Engraving shows an aerial view of a Fulah town and plantation. According to the text, villages of the Fulahs differed in their arrangement from those of other West African nations: "Their streets are broad and regular, and their houses, though only of clay, and roofed with straw, are always kept very clean and neat by the women. These villages are surrounded by lofty palisades, within which they grow the cotton that they manufacture themselves into cloth. On the outside of these enclosures are, on the one hand, the plantations of maize, and other kinds of grain; and on the other, the cattle, driven from the rich pastures where they graze in the day, are penned, for security, during the night. In the centre of this space stands a watch house, which enables their keepers the more easily to perceive the approach of robbers, or rapacious beasts. The whole is encompassed by a thick fence of strong thorny shrubs, through which there are two entrances, closed with posts and cross-bars, instead of gates. . . . No where do we meet with any building or monument designed to transmit the memory of any remarkable person or event to posterity." (p. 104-106), Fold-out plate in Africa: Containing a Description of the Manners and Customs, with Some Historical Particulars of the Moors of the Zahara and of the Negro Nations between the Rivers Senegal and Gambia (London: Printed for R. Ackermann, 101, Strand, and to be had of all booksellers), vol. 3, p. 104., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1821]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Gen Shob 92251.D v 3 p 104, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2953
