The number of Africa published in January 1929 contains two articles which are of real help to the colonial administrator. The first article, by the Rev. Father Dubois, S.J., compares the supposedly opposite dogmas of assimilation and adaptation, or, in administrative language, of direct and indirect rule. Therein the author conclusively shows that these formulae are not dogmas, the one unorthodox and the other orthodox; that the education of a race cannot be accomplished by means of a formula, but that it is a matter of time, tact and love. In fact the methods of assimilation and adaptation are both required, as also the one in conjunction with the other.

In dealing with the subject of labour in Africa, I must first ask you to remember that it is no easy task to deal in a comparatively short space with a theme that is not only complicated and elusive in itself, but also one that has many ramifications; I therefore propose to confine myself to an attempt at a résumé of the history of African labour, with some indication of the problem as it confronts us at the present day. Political views, economic interests, religious and racial prejudices, and national obligations, all have an important influence on our subject; the consideration of these, however, would be so controversial and so prolonged, that I must be content with a summary of facts, intended to serve as an indication of the nature of the problem, and the main difficulties which confront us.

Few of the secrets that Africa still holds from us to-day have, I think, such an absorbing interest as the problem of Bantu in its relation to the neighbouring families and types of speech. Taking the continent of Africa as a whole, we find on the one hand the huge, yet marvellously homogeneous and compact body of the Bantu languages, clear-cut in structure, simple and transparent in phonology, and, at the back of much apparent diversity, exceptionally uniform in vocabulary. On the other hand there are in Africa numerous other languages of various type, which differ so much amongst each other that they have not yet been brought under any but the very broadest of classifications. The essential points of these are as follows.

Many visitors to Africa do not realize that native life is undergoing rapid disintegration, and some of those who have lived for many years in the country do not seem to feel that it matters even if this is the case. The difficulty of realizing the extent and the gravity of these rapid changes is increased by two factors. We who bring the twentieth-century ideas and methods of the West into the midst of primitive peoples are by our very presence undermining the hold of age-long custom on the African tribes. The force of novelty and the prestige of the white man's habits are in themselves strong enough to shake the ancient authority. Moreover we are all in Africa for a purpose. We have work to do on a farm, in government or mission, and the very concentration on the achievement of our aims leads us, or most of us, to assume that what we feel necessary and right must be the best for the African. In this context very few Europeans can stop to observe, far less to study, the effects of the changes in the Africans themselves. Education shares the prevailing attitude. It becomes simply the communication of knowledge or the imparting of skill which, so we feel, must bring Africa to its desired haven.

The origin and development of cultures have long been matters of dispute. From the days of the classical school of anthropology, with its insistence on the universal inventiveness of humanity, to the kulturhistorische Schule of the present day and its doctrine of the poverty of man's ability to devise new means of meeting his environment, the pendulum has swung more and more towards a realization of the importance of cultural borrowing. There is little doubt now but that man is an imitative creature, and that human culture is essentially contagious. But how contagious it is is a problem yet to be solved. Between the extremes which have been mentioned there lies much room for difference, and differences of opinion have not been lacking.

Le droit d'aînesse domine toute la mentalité de nos indigènes, aussi bien leur vie familiale, qui est en même temps leur vie sociale et religieuse, que le concept animiste dans tout ce qui les entoure. En traitant de ce droit nous touchons un point capital autour duquel gravitent toutes leurs compréhensions de la vie.

Chez eux l'aîné a tout à dire. Il est le maître, car il est inouï chez ces animistes qu'un vieux soit obligé, malgré lui, de se soumettre à un plus jeune. De plein droit, c'est l'homme le plus ancien, le plus âgé de la famille qui sera leur chef, car tout village se compose des membres d'une famille.

In Band II. Nr. 3 der Africa ist ein Artikel von Dr. Torday ‘The Principles of Bantu Marriage’ erschienen, dessen interessante Ausführungen zu Schlussfolgerungen kommen, die, wenn sie als richtig anerkannt würden, geeignet wären, die bisher übliche Auffassung über die Grundlagen und die Entwicklung der Familie und damit der ganzen sozialen Verhältnisse bei den Bantu in wesentlichen Punkten zu erschüttern. Herr Torday fasst das Ergebnis seiner Untersuchungen in zwei Sätzen zusammen: einmal sei der eigentliche Charakter der Ehe bei den Bantu nicht Vielweiberei, sondern eine Einehe, die abgeschlossen sei zwischen einem Mann und einer Frau zur Erzielung einer legitimen Nachkommenschaft, und sodann sei diese Ehe nicht nur für das ganze Leben abgeschlossen, sondern auch unwiderruflich. Scheidungsgründe habe es bei dieser Ehe ursprünglich überhaupt nicht gegeben, sondern lediglich eine Ungültigkeit, die ihren Grund hatte in Mängeln in der Person des einen oder des anderen der Ehegatten.

For the enlightenment of those who here for the first time meet with the native stories known in the Kaffrarian Territories as Intsomi, it may help the reader to appreciate them at their proper value if a few words of explanation are prefaced to the selection which follows.