COLOURED GENTLEMEN AND FROCK LADIES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1761, 25 June 1886, Page 6

COLOURED GENTLEMEN AND FROCK LADIES.

This representative of the civilized African negro shows us by no means an angelic or enlightened demeanour towards his lees educated brothers. I once had in my service an educated j negro from Lagos of the stamp I have : described above, and also a sergeantmajor, a man of the Hausa tribe, who was endowed s with all the best qualities of that race, bravery and faithfulness amongst them. This last, the firßt-named informed me. was a 'nigger' whereas he himself was a "coloured" gentleman. This fairly represents the general attitude of the educated classes towards those on a lower, that is, a supposed intellectual superiority, the coloured gentleman side by side with the nigger, or the men who spe^k

English correctly and those who apeak nigger-Eaglish — as one of the latter would say, the men who " savy book good," and the men who no savy book plenty." It was not long since that white men incurred heavy penalties in Sierra Leone for using the term " nigger" towards blacks, the law treating it as a term of opprobrium. The civilized negro is as igDorant as his Congo brother of such a quality ss gratitude; and I do not know a human being more irritating or more personally disagreeable than the representative of "Young Africa in these English settlements. Amongst the fair sex there is the same love of drawing distinctions. The educated lady, with her knowledge of the three R's dons a dress of European pattern, and thereupon becomes what is called a frock-lady ; while her poorer sister who adheres to the simple old-fashioned style of costume, is dubbed a "clothwoman: 1 ' all of which marks an interesting phase in the progress of civilisation, and offers opportunities for pregnant moralising. Whether the siatus of the women of these colonies is elevated by their being free, beyond the material improvement that free, dom brings, it is difficult to determineIn xr any cases where the man is educated, and, what is more important, is well dressed in European costume, the wife speaks only her own language, wears her native dress, and is occupied with household drudgery. Tn other cases the wives have been educated in mission schools, and are on a level with their husbands — dress, as usual, marking the distinction ; for where the former would merely fold a piece of coloured cloth round his waist", the latter wonld have a single robe fashioned into a garment that is a compromise between the loose cloth and the European pattern of dress. Beyond this, and except only the isolated instances, occurring principally in Lagos aud Sierra Leone, where the daughters and wives of the better class of natives have been educated in Europe, the moral tone of the female population shows decidedly no perceptible improvement, and is without doubt worse than in the old condition from which they have beeenjmancipated where freedom of action was checked under the stern rule of domestic slivery. — From The Negroes of the Congo, in Blackwood's Magazine.