The Black Man's Place in South AfricaNielsen, Peter, active 1922-1937
History
The Black Man's Place in South Africa
Nielsen, Peter, active 1922-1937
Black people -- South Africa
It must be borne in mind that before the white man came the Natives,
like the peasants in many European countries not long ago, conducted
their courtship and love-making with a show of violence which seemed to
them right and proper. The idea, indeed, that any self-respecting Native
girl could yield herself to a lover without, at least, a semblance of
physical resistance, leading to her more or less forcible capture by the
man, would have seemed, and still seems, distinctly improper to the
majority of Native women in their raw state. But since the European code
was set up Native women have not been slow in making use of its
protection, and, as I have seen, have not infrequently abused that
protection by alleging rape or assault where their own action in
simulating flight and resistance served, as they well knew it would, to
stimulate passion and pursuit.
In considering crimes of violence against white women it must also be
remembered that the Native "house-boy" who works in constant and close
physical contact with his European mistress and her daughters is exposed
to sexual excitation which very few European youths are called upon to
withstand. But crimes of this kind are indeed common enough among the
lower orders in Europe and America, and are particularly frequent among
men who have to live for a long time in unnatural abstinence from
natural intercourse with the opposite sex, and who then find themselves
in new surroundings giving opportunities for the gratification of their
natural desires, but without having at the same time the restraining
influences of their home life to help them to overcome the temptations
to which they are exposed. The seaports of Europe and America, and the
Great War furnish too many sad examples of sexual ferocity by white men
to allow us to think that they are in this respect inherently superior
to the men of other races.
The maternal instinct is manifested in the same manner and degree in the
women of both people. I have often asked Native women whether it would
be possible for any mother among them to distinguish her own new-born
baby from a supposed "changeling" of the same sex and of the same
general appearance, and the answer has always been negative. The Native
and the white woman alike would continue to cherish the substituted
child exactly as they would have cherished the issue of their own
bodies. The desire to bear children is the same in all normally
constituted women irrespective of colour or race, and there is no sign
of any special instinct for identification in the Native woman, such as
the sense of smell, which is found in all the higher animals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account