Ebook The American Negro as a Dependent, Defective and Delinquent

Central Africa, the Sudan, is the habitat of the strictly Negro type; Southern Africa is inhabited mainly by the negroid Bantus and by scattered tribes of Negritos, Bush men, and Hottentots. In general, we may say that the main difference between the Sudanese and the Bantus is that the Bantus, upon the whole, have'a somewhat higher cul ture and are more evenly mixed in blood with the Hamitic and Semitic tribes from the East, being less and less mixed toward the west till the coast is reached, where there is no difference practically between them and the Sudanese. The Sudanese are also a more or less mixed people, the mixture being more uneven than among the Bantus, but less and less toward the west, where the tribes are pure Negroes. The very exact ethnologist may speak Of the tribes north of the Cameroon as Sudanese and those farther south as Bantus, but for practical discussion they are a homogeneous people — all pure Negroes. They differ in dialect and some what in local customs and superstitions, but are alike in blood and type of culture. And these are the tribes whence nearly all our American Negroes came.