158 



NATURE 



[December 13, 1900 



concerning them. The records by the missionaries had 

 been for the most part scrappy, and, from a scientific 

 point of view, not to be implicitly trusted. But the 

 blame for this did not rest entirely on the missionaries. 

 The gap which the missionaries found between the 

 savage mind and their own was unexpectedly wide, and 

 this rendered it difficult for them to understand the 

 natives, as well as for the natives to understand them. 

 Moreover, what the missionary learnt of the native 

 manners and customs he did not think it becoming to 

 publish. Moffat had said that a description of these 

 things would not be instructive or edifying. In the 

 interests of science and government, it was much to be 

 regretted that he and other missionaries had taken this 

 view. Later missionaries had given us more inform- 

 ation ; John Mackenzie and Livingstone's books con- 

 tained much of value, but were incomplete, and not 

 always exact. One other reason of our defective know- 

 ledge of the customs of the black people was that, until 

 the country was settled by the Boers, there was a state 

 of intermittent warfare, which frequently resulted in the 

 extermination of whole tribes. 



There was among the various tribes a general 

 similarity of institutions, customs and belief, but this 

 similarity was by no means uniform. In the Umzimkulu 

 district of Kaff'raria all additions to, and alterations of, 

 laws were made by the chief and councils at Great 

 Place. Among the Galekas, Fingoes and Basutos, laws 

 could be altered after the fashion familiar to us in 

 England as "Judge-made law." Conservative as the 

 natives were, the fact that there were recognised ways of 

 making changes implied that such changes were effected, 

 and that differences existed. In the matter of theft the 

 punishments inflicted varied among the different tribes. 

 Property stolen from the chief was punished more severely; 

 in Bechuanaland restitution was required to be made. 

 It was also pointed out that there were difficult questions 

 respecting marriage and inheritance. The prohibited 

 degrees seemed to be in one direction much wider than 

 with us. In general throughout South Africa all blood 

 relationship, which was'recognised as such, was an abso- 

 lute bar to marriage. Among one tribe such a marriage 

 was dissolved, and a heavy penalty inflicted on the man. 

 Among another tribe the only question was how much 

 the man was willing to pay. Some tribes permitted a 

 man to be married to two sisters, both living. Most of 

 the tribes were polygamists. This fact rendered family 

 arrangements very complex, and most of the questions 

 coming before the courts were questions of inheritance. 

 Wives of a native polygamist were not equal in rank. 

 There was a great wife and a right hand wife, and most 

 of the tribes recognised a left hand wife. Among few 

 tribes could a woman inherit property. The Basutos 

 were among the few. In general women, though not 

 themselves property, were in a state of tutelage, and so 

 incapable of either holding or inheriting property. It 

 was easy to understand that the large number of tribes in 

 South Africa would furnish an interminable example of 

 diff"erence of custom. Cases of theft often came before 

 the courts ; in some districts cases of inheritance were 

 very common ; while cases relating to marriage were 

 always important, because status and inheritance de- 

 pended on marriage, and such questions were frequent 

 subjects of judicial decision. 



One of the modes of oppression of natives in the 

 Transvaal, Mr. Hartland proceeded to observe, had been 

 the refusal to recognise any of their marriages. This 

 was a policy we should be compelled to reverse. In 

 order to do so we must start by informing ourselves 

 what marriages were regarded by the natives of each 

 tribe as legal, lest in our hasty zeal for justice we inflicted 

 injustice. This information could only be obtained by 

 careful inquiry on the spot. A bride-price was usually 



NO. 1624, VOL. 63] 



paid for the bride, but it was not always given. In 

 nearly all tribes, however, it was a necessary incident 

 of the most honourable form of marriage. A bride for 

 whom no price had been paid felt very much as in this 

 country a strict Churchwoman would feel if she were forced 

 to be married at a registrar's office. A wife for whom 

 no price had been paid would be reminded of the fact 

 every time she quarrelled with her neighbours qr with 

 one of her fellow-wives, or even with her husband. 

 Twenty years ago the Cape Government came to the 

 conclusion that it ought, both for legislative and adminis- 

 trative purposes, to learn something about the native 

 customs and institutions. The report of that Commission 

 was perhaps the most valuable document we possessed 

 on the black races of South Africa, and must form the 

 basis of any inquiry our Government might make into 

 the customs of the native races of the Transvaal and 

 the Orange River Colony. One of the difficult problems 

 discussed by the Commission was that of the bride- 

 price, known as Lobola or Ukulobola^ and the question 

 was whether the transaction was a bargain and sale of 

 the bride, and, therefore, according to our law, immoral, 

 or, if not, what it was ? A Church missionary of twenty- 

 three years' experience described it as being the " direct 

 sale of the girl in its purest state," and a Wesleyan 

 minister said it was the " root of heathenism." On the 

 other hand, Archdeacon Waters and Dr. Calloway, 

 Bishop of St. John's, had, however, expressed their 

 opinion in favour of the custom, holding that the pay- 

 ment was a pledge for the good treatment of the woman, 

 and a pledge of her good conduct. 



It was established by the Commission that the custom 

 of lobola was not a purchase of the bride, but a substan- 

 tial guarantee for her good conduct and good treatment. 

 But the inquiry showed that Europeans, even if ex- 

 perienced in native ways, were often incapable, from 

 prejudice or ignorance, of penetrating below the surface 

 to the real meaning of a custom. Some who gave 

 evidence could not distinguish between slavery and tute- 

 lage, and in their view every Roman matron would have 

 been a slave. 



It must be remembered that we could not civilise the 

 savage all at once, and with a veneer of civilisation he 

 would be more dangerous than before, for he would ac- 

 cept only its sweets and reject its bitters. The subject of 

 beliefs was not less important than that of customs. We 

 ought to govern the native races according to their own 

 laws, and not by ours. We should remember that if we 

 had so much difficulty in understanding their laws, it 

 was no wonder they had similar difficulty in understand- 

 ing ours. They were, as a missionary told the Commis- 

 sion, so much attached to their customs, and their customs 

 were so much a part of themselves, that they could not 

 imagine any others. An accurate study of the native 

 customs, institutions and beliefs was an urgent necessity 

 both for missionaries and for purposes of government. 



Now that the natives had come under British rule the 

 opportunity ought to be taken to register their condition 

 at the time, not less for scientific than for administrative 

 reasons. The happiness of the natives depended on the 

 way we treated them, and if we were ever to raise them 

 to civilisation — which it must be the great object of every 

 civilised Government to do— we must bear in mind that 

 that could only be done gradually, and by deferring, as 

 far as practicable, to their prejudices, and leading them 

 gently, but gradually, from savagery to that condition of 

 life in which we found our happiness, and in which it 

 was to be hoped they would find theirs. 



It is to be hoped that Mr. Hartland's plea will not be 

 ignored by Her Majesty's Government, but that as soon 

 as the condition of the Transvaal and the Orange River 

 Colony should permit, and prior to any legislation affect- 

 ing the natives, a commission should be appointed to 



