is quite foreign. He may take the life of a native, but he takes it
sternly, bitterly; it is something much more than hunting down the
indigenous black game of the country; he knows in his heart of hearts
that the thing he hunts is a _man_, and a strong man; and in his
hatred of him there is even an element of fear as well as revenge. This
attitude forms a far more promising field for the growth of possible
socialized feeling, than any attitude of callous contempt can even do.
Hate is nearer to love than scorn can ever be; and, paradoxical as it
may seem, we hold strongly that if, in South Africa to-day, sincere
personal affections and sympathies are to be found crossing the line of
race, they will be found most often between the African-born farming
population, Dutch and English, and their domestic servants. The warmest
expressions of affection towards individual natives which we have ever
heard have been expressed by English and Dutch farmers towards their
old servants.
Secondly:--There is the attitude of the townsman, Dutch,
South-African-English, or Newcomer, who most often never comes into
any contact with the aboriginal natives at all, and whose employees
or domestics are all more or less civilized natives or half-castes.
Here, as a rule, the element of intense racial bitterness is wholly
lacking. The townsman treats his civilized servant very much, in the
main, as men of all European nationalities treat their domestics and
dependants. As far as wages, food, and the amount of labour expected is
concerned, the civilized domestic servant and town labourer is rather
better off than in most European countries. On the other hand, there
is always a hard-and-fast line, dividing the white man from the dark,
which is never overstepped. The only real drawback to the condition
of the civilized native in towns lies in the fact that, the moment he
attempts to transcend the limits of domestic servitude, he is met by
a stern barrier, socially obstructing him; _a barrier raised quite
as much by the instinct of the descendant of the Anglo-Saxon as the
Dutch-Huguenot_. At present this matters little, as the attempt is
seldom made; but in fifty years' time this harmonizing of black and
white men in the higher walks of life will probably form a great part
of the South African problem. It is not, however, a problem which
the question of the descent of the white South African from Dutch
or English ancestors will in any way affect. Every one who has any
knowledge of South African life will allow that at the present day it
makes not the slightest difference in the condition of the civilized
servant in towns whether the doctor, lawyer, or merchant who employs
him be of Dutch or English descent. We have, indeed, sometimes been
inclined to fancy that there was a tendency, as between women, for a
slightly more friendly and harmonious condition to be common between
the mistress of Dutch descent in towns and her domestic, than between
the English woman and hers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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