43 ° 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
always parti-coloured, with white as one of the ingredients. Of course on tire 
borderland the two breeds occasionally intermix, forming types of mingled 
characteristics. As a rule, the long-horned kind is large and the short-horned 
small ; though through lack of attention in breeding and other causes of 
degeneration the long-horned breed may become dwarfed while the short-horned 
humped cattle under favourable circumstances may increase in average size. 
Sir John Kirk found a very small breed of (I think) humped cattle in the 
Batoka Highlands (Central Zambezi): the Angoni long-horned cattle west of 
Lake Nyasa are small; the humped cattle of North Nyasa and the Yao country 
are large and handsome. 
The same interruption in the distribution of the long-horned breed of 
domestic cattle occurs in South-Central Africa which is characteristic of the 
range of so many wild animals. 
In much of the Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, Galla-land, the Central Sudan, 
Nigeria, and Senegambia the long-horned cattle predominate. They reappear 
again in South-West Africa and in Africa south of the Zambezi, where they are 
either the exclusive or the predominating race. On the other hand in East 
Africa, Mozambique, British Central Africa, the Congo Basin, Angola, the 
West Coast of Africa, and Lower Niger the humped short-horned cattle are 
the only kind seen with rare exceptions. 
The humped cattle found in British Central Africa originally entered that 
country from the north and are the direct descendants of the domestic cattle 
of the Ancient Egyptians which appear to have been derived from Asia. They 
resemble very strongly the domestic cattle of India. Until our administration 
of the country commenced, cattle were not widely kept by the natives of the 
eastern part of British Central Africa, partly owing to the tsetse-fly and the 
dread of attracting raiders. The following tribes and districts in 1891 possessed 
domestic cattle: there were a few in the countries round Lake Bangweolo and 
in the Lunda Kingdom near the south end of Lake Mweru, but very few, owing 
to the tsetse-fly. The Awemba on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau kept large 
herds. Cattle to a less extent were present in the villages to the east of the 
Tanganyika plateau and thence onwards to the Uhehe country. The Wankonde 
people of North Nyasa were and are great cattle keepers and evidently had 
been for untold generations. The Angoni and Achewa on the high plateaux 
west of Lake Nyasa, and thence right away down to within the Zambezi Basin 
were abundantly supplied with cattle. There were a few kept by the Arabs 
at Kotakota and one herd by Mponda, the Yao chief in South Nyasa. 
In the Shire Highlands a few head of cattle were to be seen at the villages 
of the more important Yao chiefs, and in Yaoland proper (east of Lake Nyasa) 
and on the whole eastern shore of the lake (among the Wayao, Anyanja and 
Wangindo), wherever Yao or Zulu raiders permitted. 
Nowadays, the Awemba of the Tanganyika plateau have lost most of their 
cattle from the rinderpest, a disease which also decimated the Wankonde herds 
but fortunately spared the rest of the Protectorate. 1 On the other hand cattle¬ 
keeping in Angoniland, on the Upper Shire and in the Shire Highlands has 
greatly increased owing to the 'prevention of raids and the spread of prosperity. 
Of course the Europeans now settled in the Shire province keep cattle to a 
large extent. 
With most of the tribes in British Central Africa the keeping of cattle 
1 When it made its appearance in the north we put a rigid cordon on the entry of infected cattle till 
the disease was over. 
