The daily gazette., 1877-04-24
MOhdm mechanism Among the
AJs'icans.

Several remarkable papers have lately
appeared In an English magazine on the
comparative progress of Christianity and
| Islam in Africa. Some of the facts and
suggestions offered merit careful atten-
| ton, not only by their intrinsic imports
| ance, but because the author Of the ar.
ticles, Edward w. Blyden, the Principal
of the Liberian College is himself black
of pure African descent.
At time when events in the East pro,
woke appeals TO religious prejudices, and
when narrow view of Mohammedanism
| its moral worth and Its true function In
education is often put forth even in Eng
land and America, nothing could be more
oppOrtune than a lucid account OF what
it has done for western and central Africa.
We are told, for instance, that Islam has
a tendency TO pen up nations in Chinese
immobility; that it is sort of progress
which stifies the progressive spirit; that
it is not short cut or stepping stone to
better civilization, but a blind alley
Now that this notion is quite erroneous,
as regards one branch of the human race
at all events, the data collected by Mr..
Blyden effectually prove.
For three centuries western Africa has
been in contact with Christianity, yet not
a single tribe has been collectively con
verted, nor has one powerful chief ac-
cepted the faith which Europepn mis-
sionaries have offered him. Mr.. Blyden
tell us that even on the coast of Liberia
and Sierra Leone there is not point,
with the exception of one small island,
where the imported Christianity can fair
ly be said TO have taken root.
Islam on the other hand since its in
PRODUCTION by Akbar in the ninth century
and establishment at TimbuctOo, has
steadily and vastly widened the circle OF
its authority, showing itself competent to
master the most virile and refractory
tribes, addressing itself, indeed, by pref
erence to those peoples which already had
the rudiments of civil government and
social organization. 1t is Islam which
has built and now occupies the largest
towns of the interior, which has evoked
and still controls most of the trade be>
tween equatorial Africa and foreign
countries, and which gives laws to the
most considerable Kingdoms, such as
Hausa. Bornu, Darfour, Kordofan, and
SEMINAR. We are reminded, further, that
in this quartz the fervor ofprosely tism is
unquenched, and that every day the
Moslem missionaries aro gaining ground
on the native fetichism and idolatry, and
enforcing respect for thei1 faith upon all
Africans, even those who are not yet en-
rolled under the standard of the Prophet.
AS to the work of melioration perform
ed by Islam within its expanding pale,
Mr.. Blyden tells us that with the first
step inland from the West Coast you are
struck with the different aspect of locali- !
ties according as the inhabitants are |
heather or Mohammedan. The divers
gence runs through the form of govern
ment, the social laws, the manners, and |
even the amusements of the people. Pass |
ing in 1873 from Sierra Leone TO Futah |
Jallo, he had to traverse some large |
pagan villages, and soon afterward en-
tering Mohammedan to Tn, he seemed !
to breathe higher and purer atmosp- |
here, the character, sentiments and con-
dition of the population having under
gone complete metamorphosiS, 1t ap- |
pears hat the ascent of an African CONS ]
munity in the social, scale undef Moslem |
lmpuse,is often attended with signal ex-
hlbltions of individual capacity.