AIDING NATIVE RACES

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1935, Page 5

AIDING NATIVE RACES

“NATURAL CONDITIONS” IDEAL. NOT REALISABLE IN AFRICA. “Should we or should we not do oiir best to leave the native African in what are called his ‘natural surroundings?’” “It seems to me that this ideal of keeping African life untouched by European ideas, whether desirable or not, is totally unrealisable,” writes Mr. C. Roden Buxton, ‘ answering his own question in the Manchester Guardian. “I cannot imagine it surviving long in the Gold Coast, where new ideas are coming in with a . rush and vast migrations of labour for gold, manganese and diamond mining . j are upsetting tribal life. > “‘All the King’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t set Humpty Dumpty up again.’ * “I had a curious illustration of this point as I sat talking to the District Commissioner and the Assistant District Commissioner in one of the great mining centres in the Gold Coast. They => told me of the local chief’s rule as developed under their personal influence. ■ “They claimed that in their district, they were introducing indirect rule approaching to that of Nigeria; they told, how the people came to them to settle • their quarrels and to' - seek advice on the. most intimate family matters; they said that cases had been decided after long : delays in the magistrate’s court which they themselves, accepting or revising the local chief’s decision, might have set- ; tied in half an hour. They denounced the interference not only of lawyers but of missionaries and traders too.

“Yet within hearing was the roar o£ j the machinery at the pithead of a great.i ,i mine employing 700 labourers, most of whom had left their homes and their tribal life some 200 miles away. It seemed to me amazing, and almost pathetic, that they should treat this terrific fact as if ’y; it could be ignored, as if the sweeping of this people into the European economic system—their fortunes at- the mercy, ' perhaps, of the currency policy, of the Central Banks of Europe—yas not going’ • to revolutionise the life of the Gold* J.f Coast more effectively than magistrates . ■ or traders.” '