4.4.2. AN EXPLORER IS TAKEN FOR THE MESSIAH

ON HIS WAY TO EXPLORE BAGIRMI BARTH UNWITTINGLY BEHAVES AS AN AGITATOR AND AUTHORITIES ARREST HIM 

Bagirmi officials think he will "upset the kingdom" should he arrive in the absence of the sultan, who is on a slaving expedition. He is confined for 18 days, four of them in irons. The sultan eventually lets him leave but forbids him from exploring Bagirmi: that is, "Get out of here and don't come back."

*    *

Barth has involuntarily attracted followers by...

• Giving away so much wealth (in needles) that he is called "the needle prince:" Hand-outs are meant to gain partisans.

• Sharing provisions of the Logone ruler with a caravan leader, and so acting like a king. 

• Sitting on a carpet until he learns that it is a prerogative of kings.   

• Appearing to have supernatural powers. 

• When thunderclouds disperse as he leaves his hut, he is called "king of the high regions." Then he stays in his hut as much as possible, inaccessibility adding to his aura.

• Distributing medicines sparks belief in his magic: On his expulsion, crowds follow him "all the way from Bagirmi" to obtain them.

As well, white people are entirely unknown. Barth's unusual appearance instantly sets him apart.

*    *

The crowds themselves, which seem to spring up out of nowhere, reveal a destabilization that comes from economic growth that rulers like the king of Logone are too archaic to control.

In medieval Europe millennial movements begin at the end of the 11th century in places where commerce expands (the Rhine valley, parts of northern France and Belgium and later, in large parts of Europe). There are no records of such turmoil in regions where there is little economic growth. 

                                                                                 -- The Pursuit of the Millenium, the classic study of

 European revolutionary messianism by Herman Cohn, 1957, p. 22 et seq.

The African crowds foreshadow the mass movements that soon sweep the savannah.

Kanembu warriors, "Le Tour du monde," ed. Elysée Reclus, 1885

(The Kanembu: a Bornu population)

A messianic leader? Vigorous and unencumbered, riding a white steed, a disciplined infantry (more coming)... .

 *    *

When sources of income are lost the old ways are irretrievably shattered, social ties dissolve and ancestral beliefs no longer reassure.

People may then seek leaders

who are outside the norm —

 in Africa a European explorer. 

And in the U.S., Trump.

*     *     *

Next,

 4.4.3. 

"Everywhere the humble show the masters their teeth"