The problem of the races in Africa / by Harriette E. Colenso.
- Colenso, Harriette Emily, 1847-1932.
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The problem of the races in Africa / by Harriette E. Colenso. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![had hoped at first that they might have had some little help from the fund raised in Natal for the benefit of those wounded in the Zulu War ; but a line was drawn at a wounded Zulu, though practically the only one. “ Courage and working-power,” continues Colonel Elsdale, “ are of little value without brains,” and he proceeds to con- sider “ the mental capacity of the native,” quoting various “well-considered opinions of those who have been for years engaged in the practical work of teaching the natives, both in the Cape Colony and in Natal.” On the whole, he says, it would appear that the [A]Bantu are a strong race, “as capable of education and civilisation as the Teuton. . . .” But the opinions quoted all relate to Africans trained and educated by Europeans in European ways, with European advantages. And it seems to me that the political organiza- tion of the leading South African tribes affords another, and a not unimportant measure of their mental capacity, showing what progress they have already made in “ social efficiency ” without European assistance. On this point there is missing from Colonel Elsdale’s list of authorities a very important document, the Report, in 1883, of the Cape Government Commission on Native Laws and Customs.* This Commission reported of the “Aboriginal population generally” and especially of “the tribes inhabiting the eastern and frontier districts of the [Cape] Colony . . . and comprising broken clans of Natal and Zulu origin,” that “ Among them a system of law has, for generations past, been uniformly recognized and administered. Although an ‘ unwritten law,’ its principles and practice were widely understood, being mainly founded upon customary prece- dents, embodying the decisions of chiefs and councils of bye-gone days, handed down by oral tradition, and treasured in the memories of the people. This lav/ took cognizance of certain crimes and offences; it enforced certain civil rights and obligations; it provided for the validity of polygamic marriages, and it secured succession](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22395842_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
