_ Our search for true love in Africa has thus far resulted in failure, the alleged discoveries of a few sanguine sentimentalists having proved to be illusory. If we now turn to the Kaffirs, who share with the Hottentots the southern extremity of Africa, we find that here again we must above all things guard against "false facts." Westermarck, after citing Barrow (I., 206) to the effect that "a Kaffir woman is chaste and extremely modest," adds:
"and Mr. Cousins informs me that between their various
feasts the Kaffirs, both men and women, have to live in
strict continence, the penalty being banishment from the
tribe if this law is broken."
It would be interesting to know what Barrow means by "extremely modest" since he admits that that attribute
"might be questioned. If, for instance, a young woman
be asked whether she be married, not content with
giving the simple negative, she throws open her cloak
and displays her bosom; and as most frequently she has
no other covering beneath, she perhaps may discover at
the same time, though unintentionally, more of her
charms."
But it is his assertion that "a Kaffir woman is chaste" that clashes most outrageously with all recorded facts and the testimony of the leading authorities, including many missionaries. Dr. Fritsch says in the preface to his standard book on the natives of South Africa that the assertions of Barrow are to be accepted "with caution, or rather with suspicion." It is the absence of this caution and suspicion that has led Westermarck into so many erroneous conclusions. In the present instance, however, it is absolutely incomprehensible why he should have cited the one author who calls the Kaffirs chaste, ignoring the crushing weight of countless facts showing them to be extremely dissolute.
It is worthy of note that testimony as to the chastity of wild races generally comes from mere travellers among them, ignorant of their language and intimate habits, whereas the writings of those who have dwelt among them give one a very different idea. As the Rev. Mr. Holden remarks, those who have "boasted of the chastity, purity, and innocence of heathen life" have not been "behind the scenes." Here, for instance, is Geo. McCall Theal, who lived among the Kaffir people twenty years, filling various positions among them, varying from a mission teacher to a border magistrate, and so well acquainted with their language that he was able to collect and print a volume on _Kaffir Folk Lore_. Like all writers who have made a specialty of a subject, he is naturally somewhat biased in favor of it, and this gives still more weight to his words on negative points. Regarding the question of chastity he says:
"Kaffir ideas of some kinds of morality are very
low. The custom is general for a married woman
to have a lover who is not her husband, and
little or no disgrace attaches to her on this
account. The lover is generally subject to a
fine of no great amount, and the husband may
give the woman a beating, but that finishes the
penalty."
The German missionary Neuhaus bears witness to the fact that (like the Bushmen and most other Africans) the Kaffirs are in one respect lower than the lowest beasts, inasmuch as for the sake of filthy lucre parents often marry off their daughters before they have attained maturity. Girls of eight to ten are often given into the clutches of wealthy old men who are already supplied with a harem. Concerning girls in general, and widows, we are told that they can do whatever they please, and that they only ask their lovers not to be imprudent, as they do not wish to lose their liberty and assume maternal duties too soon if they can help it. Lichtenstein says (I., 264) that
"a traveller remaining some time with a horde
easily finds an unmarried young woman with whom
he contracts the closest intimacy; nay, it is
not uncommon, as a mark of hospitality, to
offer him one as a companion,"
and no wonder, for among these Kaffirs there is "no feeling of love in marriage" (161). The German missionary Alberti relates that sometimes a Kaffir girl is offered to a man in marriage. Having assured himself of her health, he claims the further privilege of a night's acquaintance; after which, if she pleases him, he proceeds to bargain for her permanent possession. Another competent and reliable observer, Stephen Kay, corresponding member of the South African Institution, who censures Barrow sharply for his incorrect remarks on Kaffir morals, says:
"No man deems it any sin whatever to seduce his
neighbor's wife: his only grounds of fear are the
probability of detection, and the fine demanded by law
in such cases. The females, accustomed from their youth
up to this gross depravity of manners, neither
manifest, nor apparently feel, any delicacy in stating
and describing circumstances of the most shameful
nature before an assemblage of men, whose language is
often obscene beyond description". "Fornication
is a common and crying sin. The women are well
acquainted with the means of procuring miscarriage; and
those means are not unfrequently resorted to without
bringing upon the offender any punishment or disgrace
whatever.... When adultery is clearly proved the
husband is generally fully satisfied with the fine
usually levied upon the delinquent.... So degraded
indeed are their views on subjects of this nature ...
that the man who has thus obtained six or eight head of
cattle deems it a fortunate circumstance rather than
otherwise; he at once renews his intimacy with the
seducer, and in the course of a few days becomes as
friendly and familiar with him as ever".
"Whenever the Kaffir monarch hears of a young woman
possessed of more than ordinary beauty, and at all
within his reach, he unceremoniously sends for her or
fetches her himself.... Seldom or never does any young
girl, residing in his immediate neighborhood, escape
defilement after attaining the age of puberty (165)."
"Widows are constantly constrained to be the servants
of sin".
"The following singular usage obtains universally ...
all conjugal intercourse is entirely suspended from the
time of accouchement until the child be completely
weaned, which seldom takes place before it is able to
run about. Hence during the whole of that period, an
illicit and clandestine intercourse with strangers is
generally kept up by both parties, to the utter
subversion of everything like attachment and connubial
bliss. Something like affection is in some instances
apparent for awhile, but it is generally of
comparatively short duration."
Fritsch describes a Kaffir custom called _U'pundhlo_ which has only lately been abolished:
"Once in awhile a troupe of young men was sent from the
principal town to the surrounding country to capture
all the unmarried girls they could get hold of and
carry them away forcibly. These girls had to serve for
awhile as concubines of strangers visiting the court.
After a few days they were allowed to go and their
places were taken by other girls captured in the same
way."
Before the Kaffirs came under the influence of civilization, this custom gave no special offence; "and why should it?" adds Fritsch, "since with the Kaffirs marriageable girls are morally free and their purity seems a matter of no special significance." When boys reach the age of puberty, he says, they are circumcised;
"thereupon, while they are in the transition stage
between boyhood and manhood, they are almost
entirely independent of all laws, especially in
their sexual relations, so that they are allowed
to take possession with impunity of any
unmarried women they choose."
The Kaffirs also indulge in obscene dances and feasts. Warner says that at the ceremony of circumcision virtue is polluted while yet in its embryo. "A really pure girl is unknown among the raw Kaffirs," writes Hol. "All demoraln sense of purity and shame is lost." While superstition forbids the marrying of first cousins as incestuous, real "incest in its worst forms"--between mother and sons--prevails. At the ceremony called _Ntonjane_ the young girls "are degraded and polluted at the very threshold of womanhood, and every spark of virtuous feeling annihilated".
"Immorality," says Fritsch,
"is too deeply rooted in African blood to make it
difficult to find an occasion for indulging in it;
wherefore the custom of celebrating puberty,
harmless in itself, is made the occasion for
lascivious practices; the unmarried girls choose
companions with whom they cohabit as long as the
festival lasts ... usually three or four days."
After giving other details, Fritsch thus sums up the situation:
"These diverse facts make it clear that with these
tribes (Ama-Xosa) woman stands, if not morally,
at least judicially, little above cattle, and
consequently it is impossible to speak of family
life in one sense of the word."
In his _Nursery Tales of the Zulus_ Callaway gives an account, in the native language as well as in the English, of the license indulged in at Kaffir puberty festivals. Young men assemble from all quarters. The maidens have a "girl-king" to whom the men are obliged to give a present before they are allowed to enter the hut chosen for the meeting. "The young people remain alone and sport after their own fancies in every way." "It is a day of filthiness in which everything may be done according to the heart's desire of those who gather around the _umgongo_." The Rev. J. MacDonald, a man of scientific attainments, gives a detailed account of the incredibly obscene ceremonies to which the girls of the Zulu-Kaffirs are subjected, and the licentious yet Malthusian conduct of the young folks in general who "separate into pairs and sleep _in puris naturalibus_, for that is strictly ordained by custom." The father of a girl thus treated feels honored on receiving a present from her partner.[140]
[FOOTNOTE 140:
The details given by the Rev. J. MacDonald (_Journal Anthrop. Soc._, XX., 1890, 116-18) cannot possibly be cited here. Our argument is quite strong enough without them. Westermarck devotes ten pages to an attempt to prove that immorality is not characteristic of uncivilized races in general. He leads off with that preposterous statement of Barrow that "a Kaffir woman is chaste and extremely modest;" and most of his other instances are based on equally flimsy evidence. I shall recur to the subject repeatedly. It is hardly necessary to call the reader's attention to the unconscious humor of the assertion of Westermarck's friend Cousins that "between their various feasts the Kaffirs have to live in strict continence"--which is a good deal like saying of a toper that "between drinks he is strictly sober."] _