BANTU NEGROES 



r)7i) 



On Lake Albert Edward they construct rafts of ambatch, whicli tliey use 

 to assist them in fishing or in moving about the sliores of the hike. They 

 also make small and clumsy canoes on the shores of this lake, somewhat 

 like those of the Baganda in that they are made of hewn planks fastened 

 together with leather thongs or string. Their iveapons are bows and arrows 

 and spears. They are not a warlike people. Of late years they have taken 

 somewhat kindly to the Belgian Government in the adjoining Congo Free 

 State, and large numbers of them are settling round the Belgian stations 

 on both sides of the Upper Semliki Eiver. Here they become iiuhistrious 

 agricidturists. The range of the Bakonjo tribe is somewhat curious, and 

 has never been rightly understood by travellers in those regions. As a 

 general rule the Bakonjo do not live in the forests, but occupy the grassy 

 or park-like land lying to the east of the great Congo Forest. But a 

 considerable section of the tribe nevertheless inhabits the flanks of the 

 southern half of the Euwenzori range from the south-east round to the 

 south-west, and here their settlements are made in the forest up to an 

 altitude of about 7,000 feet. But the woods which clothe this } art of 

 the Semliki range have nothing like the density of that real troi)ical 

 '' Congo " forest which is to be met with in the lower or northern half of 

 the Semliki basin, and thence 

 uninterruptedly to the Congo. 

 The woods of the Konjo part 

 of Buwenzori are thinner, and 

 aie interspersed with grass- 

 covered hills and slopes. The 

 Belgians therefore regard the 

 Bakonjo as the people of the 

 grass country, in contradistinction 

 to the Baamba and Babira, who 

 are the forest Negroes. Begin- 

 ning in the country of Toro, on 

 the eastern side of Euwenzori, 

 and extending thence over the 

 mountain range westward to the 

 edge of the Semliki Forest, 

 the range of the Bakonjo 

 continues in a westerly direction 

 across the Upper Semliki along 

 the western shore of Lake 

 Albert Edward, and over the 

 high mountains which rise to 

 the west of that lake. In this 323. a konjo shiki.d, iuwkn/oui 



