156 



W. HOSTE, B.A., ON FETICHISM — 



The former's is : " One of the lowest and grossest forms of 

 siiperstitition, consisting in the worship of some material object, 

 as a stone, a tree or animal often casually selected, practised 

 among tribes of lowest mental endowment, as certain races of 

 negroes." But some of these very races have given Bishops to 

 the Enghsh Church, as the late Samuel Crowther, Bishop of 

 the Niger Territory, and Dr. I. Oluwole, Assistant Bishop of 

 Lagos, who was lately over here attending the Lambeth Con- 

 ference ; so we must not press this inferiority too far. 



One more definition wiU suffice, that of Littre : " Objet 

 naturel, animal divinise, bois, pierre, idole grossiere, qu'adorent 

 les negres des cotes occidentals de I'Afrique." No wonder the 

 great philologist Max-MuUer exclaimed in something like 

 despair, " Fetichism ! whatever that may mean." 



Not being an armchair philosopher or evolutionary theorist, 

 but only a simple traveller, I do not ask to be believed on my ijpse 

 dixit. But I am encouraged, amid the wide divergences of 

 " the authorities," by the fact of having travelled in Central 

 Africa for the best part of two years in the last decade, and of 

 having been in contact with experienced men living on the spot, 

 to give you a few of my impressions for what they are 

 worth. 



The Ovimbundu, the great slavers in the past, inhabit the 

 west of Angola ; then you get the Va Luimbe, across the Hungry 

 Country " ; the Va Chokwe, who have a reputation for lying and 

 steahng beyond their contemporaries, the Va Luena, Va Lunda, 

 now North-West Rhodesia ; the Lubans of the East Congo 

 State, ruled so long by the notorious Mushidi ; the Va Vemba, 

 now North-East Rhodesia ; and then lower south, the Zulus ; 

 and further still, the Pondos. These are all Bantu tribes and 

 all practise fetichism, with considerable local differences. 



In my travels among these tribes, personally I never saw 

 negroes worshipping fetiches, and my inquiries on the spot 

 have confirmed my experience. 



The nearest approach to this is the deposing before the public 

 umbiinda temporary offerings of corn or meal ; or a hunter, 

 on the eve of an expedition, may lay his gun before the fetich 

 as a mute appeal that he may shoot straight. But though the 

 native does not worship, he does ask for help from the spirits. 

 Offerings are made by natives when going to pray to the spirits 

 of their forefathers under a tree or hut. Their size depends on 

 the size of the request. If the offering be beer, they pour it on the 



