The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 35

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

35

valley of the Nile and along the coasts of the Medi-
terranean; while there is plenty of room for Porto
Rico and the Philippines on the island of Mada-
gascar.”

The coasts of Africa are low, the land gradually
or abruptly rising to a great interior plateau.
Africa may be compared to an immense central
platform ,of uneven surface led up to by a series
of enormous steps from all sides. The surface of
the interior is broken by a number of mountain
ranges, a large number of great lakes, and several
large rivers. But the most important detail in the
geography of Africa is probably the great Sahara
Desert, which almost completely divides Africa into
two parts. Among its rivers must first be men-
tioned the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, and the
Zambesi. All four of these rivers are to be classed
among the great rivers of the world. Then, too,
Africa has its surface broken by some of the largest
lakes*of the earth, among them being Victoria
Nyanza, Tanganyika, and Nyassa. The river and
lake basins are very heavily wooded. ‘Travelers say
of these forest growths that they are so dense that
the sun’s rays cannot penetrate the foliage, and they
speak of the beauty of Africa’s plant life in eloquent
terms. In Rhodesia trees are to be found that
measure ten and twelve feet in diameter and are
200 feet in height. In the center of Africa’s vast
plateau are savannas, long stretches of grass lands
resembling our western prairies.. It is in these
savannas that big game abounds, such as lions and
leopards. Just in passing it may not be out of
place to refer to the natural resources of Africa,
which are great in extent and of incalculable value.
Fruit grows in abundance, the forests yield untold
riches, the savannas furnish the richest grazing
lands imaginable, South Africa raises grain in great
quantity, and the mineral wealth of the continent
is beyond computation. ;

Arrica’s PEOPLE.

Africa is appropriately called “The Dark Con-
tinent” because it is the one continent whose popu-
lation is composed almost entirely of dark peoples.
It is estimated that the population of Africa is
about 130,000,000. Among these are spoken 523
distinct languages and, besides, 320 dialects, which
shows that Africa is indeed a veritable babel and
also gives eloquent proof of one of the great diffi-
culties encountered by Christian missionaries. The
Berbers are the original natives of North Africa
and with the Arabs constitute the dominant part
of the population. ‘Though by no means unmixed

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with Negro blood, they are farther removed from
the Negro racially than are other native African
tribes. The Sudan is the great Negro section of
Africa. The 40,000,000 people of the Sudan are
little mixed with other races, the purest among
them being found in the Guinea Coast region, that
section of Africa from which the largest number of
slaves for the American trade were taken. Two
interesting peoples of the Sudan, in whom there
is but little Negro blood, are the Hausas, the traders
of the Sudan, and the Fulahs, who because of their
aggressiveness have made themselves the virtual
rulers of the Western and Eastern Sudan. South of
the Sudan live the Bantu peoples of Central and
South Africa. The inhabitants of Uganda and of
the Congo Basin, the Zulus, Kaffirs, Bechuanas,
Basutos, and Matabeles, are all Bantus. While
closely resembling the Negroes, they are generally

Mission Church, Uganda, Africa.
‘

lighter in color, more regularly featured, and speak
an entirely different group of languages. It is the
Bantus who are most familiar to Christian people,
for among them Christian missionary work has
achieved its greatest results.

Arrica’s RELIGIONS.

It is supposed that there are about 10,000,000
Christians in Africa. These are principally found
among the foreign population of South Africa and
among the Copts and Abyssinians of Northeastern
Africa. The number of Mohammedans is possibly
no less than 40,000,000. That part of Africa lying
north and east of the Sudan, together with parts of
the Sudan and parts of Central Africa, is a strongly
Mohammedan country. ‘The Mohammedans are
noted for the zeal with which they try to spread
their religion. As far inland as Uganda, Arab
traders are busy making converts of the natives,
and as far west as Kamerun they are making their _
proselytes by the thousands. ;

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