310 ANTHROPOLOGY 



any other position even did his inteUigence show 

 any immediate signs of quickening. We have, 

 therefore, an immense amount of material to assist 

 us in the essential task of opening up the country, 

 and fortunately both for Zambezia and for the 

 negro, nobody has as yet attempted all untimely to 

 ruin his utility by over-instructing him in branches 

 of learning which he does not require, which impair 

 his usefulness as an essential instrument, and for 

 which his brain is not yet ready. I am aware that 

 these remarks are destined to provoke hostile com- 

 ment from many who will read them ; but I feel, 

 and feel most deeply, that those who vdll so regard 

 them are persons by whom the needs of Africa are 

 but poorly if at all understood. By " instruction " 

 I mean, naturally, missionary instruction, and 

 although there are few who have passed so many 

 years as I have in East and Central Africa who 

 have profounder appreciation for the character of 

 the missionary, but few there are, perhaps, who 

 lament more than I the often unfortunate mis- 

 direction of missionary effort. There is, we all 

 know, no more important or more self-sacrificing 

 task than the teaching of those who are uninstructed, 

 but in selecting the appropriate form of mental 

 nourishment for the African's pressing needs, you 

 naturally have regard first of all to that most suited 

 to his powers of assimilation. I do not think either 

 the African or the European is in any way dis- 

 satisfied with the former's actual intellectual con- 

 dition, whereas both, in greater or lesser degree, 

 would be prepared to welcome improved conditions 

 of life ; healthier surroundings ; better means of 



