3 o NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES 



The dry season we have already connected with 

 trapping and hunting, and the sense of hearing and 

 calling ; and the senses of smell, sight, and touch 

 have been associated with copulation. The rainy 

 season cannot be dissociated from the progression of 

 procreation and production. 



Marriage and farming may be said to have 

 produced the priest, the doctor, and the farmer. The 

 necessity of exchange of products brought forth 

 the markets and the buyer and seller. And the 

 necessity of better implements of hunting, war, 

 and farming produced the blacksmith and other 

 mechanics. 



And in this way the progress of civilisation may 

 be said to be perpendicular, 1 and should fall into 

 the order as already given in the infantile stage of 

 man. 



I will now give you a list of words in each of the 

 different classes, which clearly shows that each class is 

 intimately connected with the categories as given in 

 At the Back of the Black Mans Mind, i.e., 



( Water \ ( Earth ^j f Rainy season! 



i] 2J 3 ^Marriage 



(Fishing, etc. J [Hunting, etc.J [Planting 



f Motion 1 (Action \ (Travail j 



4-j 5 J Pregnancy 6 j Life 



[Conception J [Harvest [Death 



I am dealing here, it must be remembered, solely 

 with what I have called the perpendicular develop- 

 ment ; and if I am allowed I will go further and say 



1 For my meaning of the word "perpendicular" see page 3, 

 formula <. 



