Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-07
WEST COAST WOMEN
FEMALES AM0NGaTHE AFRICAN
BANTUsIWoRK HARD.
Men Take Life With Ease, While
Wives and Sisters Till
the Fields.
From the New York Tribune


Women on the west cSast of Africa, who
have always been sold I'm plural marriages,
may now be made free at their own re-
quest. This Is a recent innovation, intro
duced by the German government after
long and earnest solicitation bv, Presbyte-
rlan missionaries. Several native women
have already awaited themselves of the
privilege, and as result Of Christian
teaching have become the wives of men
who have abjured polygamy. This is one
OF the Uiumphs of missionary effort in that
part of the world
Miss Isabella Nassau who has been a
missionary of the Presbyterian board for
thlrty-1our years on the west coast of At
rlca, IN an interview with Tribune re-
porter, gave some interesting facts regard
ing the people with whom she has lived so
long. MISS Nassau has worked among the
Bantu people at Batanga and neighboring
stations.
Women Breadwinners.
The women are the agriculturists of the
country, and largely the breadwinners said
Miss Nassau. For this reason it is a simple
matter to become acquainted with them.
They are very Industrious, and shoulder
the heaviest burdens of life bravely 1t Is
their husbands part to build the houses,
hunt fish and make deals with the traders.
The number of wives a man owns is lin
tied only by the amount of his property.
ana MS wives are no inconSiderable part of
mis- wealth, as they do his work. A wife
can be bought with goods worth from $50
to $3.50.
The native women readily take on civil
lied dress and abandon their strips of
br1ght-hued calico, which they wear wrap
ped about themselves, as easily as they
forsook their primitive bark cloth for the
product of the loom.
Products They Raise.
August and Sept before the rains
come, are the planting season. The natives
have learned the value of charcoal in en-
riching the soil, and it is their only fer
tflizer. When the men have cleared tract
of land of the trees their part of the farm
ing is at end. Then the women with
their cutlasses and knives. cut down the
undergrowth, and soon as it is dry
enough burn it. Only the most primitive
implements are used and they are carried
in baskets on the backs of the women when
they start, early in the morning, for their
forest gardens. The same ground is used
only few years BY that time the upper
soil Is exhausted, and it Is allowed to grow
up again with wild and rank vegetation,
while another plot is cleared as before for
cultivation Cassava, sugar cane, vans
plantainS and bananas the most COM
mon garden products. OF plantain there
are several hundred varieties, and there are
many kinds of vans Bananas are seldom
pIdHleu oUCe started, they assert lnSm-
selves and run out the plantain.
Cassava and Vans.
The women's baskets never return empty
from the gardens If there are no cassava
vans or other vegetables or fruits to carry
back they are filed with frewood, which
it falls to the feminine part of the commu-
nifty to provide. The Bantu men do a good
deal of resting, and would never think of
shOuldering a heavy basket for a woman
The man VINO may be the most skillful of
cooks in the white mans house will sit
hungry for hours in his own and wait for
his tired wife to prepare the meal. Until
they accept Christianity there is little fam
lily life, and the men and women never eat
together. Afterward there is a marked
difference in the kindness shown by hus-
bands and fathers to their families. Mem
bers of the twelve Presbyterian native
churches on a coast line of 100 miles have
all abandoned polygamy and are living in
more or less wholesome family relations
Missionary work there is now in its second
generation and a marked change is seen
in the young people who are growing up.
The king of the tribe is Christian and a
member of the church.
Furnishings in Homes.