Oom Paul's People: A Narrative of the British-Boer Troubles in South Africa, with a History of the Boers, the Country, and Its InstitutionsHillegas, Howard Clemens
History
Oom Paul's People: A Narrative of the British-Boer Troubles in South Africa, with a History of the Boers, the Country, and Its Institutions
Hillegas, Howard Clemens
Afrikaners -- History; Kruger, Paul, 1825-1904; Transvaal (South Africa) -- History -- 1880-1910
The sale of rum, the great American "civilizer" of the Indians, is also
prohibited in all the states and colonies, but it frequently is the
cause of rebellious and intertribal wars. Notwithstanding the generous
use of "dum-dum" bullets in the recent campaigns against the negroes,
and the score of other agents of civilization which carry death to the
natives, the black population has increased greatly since the control of
the country has been taken from them. In Natal, particularly, the
increase in the Zulu population has been most threatening to the
continued safety of that energetic colony. The Colonial Office, through
generous and humanitarian motives, has fostered the development of the
native by every means possible. No rabbit warren or pheasant hatchery
was ever conducted on a more modern basis.
Everything that the most enthusiastic founder of a new colony could do
to increase the population of his dominion is in practice in Natal.
Polygamy is not prohibited, and is indulged in to the full extent of the
natives’ purchasing ability. Innumerable magistrates and police are
scattered throughout the country to prevent internecine warfare and
petty quarrels. The Government protects the Zulu from external war,
pestilence, and famine. King Tshaka’s drastic method of recurring to
war in order to keep down the surplus population has been succeeded by
the Natal incubation scheme, which has proved so successful that the
colony’s native population is fourfold greater than it was when Tshaka
ruled the country. The situation is a grave one for the colony, whose
fifty thousand whites would be like so many reeds in a storm if the half
million Zulus should break the bonds in which they have been held since
the destruction of Cetewayo’s army in the recent Zulu war.
The only tribe of natives that has made any progress as a body is that
which is under the leadership of King Khama, the most intelligent negro
in South Africa. Before his conversion to Christianity, Khama was at
the head of one of the most bloodthirsty, polygamous, and ignorant
tribes in the country. Since that event he has been the means of
converting his entire tribe of wild and treacherous negroes to
Christianity, has abandoned polygamy and tribal warfare, and has
established a government, schools, churches, and commercial enterprises.
In addition to all his other good works, he has assisted Great Britain
in pacifying many belligerent tribes, and has become England’s greatest
friend in South Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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