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AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT. 



By H. S. Keigwin, M.A., 

 Director of Native Development, Southern Rhodesia. 



Read July 15, 1921. 



In giving an account of an educational experiment in Southern 

 Rhodesia it is necessary first to give some brief references to the 

 conditions under which the Natives live. First in importance is 

 the system of Native Reserves. These were most carefully examined 

 and reported on by an Imperial Commission, which enquired 

 exhaustively into the subject during the years 1914-15. This 

 has resulted in the permanent assignment of over 20 million acres, 

 or more than one-fifth of the country, for the exclusive use of the 

 Natives. The present Native population is about three-quarters 

 of a million, so that there is an allowance to-day of 26 acres per 

 head, supposing that every Native moved into the Reserves. A 

 man with a wife and two children would have over a hundred 

 acres. But little more than half are in the Reserves, the remain- 

 der being on farms, mission holdings, and unalienated land. As 

 European occupation becomes closer, and as Native-owned herds 

 increase, these Reserves will have to accommodate more and more 

 Natives. It is for this reason that we wish to instruct them how to 

 farm better, and to build sounder and more sanitary homes. That 

 indeed is the keynote of our educational experiment. The Native 

 must be taught intensive cultivation, trained to stay in one place, 

 and to get his food by better methods. He is a child of the soil, 

 and it will be for his and for our good if he can be kept there. 

 He may go out to work, but his home must be mainly in the 

 country. 



The Rhodesian Natives, particularly the Matabele, are becom- 

 ing rich in stock. Whereas our first count in 1902 showed that 

 they had 55,155 head of cattle, 60,569 sheep, 197,477 goats, last 

 year's figures show 744,402 cattle, 307,575 sheep, 741,805 goats, 

 a notable increase under European rule. But for all this wealth 

 they are singularly ignorant of how to treat it. Their stock is 

 often badly inbred and stunted. Their laziness is apparent in 

 their keeping their cattle shut up till late in the day, their herding 

 is inefficient and without much thought for their beasts, their 

 kraaling is of the poorest, while such an idea as feeding their stock 

 in bad times is quite unknown. With them it is quantity, not 

 quality, that is desired. I give these few facts so that some idea 

 may be formed of the backwardness of this people. As a Native 

 Commissioner, constantly moving about among the people for many 

 years, the conviction was more and more borne in on me that we 

 must do something for them in their homes. It seemed an indict- 

 ment on our civilisation that we should know of this state of affairs, 

 and do nothing to remedy it. And yet there are people who say, 

 * 'Leave them to develop on their own lines, and in their own way." 



