^20 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 



Broken in war, the Fingo refugees gladly availed them- 

 selves of the help of the white man against their dreaded 

 enemies. From the first contact was established, resulting in a 

 certain amount of mutual assistance, and eventually the Govern- 

 ment took the Fingo people under its special protection, Since 

 then the years have rolled on, and meanwhile the Fingoes, un- 

 trammelled by ancient custom since their tribalism was shattered, 

 and despised and rejected by the more virile native races, have 

 been acquiring education. Within half a century they have 

 produced a generation of teachers without whose help the whole 

 educational fabric, supporting an attendance of some 70,000 

 children in the day schools, would come perilously near collapse, 

 for a very high percentage of the native teachers are of the 

 despised Fingo race. 



A second point which is incontrovertible is that the Pondos 

 (and the allied Pondomisi), dwelling in the remotest districts, 

 are by far the rawest of the Transkeian natives at the present 

 time. It is only comparatively recently that schools have been 

 opened in Pondoland, and there has been very little contact as 

 between the Pondos and the white man. 



A third point, which also may be accepted as authoritative, 

 is that the Tembus occupying the less remote districts, and 

 greater facilities in the way of education than the Pondos. 

 imdoubtedly occupy an intermediate position in the story of 

 progress. We thus have established, for the facts are patent to 

 all who know the peoples mentioned, that the race which had 

 most contact with the white man, and educational facilities, is 

 by far the most advanced of the Bantu peoples; that the race 

 which has had least contact, and education, is by far the most 

 barbarian ; and that the Tembus, not so remotely settled, and 

 Slaving had some educational advantages, occupy an intermediate 

 position. The pre-eminence of the Fingoes is all the more 

 remarkable when we remember that they were the outcasts, tlie 

 race despised and rejected of all the natives. This, however, is 

 only a partial explanation, since the more im]:)ortant factor 

 (though an unrealised one) in the situation is yet to be indicated. 

 The Fingoes being utterly broken in war, with every vestige 

 of tribal authority shattered, the scattered individuals threw 

 themselves on the mercy of their neighbours, both white and 

 black. And with the effective destrtiction of their tribalism, and 

 the witchcraft that had formerly operated to bind them togejher 

 and render them, like the other tribes, almost impervious to 

 European ways and methods, their deliverance was accom- 

 plished. In their case the citadel was stormed and captured, and 

 the individual was released from the tyrannies of tribalism and 

 witchcraft, and in consecjuence, individualism asserting itself, the 

 Fingoes develojicd rapidly. In the case of the Pondos and 

 Tembus and others, however, the tribalism was not shattered at 

 a blow, the Government being content to lay siege to the nntive 

 mind by a slow ])rocess, discouraging witchcraft so far as its 



