TROPICAL AFRICA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 22

TROPICAL AFRICA

WHITE AND BLACK RACIAL PROBLEMS A UNIFIED NATIVE FCLICY I In the four territories destined to I become the Federation, of East Africa ; —Uzanda, Kenya, Tanganyika and j Zanzibar —the people are as varied as j the country. There are Europeans, ! Arabs, Indians, Africans and the Africans, though the ignorant persists jin classing them all as merely ; "blacks,” “natives” or even “niggers” I (writes Mr. Julian D. Huxley in “The | Times”), they show more variety of Physical type and way of life than is ! to be found in all Europe, j “On Top of all this variety of nature and man there impinge Western civilisation and Western industrialism. Will their impact level down the. variety, insisting on large ?scale production to suit the needs of Europe and Big Business, reducing the proud diversity of native tribes and races to a muddy mixture, their various cultures to a single inferior copy of our own? Or shall we be able to preserve the savour of difference, to fuse our culture and theirs into an autochthonous civilisation, to use local difference as the basis for a natural diversity of development? That is one of the first and greatest questions which the traveller in Africa finds himself asking. WHITE AND BLACK “A unified native policy for a unified British East Africa.” That would seem to be a good ideal and a good watchword for those who are zealous in the 'cause of native interests. Is there perhaps a danger that it may turn into a mere catchword? At the moment, judging by Press reports from Home, it looks as if the practical and immediate proposals for limited federation contained in the Samuel Wilson Report might founder on this rock. To a dispassionate traveller through the four territories whose political fate now hangs in the balance, the question at issue seems a double one. It Is, first, do we desire a unified native policy for our East African federation and, secondly, if we do desire it, should we demand it at once, or should we slowly work toward it? To the first, I think one must answer yes; in the long run nothing but discontent can spring from having markedly different policies toward the native races in contiguous territories. It is the second which is the crux. Even if we could tomorrow produce a nice policy out of new GovernorGeneral, like a white rabbit out of a hat, should we be able to apply it without injustices and even disorders? MAKE HASTE SLOWLY! Personally, I have the feeling that it is at the moment just as dangerous and wrong to go too fast in Africa as it is to go too slow. Here I shall fry to set down some of the facts which are the background for that feeling as regards native policy. First and foremost, there is the diversity of the Africans themselves. Perhaps the geography books are better now; but 1 was brought up in the belief that tropical Africa was Inhabited by "negroes,” and that negroes were people of the type one sees in the Southern United States. In the intervening years I had imbibed a few more facts concerning the Africans, but I must confess that 1 was not prepared for the astonishingly diverse reality.

In the first place, the tropical African is by no means always black; lie ranges up from purest ebony through chocolate to not very strong coffee. He is of all sizes, from the Congo pygmy to some of the storklegged. lanky Nilotics. " It - would be possible to frame a single general policy for dealing with all this multiplicity of social organisms; the difficulty comes in applying it. To take but one instance, the Kikuyu have been so discontented about the present land laws that a committee has had to be appointed to look into the tribal methods of laud tenure, with a view to amending the existing system. But this is only one side of the problem. An even more obvious difficulty is the existing difference between the policies of the several territories. What is wanted, and wanted at once, is an anthropological board, to investigate the customs of the tribes, especially as regards laud tenure and (he ownership of cattle, in order that well-meaning efforts to help the native may not end in disaster owing to lack of understanding. Then time is wanted to see how the youthful native councils of Kenya and the scarcely less youthful native administrations of Tanganyika can be made to work for native progress. And when federation comes and the Governor-General is appointed, let one of his main duties be, not to lay down a unified native policy at once, but to .aim a.t it. If a sane and lasting one is evolved in 10, or even 12, years, that will be all we have a right to demand. COMMON GROUND One final word. If a unified native policy is demanded of our little federation, why not at least a co-ordina-tion of native policy throughout Africa? At present France and Britain, Belgium and Portugal, are all embarking on African native policies in blissful and often self-righteous ignorance of their neighbours. Surely it is not beyond the wit and good sense of man to make arrangements for the pooling of experience? With the spread of education and communications the African natives, held together in spite of all their diversity by the common bond of subjection, will find common ground and devise Africa-wide organisations. They are indeed already making a beginning.