78 PRKSIDK>TIAL ADDRESS — SECTION E. 



refuse to obey. Thougli yoiu oiders are perfectly reasonable, 

 in full agreement with the principles your jinpils themselves 

 profess, they will not accept them. How is it possible? Some 

 of them, probably those who are less commendable, are 

 opposing your will, and they have taken hold of the others ; 

 the whole class now forms one body, and it will begin to fight. 

 You may say that such a rejection of authority may happen 

 everywhere, amongst all the races. But here is the peculiarity 

 of the Bantu — as they are all agreeing, they are convinced 

 that they are right. You may appeal to tlieir reason, to their 

 conscience. Xo avail ! The fact that they are all of one mind 

 is for them a sufficient justification of the position they have 

 taken. This is very curious, and evidently comes from the 

 habits of their former tribal life. 



How is a decision taken in the courts of Bantu chiefs ? 

 There is much discussion first. Everybody has the right of 

 explaining his thought. The Bantu court is eminently demo- 

 cratic in this respect. Little by little a general opinion fonns 

 itself, and when it becomes preponderant the chief " cuts 

 the matter," as they say, according to the feeling of the 

 majority. There is no voting, no minority. Nobody, after 

 the chief has spoken, would dare to think that he may be 

 Avrong in submitting himself to the dictum of the assembly. 

 There is no such a thing- as scruples of conscience or faint 

 ideas that the decision may not be in harmony with moral 

 principles or with divine will. The horizon of the Bantu mind 

 does not reach such distant spheres. 



1 am sure that this is the psychical explanation of the 

 difiiculties we often meet in guiding our native pupils, and it 

 accounts for the terrible acts of insubordination which we 

 sometimes have to deplore. This shows that a good deal of 

 supplementary education is wanted to elevate the Bantu mind 

 from the juridical conception of good and evil to the spiritual 

 notion of morality taught by the Christian religion. 



The best plan to adopt in such circumstances is to try 

 to persuade one or two of the better boys — ^to awake tlieir 

 sense of duty. This is very difficult, as it appears to them 

 that by yielding they woidd be traitors to the common caiise. 

 However, one may occasionally succeed, and then the resist- 

 ance will fall at once. I remember one day having reached 

 that aim. The pupils of the institution wanted the programme 

 of the school to be amended according to their wishes, and 

 their demand was not altogether unreasonable. But I had 

 to tell them that such a change could not be made by myself, 

 but only by the conference of missionaries which controlled 

 the institution and was alone competent to decide the case, 

 to the exclusion of anybody else. But they insisted that they 

 should be satisfied immediately. They were threatened with 

 expulsion, but they were prepared for that extremity, and 

 already were going to pack their little luggage. One of them, 

 however, began to see that they were decidedly wrong, and 

 he agreed to stay and to accept the postponement of the 

 decision. This secession broke the strength of all the others. 



