ON THE GWIBI FLATS, SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2370, 3 August 1899, Page 56

ON THE GWIBI FLATS, SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICA.

(Extracts from William Harvey Brown's Work.) The open prairie was dotted with great ant-heaps, many black and bare, while others were covered with tall grass that had escaped the veld fires. Neai the river were green pastures that had attracted a multitude of wild animals. " That evening," he writes, " I beheld on those flats a sigjit -which will never again be seen there to the end of the world." Not of crowded masses of game, such as once gathered on our Western plains, but the variety was incredible — roan, sable, and tsessebe antelope, zebras, elands, reedbucka, steinbucks, and ostriches. "It was Africa in the days of Livingstone. A herd of tsessebe antelopes galloped by, followed by five zebras ; for it is the habit of the zebra to associate with more wary creatures for mutual protection. At times one. sees a solitary tsessebe running with a herd of zebras, oi a single sable antelope in a herd of tsessebes. I had seen the greatest show on earth ! ' Following the peaceful occupation of the country in September, 1890, came a rush of fortune-hunters, in ox-waggons and carts, with pack-donkeys, and on foot. Unexpected hardships were encountered. Hundreds, delayed by swollen rivers, contracted f evers, -'and were buried by the roadside. Traders who made their way to Fort Salisbury took fabulous prices for their goods. Candles brought 20s a dozen. Five pounds was a common price for a bottle of brandy. Many of the people returned to the colony disgusted, but the majority roamed over the country seeking gold. The author describes a Mashona village of 50 huts, fortified by a stockade of upright polos, and banked outside with thorn bushes. "'They were all, as M-'shonas generally are, repulsively dirty. It is not their custom to wash theii bodies oftener than once a month, and many, I am confident, do not perform this irksome duty oftener than once a year. Most of them wore charms on their necks, and all were attired in the usual costume of two pieces of breechcloth, one in front and ' one behind. ... A bright fire was burning in the middle of the room, while the smoke curled up through the blackened, thatch and rafters. ... At the right of the door stood a circular mudtower, four feet high, with small arched openings in its different stories. This was the chicken-coop ; and in it, nestled for the night, were fowls scarcely larger than bantams. Dangling from the roof above was a little grass basket, in which a hen was sitting on some eggs. . . . On the floor a flat stone, slightly hollowed on its upper

surface, constituted a primitive grist-mill, on which the women and girls ground the meal, accompanying their Avork with mournful ditties. Next to the wood pile, and near the wall, was an enclosure made of sticks in which some goats and a yearling calf were chewing the cud. ... A big, ugly rat came boldly down the Avail and cautiously approached us, Avith head outstretched, comically jerking the end of his nose aa he sniffed the viands. Tambudza struck at him Avith a stick, but he scampered to the top of the woodpile, where others joined him, chattering, scolding." The Mashonas reckon 13 months to the year — as the month of the winds, the month >f the harvests, etc. Once, a month was lost to a village near Salisbury. There had been an abundant harvest, and for a Avhole moon the people sang and danced and were continuously drunk, quite forgetting the moon. When they sobered up, the new moon Aras Avell groAA-n ; " so, for a quarter of a year thereafter they did nothing but discuss the mighty problem, ' Is the present month the month it is, or is it the month it isn't? ' " Discussing the race problem with these object lessons before him this American in Rhodesia contends, that all human progress results from the forcible encroachment of superior nations upon those of the loAver development. " The enforcement," he contends, "of State regulations which will compel the African to toil for Avages Avill almost certainly result to his benefit." He maintains that, even in America, the negro, through an" -apprenticeship of bondage, has been remotaed from a- state .of barbarism and sxiperstibion and " placed in the enjoyment of the language and customs-; the religion and useful arts of the mos-t progressive of all races." The natives, he says, do not hold the soil in that same sense of oAvnership Avhich constitutes the right and the Liav in civilised communities. To them the earth is as free as the air and the Avater, and to be used only ns it may minister to their immediate needs. The occupancy of any given plot of ground is thereby temporary. From time tc time, as the soil loses its fertility, they move fonvard to new fields and pastures. Father Daignault, priest in charge of the Catholic missions in Rhodesia, insisted that the negroes of the country must be dealt Avith as children Avilhout the innocence of childhood — given to many A'ices, most of all to those incident to idleness. It is in this, he says, that we find the ever-active cause of recurring famines ; and everyAvhere the Avhite settler is confronted Avith drunkennes, debauchery, and theft. The laAvs and regulations of the Avhite man concerning lands, dwellings, taxes imposed for the general good of the State are even more necessary for the native than for the settler. The Mashona, the Matabele, the Bechuana, must be com- \ pelled .to Avork under strict taskmasters, I exacting obedience, dealing fairly Avith their.' Avards, living up" to the promises they have made, the responsibilities they haA r e accepted, and paying the stipulated wage to the penny and to the minute. And this is "The White Man's Burden." So shall the Mashona and the Matabele, like the American Redskin and the Australian Bushman, give place to a people Avho march in the van of the world's enlightenment and conscience.