NATIVES PENALISED BY CHRISTIANITY
A Native commissioner in South-west Africa, whose report has been included in the Union Government’s report to the League of Nations, enters into a frank discussion of the effect of Christianity on certain Native tribes, more particularly the Ovambos. He states that the heathen, when his children reach the age of usefulness, relies on them for the performance of many tasks. The Christian, on the other hand, has to send the children to school or incur censure. Any time taken up with religious observances means a smaller agricultural production and a general deterioration of the standard of the kraal. “ The last two famines proved con•lusively,” he says, “ that the Christian kraals _ were the first to be affected, while most of the bigger heathen kraals needed no assistance at oil. _“ In Ovamboland, therefore, Christianity operates against the Native economically. It is quite obvious that the more wives a kraal head has. the higher his status and the bigger his authority.”— 1 South African News Letter.’
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Evening Star, Issue 23065, 17 September 1938, Page 7
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168NATIVES PENALISED BY CHRISTIANITY Evening Star, Issue 23065, 17 September 1938, Page 7
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