The problem of the races in Africa / by Harriette E. Colenso.

  • Colenso, Harriette Emily, 1847-1932.
Date:
1897
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The problem of the races in Africa / by Harriette E. Colenso. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE PROBLEM OE THE RACES IN AFRICA. By Miss Harriette E. Colenso. A thoughtful paper by Lt. Col. Elsdale, R.E., in “ the Asiatic Quarterly Review ” for April, 1896, on “The problem of the races in Africa,” which is also an interesting forecast of their future, has just been brought to my notice.* As in some sort I represent the Zulus—one of the leading African races—it seems due, if only in gratitude for the kindly interest which the paper shows, that I should notice certain points on which my reading of the facts is somewhat different, while it none the less supports Colonel Elsdale’s ;argument. 1 First, however, to prevent misconception, I will mention points on which we disagree. The vision of “ a great South African Anglo-Dutch-Bantu lEmpire, comprising all the countries south of the Zambezi, I and extending . . . north of it among the Bantu districts ::>f equatorial Africa,” is too distant and speculative to i nterest me keenly, whilst South Africa’s experiences in 11877-1880, under a British official of high standing and ong service in India, must always seriously discount the ascination of any suggestion for “ a Governor-General of South Africa, to rule the whole country ... on an Indian footing. ”+ * The paper had been republished in pamphlet form.—Ed. t Colonel Elsdale suggests that Mr. Cecil Rhodes might be “the rrst Governor-General ” under such an arrangement. This was written L^fore such a suggestion had become—impossible. It was written, if not eifore, as Prime Minister of the principal British colony in South Africa, r. Rhodes had declared that “ he preferred land to niggers,” yet before ; e full significance of these words had been proved by the attempt to revive Mgro-slavery in that part of the British dominions in which he has been ipractically speaking, Governor ” (see Mr. R. Maguire before Parliamentary Dminittee, Times, June 2, 1897) and before the other combination against 'reat Britain’s true interests—the rising-rw//r-raid arrangement—had come light, bringing home to at least one half of white South Africa the danger themselves of Mr. Rhodes’ policy. Reprinted from the Asiatic Quarterly Review, July, 1897.