4.3.2. AN EXPLORER IS TAKEN FOR THE MESSIAH

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 arrested for 18 days, four of them in irons. The sultan eventually lets him leave but not explore Bagirmi, a way of saying, "Get out of here and don't come back."

# # #

His trouble comes from how on his way from Logone to Bagirmi, he involuntarily attracts followers: He...

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

• Shares provisions of the Logone ruler with a caravan leader, not realizing that he is acting like a king. 

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

• Appears 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, no one has seen a white person. That makes him exceptional.   

# # #

The crowds themselves, which seem to spring up out of nowhere, reveal the destabilization that economic growth brings. The Logone ruler does not have the power to control it.  

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 by Herman Cohn, Oxford, 1957, p. 22 and on.

It is a classic study of European revolutionary messianism.

Those crowds foreshadow the mass movements about to 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 following (please read on)...

# # #

When lands are lost, the old ways are irretrievably gone, social ties dissolved and ancestral beliefs no longer reassure...

People may seek leaders

who are outside the norm —

including a European explorer of Africa. 

*     *     *

Next,

 4.3.3. 

"Everywhere the humble show the masters their teeth"