White and Black in Africa

Abstract

SOME essential factors in the problems affecting the future of the white and black races in Africa were indicated by Mr. Frank H. Melland, formerly of the administrative service of Northern Rhodesia, in a lecture on Witchcraft in Africa before the African Society on January 31, at which Lord Buxton was in the chair. Mr. Melland pointed out that while the native visits the white man on a friendly basis and brings certain of his troubles to him, this does not apply to witchcraft, because the white man does not believe in it. The problem is to teach the black man to think ‘white’, just as we ourselves in many parts of Africa are trying to think ‘black’. Hence Mr. Melland stressed the value as an educative influence of carefully selected films of British life which should be brought before the native. While it is perfectly obvious that as the conditions of life and hygiene in tropical Africa become better understood, the number of white settlers will increase, it is frequently overlooked that the black man is equally a permanent element in the future situation which must be taken into account. As Mr. Melland pointed out, he will not disappear as the red man in America or the Australian blackfellow have disappeared, nor will he survive as an historical curiosity. The Bantu are the most virile and persistent racial stock extant, and they outnumber the white man in the highlands of Africa by fourteen to one. Lord Buxton, judging from his own experience, thinks that the belief in witchcraft is by no means so strong as it was some years ago; but taking this as symptomatic of advance in other directions, progress must be slow. If it were not for difficulties of which there has been abundant evidence recently, it would seem scarcely necessary to urge the necessity for the scientific study of native ways of thought and institutions to ensure that progress in native development is in a direction which will permit of the two races living side by side in one community, as forecast by Mr. Melland.