Belgian Congo 47 MOHAMMEDANISM 2 Certain traces of their civilizing influence are never theless still evident .

The number of pure Arabs who attained political control of Manyema was apparently very small, but the people of Manyema, or Bakusu , after vain efforts to resist their advance, accepted their rule, and aided them in imposing it upon other tribes ; while from the marriages contracted by the Arabs with negro women sprang a mixed race of Arabisés, physically and intellectually much superior to the average Congolese negro. Though their rule rested on the slave-trade, they introduced many valuable improvements in agri culture, while the villages in the regions which came under their influence are marked out by their broad streets and well-built rectangular houses. Before their political downfall they had also introduced the element of a higher political organization and of a legal regime, and they maintained close commercial relations with Zanzibar.3 The Swahili language has become, as a result of their action, the linguafranca of all the eastern third of the Congo ; 4 and the habits of industry which their rule exacted from their subjects have left distinct traces in the superiority of the Congolese labourer of the region above Stanley Falls. Nominally at least the population under their rule became Mohammedan , including not merely the tribes of Manyema, but also those of the upper valley of the Aruwimi, between the rivers Lindi and Lomami .

Lord Mountmorres during his tour in the Aruwimi district in 1905 was struck by the similarity in civiliza tion between the large thriving towns above Stanley ville and those of Morocco . In the eastern regions of the Congo, between the Falls and the British and · 1.Masoin , Histoire, 'ii . 102 .

4 2 Johnston, ii . 539 .

3 Masoin , ii . 103–7 : Johnston , ii . 600, 743 .

• Johnston, i . 427. 5 Cd . 7048–77, p . 21 .

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