FLOGGING A SHADOW 



has created a home of which he is proud, combining with 

 his fellows to improve the conditions of their small vil- 

 lage. He will profit by the lectures and advice of trained 

 farmers of his own race, who will cultivate demonstra- 

 tion crops in little groups of allotments throughout the 

 reserves, and plant forest belts which will assure a con- 

 tinuous supply of wood for all purposes while protecting 

 his harvests. 



The Men of the Trees are paving the way for new 

 methods of development, especially needed where tribal 

 practice has become ineffective as is often the case where 

 the contact with Europan civilization has been sudden. 

 In many cases tribal uses have been broken down, and 

 the African has had little time in which to adjust his 

 vision to the changing order of things. His reaction has 

 been something akin to that of a man, who, after being 

 confined for a long time in a dark room, is suddenly 

 brought out into the full glare of the mid-day sun where 

 he is dazzled and blinded, and in consequence is bewild- 

 ered. Dark as the room may have been, at any rate he was 

 able to find his way about in it with little or no difficulty, 

 by reason of being accustomed to that environment. The 

 change is a devastating revolution in his domestic, social 

 and spiritual life in that he leaves his home and tribal life 

 to take a new religion. To him it is entirely destructive of 

 everything that he has held near and dear. It is difficult 

 for us to realize what a colossal upheaval it has been for 

 him in every sphere of life. But whether we realize it or 

 not, it still remains a fact that, through the centuries he 



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