Native Life in South Africa [85]
to lending money."
Now, from our point of view, this seems to be the only defensible provision, as it would tend to discourage usury, a common evil in money transactions between Europeans and Natives; but because it interfered with Mr. Jabavu's personal aims, that is the only flaw. The cold-blooded evictions and the Draconian principle against living anywhere, except as serfs, are inconsequential because they have not yet touched Mr. Jabavu's person.
Chapter XIV The Native Congress and the Union Government
Pity and need make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood which runneth of one hue; nor caste in tears, which trickle salt with all. Sir Edwin Arnold.
A native meeting was called to meet at Johannesburg on July 25, 1913, under the auspices of the South African Native Congress.
The Congress was attended by Natives from as far south as East London and King Williamstown, and from as far north as the Zoutpansbergen in Northern Transvaal, and also from Natal, Zululand, and from Bechuanaland; in fact from nearer and distant centres in all parts of the country they had gathered to discuss the situation arising from the serious conditions created by the Natives' Land Act. Thus the proceedings of the meeting were conducted under a grave sense of responsibility. There was little of the customary loquaciousness which characterizes native gatherings; and there was much less free translation of the speeches for the benefit of the European visitors. Translations, as a rule, take up a great deal of valuable time, and it was their curtailment on this occasion, apparently, which caused the `Transvaal Leader' -- a morning paper of the Rand -- to complain that Natives had become unusually secretive and had ceased to be as communicative as at previous meetings. The `Rand Daily Mail', on the other hand, referred to the closing session in a very few lines. It said: "Last evening, a number of Native women attended the Native Congress, attired as befitting the solemnity and importance of the occasion. The orderly behaviour of the 200 or more delegates was attributable to the presence on the platform of Mr. Dube, an able chairman, supported by two native solicitors who passed their B.A. in London."
Mr. R. W. Msimang is a solicitor who was articled to a firm of solicitors in England; but the reference to the second "native solicitor" and "London B.A." is about the most undeserved compliment ever paid to the author, who, until 1914 (a year after the Congress reported by the `Mail'), had never been on board a ship, nor inside a London college.
At the annual Congress, March, 1913, a deputation had been appointed to proceed to Capetown and to present to the Government the native objections against the proposed embargo on the purchase and lease of land. The deputation consisted of Mr. J. L. Dube, Dr. W. B. Rubusana, Mr. Advocate Mangena, Rev. L. Dlepu, Messrs. W. Z. Fenyang, S. Msane, L. T. Mvabaza, D. Le Tanka, and S. T. Plaatje; the writer, however, was not able to proceed to Capetown at the time. The July Congress was specially called to receive the report of the delegates to Capetown, and further to consider what other steps it might be necessary to take.
Dr. Rubusana gave a report on the deputation to Capetown. They had four interviews with the Minister of Native Affairs, and several interviews with members of Parliament, urging the setting aside of some Government farms, to which evicted native tenants might go, as the effect of the Bill, then under discussion, would inevitably be to make numbers of them homeless. The Minister, he said, never denied the possible hardship that would follow the enforcement of such a law, but he seemed to be driven by a mysterious force in the face of which the native interest did not count. What that force was, he said, could only be surmised. General Hertzog, who had always advocated some such measure (though he had never been able to carry it out), had just been excluded from the Botha Cabinet; to placate his supporters,
Now, from our point of view, this seems to be the only defensible provision, as it would tend to discourage usury, a common evil in money transactions between Europeans and Natives; but because it interfered with Mr. Jabavu's personal aims, that is the only flaw. The cold-blooded evictions and the Draconian principle against living anywhere, except as serfs, are inconsequential because they have not yet touched Mr. Jabavu's person.
Chapter XIV The Native Congress and the Union Government
Pity and need make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood which runneth of one hue; nor caste in tears, which trickle salt with all. Sir Edwin Arnold.
A native meeting was called to meet at Johannesburg on July 25, 1913, under the auspices of the South African Native Congress.
The Congress was attended by Natives from as far south as East London and King Williamstown, and from as far north as the Zoutpansbergen in Northern Transvaal, and also from Natal, Zululand, and from Bechuanaland; in fact from nearer and distant centres in all parts of the country they had gathered to discuss the situation arising from the serious conditions created by the Natives' Land Act. Thus the proceedings of the meeting were conducted under a grave sense of responsibility. There was little of the customary loquaciousness which characterizes native gatherings; and there was much less free translation of the speeches for the benefit of the European visitors. Translations, as a rule, take up a great deal of valuable time, and it was their curtailment on this occasion, apparently, which caused the `Transvaal Leader' -- a morning paper of the Rand -- to complain that Natives had become unusually secretive and had ceased to be as communicative as at previous meetings. The `Rand Daily Mail', on the other hand, referred to the closing session in a very few lines. It said: "Last evening, a number of Native women attended the Native Congress, attired as befitting the solemnity and importance of the occasion. The orderly behaviour of the 200 or more delegates was attributable to the presence on the platform of Mr. Dube, an able chairman, supported by two native solicitors who passed their B.A. in London."
Mr. R. W. Msimang is a solicitor who was articled to a firm of solicitors in England; but the reference to the second "native solicitor" and "London B.A." is about the most undeserved compliment ever paid to the author, who, until 1914 (a year after the Congress reported by the `Mail'), had never been on board a ship, nor inside a London college.
At the annual Congress, March, 1913, a deputation had been appointed to proceed to Capetown and to present to the Government the native objections against the proposed embargo on the purchase and lease of land. The deputation consisted of Mr. J. L. Dube, Dr. W. B. Rubusana, Mr. Advocate Mangena, Rev. L. Dlepu, Messrs. W. Z. Fenyang, S. Msane, L. T. Mvabaza, D. Le Tanka, and S. T. Plaatje; the writer, however, was not able to proceed to Capetown at the time. The July Congress was specially called to receive the report of the delegates to Capetown, and further to consider what other steps it might be necessary to take.
Dr. Rubusana gave a report on the deputation to Capetown. They had four interviews with the Minister of Native Affairs, and several interviews with members of Parliament, urging the setting aside of some Government farms, to which evicted native tenants might go, as the effect of the Bill, then under discussion, would inevitably be to make numbers of them homeless. The Minister, he said, never denied the possible hardship that would follow the enforcement of such a law, but he seemed to be driven by a mysterious force in the face of which the native interest did not count. What that force was, he said, could only be surmised. General Hertzog, who had always advocated some such measure (though he had never been able to carry it out), had just been excluded from the Botha Cabinet; to placate his supporters,