The origin and development of the moral ideas

The South African Bushmans, another very backward people, are likewise represented by Mr. Lang and M. Hoffmann as believers in a supreme being.124 A native said to Mr. Orpen that Cagn made all things, and that the people prayed to him:—“O Cagn! O Cagn! are we not your children, do you not see our hunger? Give us food.” And he gave them what they asked for both hands full. But although he was at first very good and nice, he afterwards “got spoilt through fighting so many things.”125 However, according to another statement, made by a person who from childhood had much intercourse with Bushmans and knew their language, they did not believe in a God or the great father of men, but in a devil who made everything with his left hand.126 The Hottentots spoke of Tsui-goab as “the giver of all blessings, the Father on high, All-father, the avenger, who fought daily the battle for his people.” They thus identified him with the ancestor of the tribe, but Tsui-goab was also the name by which they called the Infinite.127 Among the pagans of Africa there is, in fact, a very widespread belief in a benevolent supreme deity, a creator or maker of things, who lives in or above the sky, who generally takes no concern whatever in the affairs of mankind, who mostly receives no worship, and is, as a rule, totally indifferent to good or evil.128 In some rare instances only he is described as a judge of human conduct.

Thus some of the Bechuanas believe that a being who is vaguely called by the name of Lord and Master of things, Mongalinto, punishes thieves by striking them with the lightning.129 According to an old writer, Father Santos, the natives of Sofala in South-Eastern Africa acknowledge a god, called Molungo, “who both in this and the world to come they fancy measures retribution for the good and evil done in this.” They believe in the existence of twenty-seven paradises, where everyone enjoys a pleasure proportionate to the merits of his life; while those who have passed their lives in wickedness are supposed to be condemned to a privation from the sight of the holy presence of Molungo, and to suffer torments in one of the thirteen hells they assume to exist, each according to the evil he has done.130 The Baluba, a Bantu people of Equatorial Africa, have the notion of a creator, named Fidi-Mukullu, who punishes the souls of the wicked before they are reborn on earth, whereas the good return to life again, in the shape of chiefs or other important persons, immediately after they have died.131 The Awemba, another Bantu people, who inhabit the stretch of country lying between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Bangweolo, acknowledge a supreme being, Leza, who “is the Judge of the dead, and condemns thieves, adulterers and murderers to the state of Vibanda, or Viwa (evil spirits), exalting the good to the rank of mipashi, or benevolent spirits.”132 Other natives in the neighbourhood of Lake Tanganyika recognise a creator called Kabesa, who lives in the sky and admits to his abode the souls of

good people after death, but turns away the souls of the wicked.133 The Akikuyu of British East Africa recognise three gods all of whom are called Ngai. One of them, however, is considered the supreme deity. “If a man is good this Ngai can give him much property. If he does wrong the same power can strike him down with disease and cause his livestock to dwindle away…. The sudden death of a man, for instance by lightning, is ascribed to some evil act of his life being punished by Ngai.”134 Proyart tells us that the Negroes of Loango believed in a supreme being, Zambi, who had created all that is good in the world, who was himself good and loved justice in others, and who severely punished fraud and perjury.135 It is of course impossible to say exactly how far the statements referring to African supreme beings represent unadulterated native beliefs.

In criticising Kolb’s account of the supreme and perfect god of the Hottentots, Bishop Callaway observes, “Nothing is more easy than to enquire of heathen savages the character of their creed, and during the conversation to impart to them … ideas which they never heard before, and presently to have these come back again as articles of their own original faith, when in reality they are but the echoes of one’s own thoughts.”136 With reference to the West African native Miss Kingsley likewise remarks that he has a wonderful power of assimilating foreign forms of belief, and that when he once has got hold of a new idea it remains in his mind long after the missionaries who put it there have passed away.137 And besides the teaching of missionaries there are in Africa several factors which for centuries have tended to introduce foreign conceptions, namely, intercourse with European settlers, the operations of the slave trade, and the influence of Muhammedanism.138 But at the same time it seems exceedingly probable that the African belief in a supreme being has a native substratum. In many cases he is apparently the heaven god;139 but he may also be a mythical ancestor, as the Hottentot god Tsui-goab and the Zulu god Unkulunkulu; or a personification of the supernatural, as is suggested by such names as the Masai Ngăi, the Monbuttu Kilima, and the Malagasy Andriamanitra;140 or the assumed cause of anything which particularly fills the savage mind with wonder or awe. Among the natives of Northern Guinea, according to Mr.

Wilson, “every thing which transpires in the natural world beyond the power of man, or of spirits, who are supposed to occupy a place somewhat higher than man, is at once and spontaneously ascribed to the agency of God.”141 Nay, for reasons which will be stated immediately, I am even of opinion that the function of a moral judge, occasionally attributed to the great god of African pagans, has in some instances an independent origin.