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Who were, then, the people inhabiting the African continent before the Negroes, whom the latter found there at the moment of their arrival, and what has become of them?

Here again we are reduced to suppositions.[1] However, they can be supported by some facts, though of an altogether relative certitude, some furnished by local traditions, others by the accounts of ancient authors and the observations of modern travellers, and still others by the works of prehistorians and anthropologists.

These latter have scientifically demonstrated that the dwarfs or pygmies, who have been pointed out at all times in certain regions of Africa, belong to a human race distinct from the Negro. Not only are they lighter in colour and slighter in build than the generality of Negroes, but they are differentiated from them by a number of other physical characteristics, notably by the more disproportionate relation of the respective dimensions of the head, the trunk and the limbs. Scientists refuse to call them “dwarfs”, a term which is suitable rather to exceptional individuals in a given race and not to the whole of a race; they reject the term “pygmies”, which represents to our mind an extremely small stature as an essential and predominant characteristic, because the men in question, although rarely exceeding 1.55 metres [61 inches], are not generally shorter than 1.40 metres [about 55 inches]. They have, therefore, been given the name of “Negrillos”.

Rock engraving (San), c. 2000–1000 BCE.

South Africa. Andesite rock, 48 × 52 × 12 cm.

McGregor Museum, Kimberley.

At present, the number of Negrillos relatively free from all crossing is not considerable in Africa. They are met, however, in a dispersed state, in the forests of Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the valleys of the high effluents of the Nile and in other portions of equatorial Africa. Farther south, under the name of Hottentots or Bushmen[2] that is to say, “men of the bush”, they form more compact groupings. Elsewhere, particularly on the Gulf of Guinea, many travellers have pointed out the presence of tribes of a light colour, a well developed head, an abundant hairy system, which seem to come from a relatively recent crossing between Negroes and Negrillos, sometimes with a predominance of the latter element. It seems very certain that these are the remains, destined to diminish from century to century and perhaps one day to disappear totally, of a population which was formerly much more extensive.

There is no accord as to the point which marked the terminus of the famous voyage accomplished in the 6th century BC by the Carthaginian general Hanno along the west coast of Africa. Extreme estimates place it, at farthest, in the neighbourhood of the island of Sherbro, between Sierra-Leone and Monrovia, but the more rigorous not far from the mouth of the Gambia. However it may be, this hardy navigator terminated his so-called periplus in a region where Negrillos are no longer found today, but where they still existed in his time. For it is impossible not to identify with the Negrillos that we know, whose arboreal habits have been mentioned by all who have studied them, those little hairy creatures similar to men and living in trees, described by Hanno towards the end of his voyage out and called gorii by his interpreter. Of this word, at least as it has come to us from the pen of Greek and Latin authors who revealed to us the adventures of Hanno, we have made “gorilla”; we have applied it to a species of anthropomorphous apes, which are not met with, at least in our day, except very much to the south of the southernmost point that was attained by the Carthaginian general, and we have supposed that the little hairy creatures resembling men, which this navigator mentions, were gorillas, without considering that the gorilla, even seen from a distance, has in no resemblance the aspect of a little man, but indeed much more that of a giant. Perhaps it is not presumptuous to recall that gorii or gor-yi, in the mouth of a Wolof of Senegal, corresponds exactly to our expression “these are men” and to suggest that Hanno’s interpreter, probably hired on the Senegalese coast, spoke the language that is still employed there in our day.

In the following century, the Persian Sataspe, condemned to go around Africa in order to escape the death penalty pronounced against him, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and took sail during many months in the direction of the south. He could not complete his periplus and, on his return to the court of Xerxes, was crucified by the king’s order. Before dying he recounted that, on the farthermost coast he saw, he perceived “little men”, clothed in garments made of the palm tree, who had abandoned their cities and fled to the mountains as soon as they saw him approaching. These little men were most likely Negrillos, but we cannot know at what point of the western coast of Africa Sataspe met them. The story is told by Herodotus (Book IV, § XLIII).

Lydenburg Head, c. 500–70 °CE.

Eastern Transvaal, South Africa.

Clay, traces of white pigment, and specularite, 38 × 26 × 25.5 cm.

University of Cape Town Collection, South African Museum, Cape Town.

Seven fired earthenware heads, named after the site where they were discovered, were reconstructed from unearthed fragments which were dated using the radiocarbon method to the 6th century CE. According to later excavations which confirmed this date, it seems that the heads were intentionally hidden when they weren’t in use.

Moulded pieces of clay for the unique facial features. All of the heads have cowrie-like eyes, wide mouths, notched ridges that may represent cicatrisation, and raised bars across the forehead and temple which define the hairline. Of the seven heads, two of them are large enough to be worn as helmets and are surmounted by animal figurines, while the other five have a hole on either side of the neck which was likely used to attach them to a costume or structure.

While their actual use continues to be a mystery, archeologists have suggested that they were likely used during initiation rituals as in during the rites of enactment which signified the transition to a new social status or membership into an exclusive group.

Lydenburg Head, c. 500–70 °CE.

Eastern Transvaal, South Africa.

Clay, traces of white pigment, and specularite, 24 × 12 × 18 cm.

University of Cape Town Collection, South African Museum, Cape Town.

As one of the smaller heads, this is the only Lydenburg Head which exhibits animal-like facial features. The aesthetic power of the heads, enhanced by the white slip and shimmering specularite, adds validity to the argument that they were used in ritual drama to captivate an audience, and also to visually mediate between the spirit world and that of daily life.

Kwayep maternity figure (Bamileke).

Wood, pigment, 61 × 24.9 cm.

Musée du quai Branly, Paris.

About the same epoch, probably around the year 450 BC, the presence of Negrillos in the northern part of the country of the Negroes was noted by the same historian. He reports in Book II of his work (§ XXXII) that some young Nasamonians inhabiting Syrte, that is to say, the province situated between the present Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, traversed, as a wager, the Libyan desert and attained, at the other side of a vast extent of sand, a plain where there were trees and which was separated by marshes from a city watered by a great river containing crocodiles; the inhabitants of this plain and of this city were little men of dark colour, a stature below the medium, who did not understand the Libyan language. Some have wanted to identify the “great river” mentioned by Herodotus as the Niger, others have seen in it Lake Chad, still others, an arm or a western tributary of the Nile. However that be, the Nasamonians met the Negrillos at the southern limits of the Sahara, that is, at the north of a zone beyond which this race no longer exists.

Native traditions clarify the question with a ray of light that is not altogether negligible, almost permitting us to pass from the domain of simple conjectures to that of probabilities.

Everywhere, but principally in the countries where the Negrillos have already disappeared for a long time, the Negroes considered as the most ancient inhabitants of the soil say that this land does not really belong to them and that when their distant ancestors, coming from the east, established themselves there, they found it in possession of little men of reddish tint and large heads who were the veritable natives and who had, by means of certain treaties, accorded to the first Negroes arriving on a given piece of land the authorisation to use and cultivate it. In the course of time these little men have disappeared but the memory of them has remained fairly vivid. Generally they have been deified and identified with the gods or genii of the soil, the forest, the mountains, great trees, stones, and waters; often it is claimed that they live in certain species of animals having strange customs, such as the lamantin and varieties of little antelopes (Limnotragus gratus and Hycemoschus aquaticus). Sometimes, as among the Mandinka, the same word (man or ma) serves to designate these antelopes, the lamantin, the genii of the bush, the legendary little red men, and signifies equally ’ancestor’ and ‘master’, and more particularly, ‘master of the soil’. Thus the traditions of the natives tend to prove that the Negrillos preceded the Negroes on African soil and recognise the formers’ suzerain rights to the land – rights which the present occupants consider themselves to be only the precarious holders and usufructuaries.

In the absence of all certitude in this regard, it seems then that we should be permitted to suppose that the habitat of the African Negroes was originally peopled by Negrillos. Their domain probably did not extend much beyond the limits of what today constitutes in Africa the domain of the Negroes; however, it might have been prolonged a little more in the direction of the north, covering at least the southern part of the Sahara, which was undoubtedly less arid than it has since become, possessing, perhaps, rivers which in the course of centuries have dried up or been transformed into subterranean waters. It is probable that North Africa, very different already from the rest of the continent and in closer contact with Mediterranean Europe than with central and southern Africa, was inhabited by another race of men.

According to all probability, the Negrillos of the epoch anterior to the coming of the Negroes into Africa were hunters and fishermen, living in a seminomadic state suitable to people given exclusively to hunting and fishing. Their customs were probably similar to those of the Negrillos who still exist at present, and undoubtedly like these, they spoke languages which were half isolating, half agglutinating, characterised, from the phonetic point of view, by the phenomenon of “clicks” and by the employment of musical tones. The great trees of the forest, grottoes of the mountains, rock shelters, huts of branches or of bark, lake dwellings constructed on piles might have served them, according to the region, for more or less temporary habitations. Perhaps they were given to the industry of chipping or of polishing stones and it might be proper to attribute to them the hatchets, arrowheads, scrapers and numerous instruments of stone that are found nearly everywhere in contemporary Negro Africa and which the present Negroes, who are ignorant of their origin, consider as stones fallen from the skies and as material traces left by the thunder. It is possible again without being permitted the formulation of definitive affirmations, that the Negrillos knew only chipped stone, while their prehistoric neighbours of North Africa had already arrived at the art of polished stone.

Statue (Bamileke). Cameroon.

Wood, encrusted patina, crust, height: 59 cm. S. & J.

Calmeyn Collection.

Dschang, home of the Bamileke and western Bangwa, is where these ritual sticks of the Lefem society were found lining the path to the sacred area of the chiefdom, which was forbidden for villagers. The Lefem secret society was composed of important people who paid a high price for the right of entry; therefore, along with other communal activities, they are in charge of organising the royal and princely funerals.

The stick is topped with the shape of a seated Fwa king, his face is proportionally oversized with large eyelids and a half-open mouth, he is adorned with a hat and bracelets which were common attire of the time.

Crest (Ekoi).

Wood, plant fibres, hair, leather, and ivory, height: 25 cm.

Private collection.

With a wooden core, this frightening crest is stylistically typical of the Ekoi’s artistic production. The head is covered with antelope skin and further adorned with hair, teeth, and eyes.

Statue (Tubwé).

Wood, height: 36 cm.

Leloup archives.

Regretably, only the top portion of this statue was maintained; however, the pulled back hairstyle and protruding eyes are common of Tubwé art. The rich oily finish of the statue adds to its mystery and may represent an ancestor.

Nyibita mask (Ngeendé).

Wood, height: 63 cm.

Private collection.

Extremely rare, this Ngeendé mask exhibits large eyes which are empty of expression, adding to its mysterious presence. The encrusted finish suggests that numerous libations were offered to this statue.

Ekpu statue (Oron).

Nigeria.

Wood, height: 117 cm.

Private collection.

Upon the death of an important member of society, Ekpu ancestors are represented with statues which carry in hand a familiar object. They embodied lineage identities and their rights of property and were lined in sanctuaries and honoured biannually.