berlin, and none in Britain 

 or British Africa. Africa is 80 years behind Asia in the study of 

 its languages and literature ; in other words, as much was kno\vn 

 of the languages of India in 1837 as is known of African lan- 

 guages to-day. The only way to deal with, the matter is by the 

 foundation of a Chair of Bantu Languages and Literature, 

 equipped with adequate resources for purposes of research, some- 

 where in the Union ; and, in view of the location of the invaluable 



