“In character and temperament”
wrote Lord Lugard, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless,
excitable person. Lacking in self control, discipline, and foresight.
Naturally courageous,and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal
vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons
as an oriental loves jewelry. His
thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and
he suffers little from the apprehension for the future, or grief for the
past.

His mind is far nearer to the animal
world than the that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of
the animals placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the State he has reached.
Through the ages the African appears to have evolved no organized religious creed,
and though some tribes appear to believe in a deity, the religious sense seldom
rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of
a vague dread of the supernatural”.He lacks the power of
organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control
alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to
realize its responsibility ….he will work  hard with a less incentive
than most races. He has thecourage of the fighting animal -an instinct rather
than a moral virtue……In brief, the virtues and defects of this
race-type are those of attractive children, whose confidence when it is
won is given ungrudgingly as to an older and wiser superior and without envy…….Perhaps
the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the
African native are his lack of apprehension and his ability to visualize
the future” 

Pg 70
of The Dual Mandate by F. D. Lugard 1926
Photo Credit – www.wikipedia.com