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The aboriginal races of South Africa were the Bushmen and Hottentots. Both these races are rapidly diminishing in numbers, and in British South Africa it is expected that they will in the course of the twentieth century become extinct. Besides these primitive races there are the dark-skinned negroids of Bantu stock, commonly known in their tribal groups as Kaffirs, Zulu, Bechuana and Damara, which are again subdivided into many lesser groups. The Bantu compose the greater part of the native population. There are also in South Africa Malays and Indians and others, who during the last two hundred years have been introduced from Java, Ceylon, Madagascar, Mozambique and British India, and by intermarriage with each other and with the natives have produced a hybrid population generally classed together under the heading of the Mixed Races. These are of all colours, varying from yellow to dark brown. The tribes of Central Africa are as yet less known. Many of them exhibit racial characteristics allied to those of the tribes of South Africa, but with in some cases an admixture of Arab blood.
| Protectorate?Black and brown: | |
|
?Natives (estimated) |
4,000,000 |
|
?Asiatics (estimated) |
25,000 |
|
Zanzibar?Black and brown |
200,000 |
|
Uganda |
3,200,000 |
|
????? |
|
|
Total |
7,425,000 |
|
Estimated. |
|
|
Nigeria (including Lagos)?Black and brown |
15,000,000 |
|
Gold Coast and hinterland?Chiefly black |
2,700,000 |
|
Sierra Leone?Chiefly black |
1,000,000 |
|
Gambia?Chiefly black |
163,000 |
|
????? |
|
|
18,863,000 |
|
From east to west across Africa the aboriginal nations are mostly of the black negroid type, their varieties being only imperfectly known. The tendency of some of the lower negroid types has been to drift towards the west coast, where they still practise cannibalistic and fetish rites. On the east coast are found much higher types approaching to the Christian races of Abyssinia, and from east to west there has been a wide admixture of Arab blood producing a light-brown type. In Uganda and Nigeria a large proportion of the population is Arab and relatively light-skinned.
|
Australia?Black, very low type |
200,000 |
|
?Chinese and half castes, yellow |
50,000 |
|
New Zealand?Maoris, brown, Chinese and half castes |
53,000 |
|
Fiji?Polynesian, black and brown |
121,000 |
|
Papua?Polynesian, black and brown |
400,000 |
|
???? |
|
The native races of Australia and the Polynesian groups of islands are divided into two main types known as the dark and light Polynesian. The dark type, which is black, is of a very low order, and in some of the islands still retains its cannibal habits. The aboriginal tribes of Australia are of a low-class black race, but generally peaceful and inoffensive in their habits. The white Polynesian races are of a very superior type, and exhibit, as in the Maoris of New Zealand, characteristics of a high order. The natives of Papua (New Guinea) are in a very low state of civilization. The estimate given of their numbers is approximate, as no census has been taken.
