whose origin is more mysterious. Industry is more extensive and more
developed than is generally believed to be the case, even among
very backwards tribes. It is almost always the privilege of castes living
outside the bounds of society, despised because of their pretended
servile origin, at the same time petted because they are indispensable
on account of the trades which they are the only ones to exercise,
and feared because they are believed to be in possession of
numerous magic secrets. One group devotes itself to the extraction
and working of iron, another – or the feminine part of this group – to
the manufacture of pottery, another to working in wood or wicker,
another to the making of copper or copper ornaments, still another to
gold or silver jewellery by means of the process of cire perdue or of
the blowpipe. To these diverse categories of artisans must be added
that of weavers, dyers, tailors, embroiderers, these latter not consti-
tuting in general a special caste. On the contrary, musicians, profes-
sional singers, and poets form castes to which Europeans give the
generic appellation of the caste of the “griots”.
Many of the Negroes devote themselves to commerce, especially
ambulatory commerce, notably among the Sarakolle or Marka, the
Jula and the Hausa. Some populations, as the Jula and the Hausa of
Sudan, the Apollonians of the Gold Coast and the Ivory Coast,
traverse considerable stretches of country, going to the north to fetch
salt bars of Saharan origin and, in the zone neighbouring the great
forest, kola-nuts, transporting on donkeys or bullocks, more often on
the heads of men, the most varied products of local industry or
European importation, gaining painfully, by this heavy toil, fortunes
which are generally very meagre but which are nevertheless envied
by the peasants. The latter profess a certain admiration for these
peddlers who have become educated in many things by their travels
and more or less polished by the frequentation of a variety of environ-
ments. But the mass of the population is given almost exclusively to
agriculture: the land is at the same time the primordial divinity and the
principal means of subsistence of the Negroes of Africa.
Headrest (Luba).
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Wood, 17 x 13 x 9 cm.
The Trustees of the British Museum, London.
Serving multiple purposes, headrests such as this are a cool and comfortable
pillow in tropical climates as well as a protector for elaborate hairstyles by raising
the head above the surface of the bed. Also viewed as a seat for dreams in the
Luba culture, who consider dreams to be prophetic in fortelling important
events, providing warnings, and communicating messages from the other
world. It is not surprising, then, that headrests should support female
priestesses, who serve as real-life intermediaries and interlocutors for spirits.
The cruciform coiffure and cascade hairstyles displayed on this headrest,
both decorative and spiritual, were the most popular styles of the upper class of
the 19thcentury. Women, through the embellishment and civilisation of their
bodies and heads, are rendered ideal receptacles for the containment of a spirit.