South Africa -- Description and travel; South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909; South Africa -- History -- To 1836
The white man who has to rule natives soon teaches himself that he can
do no good if he is overscrupulous. They must be taught to think him
powerful or they will not obey him in anything. He soon feels that his
own authority, and with his authority the security of all those around
him, is a matter of “prestige.” Prestige in a highly civilized community
may be created by virtue,--and is often created by virtue and rank
combined. The Archbishop of Canterbury is a very great man to an
ordinary clergyman. But, with the native races of South Africa, prestige
has to be created by power though it may no doubt be supported and
confirmed by justice. Thus the white ruler of the black man knows that
he must sometimes be rough. There must be a sharp word, possibly a blow.
There must be a clear indication that his will, whatsoever it may be,
has to be done,--that the doing of his will has to be the great result
let the opposition to it be what it may. He cannot strain at a gnat in
the shape of a little legal point. If he did so the Zulus would cease
to respect him, and would never imagine that their ruler had been turned
from his way by a pang of conscience. The Savage, till he has quite
ceased to be savage, expects to be coerced, and will no more go straight
along the road without coercion, than will the horse if you ride him
without reins. And with a horse a whip and spurs are necessary,--till he
has become altogether tamed.
The white ruler of the black man feels all this, and knows that without
some spur or whip he cannot do his work at all. His is a service,
probably, of much danger, and he has to work with a frown on his brow in
order that his life may be fairly safe in his hand. In this way he is
driven to the daily practice of little deeds of tyranny which abstract
justice would condemn. Then, on occasion, arises some petty
mutiny,--some petty mutiny almost justified by injustice but which must
be put down with a strong hand or the white man’s position will become
untenable. In nineteen cases the strong hand is successful and the
matter goes by without any feeling of wrong on either side. The white
man expects to be obeyed, and the black man expects to be coerced, and
the general work goes on prosperously in spite of a small flaw. Then
comes the twentieth case in which the one little speck of original
injustice is aggravated till a great flame is burning. The outraged
philanthropist has seen the oppression of his black brother, and evokes
Downing Street, Exeter Hall, Printing House Square, and all the Gospels.
The savage races from the East to the West of the Continent, from the
mouth of the Zambesi to the Gold Coast, all receive something of
assured protection from the effort;--but, probably, a great injustice is
done to the one white ruler who began it all, and who, perhaps, was but
a little ruler doing his best in a small way. I am inclined to think
that the philanthropist at home when he rises in his wrath against some
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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