THE FATHER

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1929, Page 8

THE FATHER

OK -100,000 PEOPLE. flfy Sir Perciva! Phillips, who accompanied the Prince of Males and the Duke of Gloucester on their tour of East Africa.) KAMPALA (Uganda), Dec. 1. M’lien you meet him at the club on the hill, at the hour off the first long drink after sundown, he is in no wisedifferent from thousands of other young men who are carrying the burden of Empire the world over. He is 1 alert, bright of eye and cheery ot 1 manner, and you would think that lie did not have a care in the world. ] Blit when lie goes abroad in his carriage of state—an old and faithful ear —wearing shorts and a saf'ara shirt, I he becomes a Personage. Chiefs wail ’ for him, hat in hand, at tlie roadside. Village elders repeat his words of ’ counsel with an air. He sits among j the lords and landed magnates of a county in their Shire Hall, and when j lie talks notebooks and pencils record his judgments. In fact, lie is the father of some 400,000 natives, practically half the j popuntion of the State of Buganda. In the archives of M’liitelinll he is a District Commissioner: to his countrymen and colleagues here merely the “ D.C.” This young man has as his slice of Empire an area comprising 4,000 square miles. Six months ol the year he is oil tour, in his box-bodied car, with an official interpreter (apparently unnecessary. as he speaks Luganadu like a native.!, inspecting roads, gaols, dispensaries, records and all tlie machinery of administration controlled in his absence by the Kahaka’s chiefs. I accompanied him on a lightning tour of one county oi Buganda to see the native being trained to govern himself in local affairs and to improve his lot in life under British tuition. The territory we visited is ruled in the name of the Kabaka by one of his most important officials, a mild little man with shrewd eyes and the quiet dignity of his tribe. His’official title is the Kangwo, \Vliich may he roughly interpreted as Lord of the .Marches. In his area, called Bulemeza, which covers 1,000 square miles, there are 23,000 taxpayers holding 120,000 acres of land. The countryside through which we passed proclaimed its well-ordered prosperity and good government. Every mud hut had its little garden and beds of bright flowers before the front door. The Baganda are the only African people that show a. love of flowers. the lowest strata of them, although steeped in ignorance and still indifferent to the laws ot cleanliness, adorn their patches w : * ’ -isse= of verbena and other gay plants. Their sense of colour values is a blow to the familiar theory that the Negro is a slave to violent and conflicting ingredients of the rainbow. Hie women of Buganda wear long, loose gowns of various tints, hut all of these tone perfectly. The women make a picture entirely pleasing to the eye as they stridje gracefully along the road, a calabash or a parcel wrapped in green leaves poised on their heads, then I draperies of dull red or deep pm pie blending with tlie vivid background of the hills. M’e passed these country folks like a triumphal procession. The men sprang to attention and uncovered. Grizzled ex-soldiers saluted, and funny little children, all hut naked, tried to fallow their example. The women crept hurriedly to the shelving bank and stood there, like statues in ebony, as tlie ear sped bv. Beyond the gardens and thatched roofs of Bomba, where the King’s African Rifles have a contonment, we came to a little court house on a hill. The Kangwo and his chiefs were assembled there to meet “ the Father of tlie People ” The Kangwo himself appeared beside the car with sonorous words of welcome. Half of him—the upper half—was European, for he wore a jaunty lounge jacket of blue serge over a collnrloss white shirt edged with red silk. Below the waist he lapsed into the dress of upper-class Buganda. His loose, long skirt of dun-coloured doth flapped around his highly polished hoots as lie walked with us to the council chamber. The Kangwo, standing beside the table, made a speech of, welcome with a businesslike air. r l hen the 1’ athci of his People spoke from his chair. Out came note-hooks. Like students at a lecture., the chefs and elders wrote down his words of advice. They were to the point. Congratulations on the increase in area ol tilled soil; on the general appearance ol order and industry. But they must not forget that the important thing was the increase of output. More foodstuffs must he planted. Mad they forgotten the last famine, when they alone were exempt from outside aid because of their precautions. Mom attention .to sanitation. The plague was still a menace. Mar. constant war against dirt.. And so on. Tlie chiefs and' landowners nodded gravely from time to time. M’lien lie finished there was applause. Notes were compared and amplified. The Kangwo spoke again. He assured the Presence that these matters would he seen to. Three times a year the “ lather ol tlie People ” looks I bus at the routine and finds it good. The efficiency ol the native administration is shown by the fact that of 2,000 case files inspected hv him on one tour only six were the subject of revisionary orders.