Mombuttu

Mombuttu (Mangbattu), a large Negroid nation of the Upper Welle basin, south-east Sudan, whose king, Munza, when first visited by Schweinfurth in 1876, ruled over an extensive territory, with a population of at least one million. But before the Mahdist revolt the empire had already been overthrown by the Arab slave-hunters; and at present the Mombuttus appear to have been brought within the influence of the Congo Free State. They are of much lighter complexion than most Negro peoples, and also distinguished by a Jewish type of nose, somewhat full beard, and a tendency to albinoism, as shown by the large percentage (one-twentieth) of persons with flaxen woolly hair. The men wear bark-cloth garments, while the women are chiefly draped in black paint, applied in bands or spots to represent zebra or leopard skins. They are a highly intelligent people, skilled workers at most crafts, and fairly civilised, although perhaps the most pronounced polygamists and cannibals in the whole of Africa (Schweinf urth, Heart of Africa; Junker, Travels, vols. ii. iii.)