rUESlDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 9 1 



depreciation has been goino- on for centuries makes it doubly 

 difficult to cure : it has become part of the heritage of the Negro 

 race. It can be eradicated only by the exercise of great patience 

 and tact in all our dealings with natives. There will always be 

 the danger of individuals ^oing to extremes and ])ecoming in- 

 flated with ideas of self-importance, and though they generally 

 end by making themselves the laughing-stock of their own 

 ])eople as well as of Europeans, for a time, at least, they seriously 

 hamper those who have the welfare of the Bantu at heart. 

 Infinite patience and tact, therefore, are essential (|ualifications 

 required b)' those who are in any way responsible for the educa- 

 tion and development of the Bantu races, if we are to teach them 

 the lesson of self-respect, and make them a real and living asset 

 to the community and the State. 



The greatest difficulty of all is to be found in that faith in 

 witchcraft, which is instilled into the minds of Natives in 

 youth, and especially during the rites i)erformed on the attain- 

 ment of puberty. I have tried elsewhere* to show that witch- 

 craft forms the normal basis on which Native thought is built 

 up, in much the same way as Science is the foundation of life 

 and thought in our " Western "" civilization. The border-line 

 between Magic and Science is sometimes a very narrow one. 

 Take, for example, the well-known fact of Science that the 

 growing embryo is alYected by the environment or even by a 

 transitory m(x:)d of the mother, and compare this with the 

 classical example of Jacob's use of Magic for increasing his own 

 wealth at the expense of his father-in-law. t Such practices are 

 ■<till of every-day occurrence among the " raw," untutored in- 

 liabitants of this land. No effort is -pared in their endeavour to 

 weave a protective web of witchcraft about the fields and flocks 

 and homes of family and tribe, and a very large part of life is 

 devoted to the observance of rites pertaining to the preservation 

 or enhancement of the fertile ]>owers of Nature. 



In common with all believers in witchcraft, the South 

 African Bantu believe in a close interrelation between all the 

 reproductive powers of Nature. Thus the influence of a " fer- 

 tile " woman (that is. a woman who is the mother of a large 

 family) is re^jarded as " catching." in much the same way as we 

 look upon influenza, whooping-cough, or measles as "catching" 

 under certain conditions. These ])eople believe that not only 

 are other human beings susceptible to the influences of fertility 

 or sterility, but these conditions or powers may be transmitted 

 to animals and even to the vegetable world. Hence the growth 

 of " fertility rites," which have as their object the regulation 

 of the ifood supply and the increase of the power and wealth of 

 the family or tribe. 



In most of the tribes of the Northern Transvaal there will 



*" Bantu methods of Divination," Kept. S.A. Assn. for Adv. of 

 Science: Maritzburg (1916), .^97-408. 

 t Genesis xxx. 37-43. 



