South Africa; vol I. by Anthony Trollope - HTML preview

CHAPTER XII.
 KAFIR SCHOOLS.

THE question of Kafir education is perhaps the most important that has to be solved in South Africa,—and certainly it is the one as to which there exists the most violent difference of opinion among those who have lived in South Africa. A traveller in the land by associating exclusively with one set of persons would be taught to think that here was to be found a certain and quick panacea for all the ills and dangers to which the country is subjected. Here lies the way by which within an age or two the population of the country may be made to drop its savagery and Kafirdom and blanket loving vagabondism and become a people as fit to say their prayers and vote for members of parliament as at any rate the ordinary English Christian constituent. “Let the Kafir be caught young and subjected to religious education, and he will soon become so good a man and so docile a citizen that it will be almost a matter of regret that more of us were not born Kafirs.” That is the view of the question which prevails with those who have devoted themselves to Kafir education,—and of them it must be acknowledged that their efforts are continuous and energetic. I found it impossible not to be moved to enthusiasm by what I saw at Kafir schools.

Another traveller falling into another and a different set will be told by his South African associates that the Kafir is a very good fellow, and may be a very good servant, till he has been taught to sing psalms and to take pride in his rapidly acquired book learning;—but that then he becomes sly, a liar and a thief, whom it is impossible to trust and dangerous to have about the place. “He is a Kafir still,” a gentleman said to me, “but a Kafir with the addition of European cunning without a touch of European conscience.” As far as I could observe, the merchants and shopkeepers who employ Kafirs about their stores, and persons who have Kafirs about their houses, do eschew the school Kafir. The individual Kafir when taken young and raw out of his blanket, put into breeches and subjected to the general dominion of a white master, is wonderfully honest, and, as far as he can speak at all, he speaks the truth. There can I think be no question about his virtues. You may leave your money about with perfect safety, though he knows well what money will do for him; you may leave food,—and even drink in his way and they will be safe. “Is there any housebreaking or shoplifting?” I asked a tradesman in King Williamstown. He declared that there was nothing of the kind known,—unless it might be occasionally in reference to a horse and saddle. A Kafir would sometimes be unable to resist the temptation of riding back into Kafirdom, the happy possessor of a steed. But let a lad have passed three or four years at a Kafir school, and then he would have become a being very much altered for the worse and not at all fit to be trusted among loose property. The saints in Kafirland will say that I have heard all this exclusively among the sinners. If so I can only say that the men of business are all sinners.

For myself I found it very hard to form an opinion between the two, I do believe most firmly in education. I should cease to believe in any thing if I did not believe that education if continued will at least civilize. I can conceive no way of ultimately overcoming and dispelling what I must call the savagery of the Kafirs, but by education. And when I see the smiling, oily, good humoured, docile, naturally intelligent but still wholly uneducated black man trying to make himself useful and agreeable to his white employers, I still recognise the Savage. With all his good humour and spasmodic efforts at industry he is no better than a Savage. And the white man in many cases does not want him to be better. He is no more anxious that his Kafir should reason than he is that his horse should talk. It requires an effort of genuine philanthropy even to desire that those beneath us should become more nearly equal to us. The man who makes his money by employing Kafir labour is apt to regard the commercial rather than the philanthropic side of the question. I refuse therefore to adopt his view of the matter. A certain instinct of independence, which in the eyes of the employer of labour always takes the form of rebellion, is one of the first and finest effects of education. The Kafir who can argue a question of wages with his master has already become an objectionable animal.

But again the education of the educated Kafir is very apt to “fall off.” So much I have not only heard asserted generally by those who are antikafir-educational in their sympathies, but admitted also by many of those who have been themselves long exercised in Kafir education. And, in regard to religious teaching, we all know that the singing of psalms is easier than the keeping of the ten commandments. When we find much psalm-singing and at the same time a very conspicuous breach of what has to us been a very sacred commandment, we are apt to regard the delinquent as a hypocrite. And the Kafir at school no doubt learns something of that doctrine,—which in his savage state was wholly unknown to him, but with which the white man is generally more or less conversant,—that speech has been given to men to enable them to conceal their thoughts. In learning to talk most of us learn to lie before we learn to speak the truth. While dropping something of his ignorance the Savage drops something also of his simplicity. I can understand therefore why the employer of labour should prefer the unsophisticated Kafir, and am by no means sure that if I were looking out for black labour in order that I might make money out of it I should not eschew the Kafir from the schools.

The difficulty arises probably from our impatience. Nothing will satisfy us unless we find a bath in which we may at once wash the blackamoor white, or a mill and oven in which a Kafir may be ground and baked instantly into a Christian. That much should be lost,—should “fall off” as they say,—of the education imparted to them is natural. Among those of ourselves who have spent, perhaps, nine or ten years of our lives over Latin and Greek how much is lost! Perhaps I might say how little is kept! But something remains to us,—and something to them. There is need of very much patience. Those who expect that a Kafir boy, because he has been at school, should come forth the same as a white lad, all whose training since, and from long previous to his birth, has been a European training, will of course be disappointed. But we may, I think, be sure that no Kafir pupil can remain for years or even for months among European lessons and European habits, without carrying away with him to his own people, when he goes, something of a civilizing influence.

My friend the Wesleyan Minister, who by his eloquence prevailed over me at Fort Beaufort in spite of my weariness and hunger, took me to Healdtown, the Institution over which he himself presides. I had already seen Kafir children and Kafir lads under tuition at Capetown. I had visited Miss Arthur’s orphanage and school, where I had found a most interesting and cosmopolitan collection of all races, and had been taken by the Bishop of Capetown to the Church of England Kafir school at Zonnebloom, and had there been satisfied of the great capability which the young Kafir has for learning his lessons. I had been assured that up to a certain point and a certain age the Kafir quite holds his own with the European. At Zonnebloom a master carpenter was one of the instructors of the place, and, as I thought, by no means the least useful. The Kafir lad may perhaps forget the names of the “five great English poets with their dates and kings,” by recapitulating which he has gained a prize at Lovedale,—or may be unable some years after he has left the school to give an “Outline of Thomson’s Seasons,” but when he has once learned how to make a table stand square upon four legs he has gained a power of helping his brother Kafirs which will never altogether desert him.

At Healdtown I found something less than 50 resident Kafir boys and young men, six of whom were in training as students for the Wesleyan Ministry. Thirteen Kafir girls were being trained as teachers, and two hundred day scholars attended from the native huts in the neighbourhood,—one of whom took her place on the school benches with her own little baby on her back. She did not seem to be in the least inconvenienced by the appendage. I was not lucky in my hours at Healdtown as I arrived late in the evening, and the tuition did not begin till half-past nine in the morning, at which time I was obliged to leave the place. But I had three opportunities of hearing the whole Kafir establishment sing their hymns. The singing of hymns is a thoroughly Kafir accomplishment and the Kafir words are soft and melodious. Hymns are very good, and the singing of hymns, if it be well done, is gratifying. But I remember feeling in the West Indies that they who devoted their lives to the instruction of the young negroes thought too much of this pleasant and easy religious exercise, and were hardly enough alive to the expediency of connecting conduct with religion. The black singers of Healdtown were, I was assured, a very moral and orderly set of people; and if so the hymns will not do them any harm.

For the erudition of such of my readers as have not hitherto made themselves acquainted with the religious literature of Kafirland I here give the words of a hymn which I think to be peculiarly mellifluous in its sounds. I will not annex a translation, as I cannot myself venture upon versifying it, and a prose version would sound bald and almost irreverent. I will merely say that it is in praise of the Redeemer, which name is signified by the oft-repeated word Umkululi.

ICULO 38.

Elamashumi matatu anesibozo.

Ungu-Tixo Umkululi,
Wenza into zonke;
Ungu-Tixo Umkululi,
Ungopezu konke.
Waba ngumntu Umkululi,
Ngezizono zetu;
Waba ngumntu Umkululi,
Wafa ngenxa yetu.
Unosizi Umkululi
Ngabasetyaleni;
Unosizi Umkululi
Ngabasekufeni.
Unxamile Umkululi
Ukusiguqula;
Unxamile Umkululi
Ukusikulula.
Unamandla Umkululi
Ukusisindisa;
Unamandla Umkululi
Ukusonwabisa.
Unotando Umkululi,
Unofefe kuti;
Unotando Umkululi,
Masimfune futi.

If the lover of sweet sounds will read the lines aloud, merely adding a half pronounced U at the beginning of those words which are commenced with an otherwise unpronounceable ng, so as to make a semi-elided syllable, I think he will understand the nature of the sweetness of sound which Kafirs produce in their singing. When he finds that nearly all the lines and more than half the words begin with the same letter he will of course be aware that their singing is monotonous.

I was glad to find that the Kafir-scholars at Healdtown among them paid £200 per annum towards the expense of the Institution. The Government grants £700, and the other moiety of the total cost—which amounts to £1,800,—is defrayed by the Wesleyan missionary establishment at home. As the Kafir contribution is altogether voluntary, such payment shews an anxiety on the part of the parents that their children should be educated. As far as I remember nothing was done at Healdtown to teach the children any trade. It is altogether a Wesleyan missionary establishment, combining a general school in which religious education is perhaps kept uppermost, with a training college for native teachers and ministers. I cannot doubt but that its effect is salutary. It has been built on a sweet healthy spot up among the hills, and nothing is more certain than the sincerity and true philanthropy of those who are engaged upon its work.

My friend who had carried me off from Fort Beaufort kept his word like a true man the next morning, in allowing me to start at the time named, and himself drove me over a high mountain to Lovedale. How we ever got up and down those hill sides with a pair of horses and a vehicle, I cannot even yet imagine;—but it was done. There was a way round, but the minister seemed to think that a straight line to any place or any object must be the best way, and over the mountain we went. Some other Wesleyan minister before his days, he said, had done it constantly and had never thought anything about it. The horses did go up and did go down; which was only additional evidence to me that things of this kind are done in the Colonies which would not be attempted in England.

On my going down the hill towards Lovedale, when we had got well out of the Healdtown district, an argument arose between me and my companion as to the general effect of education on Kafir life. He was of opinion that the Kafirs in that locality were really educated, whereas I was quite willing to elicit from him the sparks of his enthusiasm by suggesting that all their learning faded is soon as they left school. “Drive up to that hut,” I said, picking out the best looking in the village, “and let us see whether there be pens, ink and paper in it.” It was hardly a fair test, because such accommodation would not be found in the cottage of many educated Englishmen. But again, on the other side, in my desire to be fair I had selected something better than a normal hut. We got out of our vehicle, undid the latch of the door,—which was something half way between a Christian doorway and the ordinary low hole through which the ordinary Kafir creeps in and out,—and found the habitation without its owners. But an old woman in the kraal had seen us, and had hurried across to exercise hospitality on behalf of her absent neighbours. Our desire was explained to her and she at once found pens and ink. With the pens and ink there was probably paper, on which she was unable to lay her hand. I took up, however, an old ragged quarto edition of St. Paul’s epistles,—with very long notes. The test as far as it was carried certainly supported my friend’s view.

Lovedale is a place which has had and is having very great success. It has been established under Presbyterian auspices but is in truth altogether undenominational in the tuition which it gives. I do not say that religion is neglected, but religious teaching does not strike the visitors as the one great object of the Institution. The schools are conducted very much like English schools,—with this exception, that no classes are held after the one o’clock dinner. The Kafir mind has by that time received as much as it can digest. There are various masters for the different classes, some classical, some mathematical, and some devoted to English literature. When I was there there were eight teachers, independent of Mr. Buchanan who was the acting Head or President of the whole Institution. Dr. Stewart, who is the permanent Head, was absent in central Africa. At Lovedale, both with the boys and girls black and white are mixed when in school without any respect of colour. At one o’clock I dined in hall with the establishment, and then the coloured boys sat below the Europeans. This is justified on the plea that the Europeans pay more than the Kafirs and are entitled to a more generous fare,—which is true. The European boys would not come were they called upon to eat the coarser food which suffices for the Kafirs. But in truth neither would the Europeans frequent the schools if they were required to eat at the same table with the natives. That feeling as to eating and drinking is the same in British Kafraria as it was with Shylock in Venice. The European domestic servant will always refuse to eat with the Kafir servant. Sitting at the high table,—that is the table with the bigger of the European boys, I had a very good dinner.

At Lovedale there are altogether nearly 400 scholars, of whom about 70 are European. Of this number about 300 live on the premises and are what we call boarders. The others are European day scholars from the adjacent town of Alice who have gradually joined the establishment because the education is much better than anything else that can be had in the neighbourhood. There are among the boarders thirty European boys. The European girls were all day scholars from the neighbourhood. The coloured boarders pay £6 per annum, for which everything is supplied to them in the way of food and education. The lads are expected to supply themselves with mattresses, pillows, sheets, and towels. I was taken through the dormitories, and the beds are neat enough with their rug coverings. I did not like to search further by displacing them. The white boarders pay £40 per annum. The Kafir day scholars pay but 30s., and the European day scholars 60s. per annum. In this way £2,650 is collected. Added to this is an allowance of £2,000 per annum from the Government. These two sources comprise the certain income of the school, but the Institution owns and farms a large tract of land. It has 3,000 acres, of which 400 are cultivated, and the remainder stocked with sheep. Lovedale at present owns a flock numbering 2,000. The native lads are called upon to work two hours each afternoon. They cut dams and make roads, and take care of the garden. Added to the school are workshops in which young Kafirs are apprenticed. The carpenters’ department is by far the most popular, and certainly the most useful. Here they make much of the furniture used upon the place, and repair the breakages. The waggon makers come next to the carpenters in number; and then, at a long interval, the blacksmiths. Two other trades are also represented,—printing namely, and bookbinding. There were in all 27 carpenters with four furniture makers, 16 waggon makers, 8 blacksmiths, 5 printers, and 2 book-binders;—all of whom seemed to be making efficient way in their trades.

This direction of practical work seems to be the best which such an Institution can take. I asked what became of these apprentices and was told that many among them established themselves in their own country as master tradesmen in a small way, and could make a good living among their Kafir neighbours. But I was told also that they could not often find employment in the workshops of the country unless the employers used nothing but Kafir labour. The white man will not work along with the Kafir on equal terms. When he is placed with Kafirs he expects to be “boss,” or master, and gradually learns to think that it is his duty to look on and superintend, while it is the Kafir’s duty to work under his dictation. The white bricklayer may continue to lay his bricks while they are carried for him by a black hodsman, but he will not lay a brick at one end of the wall while a Kafir is laying an equal brick at the other.

But in this matter of trades the skill when once acquired will of course make itself available to the general comfort and improvement of the Kafir world around. I was at first inclined to doubt the wisdom of the printing and bookbinding, as being premature; but the numbers engaged in these exceptional trades are not greater perhaps than Lovedale itself can use. I do not imagine that a Kafir printing press will for many years be set up by Kafir capital and conducted by Kafir enterprise. It will come probably, but the Kafir tables and chairs and the Kafir waggons should come first. At present there is a “Lovedale News,” published about twice a month. “It is issued,” says the Lovedale printed Report, “for circulation at Lovedale and chiefly about Lovedale matters. The design of this publication was to create a taste for reading among the native pupils.” It has been carried on through twelve numbers, says the report, “with a fair prospect of success and rather more than a fair share of difficulties.” The difficulties I can well imagine, which generally amount to this in the establishment of a newspaper,—that the ambitious attempt so often costs more than it produces. Mr. Theal is one of the masters of Lovedale, and his History of South Africa was here printed;—but not perhaps with so good a pecuniary result as if it had been printed elsewhere. I was told by the European foreman in the printing establishment that the Kafirs learned the art of composition very readily, but that they could not be got to pull off the sheets fairly and straightly. As to the bookbinding, I am in possession of one specimen which is fair enough. The work is in two volumes and it was given to me at Capetown;—but unfortunately the two volumes are of different colours.

In the younger classes among the scholars the Kafirs were very efficient. None of them, I think, had reached the dignity of Greek or Natural Philosophy, but some few had ascended to algebra and geometry. When I asked what became of all this in after life there was a doubt. Even at Lovedale it was acknowledged that after a time it “fell off,”—or in other words that much that was taught was afterwards lost. Out in the world, as I have said before, among the Europeans who regard the Kafir simply as a Savage to whom pigeon-English has to be talked, it is asserted broadly that all this education leads to no good results,—that the Kafir who has sung hymns and learned to do sums is a savage to whose natural and native savagery additional iniquities have been added by the ingenuity of the white philanthropist. To this opinion I will not accede. That such a place as Lovedale should do evil rather than good is to my thinking impossible.

To see a lot of Kafir lads and lasses at school is of course more interesting than to inspect a seminary of white pupils. It is something as though one should visit a lion tamer with a group of young lions around him. The Kafir has been regarded at home as a bitter and almost terrible enemy who, since we first became acquainted with him in South Africa, has worked us infinite woe. I remember when a Kafir was regarded as a dusky demon and there was a doubt whether he could ever be got under and made subject to British rule;—whether in fact he would not in the long run be too much for the Britons. The Kafir warrior with his assegai and his red clay, and his courageous hatred, was a terrible fellow to see. And he is still much more of a Savage than the ordinary negro to whom we have become accustomed in other parts of the world. It was very interesting to see him with a slate and pencil, wearing his coarse clothing with a jaunty happy air, and doing a sum in subtraction. I do not know whether an appearance of good humour and self-satisfaction combined does not strike the European more than any other Kafir characteristic. He never seems to assert that he is as good as a white man,—as the usual negro will do whenever the opportunity is given to him,—but that though he be inferior there is no reason why he should not be as jolly as circumstances will admit. The Kafir girl is the same when seen in the schools. Her aspect no doubt will be much altered for the worse when she follows the steps of her Kafir husband as his wife and slave. But at Lovedale she is comparatively smart, and gay-looking. Many of these pupils while still at school reach the age at which young people fall in love with each other. I was told that the young men and young women were kept strictly apart; but nevertheless, marriages between them on their leaving school are not uncommon,—nor unpopular with the authorities. It is probable that a young man who has been some years at Lovedale will treat his wife with something of Christian forbearance.

I find from the printed report of the seminary that the four following young ladies got the prizes in 1877 at Lovedale for the different virtues appended to their names. I insert the short list here not only that due honour may be given to the ladies themselves, but also that my readers may see something of Kafir female nomenclature.

Miss Kwankwa and Miss Bobi had I suppose Christian names given to them early in life. The other two are in possession of thoroughly Kafir appellations,—especially the young lady who has excelled in tidiness, and who no doubt will have become a bride before these lines are read in England.

I was taken out from King Williamstown to Peeltown to see another educational Kafir establishment. At Peeltown the Rev. Mr. Birt presides over a large Kafir congregation, and has an excellent church capable of holding 500, which has been built almost exclusively by Kafir contributions. The boys’ school was empty, but I was taken to see the girls who lived together under the charge of an English lady. I wished that I might have been introduced to the presence of the girls at once, so as to find how they occupied themselves when not in school. But this was not to be. I was kept waiting for a few moments, and then was ushered into a room where I found about twenty of them sitting in a row hemming linen. They were silent, well behaved and very demure while I saw them,—and then before I left they sang a hymn.

If I had an Institution of my own to exhibit I feel sure that I should want to put my best foot forward,—and the best foot among Kafir female pupils is perhaps the singing of hymns and the hemming of linen.