The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-07-24

Spread Of the Religion In Africa.

Durlng the past flVe and twenty
years Mohammedauism has made ex-
traordinary progress in Africa, NOV
ing steadily inland and southwark.
Meanwhile Christianity is stationary,
and in spite of every effort to extend
it, the fetich-C Christianity of Abyssinia
remains almost the only evidence of
the white mans religion in Africa
outside of Egypt proper. The later
Asiatic mOneothism is as completely
mastering the earlier as it did in the
first centuries after the PRONUNCIATION
of the faith of Mohammed. II is a sad
thing to say, but it is true that a
Christianized negro is not always a
negro improved; while the Moslemized
negro becomes a bold, self-respecting
man, ready to fight to the death for
his religion, or indeed for any cause
which he may take up. Some of these
men we are now e~ncountering in the
heart of Africa; cruel and relentless
in the moment of victory they are, but
utterly careless OF death themselves
when the fight is for the faith.
What is it in the faith they have
adopted that thus eInboldens them?
There are tribes of splendid fighting
negroes in Africa. as our experience
with the Zulus, the Ashantees, and
other races, have taught us; but the
negro even of an inferior type develops
after he becomes a Mohammedan quail
tiles he had never shown before Some
thing on this head was told about ten
years ago by Mr.. Edward w. Blyden,
himself a negro and principal of the
Presbyterian high school, Liberia,
West Africa. By comparing his evil
dence with that of others who have
fought side by side with the HOnssas
on the west coast, or have witnessed
the change wrought among certain
tribes in the nei 'hborhood of Zanzibar,
We can obtain d. lair idea of what is re-
ally going on. To begin with, it is
no light matter that already Moham-
mechanism controls nearly all the most
energetic tribes, and numbers among
its adherents the highest social organ
izations on the continent. Futah,
Masina, Bornou, Waday, Darfur, Kor-
dofan, SEMINAR, Timbuctoo, etc., are
all Mohammedan, and the religion is
respected all over Africa, even where
the people have not yet accepted the
Koran. To quote Mr.. Biyden CHM
self a Nonconformist Christian, remem-
ber): mo one a travel any dis
lance in the interior of west Africa
without being struck by the different
aspects OF society in different localities,
according as the population is pagan
or Mohammedan. Not only is there a
difference in the methods of govern
ment, but in the general regulations
of society, and even in the amusements
of the people. The love of terpsi-
chorean performances, SO noticeable
in pagan communities, disappears as
the people come under the in
fiuence of Mohammedanism. 1t is
not a fact that when the sun
goes down all Africa dances;' but
it might be a fact were it not for
fanatics, throw aside their fetich-wor-
ship, and their moral tone is imme-
diately raised. In all this the Koran
acts q most important part. Is Enites
the most widely separated races in a
common sentiment and in a general
antagonism to paganism. From the
Time when they embrace Moham-
mechanism the success OF Islam is their
one idea. Nor have the Mohammedan
missionaries any special advantages
beyond those of their creed in dealing
with the negroes. They came neither
as conquerers nor as wealthy men.
They find the negroes free. and they
go about among them in the purest
spirit'of propagandist fanaticism. The
Arab missionaries live IN poverty, set
tie down unobtrusively among the
people they have come to convert; the
native missionaries are traders as well
as preachers. No attempt was made
to destroy the fabric of native institu-
tions. Mohammedanism, without
changing its teaching, is adapted to
the negro; the negro is not forced into
the Arabian mold of Mohammedanism.
But the effect upon the individual is
the same; and when the Moslem con-
vert is clothed with a white robe, and a
sword is given into his hand, he be-
comes then and thenceforward the
equal of every other Myslem in the
world. To him nenceforth all Moham-
medans are brothers. More than this,
equality, religion, and education come
TO the Mohammedan negro at one and
the same time. His whole being is ele-
waited, his mind freed, his blackness,
which In contact with European
Christians ear inferiority, exposes
him to no disability whatever within
the pale of Islam. In short, the negro,
instead ct hei.s treated ass: :s:scssS<
at onc rises in his estimation and IN
that OF those around him; and the
Arabs, who bring them the religion,
9ntn<>x. A w.x.~ .xxtfl~ &k< k-sL~-4Al 49,
they convert. These are some of the
reasons why our officers have found
the Houssas some Of the best troops
they have ever led, with no sense
whatever Of personal irferiority to the
Europeans in camp with them and not
at all inferior in personal courage.