NA rURE 



NATIVE RACES AH IMPERIAL PROBLEMS. 



The Natives of South Africa; Their Economic and 

 Social Condition. Edited by the South African 

 Native Races Committee. Pp. xv + 360. (London : 

 John Murray, 1901.) Price 12s. net. 



BY far the most serious of all the questions confronting 

 us in South Africa is the question of the native 

 races. The reason is not far to seek. Two at least of the 

 African races are endowed with extraordinary vitality. 

 The Australian aborigines are a people which will neither 

 thrive in the presence of the white man nor be absorbed 

 into his hosts. They are, therefore, bound to die out in 

 the presence of civilisation, and, however much we may 

 regret it from philanthropic or scientific motives, the 

 political and social problems involved will sooner or later 

 cease to exist. It is otherwise with the Negroes and the 

 Bantu. These two prolific races show no signs of decay 

 when brought in contact with civilisation. On the con- 

 trary, their intestine wars and savage practices being 

 put an end to, they increase rapidly in number. 



The Negro is not found in South .Africa. There the 

 bulk of the native population is Bantu. The remains of 

 the earlier peoples, V'aalpens, Bushmen and Hottentots, 

 are (save the last named) of no political importance. 

 They are, indeed, of considerable scientific interest. The 

 Vaalpens, a black pigmy race dwelling in caves and holes 

 in the Northern Transvaal and the Bechuanaland Pro- 

 tectorate, have never yet been subjected to scientific in- 

 vestigation. They are said to practice cannibalism, and 

 to be the true aborigines. The Bushmen, of larger, though 

 for the most part still diminutive, stature, are, like them, 

 savages of a low type. They display, it is true, some 

 advance on the \'aalpens, and are specially noted for 

 their extraordinary skill in drawing. They are of a yel- 

 lowish-brown colour. In this and some other physical 

 characteristics they resemble the Hottentots, who, it has 

 been conjectured, are the result of a mixture in blood of 

 the earliest Bantu immigrants with the Bushmen. For 

 the most part the Hottentots have come under the in- 

 fluence of civilisation, though there are communities of 

 them still practising their own customs. The Bushmen 

 are hunters. They have hardly yet taken the first step 

 towards civilisation, in the shape either of agriculture or 

 of herdsmanship. The Hottentots, on the other hand, 

 are a pastoral people, while the Bantu in all their branches 

 both keep cattle and are acquainted with rudimentary 

 agriculture. 



The Bantu are divided by Prof Keane into three 

 groups. The first consists of the Zulus and the tribes 

 connected with them, such as the Ama-Xosa, the .Mata- 

 bele and the Kafirs. The second consists of the prin- 

 cipal inhabitants of the Orange River Colony, the Trans- 

 vaal, Basutoland and Bechuanaland, namely, the Basuto 

 and Bechuana. The third includes the Amatonga, the 

 Swazis, the Fingoes, the Mashona, Makalaka and other 

 tribes, representing, according to Prof. Keane, " the first 

 wave of Bantu immigration." This of course assumes 

 that the Hottentots are not to be credited with Bantu 

 blood, but are an oftshoot of some other African stock. 

 NO. 1647, VOL. 64] 



In consequence of their overwhelming political and 

 social importance, the work before us, though bearing a 

 wider title, relates almost entirely to the Bantu. It is in 

 substance a plea for a full official inquiry into the cir- 

 cumstances of the native races, with a view to framing a 

 sound policy in dealing with them. We are first presented 

 with a short account of the various peoples which, though 

 taken from the best sources, shows very clearly how 

 defective our knowledge is. In this account an estimate 

 of the populations and a general outline of native laws 

 and customs are included. We are next told on what 

 terms we hold the different provinces of British South 

 Africa. This is important, because our titles to all the 

 provinces are not the same. The most extreme advocate 

 of the right of the white man to the lordship of the world 

 would probably admit there was a distinction to be drawn 

 between cases in which we hold by right of conquest, 

 either directly from the natives themselves or from those 

 who had conquered them, and cases in which we simply 

 administer the country by invitation of the natives. In 

 the latter it is evident that every principle of justice 

 requires us to treat the land as still their property and, 

 regarding them as the true owners of the country, to ad- 

 minister it for their benefit. 



These preliminary matters, necessary for the under- 

 standing, or at least for the setting in proper perspective, 

 of what follows, having been disposed of, we approach 

 the main subject of the book— the relations of the native 

 population to their white rulers and to the white colonists 

 in general. They are considered under the heads of 

 (i) land tenure ; (2) labour supply, occupations and 

 wages ; (3) the law of master and servant ; (4) the 

 compound system ; (5) savings banks and labour agen- 

 cies ; (6) the pass laws ; (7) education ; (8) taxation ; 

 (9) franchise ; and (10) the sale and supply of intoxicating 

 liquors. It is not my intention to follow the writers in 

 their review of these matters. Deeply interesting as they 

 are, their interest is rather political and philanthropic than 

 scientific, and so far it is foreign to this journal. It must 

 suffice here to say that these chapters have been compiled 

 with care from information supplied largely at first hand 

 by correspondents (of whom a list is given) and by official 

 and other documents ; they are marked by sanity and 

 moderation, and are written with the object, not of dog- 

 matising on questions bristling with difficulty, but of col- 

 lecting and presenting information. 



The importance as well as the difficulty of the problems 

 involved is evident. The total native population is esti- 

 mated by the editors at about five times the numerical 

 strength of that of the whites, and it is rapidly increasing. 

 The natives are not allowed to indulge as they once did 

 in intertribal wars, which would not only give them occu- 

 pation but keep down their numbers. They are not at 

 present fit for continuous labour. The habit of work is 

 a growth of civilisation, and cannot be imposed as you 

 put a coat of paint on a door. Generations are required 

 to raise a people from savagery. It is no wonder, there- 

 fore, that the increase of their numbers and their idleness 

 are sources of anxiety to the intrusive colonists. Various 

 expedients have been tried. The Boer policy was first 

 massacre, then slavery, cruelty and oppression. Nor 

 have our own people always been guiltless in this respect. 

 The results have been lamentable alike to the natives and 



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