Research Items

Abstract

Problems of Race and Nationality in South Africa.—The problems of race and nationality are discussed in the presidential address delivered before the South African Association for the Advancement of Science by the president, Dr. J. E. Duerden. He gives an instructive survey of the social condition of the Bantu races and of the European immigrants. The hereditary attributes of all the people of colour are markedly inferior to the white in all that pertains to the requirements of modern civilisation, and there is every reason to expect that they will remain so in the future, “for in considerations of this nature the teachings of zoology are overwhelmingly in favour of the unchangeableness of the germ plasm.” He goes on to say that the Nordic race, represented by the English and Dutch, stands at the head of the human genus, and “it is in the daily competition with those that the Bantu, Indian, and Malay are to lead their lives. In the commingling of these races in South Africa there can be no question as to which will be dominant. In his hereditary endowments the white is far more gifted than the coloured, and must lead. Dominance, however, is not arrogance, nor does superiority necessarily carry with it harshness or unfairness.”