Note 39 — GHÁNAH — Aúdaghost — Aúlíl.

Ghánah, in the country of Genéwah, من بلاد جناوه is an expression frequently used by the same author. Where others would have written Beléd es-Súdán, or land of the Blacks, he always writes Genéwah. This name, indeed, became in Morocco the general designation of blacks and slaves. Thus we are told that Muley Hamed grew rich “by husbanding his Maseraws (oil-mills) and Ingenewas (slave farms) where his sugar canes did grow. (A True Historical Discovery of Muley Hamet’s Rising, &c. 1609, c. 3.) The initial letter of the name Genéwah جناوه being pronounced hard by the Moors, the southern Europeans, in imitation of them, wrote Chinoia, Gheneoa, and Ghinéa; from which we, by throwing back the accent, made Guinea. “The kingdom, says Leo (pt. VI. c. 3), called by our merchants (the Moors) Gheneoa, is by the natives called Genni, and by the Europeans who have any knowledge of it, Ghinea.” It is certain that Ghinéa and Guinea are derived from Genéwah; but we see no sufficient reason to admit that the name of the city of Genni or Jenni has the same origin. But since general names, not merely appellations, are rare among a rude people, it is natural for us to inquire what was meant by Genéwah, or, to conform to the sound, Ghinéwah. Did it mean the Blacks? On the coast, the negroes contiguous to the Whites are, for contra-distinction, named in their own language Wolof, that is, Blacks. The name Jelofe (Wolof) is used in this general sense by Marmol (III. fol. 27 v). And why should not the people of the interior designate themselves according to the same universal and simple principle? Now, in the language of Tomboktú, gnewa, or, as Major Rennell, who had the original information, writes it, genewa, signifies Black (Proc. Afr. Ass. I. p. 124 and 428), so that we are justified in suspecting at least that we have here found the origin of the name Genéwah.