The National tribune., 1900-07-05
IN DARKEST AFRICA.
Half Million Worth OF Our Cheap coiored
Cottons for the Moslem.

1t Is pleasure to turn from the reyoltins
spectacle OF some Of the West African
tribes who had been bestialized by their
devotion TO trade gin, to the picture which
travellers draw of the great Hausa states
OF the Sondan, under Mahometan domi1s
ion, Tor A century, where such a thing as
a bottle or spirits rs never seen. For q
hundred years the Mahometans OF North
Africa have been pushing across the Sa-
hara and the Soudan, bringing all the bar-
Darous peoples they have met under the
influence OF Islam. Thus Mahometanisn
has far more profoundly affected the lives
OF many millions of black Africans than
the christian influences, which are only
Just beginning to make large headway. II
cannot be said that this influence of Islam
IS wholly salut9ry, though many obsery-
ers, ike the learned DIR. Blyden, of L.
IBERIA, regard Islam as the greatest civ
ihzlhg agency yet introduced into Africa:
put these Moslem proselytes have made
the natives better than they found them.
and have stimulated foreign trade with
darkest Africa to q remarkable extent
When Stanley and other explorers began
TO penetrate equatorial regions they said:
These tribes around the lakes who
dress IN long garments made OF bark finer.
are beginning to discard their fiimsy ma
tive eioth and are swathing their bodies
with fold after fold OF white cottons from,
England and America. The Arabs among
them dress in these cloths and have con-
vineed the natives OF their advantage over
the homemade CLOTH a great future is
coming for the cloth trade in inner At
rica."
The trade is growing every year. Scores
OF tribes in Central Africa are eager to
buy "Mericant," as they call the cottons
made IN America, which traders now bring
to their villages. About October in every
year the great caravan that crosses the
Sahara from Morocco to Timbuktu, starts
on Its way. The caravan always numbers
about 10000 cameis and a ffth of them
are laden with white American and Brit
ish cottons, and blue and other colors. Tie
greatest imports OF Tripoli, which is the
other great center of the desert caravan
trade, are cotton cloths, ard most of item
are sent to the desert oases and the fer
tile Soudan beyond. While cottons ara
among the largest imports OF Zanzibar,
and many of them are sent inland to the
natives, who never saw these manufact.
ures till the Arabs appeared among them
in their white garments. England has the
largest share IN this trade, but $500, 600
worth of our cheap, uncolored cottons were
sent into the wilds of Africa last year.
and it is the Moslem who has opened these
new markets for the textiles Of the "in-
tidep' nations.
But the Mohametans have done more
than to open these new markets. They
have stimulated textile manufactures ia
the very heart Of Africa to such an extent
that cloth made in the Soudan Is now for
sale IN Mediterranean cities. The town Of
Kano, only a few days journey from Lake
Tchad, has been well called .'The Man.
chester OF Central Africa" for the cloth it
weaves from the native cotton clothes
more than half the people Of the central
Soudan. Fanatical followers of Islam
cannot keep out of touch with the rest Of
the world, though they may for years wall
cities like Timbuktu and Harrar, and seal
up great regions, like the Egyptian Sou
dan, against every white race. They may
proclaim war on the infdel white at the
same time their very tastes and aptitudes
are opening ways through which foreign
commerce enters as water inyades leak
ing ship.