Native Life in South Africa Part 42

When a man comes to you with stories about a "growing spirit of justice in South Africa", ask him if he knows that in 1884 there was a great debate in the Cape Parliament as to whether Natives should be permitted to exercise the franchise, and that the ayes had it. Ask him, further, if he thinks that such a proposal could ever be entertained to-day by any South African Parliament. If he is honest, he will be bound to say "no". Then ask him, "Where is your growing spirit of justice?"

In 1909, a South African Governor made a great speech in which he declaimed against the South African policy of pinp.r.i.c.king the blacks.

In 1911, another South African Governor authorized the publication of regulations in which, by prohibiting the employment of coloured artisans on the South African mines, the pinp.r.i.c.ks were accentuated.

In 1913, a South African Governor signed the Natives' Land Act which made the Natives homeless in South Africa. Whereas the Government have announced their intention not to disfranchise the South African rebels, judging from the present legislative tendency we fear that, unless the Imperial Government can be induced to interfere, it is not improbable that should the rebels return to power after the general election

In 1916, there will be horrible enactments in store for the blacks.

In 1906, His Majesty's Government gave the Transvaal Colony self-government under a const.i.tution which included a clause placing the voteless native taxpayers under the special protection of the Crown.

In 1907, His Majesty's Government likewise gave the Orange River Colony (now Orange "Free" State) self-government under a const.i.tution which contained a similar provision. At this time the Governor of Natal, as representing the King, was Supreme Chief of the Zulus in that Colony.

The Natives lived happily under these protecting reservations, and the white people had no complaint against the just restraint of the Imperial suzerainty.

In 1909, His Majesty's Government pa.s.sed the Union Const.i.tution, sweeping away all these safeguards. In that Act they practically told South Africa to do what she liked with the Natives in these three Colonies and South Africa is doing it. Where, then, is this "growing spirit"?

During the South African War in 1901, the Imperial Government informed the Federal (Dutch) Government that no peace terms could be considered which did not extend to the native races the same privileges -- the rights of the franchise -- which are enjoyed by the Natives of the Cape Colony.

In 1902, the British Imperial and Dutch representatives signed the Peace terms at Vereeniging. In these, the rights of the coloured citizens were postponed till after the old Republics had responsible Government.

Responsible Government has since been granted, and has in turn been succeeded by the Union. But when the Imperial Parliament,

In 1909, considered the Act of Union, English and Dutch South Africans came over and represented to the Imperial authorities that there would be a striking demonstration (or words to that effect) against the federation, and even against South Africa's relation to the Mother Country if native rights were as much as mentioned in the Const.i.tution; and the South African Native Franchise has now receded as far off as the Greek calends. So where is that "growing spirit of justice"?

When you speak of converting Mohammedans, let the question be asked: "What must Mohammedans think of those whose religion having said 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,' they nevertheless uphold the policy of rulers who pa.s.s regulations debarring one section of the community from following an honest occupation in their native land? And what impression must be created in the minds of black converts who are subjected to discriminations, including prohibitions that were not in existence five years ago?"

And if in spite of beautiful voices that I have heard this Easter Sunday singing anthems concerning the triumph of the kingdom of love the British flag continues to defend the policy of repression and colour hatred in South Africa, then I fear that the black victims of this policy, many of them converted to Christianity through your efforts, might very well cla.s.s your Easter anthems and their great teaching with the newspaper canard relative to a "growing spirit of justice in South Africa"; for our bitter experience proves that spirit to be at best but a dwindling one.

Two years ago I was alarmed by the impious utterances of a coloured man whose friendship I valued. He being influential among our people, I gently remonstrated with him lest through his action many of our people become unsettled in their faith. This was his explanation: He was going along an East Rand suburb at eleven o'clock one Sunday morning when the bells were ringing. He saw a number of people entering a Dutch church, and as he was far from home he mingled with them, intending to spend the hour at worship instead of continuing his walk.

But no sooner was he inside than the usher jostled him out of the church, hailed a policeman and handed him in charge, so that he spent the next hour in the charge office instead of at chapel. On the Monday morning he was convicted by the East Rand Magistrate and fined 1 Pound for trespa.s.sing on a private place, to wit, a church.

And that was a Dutch Reformed church, the State Church of South Africa.

Others had reproached him before me for such utterances, he said, but he will have "no more of our religious mockery with its theoretical 'Come unto Me' and its practical '1 Pound or a month with hard labour'."

John Ruskin, writing on 'State Intervention', says:

== "When a peasant mother sees one of her careless children fall into a ditch, her first proceeding is to pull him out; her second, to box his ears; her third, ordinarily, to lead him carefully a little way by the hand, or send him home for the rest of the day. The child usually cries, and very often would clearly prefer remaining in the ditch; and if he understood any of the terms of politics, would certainly express resentment at the interference with his individual liberty: but the mother has done her duty."

Ruskin goes further and depicts the calamities of a mother nation which, like a foxhunter, complies with the request of its daughter nations "to be left in muddy independence."*

-- * 'Political Economy of Art': Addenda (J. E., Section 127).

Let us appeal to you, in conclusion, to remember that the victorious Christ "has gathered your people into a great nation, and sent them to sow beside all waters and multiply sure dwellings on the earth. . . .

"Let not the crown of your pride be as a fading flower.

But be equal to your high trust: reverent in the use of freedom, just in the exercise of power, and generous in the protection of the weak."

This has been the most strenuous winter that the writer has ever experienced: a dark, dreary winter of almost continuous rains, snowflakes, cold, mud and slush. Reading of the severity of English winters at a distance, I never could have realized that the life I have lived in England during the past four months was possible. An existence from which the sun's rays are almost always obliterated by the inclement weather, by snow and by fog. I cannot describe the sensations caused by the dismal gloom of the sunless days -- a most depressing life -- especially in December, when it would suddenly turn dark, compelling one to work by gaslight when the clocks indicated that it was high noon. Not till then did I realize why some people are said to worship the sun. I find that I have unlearned my acquaintance with the larger planets and heavenly bodies (a knowledge acquired since boyhood) because the winter fog and clouds have continually hidden the moon and stars from view.

But now that the country is throwing off its winter cloak and dressing itself in its green, gorgeous array; now that King Day shines in all his glory through the mist by day, and the moon and stars appear in their brilliancy in the evenings; now that, as if in harmony with the artistic rendering of Easter anthems by your choirs, the thrush and the blackbird twitter forth the disappearance of the foggy winter with its snow, sleet and wet; now that the flocks of fleecy sheep, which for the past four months have been in hiding and conspicuous by their absence, come forward again and spread triumphantly over the green as if in celebration of the dawn of the new spring; now that the violet and the daffodil, the marguerite and the hyacinth, the snowdrop and the bluebell, glorious in appearance, also announce, each in its own way, the advent of sunny spring, we are encouraged to hope that, "when peace again reigns over Europe", when white men cease warring against white men, when the warriors put away the torpedoes and the bayonets and take up less dangerous implements, you will in the interest of your flag, for the safety of your coloured subjects, the glory of your Empire, and the purity of your religion, grapple with this dark blot on the Imperial emblem, the South African anomaly that compromises the justice of British rule and seems almost to belie the beauty, the sublimity and the sincerity of Christianity.

Shall we appeal to you in vain? I HOPE NOT.

[ Map was inserted here. ]

Report of the Lands Commission

An a.n.a.lysis

To attempt to place the different people of the country in water-tight compartments is very attractive in a general way, but it is bound to fail.

You have got a comparatively small European population -- a million and a quarter -- and something like half a million mixed race, and then you have got between four and five million of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country.

Any policy that aims at setting off a very small proportion of the land of the country for the use and occupation of the very vast majority of the inhabitants, and reserving for the use and occupation of a very small minority of the inhabitants the great majority of the land of the country, is a policy that economically must break somewhere. You can start and move in that direction to a certain extent, but you will be driven back by the exigencies of a law that operates outside the laws of Parliament -- the law of supply and demand.

This theory of segregation is to some minds attractive, but the forgotten point is that you need the Native.

You cannot segregate him because you need him. If you drive him out of his existing life and occupation, you run a great risk that you will lose many of your Natives.

Hon. W. P. Schreiner, K.C., C.M.G., (High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa, Ex-Premier of Cape Colony,) before the Lands Commission.

If we are to deal fairly with the Natives of this country, then according to population we should give them four-fifths of the country, or at least half.

Hon. C. G. Fichardt, M.L.A.

The best way to segregate the races would be by means of a boundary fence along the main line of Railway from Port Elizabeth, straight through to Bloemfontein and Pretoria, to Pietersburg, putting the blacks on one side and the whites on the other side of the Railway line.*

M. J. M. Nyokong, before the Native Affairs Commission.

-- * This would give about one-third of the Union to the four and a half million blacks, the one and a quarter million whites retaining two-thirds.