THE CATEGORIES 5 



philosophy and government. My observations have 

 been ridiculed by some, while others say that such 

 ideas never existed in the Black Man's mind until I put 

 them there. Well, I shall endeavour to demonstrate 

 that they exist in the classes into which the Bavili and 

 Bakongo divide their language, and I take it for 

 granted that no one will honour me by saying that I 

 drew up the language of the Bavili (people of Loango 

 now part of Congo Fran^ais). In " Nigerian Studies" 

 I have pointed out how the form of government 

 in existence there depends on or agrees with this 

 philosophy of the Bantu. The Prophet I fa, now 

 deified, but once probably a Mohammedan priest, 

 evidently adopted the form in his endeavour to lift the 

 pagan from a belief in many nature powers to a belief 

 in One God. He may be said to have been a kind of 

 Yoruba Moses. 



Briefly, the form of government in Yorubaland, 

 Southern Nigeria, is composed of the following 

 officers : 



1. The Queen Mother and three courtiers. 

 The King and three officers. 



The War Chief and three officers. 

 The Prime Minister and three officers, or sixteen 

 personages in all. 



2. The Prime Minister (who both in the Congo and 



Nigeria need not be a prince) becomes the head 

 of a Council, and he is helped by three officers 

 The Prime Minister and each of these again 

 have three assistants or courtiers, thus forming 

 another set of sixteen. 



