George Durston - "The Boy Scouts on the Trail"

Forbes Robinson - "Letters to His Friends"

James Mark Baldwin - "The Story of the Mind"

Charles Darwin - "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917

V >> Various >> The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917




That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was
one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and
exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more
difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before
an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in
its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I
show you a thief";[224] and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a
defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this
accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally
despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by
denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225] But it
seems to me that something more deserves to be said on the subject.
We do not know whether Williams' epigram was a sober opinion or merely
one cast off in a fit of irritation, that moment of "haste," which
even the Psalmist knew, when he was led to sweep all mankind in under
the term of "liar." But, further, if Williams was the deliberate
sycophant and racial toady Gardner strives to shelter behind his
shield of excuse, how was it that he had not won from the planter
party, whose voice reaches us through Long, a more softened if not a
more favorable opinion? There must have been some marked independence
of spirit about a man who cut himself off thus on the one side and on
the other. He was an educated man, placed in a false position; cut off
by the narrowmindedness of the educated men around him from the
environment for which training and education had fitted him. Had his
savage epigram employed the term "slave," instead of "negro," and that
was practically what it meant, it could stand as a thought-compelling
truth, pointing beyond the slave to the tyrant system that made the
slave.

Gardner, whose history was published in 1876, was, by class, of the
missionaries, and by disposition a liberal, and a conscientious
liberal. His estimate of Williams is thoroughly well-intentioned, and
not wholly inadequate. It lacks subtlety, rather than sympathy. I
cannot help hoping that time will bring to light material by which
something may be attempted regarding the personality and character of
Francis Williams, nearer what one feels instinctively is the truth
than the outline at present holding the field.

Francis Williams has been mentioned as the author of the song:
"Welcome, welcome, fellow debtor," but on what grounds, beyond
tradition, it is not clear. We have, however, a Latin poem which is
indubitably his work. It was addressed to General George Haldane, who
arrived in Jamaica as Governor, April 17, 1758. It is panegyric, after
the fashion of the eighteenth century, that is excessively so, but
there are lines in it worth remembering. It is thus inscribed:

Integerrimo et Fortissimo
Viro
GEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO,
Insulae Jamaicensis Gubernatori;
Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum,
In cumulum accesserunt,
CARMEN.[226]

DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (_e_)
Cuncta per extensum laeta videnda diem,
Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (_f_) clara
Felices populi, terraque lege virens.
(_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quae fuerant malesuada mente peracta
Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.
Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet
(_h_) Haesurum collo te (_i_) _relegasse_ jugum,
Et mala, quae diris quondam cruciatibus, insons
Insula passa fuit; condoluisset onus
Ni victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostris
Sponte (_k_) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.
Optimus es servus _Regi_ servire _Britanno_,
Dum gaudet genio (_l_) _Scotica_ terra tuo:
Optimus heroum populi (_m_) fulcire ruinam:
Insula dum superest ipse (_n_) superstes eris.
Victorem agnoscet te _Guadaloupa_, suorum
Despiciet (_o_) merito diruta castra ducum.
Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (_p_) _Iris_,
Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.
Crede, (_q_) menum non est, vir _Marti_ chare! (_r_) _Minerva_
Denegat _AEthiopi_ bella sonare ducum.
Concilio, caneret te _Buchananus_ et armis,
Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem.
Ille poeta, decus patriae, tua facta referre
Dignior, (_s_) altisono vixque Marone minor.
(_t_) Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole _jugales_ (_u_)
Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.
Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusum
Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.
Pollenti stabilita manu, [(_w_) Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam
_Caesaris occidui_, candere (_x_) _Musa_ domum?
(_y_) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,
(_z_) _Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!_
Integritas morum (_a_) _Maurum_ magis ornat, et ardor
Ingenii, et _docto_ (_b_) _dulcis in ore decor_;
Hunc, mage, _cor sapines, patriae_ virtutis amorque,
(_c_) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.
(_d_) Insula me genuit, celebres aluere _Britianni_,
Insula, te salvo non dolitura (_e_) patre!
Hoc precor; o (_f_) nullo videant te fine, regentem
Florentes populos, terra, Deique locus!
FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS

(_e_) _Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia Saeclo. Virg. E._
iv. 52.

(_f_) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined to
_Imago_.

(_g_) _Te duce_, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri
_Irrita_, perpetua solvent formidine terras.
_Virg. E._ iv. 13.

(_h_) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of
government and public offices from _Spanish Town_ to
_Kingston_, during the administration of governor Kn----s.

(_i_) Pro _relevasse_.

(_k_) Quem vocet divum populus _ruentis_
Imperi _rebus. Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. ii.

(_l_) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.

(_m_) Tu Ptolomaee potes magni _fulcire ruinam_. Lucan.
_Lib._ viii. 528.

(_n_) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian
longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane
did not survive the delivery of this address many months.

(_o_) Egerit _justo domitos_ triumpho.
_Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. xii.

(_p_) _Iris._ Botanic name of the _fleur-de-luce_,
alluding to the arms of France.

(_q_) _Phoebus_, volentem praelia me loqui
Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra
Ne. _Hor_.

(_r_) Invita Minerva. _Hor. de Art. Poet._

(_s_) _Maronis altisoni_ carmina.
_Juv. Sat._ xi. _ver._ 178.

(_t_) _Flammiferas_ rotas toto caelo _agitat_.

(_u_) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this for _jubara_, fun beams.

(_w_) This is a _petitio principii_, or begging the question,
unless with Mr. Pope,

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."
But,
"Far as creation's ample range extends,
"The _Scale_ of sensual _mental_ powers ascends."

(_x_) Mr. Williams has added a _black Muse_ to the Pierian choir;
and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we
may venture to announce her by the title of madam AEthiopissa.

(_y_) _Vade salutatum_ subito perarata parentem
Litera. _Ovid._

(_z_) See his apophthegms before mentioned.

(_a_) _Maurus_ is not in classic strictness proper Latin for a
_Negroe_.

(_b_) _Mollis_ in ore decor. Incert.

(_c_) Me _doctarum_ ederae praemia frontium
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
_Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1._

(_d_) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere. _Virg._

(_e_) Hic ames dici _pater_ atque princeps. _Hor._

(_f_) Serus in coelum redeas, _diuque_
_Laetus intersis populo. Hor._


This is Long's translation:

To
That most upright and valiant Man,
GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;
Governor of the Island of Jamaica;
Upon whom
All military and moral Endowments are accumulated.
An ODE.

AT length revolving fates th' expected year
Advance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,
Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawn
New harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (_g_) lawn.
With the bright prospect blest, the swains repair
In social bands, and give a loose to care.
Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,
Each faction, that in evil hour began,
At your approach are in confusion fled,
Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.
Alike the master and the slave shall fee
Their neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.
Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fate
Had wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weight
Of Cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,
Long fam'd in war, from Gallia's hostile land;
And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,
Had freely turn'd, to prop our sinking weal.
Form'd as thou art, to serve _Britannia's_ crown,
While _Scotia_ claims thee for her darling son;
Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustain
A falling people, and relax their chain.
Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,
From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.
Thee, her dread victor _Guadaloupe_ shall own,
Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter'd chiefs bemoan;
View their proud tents all level'd in the dust,
And, while she grieves, confess the cause was just.
The golden _Iris_ the sad scene will share,
Will mourn her banners scattered in the air;
Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,
Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.
Fav'rite of _Mars!_ believe, th' attempt were vain,
It is not mine to try the arduous strain.
What! shall an _AEthiop_ touch the martial string,
Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?
Ah no! _Minerva_, with th' indignant _Nine_,
Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.
To a _Buchanan_ does the theme belong;
A theme, that well deserves _Buchanan's_ song,
'Tis he, should swell the din of war's alarms,
Record thee great in council, as in arms;
Recite each conquest by thy valour won,
And equal thee to great _Peleides'_ son.
That bard, his country's ornament and pride,
Who e'en with _Maro_ might the bays divide:
Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,
And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.
We live, alas! where the bright god of day,
Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:
Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,
All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.
Yet may you deign accept this humble song,
Tho' wrapt in gloom, and from a faltering tongue;
Tho' dark the stream on which the tribute flows,
Not from the _skin_, but from the _heart_ it rose.
To all of human kind, benignant heaven
(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.
This rule was 'stablish'd by th' Eternal Mind;
Nor virtue's self, nor prudence are confin'd
To colour; none imbues the honest heart;
To science none belongs, and none to art.
Oh! _Muse_, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast.
Why fears t' approach the _Caesar_ of the _West!_
Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascend
The regal dome, and hail him for thy friend:
Nor blush, altho' in garb funereal drest,
_Thy body's white, tho' clad in sable vest_.
Manners unsullied, and the radiant glow
Of genius, burning with desire to _know_;
And learned speech, with modest accent worn,
Shall best the sooty _African_ adorn.
An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.
A love of virtue; these shall lift his name
Conspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,
Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.
In this prolific isle I drew my birth,
And _Britain_ nurs'd, illustrious through the earth;
This, my lov'd isle, which never more shall grieve,
Whilst you our common friend, our father live.
Then this my pray'r--"My earth and heaven survey
"A people ever blest, beneath your sway!"

The following translation of this poem has been supplied by Mr. E.J.
Chinock, M.A., LL.B.:


A Poem in Honour of
Sir George Haldane, Knt.,
A most virtuous and brave man,

Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments of
morals and of warlike virtues have been accumulated.

Since the Fates wish the year should come at last, all the joys
which are to be seen through a lengthened day are present. The
people having shaken off their anxieties, are prosperous under a
bright image, and the land flourishing under law. While thou art
ruler, the useless things which had been done by an ill-advising
mind will not return at thy appearance. Therefore, all the
people, even the rabble, will see that thou hast removed the yoke
clinging to their necks, and the ills which the guiltless island
has formerly endured with dreadful tortures. The burden would
have been excessively painful did not thy victorious hand,
previously renowned for valour, wish of its own accord to aid our
state going to ruin. The British King has no better servant than
thou art, whilst Scotland rejoices in thy talent. Thou are the
best of heroes to prop up the fall of a nation; while the island
survives, the memory of thee will also survive. Quadaloupe will
recognise thee as her conqueror, and will deservedly despise the
plundered camps of its governors. The golden Iris will weep for
her boastful standards, and together with her inhabitants will
groan for the conquered towns. Believe me, it is not in my power,
O man, dear to Mars! Minerva denies to an Ethiopian to celebrate
the wars of generals. Buchanan would sing thee in a poem, he
would describe thee as equal to Achilles in counsel and in war.
That famous poet, the honour of his country, is more worthy to
relate thy exploits, and is scarcely inferior to the majestic
Virgil. We live under an Apollo driving his own flame-bringing
team. Every kind of eloquence is lacking to slaves. Receive this
at any rate. Though poured forth from one very black, it is
valuable, coming from a sonorous mouth; not from his skin, but
from his heart. The bountiful Deity, with a hand powerfully and
firm, has given the same soul to men of all races, nothing
standing in his way. Virtue itself, and prudence, are free from
colour; there is no colour in an honourable mind, no colour in
skill. Why dost thou fear or doubt that the blackest Muse may
scale the lofty house of the western Caesar? Go and salute him,
and let it not be to thee a cause of shame that thou wearest a
white body in a black skin. Integrity of _morals_ more adorns a
_Moor_, and ardour of intellect and sweet elegance in a learned
mouth. A wise heart and a love of his ancestral virtue the more
remove him from his comrades and make him conspicuous. The island
(of Jamaica) gave me birth; the renowned Britons brought me up;
the island which will not grieve while thou its father art well.
This I pray: O may earth and heaven see thee without end, ruling
a flourishing people.[227]

Gardner quotes the line

"Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris,"

giving it an interpretation disparaging to Williams' racial
self-respect. With more understanding of the poet's surroundings it
may be taken rather to express the poet's desire to be marked as
distinct from the then condition of those who represented his race
round him, namely slaves.

The following lines especially deserve praise for the height in
emotion and manliness to which they ascend:

Pollenti stabilita manu, Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit.
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nullus inest animo, nullus in arte color.

Mr. Chinook's rendering conveys some of their stirring force, but they
deserve a better translation, and one reason for giving the whole poem
here is the hope that it may elicit another translation from some one
entering more feelingly and with equal lingual knowledge into the
poet's conception.

T. H. MACDERMOT

REDEAM,
KINGSTON,
JAMAICA, B. W. I.


FOOTNOTES:

[210] The writer of the following article, though not of the race to
serve which this JOURNAL specially exists, offers a contribution to
its pages because of the deep and sympathetic interest he has long
taken in the African race, and because of his belief in its future. He
would also interest readers of the JOURNAL in his native island,
Jamaica, where, although the creation still bears marks of human
imperfection and incompleteness, a community has been brought into
being in which the racial elements, in such fierce and embittered
antagonism elsewhere, are gradually, but surely, blending into a whole
of common citizenship. T.H. MACDERMOT, Editor of the _Jamaica Times_,
Ltd.

[211] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 10.

[212] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31.

[213] Bridges, "Annals of Jamaica," I, 204.

[214] Long, "History of Jamaica," 234; and Gardner, "History of
Jamaica," 31-32.

[215] See Dallas's "History of the Maroons," I, 26.

[216] This is the history of gradual emancipation in most slaveholding
states.

[217] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.

[218] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476.

[219] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.

[220] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 123.

[221] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476; and Gardner, "History of
Jamaica," 207.

[222] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[223] Long says: "He defined himself 'a white man acting under a black
skin,' He endeavored to prove logically, that a Negroe was superior in
quality to a Mulatto, or other craft, or other cast. His proposition
was, that 'a simple white or simple black complexion was respectively
perfect: but a Mulatto, being an heterogeneous medley of both, was
imperfect, _ergo_ inferior,'" Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[224] _ibid._, II, 478

[225] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 208.

[226] Edward Long undertook to analyze this poem in such a way as to
show the inferiority of the Negro. These notes are all his. See Long's
"History of Jamaica," II, 478-485.

[227] Gardner, _History of Jamaica_, appendix.




NOTES ON THE NOMOLIS OF SHERBROLAND


Among Sierra Leoneans the Sherbro country enjoys a reputation for
mysteriousness. A country where every object, from the sandy soil one
treads in the streets to the bamboo chair one sits upon at home, is
supposed to possess intelligence and to be capable of "catching" one,
to wit, afflicting one with disease; a country where the penalty for
such a venal offence as stubbing one's devoted foot against the roots
of a famous cotton tree, which stands perilously near the roadside, is
a sure attack of elephantiasis; a country which boasts of a certain
holy city upon whose soil no man on earth may walk shod and live to
see the next day, a tradition for which the District Commissioners,
adventurous Britons as they are, have had so much respect that they
have been content to get only a cruising knowledge of the place,
always summoning the headmen to conferences on the beach and
delivering instructions from the safe precincts of a boat awning; such
a country evidently deserves to be called a land of mystery.

Now, to this air of mystery is added one of interest for students of
archaeology in general, and particularly for all Negroes who are
interested in the study of the history of their race with a view to
discover whether it has really made any worthy achievements in the
past or, as its traducers love to make us believe, it is indeed a
backward race, that is only just emerging from barbarism and beginning
to enjoy and assimilate the blessings of Western culture. I refer to
certain sculptured finds which are from time to time made in the
country and are naturally looked upon by the unsophisticated native
mind as nothing short of a mystery.

These images, or _nomolis_, as they are called in the vernacular, are
by no means the empirical efforts of some crude artists, but are the
products of finished workmanship wrought in steatite or soapstone,
which abounds in the Protectorate. They present purely Egyptian and
Ethiopian features, and are apparently of great antiquity, possibly
thousands of years old. They are dug out from old graves in the course
of ploughing, and the finder of one of them considers himself a lucky
man indeed. He sees visions of an unprecedentedly rich harvest, or of
an extraordinarily brisk trade, if he happens to be in the commercial
line, as the _nomoli_ is the presiding deity of crops and commerce.
If the good services of the god are required on the farm a small
shrine is erected there for it and a great big hamper and a bundle of
rods placed in front of it. The demon is then addressed in some such
manner as this: "I wish you to protect this farm from injury. Make the
crop prosper more than everybody's else, and, to do this, every day
you must steal from other people's farms and fill this hamper to the
full. If you do this I shall treat you well; but if you fail, this
bundle of rods is reserved for your punishment." The god is then
heartily treated to a sample of the walloping it should expect in case
of default. When its help is needed in the store a similar temple is
put up for it in a corner within, and its duty is then to protect the
store from burglary, to replenish it by theft and to "draw" custom by
a sort of personal magnetism. In either case it must be well cared
for. Whatever food or drink its owner partakes every day, a portion
must be given to it--and don't forget the whipping. Whether you
realize or are disappointed in your expectations of it the guardian
angel respects force more than gentleness, and must be whipped soundly
every morning.

It will be seen from this that the morality of the _nomoli_ is of a
rather naughty order. The controlling principle of its life is theft;
in fact it idealizes this vice, since ownership in regard to it cannot
be transferred except by stealing. The god argues it this way: "He who
is so careless of me that he allows me to be stolen from him, is not
worthy to be my master; but he who so much believes in my powers that
he risks the consequences of theft for the sake of getting possession
of me, is deserving to be my master and I will serve him." In the
event of discovery the culprit is taken to the barre or native court
and the Chief inflicts a fine on him; and, "whereas, contrary to
customary law, Kai Baki, the plaintiff, did harbour a 'big man'
stranger (to wit, a _nomoli_) in the chiefdom without intimating the
Chief in order that his majesty might pay his homage etc., etc.," the
aforesaid plaintiff, who in native law is entitled to receive the
amount of defendant's fine as compensation, is not only mulcted in the
same amount more or less, but his _nomoli_ becomes forfeited to the
crown in the bargain. Obviously, then, it does not pay to prosecute
for _nomoli_ stealing, and the robbed native would rather bear his
trouble like a philosopher, secretly admiring the cuteness of the
other fellow and stealing his property back at the earliest
opportunity.


ORIGIN OF THE NOMOLI

If one depends upon the aborigines for a clue as to the origin of the
_nomoli_ the enquiry would, like Kipling's "eathen," "end where it
began." The whole thing is veiled in mystery; there is not even a
legend about it. All that the native would tell you, and it is what he
honestly believes to be the truth, is that the image was created by
Gehwor (God) and came down directly from heaven. The fact that no
sculpturing of the kind is now-a-days prosecuted in the country,
although the Sherbros are clever at wood-carving, makes him ridicule
the idea that the _nomoli_ is man's handiwork. The enquiring student
must for the present, therefore, go upon very scanty basis to
formulate his theory. In order to help in the solution of this problem
I shall state one or two facts about the natives of these regions. The
Sherbros and Mendis, both of whom inhabit the vast territory known as
Sherbroland, are, of all primitive Africans, the least given to fetish
worship. This fact has always proved a stumbling-block to the spread
of Mohammedanism in that part of the world. Arab as well as Negro
Moslem missionaries have always found the Sherbro and Mendi man rather
hard nuts to crack. Many an emissary of the prophet has invaded
Sherbroland, exposing for sale all the tempting superstitious
paraphernalia of the faith, but the native has almost invariably
beaten him with his cold logic.

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