AFRICA’S BLACK SHADOW

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1925, Page 4

AFRICA’S BLACK SHADOW

(G. Ward Price in Daily Mail.) One problem only matters in South Africa—the threatenin'' clash between black and white. This racial danger dwarfs into insignificance all other questions. AngloDutch jealousy. Natal's complaints of unfair treatment in the Union; Rhodesia's reluctance to enter it; tho Rand's recurrent mining disputes thee by comparison arc bul the tloumsiic discords of a. household in peril from a rising Hood. The form of the conllict cannot he foreseen, hut its elements continually increase. The shallow, of its coining darkens the sunlit sky. Yet, with the apathy tlint the approach of a great menace so often breeds, the average white inhabitants of South Africa remain us indifferent to signs and portent, as did most Europeans in warnings of the Great War. Union politicians frame legislative break-waters against the spreading sea of colour, bul know well what weak expedients they are. and. though some of the ablest men plainly see disaster drawing nearer, they have no practical remedy to offer. I’.LAHK UNITY. On this subject I have heard during the push six weeks the views of highly placed soldiers, who believe that only the- machine-gun can save South Africa for Hie whiteman; of well-known historians of this country who think it cannot he saved ait all; of newspaper editors of lifelong experience in South Africa, who expect the crisis within i,ou or fifteen years, and only hop.:' that people in England, when it comes, will understand the position of Europeans here. 1 have sunken, in. with members of the Government and of the House of Assembly. They suggest palliative-, cl i file- n 11- lo realise, like* the segregation of all nat ive's on re-ervai ions. .Missionaries agree that contact with town life and education on European lines have made the Kallir a do-tri-hali-cd and discontented lining. And the educational authorities at the head of such in-l it tit ions as the large native college of l.ovedale believe that our duty as a superior lace is to leach th" native everything we can, and then h'i the result work itself out under Providence. All these people, with their dill'erenl points of view, admit that the uatvie question has lately acquired an urgency it never had helore, and that the cause is Ihe rapid spread ot a tooling of racial unity among the black people of South AI licit. Did tribal jealousies that, once acted as a barrier

to combinat ion have disappeared under the while man's rule. Languages are fast fusing. The blacks oi every clan Zulus. Swazis. Ha-uto-. Sluitigaans nre realising for the first time that th'-v arc tin iiibciol one Bantu Mock. A HUM M l I.N GRIEVANCE. Their ecu spirit c:f I.iiistnausi: ip linds easy focus in a common griev fine • i ha: the Eu'•••! ha - i ken t heir count ry au n\ from them.. "Wlieu the white man runic to .'■riali Africa." said a native in dohanpc--burg, “we had the land and he had the Bible: to-dav we have the T'.j|,|,-. a .„l lw has the land." There are certain zones where ivli'.ex can still live their old life and white men are lilt allowed to acquit'territory. Basutoland is one ol those', bill it is full to overflowing. It- habitable ground is tbe most thickly |'op:iI end part of South Africa, with -IA native inhabitants to the square mile. 1; is .-ill l i\ a ted t i the li mi i s of p - bilitv. yet ju-t. across I lie Border li" in provocative' com vast the only half-ex-ploit, d farms of white settlers of the Enion. Meanwhile, like ail other unlive tribes of South Africa, th" h:e!fi.iillion liasiitos are increasing far more rapidly than their white masters, with no out let lor ! heir numbers. "White masters” is the word, for it cannot he denied that the while populate I South Africa doe- not regard th. Bantu race as a natural supply nf cheap labour. Th" economic structure that has Ir-on built no in the country from the Tra ti-caa l (‘ham her ol M i ties, which employs L’CiUiirt ol them, down to the -mallcst while hotl-' holder uhe has a sing!" kitchen “bov.” Tim "Colour Bar Bill." now in Commit tee be-

lore the Ilotl-C' of Assembly. lias been drafted to legalise and extend ihroughuitl the' Union an oh! rule ot' the l Transvaal mining industry that no native shall he employed on skilled work, so that hi, wages remain limited t > til a day. "H i- Bill has subsequent Iv lw at reirrted b\ the Smith African BemitcL

Meanwhile Ins standard "I lie nig hai not.‘a-ed to an oxteti! which Mutkos him eb-po in hi ut u cuva-ieiml t,ageoat ping journeys to tlm Transvaal to be aide lo satisfy Ills desire for w iVenue! clot lies. "('< t|.(Tl.' 11-HnNSHB M's)N K'-S.s." What makes tlm Mack man’- icsmil--11'>• 111 against such ■ uulilions potentially formidable i- that within the Union of Smii It Africa its.-It be ni.ul hi. kind number 5 IuUdGA. compared with 1.51 id.! Id!) while-, while if you ire Tilde tho alj,up ino men" I ••■■rit i cries of Swaziland. I -:l 1 c chi Ini. and R.'ehll.a mtland. together With Klim! ..-in and South We-I All no you add onm l,w :;.7U" ItO.'l black- but only I'd .11(10 while-. S ■ialled ‘-i 10,p.-< ion-ne-a c tn .• j.: ion t.a-e 1 ■ n tint >id lmind.it loin

Inis cciiM'd inUi'li : ia lll l l 'i■ in Huron:': r." e-coif-cciijsi,. ..... .. in|.!'(> getiioT'e s- n: i nifii i. i- - n eager still. "( 'olotir-c uiM'i'itt ■ ness" j the ni'-l con ten I ions sjiirii ot all. The Bi-liop ol St. Albans, ui-o iatvlv held the S,-" of I’reloria. was riglit in declaring recently that ' the native races of Africa arc banding together in a spirit of ‘ ibli• :l few \ .Mil's Jig i."

This 'pint is spreading ami being; spread. Xor is it coulineT i-i one par: of the African i eminent. There arc natives in West Alrica at the pri-M-iu tunc. genet ally A merica il-ei I ilea I ."I. 1 who 1 rug tin'll it will lie their Dilution to supply leadership to lit" prime i\e ; tribes of the Smith wln-ti the time ■ comes lor their struggle against the Whiles.

s ! Thu.s the In-Id i- .-t for a r.n ml Irud ,! of sti'engih. What form will t'v ci.itj tes! take I j Alrea.lv t lie ecioioniii rival.".' of the two grades of civilisation is felt severe- | I.v. Xo white mail could hope lo make - , a living in South Africa by unskilled i 'or semi-skilled labour. The ‘'182(1 Me.lmitr i: 1 1 Settlers' As-ociat icii." which . aims at the development of | lie coutlI try. regards i’i.oD! a. the- minimum , amount with which a single limit can 1 . start farming here. The ‘‘poor whites” j who have nothing but their own labour ■ : to live by. are in a pitiable condition. | shut out from all chance of emplovl meat by the black man who can live i in a wattle hut on a handful ol mealies j a day ami is intelligent enough to he a good workman under white snpor--1 vision. I riMOrf.ni'THXH Mill’s. I From ec uiomic to physical struggle j has always been an easy passage. .V----loti" who \ i.-it.s South Africa with biI e.ves open can avoid reflection on the ■ possibility of events taking that f nil's.' here. In town and country ah!;" be secs black men out immlvriug white by tive to one. held permaneiuly. and s > ; far submissively, to the role of hewers j of wmal and drawers of water, exelttI de.| from the franchise except in the ! Cape Province, owning only 8 per cent !of the land in a, country where they j form So per cent of the population, yet gradually being imbued, through traj vel. education, easy communication, j and the growth of a native Press, with I the belief that they are an expropriated race.

The danger is evident that sm It a comliifan may end p, rebellion, and this, iti South Africa would mean mo sacio- lu.'t a massa* !•■ of sente ivd whites by the outnumbering host of natives that surrounds them, then a massacre of half-armed natives by I’nnion troops with modern weapons. This .sounds like a morbid nightmare, I but it i' one which responsible men I discuss as a possible, if remote, doI velopmcnt. | A few day- ago I was walking behind | the Prince ol Wales along the fruit! of i lift s, fringes. and leopard-.kin gir lies. The head' ot ; .:n. were bourn! with ibe wooden b..::i|s*t bai nice i their wearer has killed bis man. Tn one hand these tribe-men held their piebald shields ot tight-stretched oxhide, in the other a bunch, of steel-headed

assegais and a long club. A deep war chant came from their ranks, and now mid then a lithe, muscular black body would bound out of the ranks, leaping forward over the ground to stab and battle imaginary foes with spear or kiiobkerry. Their eyes were set in a sort of frenzy, for to these warriors the practice of arms is still an almost religious dmv. "A VEILED Til It EAT."

'•And uhni. do you think will In' the end of all this ” said a voice at my elbow. "War! Every one of those .songs is a veiled threat.” It was a South African oflieer of special standing and experience who spoke, a mail who knows the natives and their tongues as well as anyone alive. ‘‘Tile same causes are at work now as have produeed so many South African native uprisings of the past.” he added, as we passed a group ot European girls, with hare arms and pretty frocks, busy photographing the gesticulating warriors with no more i oncern than, if they had l "cu a sideshow at Wembley instead of pari oi a dense primitive population among which the whiles live as a 'caller-d handful, projected only hv a few score police of their own race. ‘■Don’t you ever Icel a link' anxious for your womenfolk among : " i be- • savages ” I a-krd a white sei tlor the same day, ‘'Anxious! Not in the least.” bo answered with obvious -incerity. "TiievT-e the best tempered fellows in the world and devoted to iiritislt rule.” Those are two contrast ing views both strongly held in >ol;’a Africa. Hitherto the good temper ami happy dispo'i Ii >u of the uni iv" races l.am kept them in the subordination to which they were reilucetl ,by the stern methods ot th" eiirlier while sett,,!'-, e-peeiallv the Dutch. ST I LI. A FK! I ITT N't; STOCK. lint thev are still a lighting steel, and are being worked upon I y tww ami powerful inilucuees. 'lie' growl ■■ 'I it,,, soirii of ot o >esi i ion a'.noug Caen wit.- instanc'd in .lo'iiannc-btirg la:-; we: * I:. wle'U an cnlet* that native women out < f dun's alter 10 p.m. must, i-tirrv p:ts-cs was met |v a campaign 'if women of uuiluubted gfvid ibara-ier ron:, -d alTe-t. L is tb" Iw-i educated among ice lu’.i'v'es iluil are olien ibc centres of di-udfoet!'.:!!. From ! * lone 'be very eH’e tetn Native liiiclligei'.c-e Doptirtmoiil ef S-.utb » f.'-i"'ll: i’olit- •:> er I of Hi, acMvit . ■ the Omalita. a blcudt hi! si V puli-, e secret S-. buy wh ,i,,.-. ; ber-; l ike an nr.th l-> ravish a •• it oin am! hill •" ma". whel'-r whi'-. l!mk. or !■ tll'-bi'c.-d. before Ila v die. Seventeen of them were arrested oittv a few v.e -Us ago. an ! one. who was v tje n h (!■ iv:i :.<•■ V- trial to murder a man was a man wlm bed serve,l ;,v v .,. n ... ,-ook in a I’ret oi 1 hotel. S'*ver;il thin"", are still lacking It, bl-jpg g.>;;!*■ frica's native dam. r ' a k, d The black tioniihtt mu ha-, ia p 111111:. I i : " ca ■!'• ' I■ r a, :m' I. a.: I I’.ll ii ’ a arl'v thing I 1 CHI .' .""i 1 " f. . |'' or. ' "at t m.iitio'l- ~'a 1 Co’ ■ hv physical rr * u P mite lire-- or,, i 1 a ' lack poophm of t the coio.lrv v. ill , (-1, out ! • white, os i "! on • m.t cttcko.t push"', the small, t re.-.hugs