constant contact with populations more evolved or otherwise
evolved than themselves, but with a civilisation contemporary to
theirs, and were able, by taking from some and getting inspi-
ration from others, to become modern Frenchmen, the unfortu-
nate Negroes were almost entirely isolated from the rest of
humanity. If the whites of North Africa have succeeded in
reaching them in spite of the Saharan barrier, it has hardly been
more than to bring into captivity thousands and thousands
among them or to impose upon them by the sword a dogma
that they did not even take the trouble to explain. If later, other
whites have penetrated further among them, in spite of that
other obstacle constituted by the maritime bar, it was first to tear
away, anew, millions of slaves, then to inundate them with
alcohol, and finally, without preparation, to thrust a civilisation
of the 19thcentury in the midst of other civilisations which had
remained contemporaneous with Charlemagne and even Attila.
Under conditions such as these, the Negroes have been able
to borrow the culture of cotton from the Semites and the use of
powder from the Europeans, but what could they gain from the
intellectual point of view?
Statue (Metoko).
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Wood, height: 107.5 cm.
Private collection.
Court dwarf, hands put around the navel to insist on the lineage continuity and
the connection with ancestors, symbolised by the umbilical cord. According to
Luba proverb, “humanity begins with the navel”.