386 



The Review of Reviews, 



ISLAM IN AFRICA. 



The progress of Islam in Africa has been widely 

 advertised. Two papers in the Moslem World shed not 

 a little light on the subject. Karl Cederquist, writing 

 on Islam and Christianity in Abyssinia, says that 

 Islam is gaining groimd in Abyssinia every day. One 

 reason is the extreme rigour of the fasts prescribed by 

 the Abyssinian Christians. 



ABYSSINIAN CHRISTIANS AT FAULT. 



The Lenten fast of sixty days is almost death to the 

 nomad, who has neither grain nor fish. Another reason 

 is that the Aliyssinian Church has nothing better than 

 dead formalism to offer the people, and will not allow 

 others to proclaim the real gospel. Their services are 

 characterised by dancing, singing, and beating of 

 drums, but there is no teaching. The singing is in a 

 language the people of to-day no longer understand. 

 To read anything from the Bible at these services in 

 Amharic or Galla is not permitted. Anyone making an 

 attempt is apprehended and severely punished. The 

 priests and monks finding a Bible or some other 

 Christian book in the hands of a Mohammedan will 

 warn him and tell him it is better to remain a Moham- 

 medan than to become such a Christian as the Book 

 speaks about. " If the Abyssinian Church is not 

 awakened, and if liberty is not given to the Word of 

 God, the doom of Abyssinia is sealed and the whole 

 country will fall to Islam." So the spread cf Islam in 

 Abyssinia is practically the fault of the Abyssinian 

 Christians. 



CHRISTIAN BRITAIN AT FAULT. 



In Northern Nigeria it appears to be the fault of the 

 British Christians. Writing on Islam in Northern 

 Nigeria, Mr. J. L. Macintyre'says that so far as results 

 are concerned the balance is altogether on the side of 

 Christianity. The pagan Nupes adopted Islam, and, 

 though helped upward in one or two respects, have on 

 the whole been injured. The Ibos fifty years ago were 

 almost naked cannibals, in continual internecine 

 warfare. To-day churches are dotted about every- 

 where, there are numbers of schools with hundreds of 

 scholars, and Ibos are employed all over Northern 

 Nigeria as engineers, telegraphists, clerks, hospital 

 attendants, etc. All this tremendous material uplift has 

 been accomplished through Christianity. Nevertheless^ 

 the Pax Britannica has aided the spread of Islam. 



ATTITUDE OF THE OFFICIALS. 



The British Government finds the ]\rohammedan 

 Emir more easy to deal with than the pagan petty 

 chiefs, and pagans come to think that the road to 

 honour is to be reached by 1 ecoming a Moslem : — 



Another powerful /actor in favour of Islam as opposed lo 

 Christianity is the curious altitude of contempt towards 

 native Christians generally adopted by oflicials, most of whom 

 seem to thinl< that Christianity should be reserved exclusively 

 for Europeans. The average ofiicial sees a "mission boy'" 

 clothed in a washing jacket and trousers, and he says how 

 unnecessary it all is j he sees a native in his voluminous and 

 fdihy garments which are never washed, and are quite unsuitcd 



for almost any kind of manual work, and he says "liow pic- 

 turesque ! " He is annoyed when be fruds that a native, by 

 reason of his being a Ciiristian, can read and write ; but he 

 looks with awe and admiration at the native scribe who writes a 

 crabbed Arabic script that can scarcely be read. He will often 

 subscribe to a local mosque, and will attend Mohammedan 

 ceremonies, but would not be seen near a native church for any- 

 thing. There are some exceptions, but I do not think this is an 

 unfair description of the altitude of the great majority of officials 

 in Nigeria. The result is that the more intelligent of the 

 Mohammedans think the Briton is ashamed of being a Christian, 

 and the poor native Christian is made to feel that he is a traitor 

 to his race. 



Nevertheless, there never was a time when there were 

 so many native Christians in the country. It is the 

 native Christians all along the coast who are the best 

 educated, most enterprising, and most receptive of new 

 ideas. So that in almost every important town in 

 Northern Nigeria the postmaster, the Government 

 clerks, and probably the sergeant of police are all 

 native Christians, 



WHO RUNS MAY READ !-IN AUSTRALIA. 



Writing in the Book Monthly for March on 

 " Reading in Australia," Katharine S. Prichard says 

 it is easier to get a classic of English literature in the 

 backwoods of Australia than in many a rural district 

 of England. Almost every township in Australia, we 

 are told, has its free library, mechanics' institute, or 

 book exchange of some sort. The capital of each State 

 has its public library, and the State Parliaments make 

 annual grants to trustees who manage these libraries. 

 A reference library is the main feature, and it is open 

 to all comers, while lending libraries have been estab- 

 lished as adjuncts, permitting readers to take away 

 books. The travelling library is said to have originated 

 in Australia, the trustees of the Melbourne Public 

 Library being the authors of it. Cases of books con- 

 taining 300 volumes are sent to remote townships, and 

 are changed at the end of each year. Notwithstanding 

 the difficulties of distance, which make frequent access 

 to books almost impossible, it is seldom that a hut in 

 the bush or in the most clesolate part of the back- 

 country is without its store of books and means of 

 exchanging them. The schoolhouscs run rural libraries 

 to which the country folk subscribe, and these are 

 helped by loans from the cities and near tow^nships. 

 In addition to the State, municipal, and c6-operati\e 

 libraries, there are all manner of smaller circulating 

 libraries and book-clubs, and the appetite for books, 

 thus fostered, is in the end appeased by the bookshops. 

 Cole's Book Arcade at Melbourne is said to be the 

 most wonderful bookshop in the world. All day long 

 people linger among the books, turning them o\er and 

 even reading them. No one is asked to buy, and other 

 booksellers have followed the example of Mr. Cole bv 

 allowing people to brow'se among their books at will. 



That Afghanistan is one of the most imprcgnai)le 

 strongholds of Islam appears from a paper on the sub- 

 ject in the Moslem World by T. L. Penntll, 



