Native Life in South Africa [63]
should they visit its places of worship at other times.
When it is remembered that the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church in the old Republics dare not pronounce the benediction on a coloured congregation, we think it will not be considered unfair to say that the calculatingly outrageous treatment of the coloured races of South Africa by the Boer section of that community is mainly due from the sanction it receives from the Dutch Reformed Church. If the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church would but tell their congregations that it was gross libel on the Christian faith, which they profess, to treat human beings as they treat those with loathsome disease -- except when it is desired to exploit the benefits, such as their taxes and their labour which these outraged human beings confer upon the Dutch: we say that if the predikants would but instruct their congregations so, then this stain, which so greatly disfigures the Christian character of the Boers would be removed.
The Dutch almost worship their religious teachers; and they will continue these cruelties upon the Natives as long as they believe that they have the approval of the Church. Let the predikants then tell their people that tyranny is tyrannical even though the victims are of a different race, and the South African Dutch will speedily abandon that course.
Just two instances by way of illustration. Ten years ago we attended an election meeting at Burghersdorp, a typical Dutch constituency at the Cape. The present Minister of Railways and Harbours was wooing the constituency, and he appeared to be the favourite candidate among three others. Dutchmen from the surrounding farms flocked to attend the meeting. The speeches were all in the Taal. No hall in the town was large enough to hold the number that came, so the four candidates addressed the gathering in the Market Square. This was how Mr. Burton asked the Dutch electors for their votes: "Whenever you speak of making South Africa comfortable to Afrikanders, do not forget that the blacks are the original Afrikanders. We found them in this country, and no policy can possibly succeed which aims at the promotion of the interests of one section of the Afrikander race to the neglect of another section."
There were a few native listeners in the throng, and we blacks at once thought that the speaker had held out the red-rag to the bull, and that every word of this candid statement would cost him at least fifty Dutch votes. But we were agreeably surprised, for the open air rang with the loud cheers and "Hoor, hoors"* from hundreds of leather-lunged Boers. One old farmer turned round to Tommy -- the blackest Native in the crowd -- held him by the shoulders, and shouted as brusquely as his tongue could bend to the vernacular: "Utloa, utloa, utloa!"**
-- * "Hear, hear", in Dutch. ** "Hear, hear", in Sesuto. --
Mr. Burton was returned at the head of the poll.
A more recent instance: In 1913, the South African Asiatic laws operated so harshly against British Indians that Westminster and Bombay demanded instant reform. In deference to this outside intervention the Union Government appointed the Solomon Commission to inquire into the matter. While the investigations were in progress, emphatic protests were constantly uttered against this "outside interference". Some of the South Africans went as far as to assert that "if Imperialism meant a `coolie'* domination in South Africa, then it was about time that South Africa severed her Imperial bonds." The clamourers who designated the inquiry as a concession to outsiders seemed almost to dictate to the Commission not to recommend anything that "savours of a surrender to the coolies".*
-- * A contemptuous South African term for British Indians. --
But when General Smuts, in terms of the Commission's report and as a concession to Anglo-Indian feeling, tabled a Bill in 1914, to amend the hardships before they had been a year in operation, the clamour at once died down; and we have not heard that any one in South Africa was a penny the poorer
When it is remembered that the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church in the old Republics dare not pronounce the benediction on a coloured congregation, we think it will not be considered unfair to say that the calculatingly outrageous treatment of the coloured races of South Africa by the Boer section of that community is mainly due from the sanction it receives from the Dutch Reformed Church. If the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church would but tell their congregations that it was gross libel on the Christian faith, which they profess, to treat human beings as they treat those with loathsome disease -- except when it is desired to exploit the benefits, such as their taxes and their labour which these outraged human beings confer upon the Dutch: we say that if the predikants would but instruct their congregations so, then this stain, which so greatly disfigures the Christian character of the Boers would be removed.
The Dutch almost worship their religious teachers; and they will continue these cruelties upon the Natives as long as they believe that they have the approval of the Church. Let the predikants then tell their people that tyranny is tyrannical even though the victims are of a different race, and the South African Dutch will speedily abandon that course.
Just two instances by way of illustration. Ten years ago we attended an election meeting at Burghersdorp, a typical Dutch constituency at the Cape. The present Minister of Railways and Harbours was wooing the constituency, and he appeared to be the favourite candidate among three others. Dutchmen from the surrounding farms flocked to attend the meeting. The speeches were all in the Taal. No hall in the town was large enough to hold the number that came, so the four candidates addressed the gathering in the Market Square. This was how Mr. Burton asked the Dutch electors for their votes: "Whenever you speak of making South Africa comfortable to Afrikanders, do not forget that the blacks are the original Afrikanders. We found them in this country, and no policy can possibly succeed which aims at the promotion of the interests of one section of the Afrikander race to the neglect of another section."
There were a few native listeners in the throng, and we blacks at once thought that the speaker had held out the red-rag to the bull, and that every word of this candid statement would cost him at least fifty Dutch votes. But we were agreeably surprised, for the open air rang with the loud cheers and "Hoor, hoors"* from hundreds of leather-lunged Boers. One old farmer turned round to Tommy -- the blackest Native in the crowd -- held him by the shoulders, and shouted as brusquely as his tongue could bend to the vernacular: "Utloa, utloa, utloa!"**
-- * "Hear, hear", in Dutch. ** "Hear, hear", in Sesuto. --
Mr. Burton was returned at the head of the poll.
A more recent instance: In 1913, the South African Asiatic laws operated so harshly against British Indians that Westminster and Bombay demanded instant reform. In deference to this outside intervention the Union Government appointed the Solomon Commission to inquire into the matter. While the investigations were in progress, emphatic protests were constantly uttered against this "outside interference". Some of the South Africans went as far as to assert that "if Imperialism meant a `coolie'* domination in South Africa, then it was about time that South Africa severed her Imperial bonds." The clamourers who designated the inquiry as a concession to outsiders seemed almost to dictate to the Commission not to recommend anything that "savours of a surrender to the coolies".*
-- * A contemptuous South African term for British Indians. --
But when General Smuts, in terms of the Commission's report and as a concession to Anglo-Indian feeling, tabled a Bill in 1914, to amend the hardships before they had been a year in operation, the clamour at once died down; and we have not heard that any one in South Africa was a penny the poorer