Nicholas Said - The Autobiography Of Nicholas Said

Contents:

The Autobiography Of Nicholas Said

Preface.

Chapter I. Early Life And Historical Sketch Of His Native Country.

Chapter II. The Capture.

Chapter III. Crossing The Desert.

Chapter IV. Journey To Tripoli.

Chapter V. A Slave In Tripoli.

The Autobiography Of Nicholas Said

Jazzybee Verlag Jrgen Beck

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Germany

ISBN: 9783849643928

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IT is not without a feeling of hesitation and timid apprehension, that I commit these ill-written pages to the great reading public.

As I glance over them, I cannot but be painfully reminded of their intrinsic unworthiness; yet, I offer no apology for their appearance.

My motive in this publication I believe to be good: a desire to show the world the possibilities that may be accomplished by the African, and the hope that my humble example may stimulate some at least of my people to systematic efforts in the direction of mental culture and improvement.

In common with the rest of mankind, I plead guilty to a spice of egotism in my composition, and I should falsify myself were I to deny a sense of pride in my acquirements, the more especially as I feel that they are entirely due to my own efforts, under the guidance of that Providence which has shaped my fortune.

But I can truly say, that my motive in this publication has been not so much to attract attention to myself as the hope of accomplishing some good by its means.

Owing to my uncertainty regarding the exact period of my birth, and the natural carelessness concerning the flight of time incident to youth, I have been unable to define with distinctness the different phases of my early life, and to mark their respective limits of duration. Consequently there is, unavoidably, a certain degree of vagueness connected with the first part of my history. For, be it remembered, I knew nothing whatever of dates until my arrival in Europe.

It will be also observed, by the reader, that I have made an indiscriminate use of the present and past tenses in my narrative. This, together with other breaches of the rules of grammar and rhetoric, is attributable to the peculiar circumstances under which I have written. The length of time that has elapsed since the occurrence of many of the incidents related, combined with their want of freshness in my memory, together with the difficulties I have experienced in distinguishing English idioms and modes of expression from those of the other languages with which I am acquainted, and some of which are more familiar to me than the English itself. Pure English can hardly be expected from one who has to choose his words and phrases from a mass of Kanouri, (my vernacular), Mandra, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, German, Italian and French, and all of them encumbered with the provincialisms necessarily concomitant upon each. In the spelling of proper names, too, I sometimes infringe the rule. This is owning to the fact that, for obvious reasons, particularly in regard to Africa, I had no opportunity of learning the current mode of spelling the names of persons and places; and I have been compelled, in some instances, to adopt the phonetic plan, and used such English letters as nearly corresponded to the sounds of the name as I remember them. I have, as far as possible, refrained from the use of foreign words and phrases, and whenever they do occur, or when the idiom or mode of expression is un-English, it must be attributed to my inability to convey the idea I desired in that language.

Bespeaking leniency in criticism, and a kind reception of my little book,

I am, dear reader, faithfully,

NICHOLAS SAID.

I was born in Kouka, the capital of the Kingdom of Bornou, in Soudan: a few years after the invasion of the Wadays, or about the year 1836, of the Christian era. I was the thirteenth child of my mother, who bore nineteen children, seven girls and twelve boys. My father was the elder son of Katzalla Malagemou, the ruling chief of Molgoy, a small country south of, and tributary to Bornou.

To prevent incursions from the powerful tribes of Fellatah, Adamawa, Mandra, Goulagou, and even Bornou itself, the people of Molgo became tributary to the Kings of that country, and in turn received their protection.

Ma Barnoma the King of Bornou, under whose reign Molgo became subservient to Bornou, granted the Molgoyans the free exercise of their religion, which was fetish, without human sacrifices. This fiendish practice is looked upon with abomination by all the nations and tribes of Soudan, both Mohammedan and pagan.

My father greatly distinguished himself under our immortal King Mohammed El Amin Ben Mohammed El Kanemy, the Washington of Bornou. And for his most efficient services, in repelling the Fellahs from Bornou, created him Katzallah or general, and made him generalissimo of his army, which he afterwards commanded for upwards of twenty-five years with great distinction. He was the terror of the Fellahs, the Bagirmies, the Wadays, and the Kindills, the enemies of our Country, and wherever he appeared the enemy fled, he defeated the Fellahs in forty pitched battles, and was the prime cause of their overthrow in Eastern Soudan. His name was Barca Gana, and was called Katzalla, or general, as already stated. In personal appearance Katzalla Barca Gana was large, tall, and well proportioned; resembling more a giant than an ordinary man. My mother was the daughter of a Mandra chief, who on one occasion was captured by the Armies of Bornou, in a terrible battle fought between the two forces. My father had compassion on him, released and escorted him to the territory of Mandra. And as a mark of gratitude the Mandra chieftain gave Katzalla Barca Gana his daughter Dalia (my mother's name) in marriage. When young it was said she was extremely beautiful. She was very strict with her children, often severe, as were indeed all my father's wives (he had four), for he left the rearing and training of his children exclusively to their mothers, having never chastised any of us that I can remember.

The reason was then almost incessant wars and irruptions that had for a long lapse of time disturbed the peace of my country, gave him but little time to turn his mind to domestic affairs.

In my childhood I was wild and roving in disposition, and my mother tried her utmost to brake me from the too frequent hunts I used to take with the children of my own age. We used to go miles from Kouka, in search of gazelles, pintadas, and other game of which our forests were full.

Flogging almost invariably accompanied my return, and also she warned me of the Kidnapping Kindills, (Tuaricks), who were constantly prowling through the country in search of anything of value they might lay their hands on. But all to no purpose. I was so roving, that, from my earliest recollections, when I was only about six years old, I endeavored to return with my maternal uncle, who had been to Kouka on a visit, to his home among the mountains of Goulagou, and nearly cried my eyes out because I was prevented.

Goulagou is a country lying eastward of Mandra, and its inhabitants are renowned in our country for their courage. They had, up to the time I was captured, defeated all their enemies. Mandra, Bornou, Waday, Fellatah, and Bagirmy, had successively tried to conquer this country, but they had in every attempt been signally defeated. This country abounds in several minerals: as gold, iron, and copper, and which they work very skillfully. They manufacture beautiful gold and copper ear-rings, bracelets, anklets, etc., with which they ornament themselves profusely, especially the females. Africa has been, through prejudice and ignorance, so sadly misrepresented, that anything like intelligence, industry, etc., is believed not to exist among its natives.