The Negroes in Negroland Review: Chapters I & II - Cannibalism and Human Butcheries and Sacrifices
You can find the work in its entirety here:
https://archive.org/details/negroesinnegrola00help/page/20/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/negroesinnegrola00help/page/20/mode/2up
I've been meaning to read over The Negros in Negroland which was a compilation of the more shocking, vile, and disgusting reported practices of blacks in sub-Saharan Africa by explorers. For these reviews and summaries I will simply do a few chapters at a time. I have been studying and writing about African history from an old book written on the subject claiming to dispel the myths of Africa being simply a savage places. Indeed it offered interesting and compelling perspectives, but I also wanted to look at the darker side of some of the historical issues. That is why I choose to delve into this work as well, to get some perspective.
The first chapter in the book is chapter I: Cannibalism in Negroland
This chapter is hard to stomach, no pun intended. The quotes and excerpts that it features offer an unfathomable description of barbarity, cruelty, and gore. I would say that if reading about violent crime, etc., doesn't shock you or upset you, reading about this chapter just might.
I'll let it speak for itself here:
"The common food of the natives of Ansiko is men's flesh, insomuch that their markets are provided with that, as ours in Europe are provided with beef or mutton: all prisoners of war unless they can sell them alive with greater advantage, otherwise as we said, they fatten them for slaughter, and at last sell them to the butchers. To this savage barbarity they are so naturalized, that some slaves, whether as weary of their lives, or to show their love to their masters, will proffer themselves to be killed and eaten. But that which is most inhuman, and beyond the ferocity of beasts, is, that the father scruples not to eat his son, nor the son his father, nor one brother the other, but take them by force, devouring their flesh, the blood yet reeking hot between their teeth" Ogilby's Africa page 518.
It then went on to describe several other instances where cannibalism was customary, or considered a delicacy among the natives, to one particularly stark, gory, and frightening example of unimaginable cruelty of savagely injuring, almost eating alive, and violent killing of a young girl, and treating her in a less human way than cattle of this day.
There are a few more stories of human flesh being found copiously in the markets, and that for sacrifices various animals, along with humans were cooked together, as well as a few stories of dead people being dug up after a day and sold and cooked. Although very short the chapter is extremely disturbing and grisly.
As far as Western Africa is concerned I could find references to the Leopard Society in Western Africa who frequently performed human cannibalism.
From Wikipedia I can find another report of cannibalism in the Congo Free State:
The second chapter is called:
Human butcheries and human sacrifices in Negroland.
Victims for Sacrifice, from The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa, 1793.
Another grisly chapter to get through. Here there are several extracts of human sacrifices made in places like Dahomey, which was an African Kingdom roughly in the place of present day Benin, on the Western coast of sub-Saharan Africa. It was common for rulers, and people of rank to have hundreds and thousands of slaves sacrificed in the belief that they will be needed in "the next world". Grisly and terrible, I will let it speak for itself:
"The main object contemplated in the national anniversary of Dahomey is, that the king may water the graves of his ancestors with the blood of human victims. These are numerous consisting of victims taken in war, of condemned criminals, and of many seized by lawless violence. The captives are brought out in succession, with their arms pinioned, and a feticheer, laying his hand upon the devoted head, utters a few magic words, while another from behind, with a large scimitar severs it from the body, when shouts of applause ascend from the surrounding multitude.
...
Another great object of this periodical festival is the market for wives. All the unmarried females in the kingdom are esteemed the property of the sovereign, and are brought to the annual customs, to be placed at his disposal. He selects for himself such that appear most beautiful and engaging, and retails the others at enormous prices to his chiefs and nobles. No choice in this occasion is offered to the purchaser. In return for his twenty thousand cowries, a wife is handed out, and even be she old and ugly, he must rest contented; nay, some, it is said, have in mockery been presented with their own mothers. The king usually keeps his wives up to the number of three thousand, who serve them in various capacities, -being partly trained to act as a body guard, regularly regimented, and equipped with drums, flags, bows, and arrows, while a few carry muskets. They all reside in the palace which consists merely of an immense assemblage of cane and mud tents, enclosed by a high wall. The skulls and jawbones of enemies slain in battle form the favourite ornament of the palaces and temples."
Murray's African Discoveries, page 199.
And also
"At Coomassie, the customs, or human sacrifices are practiced on a scale still more tremendous than at Dahomey. The king had lately sacrificed on the grave of his mother three thousand victims, two thousand of whom were Fantee prisoners; and at the death of the late sovereign, the sacrifice was continued weekly for three months, consisting each time of two hundred slaves. ..."
Murray's African Discoveries, page 204.
And
"The practice of offering human sacrifices to appease evil spirits is common; but in no place more frequent, or on a larger scale than in the kingdoms of Ashantee or Dahomi, and in the Bormi river. Large numbers of victims, chiefly prisoners of war, are stately sacrificed to the manes of the royal ancestors in both of the aforementioned places, and under circumstances of shocking and almost unparalleled cruelty. At the time of the death of a king, a large number of his principal wives and favorite slaves are put to death, not so much, however, as sacrifice to appease his wrath, as to be his companions and attendants in another world, - a practice which, though cruel and revolting in itself, nevertheless keeps up a lively impression of a future state of existence".
Wilson's Africa, page 219.
What follows are descriptions of bodies lying about rotting in the streets with incredible indifference from the locals, as well as the most brutal decapitation executions requiring multiple strokes to the neck and back of the head.
Is there historical truth to this, apparently yes. In the Wikipedia article on Dahomey, there are several references to large scale human sacrifice. Also the article on the Annual Customs of Dahomey relates:
Since Dahomey was a significant military power involved in the slave trade, slaves and human sacrifice became crucial aspects of the ceremony. Captives from war and criminals were killed for the deceased kings of Dahomey. During the ceremony, around 500 prisoners would be sacrificed. As many as 4,000 were reported killed In one of these ceremonies in 1727.[5][6][7] Most of the victims were sacrificed through decapitation, a tradition widely used by Dahomean kings, and the literal translation for the Fon name for the ceremony Xwetanu is "yearly head business".[8] In later years this ceremony also included the spilling of human blood from the sacrificed.[4] Related with this, there was also a significant military parade in the ceremonies that further displayed the military might of the kingdom of Dahomey.
With scholarly references such as:
Bay, Edna (1998). Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey. University of Virginia Press.
R. Rummel (1997)"Death by government". Transaction Publishers. p.63. ISBN 1-56000-927-6
"The common food of the natives of Ansiko is men's flesh, insomuch that their markets are provided with that, as ours in Europe are provided with beef or mutton: all prisoners of war unless they can sell them alive with greater advantage, otherwise as we said, they fatten them for slaughter, and at last sell them to the butchers. To this savage barbarity they are so naturalized, that some slaves, whether as weary of their lives, or to show their love to their masters, will proffer themselves to be killed and eaten. But that which is most inhuman, and beyond the ferocity of beasts, is, that the father scruples not to eat his son, nor the son his father, nor one brother the other, but take them by force, devouring their flesh, the blood yet reeking hot between their teeth" Ogilby's Africa page 518.
It then went on to describe several other instances where cannibalism was customary, or considered a delicacy among the natives, to one particularly stark, gory, and frightening example of unimaginable cruelty of savagely injuring, almost eating alive, and violent killing of a young girl, and treating her in a less human way than cattle of this day.
There are a few more stories of human flesh being found copiously in the markets, and that for sacrifices various animals, along with humans were cooked together, as well as a few stories of dead people being dug up after a day and sold and cooked. Although very short the chapter is extremely disturbing and grisly.
As far as Western Africa is concerned I could find references to the Leopard Society in Western Africa who frequently performed human cannibalism.
From Wikipedia I can find another report of cannibalism in the Congo Free State:
Roger Casement, writing to a consular colleague in Lisbon on August 3, 1903 from Lake Mantumba in the Congo Free State, said:
National Library of Ireland, MS 36,201/3The second chapter is called:
Human butcheries and human sacrifices in Negroland.
Victims for Sacrifice, from The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa, 1793.
Another grisly chapter to get through. Here there are several extracts of human sacrifices made in places like Dahomey, which was an African Kingdom roughly in the place of present day Benin, on the Western coast of sub-Saharan Africa. It was common for rulers, and people of rank to have hundreds and thousands of slaves sacrificed in the belief that they will be needed in "the next world". Grisly and terrible, I will let it speak for itself:
"The main object contemplated in the national anniversary of Dahomey is, that the king may water the graves of his ancestors with the blood of human victims. These are numerous consisting of victims taken in war, of condemned criminals, and of many seized by lawless violence. The captives are brought out in succession, with their arms pinioned, and a feticheer, laying his hand upon the devoted head, utters a few magic words, while another from behind, with a large scimitar severs it from the body, when shouts of applause ascend from the surrounding multitude.
...
Another great object of this periodical festival is the market for wives. All the unmarried females in the kingdom are esteemed the property of the sovereign, and are brought to the annual customs, to be placed at his disposal. He selects for himself such that appear most beautiful and engaging, and retails the others at enormous prices to his chiefs and nobles. No choice in this occasion is offered to the purchaser. In return for his twenty thousand cowries, a wife is handed out, and even be she old and ugly, he must rest contented; nay, some, it is said, have in mockery been presented with their own mothers. The king usually keeps his wives up to the number of three thousand, who serve them in various capacities, -being partly trained to act as a body guard, regularly regimented, and equipped with drums, flags, bows, and arrows, while a few carry muskets. They all reside in the palace which consists merely of an immense assemblage of cane and mud tents, enclosed by a high wall. The skulls and jawbones of enemies slain in battle form the favourite ornament of the palaces and temples."
Murray's African Discoveries, page 199.
And also
"At Coomassie, the customs, or human sacrifices are practiced on a scale still more tremendous than at Dahomey. The king had lately sacrificed on the grave of his mother three thousand victims, two thousand of whom were Fantee prisoners; and at the death of the late sovereign, the sacrifice was continued weekly for three months, consisting each time of two hundred slaves. ..."
Murray's African Discoveries, page 204.
And
"The practice of offering human sacrifices to appease evil spirits is common; but in no place more frequent, or on a larger scale than in the kingdoms of Ashantee or Dahomi, and in the Bormi river. Large numbers of victims, chiefly prisoners of war, are stately sacrificed to the manes of the royal ancestors in both of the aforementioned places, and under circumstances of shocking and almost unparalleled cruelty. At the time of the death of a king, a large number of his principal wives and favorite slaves are put to death, not so much, however, as sacrifice to appease his wrath, as to be his companions and attendants in another world, - a practice which, though cruel and revolting in itself, nevertheless keeps up a lively impression of a future state of existence".
Wilson's Africa, page 219.
What follows are descriptions of bodies lying about rotting in the streets with incredible indifference from the locals, as well as the most brutal decapitation executions requiring multiple strokes to the neck and back of the head.
Is there historical truth to this, apparently yes. In the Wikipedia article on Dahomey, there are several references to large scale human sacrifice. Also the article on the Annual Customs of Dahomey relates:
Since Dahomey was a significant military power involved in the slave trade, slaves and human sacrifice became crucial aspects of the ceremony. Captives from war and criminals were killed for the deceased kings of Dahomey. During the ceremony, around 500 prisoners would be sacrificed. As many as 4,000 were reported killed In one of these ceremonies in 1727.[5][6][7] Most of the victims were sacrificed through decapitation, a tradition widely used by Dahomean kings, and the literal translation for the Fon name for the ceremony Xwetanu is "yearly head business".[8] In later years this ceremony also included the spilling of human blood from the sacrificed.[4] Related with this, there was also a significant military parade in the ceremonies that further displayed the military might of the kingdom of Dahomey.
With scholarly references such as:
Bay, Edna (1998). Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey. University of Virginia Press.
R. Rummel (1997)"Death by government". Transaction Publishers. p.63. ISBN 1-56000-927-6
Law, Robin (1997). "The Politics of Commercial Transition: Factional Conflict in Dahomey in the Context of the Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade" (PDF). The Journal of African History. 38 (2): 213–233. doi:10.1017/s0021853796006846. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
And so forth, thus we see that there is truth in large scale human sacrifices in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as cannibalism.
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