The NegroDu Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
History
The Negro
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)
Africa -- History; Black race
All these solutions and methods, however, run directly counter to modern
philanthropy, and have to be carried on with a certain concealment and
half-hypocrisy which is not only distasteful in itself, but always liable
to be discovered and exposed by some liberal or religious movement of the
masses of men and suddenly overthrown. These solutions are, therefore,
gradually merging into a _fourth_ solution, which is to-day very popular.
This solution says: Negroes differ from whites in their inherent genius
and stage of development. Their development must not, therefore, be sought
along European lines, but along their own native lines. Consequently the
effort is made to-day in British Nigeria, in the French Congo and Sudan,
in Uganda and Rhodesia to leave so far as possible the outward structure
of native life intact; the king or chief reigns, the popular assemblies
meet and act, the native courts adjudicate, and native social and family
life and religion prevail. All this, however, is subject to the veto and
command of a European magistracy supported by a native army with European
officers. The advantage of this method is that on its face it carries no
clue to its real working. Indeed it can always point to certain undoubted
advantages: the abolition of the slave trade, the suppression of war and
feud, the encouragement of peaceful industry. On the other hand, back of
practically all these experiments stands the economic motive--the
determination to use the organization, the land, and the people, not for
their own benefit, but for the benefit of white Europe. For this reason
education is seldom encouraged, modern religious ideas are carefully
limited, sound political development is sternly frowned upon, and industry
is degraded and changed to the demands of European markets. The most
ruthless class of white mercantile exploiters is allowed large liberty, if
not a free hand, and protected by a concerted attempt to deify white men
as such in the eyes of the native and in their own imagination.[112]
White missionary societies are spending perhaps as much as five million
dollars a year in Africa and accomplishing much good, but at the same time
white merchants are sending at least twenty million dollars' worth of
European liquor into Africa each year, and the debauchery of the almost
unrestricted rum traffic goes far to neutralize missionary effort.
[Illustration: Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern]
Under this last mentioned solution of the Negro problems we may put the
attempts at the segregation of Negroes and mulattoes in the United States
and to some extent in the West Indies. Ostensibly this is "separation" of
the races in society, civil rights, etc. In practice it is the
subordination of colored people of all grades under white tutelage, and
their separation as far as possible from contact with civilization in
dwelling place, in education, and in public life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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