THE RACIAL PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1826, 12 August 1913, Page 6

THE RACIAL PROBLEM.

PLACE OF THE NEGRO. AN AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST'S VIEWS. . F. &. Cox, an American sociologist, '\i- ivt !"<■'"'J l °. lr a visit to Wellington. Mr. Cox, who "is n native of Tennessee and a graduate of the Vanderbilt University, and tho University of Chicago, is touring the wtirld in order to make a study of the place taken by the negro raees in civilisation. For three an<t a halt years he has been in Africa, studymg the negro policies of European. Goveriiments in the Bark Continent, He has traversed the length of the continent three times, including an overlandjourney from Cape .Town to Alexandria , e journey overland was to get a view and understanding of the progress and in m !™L yamu ? PF°Weins presented in inner Africa, where the methods of ?hn-» !!? « <U ' e ° f . llcce . ssi ty varied from those 01 ■ the coastal regions, inasmuch as tho coastal strip has been known to tho white man tor centuries, while inner Africa possesses vast territories only lately under jurisdiction. North Rhodesia lias been under white control only little more than a decade, while the swamp legions about Lake Bangwello are not jet administered by white officials. 111 tue British possessions, on the 11 . coast, said Mr. Cox, cannibalism •Stilt exists, even to tho,extent of offering human flesh for sale in the market places. Iho recent cablegram referring 1 • i! e -, lna ? Leopard Society," in winch its-members, in tho guise of leop- ■ J ould - s!a >' an(l eat their victims, is further evidence to show the persistent trouble which cannibalism is givin" the white occupiers. D the most interesting study of African history,'' Mr. Cox continued, , 13 produced 'jy the remains of white civilisations _which the Continent has known. Coins of the Maccaheaus liavo to fonnd in Natal, Rhodesia, and the .-On thorn Belgian Congo has remains of a wluto mining occupation. Iron instruments, . not yet destroyed by rust, and wooden supports are found in some of tho old tunnels and driveways. Uganda was at one time occupied by whito conquerors, as also were Nigeria and the entire area of semi-arid land lying to the south of j the Sahara.

From Arab literature wo are gaining much about the past of tho northern iind eastern portions of tho Continent," said Mr. Cox. "The most convincing evidence is not tlio cultural remains o.f these early white occupations, but the racial-remains. Uganda's ruling aristocracy is a light-skinned, high-nosed, manyhaired people—the Bahima. Tho word 'hima' means, 'white.' This half-caste aristocracy still call themselves 'the white people.' The casto system of Uganda had its origin in an attempt to prevent further admixture of tho half-caste'with the full black.

"For 8000 years the ' white man has occupied some portion pf the Continent. Tho white man founded the early civilisation in Egypt, and successive invasions of lvOiito conquerors from north and east •rejuvenated from time to timo civilisations which were, as constantly declining in proportion to the white civilisers blending their blood with tho negro. Tlicro has," says Mr. Cox, "been but one result to these various white occupations, viz., blood admixture of white conquerors with the black subjects, resulting. 111 a decline of national mental comprehension, and, consequent to this, a declino and sometimes an extinction of the civilisation. Tho Germans are the only white occupiers of Africa who deny intermarriage between blaclc and white. Anion's tho British it proceeds, but at. slow pace. Not so, however, among tho Latins, the French; Italians, Portuguese, and the semi-Latins, tho there admixture proceeds at rapid pace. Tho present occupation's will be sustained more nersistently from European resources than wero the former ones, but if tho history of Africa gives one ks.-:ou of importance it is that civilisation in Africa depends upon the while Africans remaining white."