FROM GOLD COAST

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 9

FROM GOLD COAST

Where Europeans Own No Land NATIVE EDUCATION Rev. R. C. Blumer’s Address To Rotary Club The- Gold Const, West Africa, is a far cry from Wellington, New Zealand, but it was brought a little nearer to the comprehension of members of the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday by the fascinating address given by the Rev. R. C. Blumer, who is vice-princi-pal of Achimota College, an institution which is considered of such importance that it receives an annual grant of £45,000 from the Colonial Office. Most people were a little vague as to the geographical situation of the Gold Coast, said Mr. Blumer. Starting from Gambia, the westernmost port of Africa, and following the coast south and east to the Gulf of Guinea, one came to Sierra Leone, then to the Gold Coast, and finally to Nigeria, the largest territory of them all. The general principles of Government were the same in all four colonies. “Perhaps the most striking characteristic of British policy.” said Mr. Blumer. “is that the natives still own the land. I do not suppose that such is the case in any other part of Africa or any other British colony. Yet the Gold Coast is not new territory. It was known to traders and explorers in the fifteenth century. Later their chief object was to secure slaves for the American market, but they also traded for gold and ivory, as is shown by the names Gold Coast, Ivory Coast and Slave Coast. But the climate proved so unhealthy to white people by reason of the prevalence of malaria, dysentery and yellow fever, that Europeans never really settled on the land. They established forts on the coast but the Africans were never despoiled of their lands. Now the Gold Coast is a definite part of the British Empire, and it is part of the policy of the Colonial Office that the land may not be sold to Europeans. They can s jars jot /jar /*rs

fjarrars jar Sjer s arrar, get mining and fanning concessioi for a term of years, but they eann buy the land. So that it may be sai that the land had been preserved f< the natives by th e mosquito (whic carried the virus of malaria and yeilo fever). So much was that acknov lodged that when the Gold Coast £c 000.000 harbour was being built it wt suggested that a monument should I provided on the lines of the Colossi: of Rhodes, only that it should tak .the form of a gigantic mosquito. Where Cocoa Comes From. “In quite recent times,” continue Mr. Blumer, “the African farmers bav taken to growing cocoa, and to-day th Gold Coast is. the greatest cocoa-pro ducing country in the world. Farmer sell all their produce to European buy ers, and receive cash for it, so that • good deal of money circulates amou; them. "In Nigeria and Sierra Leone th principle export is palm oil, and groum nuts (or peanuts) in Gambia. Tin Africans, so far unable to organisi companies, do not make much mone; out of minerals, but Europeans cat get concessions and the Gold Coast true to name, is at present becoming one of the leading gold-producing conn tries in the world. The name was acquired through the results of alluvia mining, but now companies are working gold-bearing reefs. “Another striking characteristic of British policy not only in West Africa, but in East Africa, is that of governing as far as possible through existing native institutions, through the native chiefs. This is not merely a matter of convenience and common sense, but it is a definite attempt to develop those institutions, and the power of the people, to govern themselves. The effect of the policy varies according to the country. In Nigeria it is working very well indeed, but in the Freetown district of Sierra Leone it will not work at all. because the Africans of Freetown are without chiefs, being the descendants of freed slaves, without tribal traditions. In the southwestern parts of the Gold Coast it is doubtful whether the system is a success. During the earlier part of the nineteenth century before Britain had assumed control, but when England was continually intervening in disputes between warring tribes, the chiefs appear' to have developed the habit of looking to the British for help, so that the authority of the tribal governing bodies had been permanently weakened. But in the northern territories and the Gold Coast this process had not taken place to any extent, and native administration or indirect rule is to be seen there under excellent conditions. Educating the Black Man.

“lii the early days in West Africa,” said Mr. Blumer, "the missions had the schools. Incidentally, those schools produced a crop of good clerks for Government and commercial offices, and larer the Government began to open schools and gradually to exercise a general supervision over education.' Nowadays, the mission schools are still more numerous in (he land. While there are some 18‘Government schools there are between 400 and 500 mission schools. However, the Government schools are setting a higher standard of efficiency than it is possible for the mission schools to achieve. They are also recruiting men and women of a very fine type from England for the educational services, and leaders of the education departments are taking a wide and enlightened view of the aims and purpose of education.” As far as possible primary education was conducted in the vernacular. A child’s natural language was the natural method of self-expression, and it was a vital element in his psychological make-up: and if in his education he was made to learn everything in another language, then his education was at once harmful to his personality and was divorced from his real life. Secondly. if an African child at school was entirely educated in English, and no account was taken of his vernacular, be grew up to despise his own language and bis own people and his old associations. A barrier was thus raised between the educated and the illiterate, end the educated people were lost to their tribes. In the French African colonies that policy was not followed. A!’ their education was based on French anil was aimed at turning Africans into black Frenchmen.

Radio notes and programmes on page 15.