THE GUINEA NEGROES 



363 



5. THE GUINEA NEGROES. 



FROM Senegal to Liberia the Negro races have been so greatly influenced by contact with 

 Europeans, especially English, French, and Portuguese on the one hand, and by Mohammedan 

 and Fulah invaders on the other, that they are ethuographically less instructive than the 

 Negroes of the Guinea Coast lands between Liberia on the west and the Rio del Rey on the 

 east, which, as shown by Sir H. II. Johnston, is the boundary between the Western and 

 the Bantu Negroes. 



These Negroes of Guinea are the typical Negroes with thick lips, woolly hair, broad flat 



noses, wide open nostrils, rece- 

 ding foreheads, projecting jaws, 



and prominent powerful teeth. 



The attempt has indeed been 



made to restrict the name Negro 



to the natives of this part of 



Africa. 



The natives of the Guinea 



Coast may be divided into three 



groups the Tshi, the Ewe, and 



the Yoruba-speaking people, who 



have been described in three 



separate monographs by Sir A. 



B. Ellis. 



THE TSHI TRIBES. 



THE FANTI AND ASHANTI. 



The Tshi, or, as Miss Kings- 

 ley would propose to spell the 

 name, the Cheuwe-speaking 

 people, form the westernmost 

 group, living mainly in the Cape 

 Coast Colony and the Ashanti 

 Protectorate. The two most 

 important tribes are the Fanti, 

 who dwell on the coast, and the 

 Ashanti, who occupy the hinter- 

 land. The Fanti are chocolate- 

 coloured, muscular people of 

 medium height; they have round 

 heads, with a long face, and a 

 nose less flat than that of most 

 Negro races. Dress is simple, consisting of a brightly coloured loin-cloth, which among married 

 women is increased to a wrap that covers from the breast to the ankles. The women have 

 elaborate arrangements of the hair, which is worked into a knob-shaped chignon, a pair of horn- 

 shaped projections, or a single spike like that of a unicorn. 



The Ashanti, though in most respects closely resembling the Fanti, are less strongly built; 

 but being more warlike and courageous, they are politically more powerful. Whereas the 

 Fanti live in small villages, among the Ashanti there are some large towns, of which the chief 

 is Kumasi, or Coomassie. The Fanti are a tribe of village communities, whereas the Ashanti 

 formed a state with a centralised government, and were ruled by a king. 



The religion of both Fanti and Ashanti is fetishism. Circumcision is practised, but not 



Photo by Underwood & Underwood. 

 A MINSTREL GREETING VISITORS. 



Photo by Mr. Aldridge. 



AN UPPER MENDI CHIEF. 



