WHAT WILL THE WHITE MAN DO NEXT? 



able to remedy all this, and transmit orders with ac- 

 curacy and speed. 



But will the African take to this new invention? To 

 answer this question it may be necessary to remove some 

 prevalent misapprehensions with regard to Africa and 

 the Africans. In spite of vast unsettled areas mysteri- 

 ous and unknown, the native dweller is for the most part 

 an intelligent human being. Illiterate certainly, in the 

 vast majority of cases, but with a store of folk lore and 

 music of his own, many useful and often artistic handi- 

 crafts, considerable linguistic abilities, and a very defin- 

 ite code of morals. It has too long been the fashion of 

 Europeans to disparage the customs and beliefs of na- 

 tive Africans, and dismiss them airily as relics of bar- 

 barism, whereas it is a matter of fact that the African 

 native has truly adapted himself to his natural surround- 

 ings. What we have in the past lightly dismissed as bar- 

 barism is really a highly developed "naturism." An ade- 

 quate study of the tribal customs and capacities of 

 those who are still thought by some people to be in 

 "barbaric" and primitive stages, will more and more 

 reveal the fact that the present condition of the masses 

 of the African peoples is normal and comparable with 

 that of other peoples at the same stage of development. 

 Their folk-lore, their handicrafts, their native music, 

 their forms of Government, their legislative powers, all 

 are substantial evidence of their adaptability to their 

 environment. 



To understand how broadcasting will be accepted 



275 



