Who played the Head Cannibal?

I agree about the newlyweds. I was expected a cringeworthy "punchline" to follow, and was happy that one didn't.

...My theory on how they are in the picture, is that they most easily set up a clear contrast, through stereotypes.

Rollo is white, rich, awkward, and uptight.

Stereotypes dictate that the young black couple is poor, yet fun-loving, laid-back, and free-living.

A definite contrast.

....Well, that's my knee-jerk theory, anyway.

Actually, the "Full Cast and Crew" page will tell you that the cannibal chief is played by Noble Johnson, indeed a black actor (I especially remember him as the big zombie in the Bob Hope/Paulette Goddard movie "The ghost breakers").

"They stand out because they are not servants, slaves, or savages. How did that happen in 1924?"

Because it was a Buster Keaton film. (Compare his films to Chaplin or Lloyd, to use comedian comparisons, and one realises how lily-white the other two are.) Not only did Keaton frequently hire black actors, he paid them the same as white actors, definitely not something others were doing in Hollywood at the time!

In this day and age we may be uncomfortable with the characters they portray, or things they do (though note the savages of The Navigator are quite smart, actually, especially for movie "savages"; they figure out the diving-suited "creature from the sea" is just a guy, and the use of the tree as a scaling ladder for instance). A film buff at a showing of The Three Ages told me that the black sedan carriers in that movie rushing to play craps with the dice Keaton is using for fortune telling was a gag thought up by one of the black actors, but I have no proof of that. But in the 20s Keaton supplied a lot of work to people who wouldn't otherwise have had the chance.

He's played by Noble Johnson, who also had a career as a producer and director in the 1910s (he was one of the co-founders of the Lincoln Film Company).

Johnson can be seen in scores of Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s, including a memorable performance in MOBY DICK (1930), and perhaps his most famous role, as the Native Chief in KING KONG (1933).

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I too was pleased with the surprisingly positive portrayal of the young black couple at the beginning of the film. It was nice to see an early film that cast African Americans in roles that didn't have to be a specific race. In other words, it makes no difference whether the newlyweds are black, white, Asian or any other ethnicity or race; their function is to be happy together, and make Rollo long for similar marital bliss. Kudos to Keaton for colorblind casting this early in film history! Although I will admit that the stereotypical cannibals made me cringe, the happy black couple at the beginning of the film indicates that Keaton had much more going on as a person and film maker than a reliance on racist stereotypes.