Black Africa’s Mind

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 30

Black Africa’s Mind

“The area of South Africa is so vast that it would not be easy at this stage to say anything definite about the reaction of native thought to the invasion of Abyssinia. It is only possible to give one or two indications of its trend.

“Barotseland is the westerly section of Northern Rhodesia, a native reserve inhabited by a fine, capable and adaptable race, very loyal to the Crown. There the Abyssinian trouble is the main theme of their talk and their questionings.

“They are profoundly disturbed by it; they ask whether it is possible that a white nation will wipe out or subjugate a black race in Africa, with a civilisation which they know to be far iu advance of their own, and with the organisation of a settled State comprehended within the League of Nations.

“At the other end of the long range are the natives in the locations at the Cape. They are largely detribalised; they are more or less conversant; with the press and the thought of the Europeans among whom they live and work.

“I am told that in the Cape locations there is but one subject of conversation among the natives, who think that the invasion of Abyssinia is the first stage in a long struggle between black and white.”—The Capetown correspondent of the “Church Times.” ■