L’Envoi

L’ENVOI Lest the reek of blood, which ascends only too noticeably from any attempt to give an actual picturing of places and peoples such as these, should offend those used to the gentler phraseology of civilised lands, I would add that, in my humble opinion at least, there is great cause for thankfulness in the change already effected. Compared with what has been done, what yet remains to do, vast as it is, seems so small as to give cause for the utmost hope and courage ; while with the coming of railways, and consequent opening up of the country, we may hope that progress will be still more rapid in the future. Possibly, too, the darker aspects of many rites and beliefs may be attributed, in great part at least, to the shadow cast over the minds of the people by that dense tropical forest which covers such vast stretches of the West Coast, or by the mangrove swamps which surround low-lying lands. In open sun-lit country, like the wide plains of Northern Nigeria and the Sudan, the more revolting customs seem to be dying out, as was the case in Egypt with the cutting of the bush, and in Europe with the thinning of the great forests. Sir Thomas Holdich, in his more than kind remarks concerning this study of the Ibibio, was good enough to say : “As the world of geographical research gets narrower and narrower from day to day, it is all the more important that attention should be concentrated on the human element in geography.” 1 Conversely, perhaps, it may be permitted me to point out that geographical environment as a factor in the evolution of racial character has hardly yet received the attention it deserves on the part of ethnologists. 1 The Geographical Journal, September 1914, p. 305. 339 Z 2 With the growth of understanding, the attitude of contemptuous ridicule, too often shown by men of our race and day toward alien faiths and modes of thought, must necessarily lessen. Considering the short distance which separates ourselves from a time when superstitions hardly less cruel than those of West Africa were rife among us, is it much to plead for patience and charity of judgment on behalf of peoples so different, and to whom so far less advantages have been accorded than to ourselves ? To the present writer, at least, it seems, speaking with the diffidence befitting the humblest of pebble-gatherers on the shores of so boundless an ocean, that West African religions, as a whole, contain a greater element of spirituality than has usually been credited to them—just as the mentality, potential at least, of the African appears of a higher order than that generally conceded. Only by the good-will of the black men will it ever be possible for more than the faintest idea of his complicated psychology to be grasped by the white ; and could but the educated negro be brought to understand that he has infinitely more to gain than lose by recording every scrap of information concerning native customs and beliefs—omitting nothing and concealing nothing—such a book might be written as has never yet seen the light of day. At the end of this World-war, into which we were forced, not for ourselves alone, or even primarily, but in defence of the weak and helpless, there lies before us a chance such as surely has been granted to no Empire since the world began—the mighty task of educating, in the true sense of the word, the teeming millions of our vast tropical dependencies : those millions who, irrespective of race and creed, rallied, in the hour of danger, with a loyalty and devotion beyond all words, to the aid of the Motherland. Surely such a Brotherhood-in-arms can but leave us with deeper sympathies and truer understanding for the work to which we are called. In defining the meaning of education it is perhaps permissible to quote the words of Sir Frederick Lugard, the Governor-General of Nigeria : “ In the first place, I hold that the most important function of education is the formation of character, and by the word ‘ character ’ I mean the principles and standards which guide and control thought and action, and involve the exercise of self-control and discipline. " The second most important function of education is to adapt the individual to his environment, so that he may have every prospect of leading a life both happy and progressive, so far as he himself is concerned, and useful and stimulating to the community in which he lives. ... I observe in the public writings of our educated classes here some bitterness and some tendency to suspicion instead of co-operation, which does not seem to indicate that education has brought happiness. And, after all, there are but two things which are worth living for—happiness in our personal and individual lives, and usefulness and sympathy in our relations with the community in which we live.” Hitherto, education has too often been confounded with the eradication rather than the development of indigenous qualities. Perhaps the best of all definitions of the object of true education may be found in the lines written on a great Englishman who gave his life for Africa : Into the sour to breathe the soul of sweetness, The stunted growth to rear to fair completeness. . . . And to the sandy waste bequeath the fame That the grass grew behind him where he came. Firmness, strength, and the sympathy born of understanding are surely the qualities most needed for the task which lies before us ; for only the strong will ever lead people such as these along the road of true civilisation. It is but a platitude to say that there is no highway to successful teaching save the hard and thorny path of learning ; yet we cannot but admit, however regretfully, that “ our Friend the Enemy ” has been more wideawake than ourselves in grasping the importance of a study of native customs and beliefs. Indeed, it has been remarked to me by men, whose position in the Protectorate lends weight to their opinions, that the people of these regions are mere “ mud-fish ” of whom there can be nothing worth studying or recording. In reply to this—and excuse, if need be, for this long volume—I would venture to quote the words written, long ago, of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt in Picardy, by one of the greatest of Englishmen : “ He is ashamed that anything should be known to laymen, old women, soldiers, ploughmen, of which he is ignorant.” And again : “ The wiser men are, the more humbly will they submit to learn from others ; they do not disdain the simplicity of those who teach them. . . . Many things are known to the simple and unlearned which escape the notice of the wise. . . . Let no one, therefore, . . . look down upon the lowly, who have knowledge of many secret things which God has not shown to those renowned for wisdom.”