People of Africa

People of Africa

The Project Gutenberg EBook of People of Africa, by Edith A. How
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Title: People of Africa
Author: Edith A. How
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6693] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 14,
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PEOPLE
OF AFRICA ***
PEOPLE OF AFRICA
===================================== by Edith A. How,
B.A.
Universities' Mission to Central Africa
With Six Coloured Illustrations
LONDON Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
New York: The Macmillan Co.
1921
--------------- PREFACE
It is hoped that this book and its companion volume dealing with
non-African peoples will be the beginning of a series of simple,
readable accounts for Africans of some of the various objects of general
interest in the world of to-day. There are many such works published
for the use of English and American children. But the native African
has a totally different experience of life, and much that is taken for
granted by a child of a Northern civilized land needs explanation to one
used to tropical uncivilized surroundings. Again, the African knows the
essential operations of everyday life in their simplest form, whereas the
European knows them disguised by an elaborate industrial system. All
this makes books written for English children almost unintelligible to a
member of a primitive race. These two volumes are far from perfect,
but it has been difficult to know always how to select wisely from the
mass of material at hand. They will have served, however, a useful

purpose if they form a basis for adaptations into the various African
vernaculars, and afford an inspiration for other works of a similar
nature. Thanks are due to Miss K. Nixon Smith, of the Universities
Mission to Central Africa, for her kindness in criticizing the MSS. from
her long experience of the African outlook.
EDITH A. HOW June, 1920.
I ----------- INTRODUCTION
In this book we are going to read about some of the other people who
live in our own great country--Africa. Africa is very, very large, so big
that no one would be able to go to all the places in it. But different
people have been to different parts, and have told what they saw where
they went. Wherever our home in Africa may be, if we walked towards
the sunrise--that is, towards the east--day after day, at last we should
reach the great salt sea. Again, if we walked towards the sunset in the
west, we should at last get to the sea. To the north, again, is the sea, and
to the south, the sea. Whichever way we walked, at last, after many
months, we should be stopped by the sea. But on our journey we should
have met many different kinds of people, and have seen many different
customs. In some places there would be rivers, in some mountains, in
some deserts, with no trees or grass to be seen. In these, people must
make their homes in many ways, and have many kinds of food and
clothes. Because we live in Africa, we want to know about Africa and
the people in it. They are men and women and children like ourselves,
though the colour of their skins may be lighter or darker than ours, and
their languages quite different. But they, too, build houses and eat food
and wear some kind of dress, and it is interesting to know about their
customs. So in this book we shall read about some of them and of how
they live; and, to help us to understand, we shall find with each part a
picture of the people we are reading about. All the time we must
remember that we could get to see them for ourselves if we were strong
enough to walk so far, because they are all our own brothers and sisters
in Africa.
Long ago