IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

COLOUR BLINDNESS. SIR,—The extract from the Christian Express, which appeared in vour last issue, contains matter of the highest im-port to the friends of the native races, and to the native races themselves. The writer is evidently in earnest, lie has the cause of the natives at heart, but knows nothing of the feeling of the country, and has not even that slight knowledge of the real question which has been discussed in your columns, which Mr. Bokwe shewed. To the second of these points I may return hereafter: the first will be sufficient now. The writer in the Christian Express is so ignorant of the state of tbe country that he actually believes that there exists no peculiar prejudice against the blacks. He asks yon to tell the natives that there is no distinction between black and white in this Colony ; that an employer of labour will treat a good black workman in the same way its he will treat a good white one, and that all friends of the native races when tbev see good work are colour¬blind as regards the workman. This is good news; too good, in fact, to be true. It may bo true in regard to Lovedale, but I am sure it is not true in regard to the Colony at large. I am not sure if it is oven true in regard to the immediate neighbourhood of Love¬dale. Altec is not quite a thousand miles from Lovedate, and vet sometime ago there was a nasty article in the Alice Times, which, I presume, in virtue of its nastiness, was taken over holus-bolus by the Cape Times. In this article the Alice Times, alluding to Mr. Advocate Innes as chosen by the native vote, stated broadly that it did not like the native vote. The reason for its dislike was very evident. It was tho native vote. It did not become colour-blind in regard to the excellent work winch the native workman had pro-duced, in sending one of the most earnest and promising young men in the country as their representative in Parliament- but it does not like the native vote. The gentleman tho natives have chosen is unexceptionable: he stands in the (root rank at the Bar, he has made his mark in the House, he is respected by both sides and the only thing that can be said against him is that ha is anxious to assume the mantle of that honoured friend of justice and fair play—Saul Solo¬mon. To show the superiority of native work in this case, let os compare Mr. Innes with the Bond members. What does the Alice Times think of them? Is there one of them who can hold up a candle to Mr. Inne-? Perhaps the Alice. Tunes would pre :r the notorious Mr Rothman, elected v the Graaff-Reinet Bondsmen, thongh . to their credit be it said, he voted for (r. Te Water. Would the Alice Times venture to mention James Rose-Innes ,and Jacobns Nicholas Rothman in these ne breadth? Of course not. But still it does not like the native vote. This native vote has returned one of the few good members to the present Parliament, and the Boer vote has returned tbe worst; but the Alice Times, instead of being colour-blind in regard to the workman and looking only at the work, looks onlv at the workmen, and dislikes them simply because they are But why should I blame the Alice Times tor this? It simply does what everybody does, and the statements of the Christian Express may pass muster with the Marines, but they won't go lown with the natives. They won't go down with me, nor with anyone who knows the country. Tell us that people make no difference between black and white I Why, a great many people in :.his country don't believe that black men have souls; they think so, and they will :ell you so if you give them the chance. The very people who support Mission-aries and act ;is Directors of Native Churches will tell you that the blacks are not human beings. Old Mr. Beunie used to say that the farmers wondered at him preaching to the natives, for they were quite sure that a 'zwaart schiepsel' [black creature} could never be saved. An old farmer looking in at the door of a native chapel, which he had helped to build, saw a couple being married, and iu the simplicity of his heart ex¬claimed, ' Kan die goed ook trouw ? ' [Can these things also marry?) Another old original said, in all sober seriousness, that if, when he came to heaven, he saw any of those 'zwaart goed ' (black things] sitting there he would take his hat and step out. I suppose, of course, that the writer in the Christian Express is entirely ignorant of the feeling of the country in regard to the natives, and in these circumstances I am not astonished that ho did not see that tbe good advice he told you to give them would bo, in all probability, disregarded, because the statements on which it was founded were known to be untrue. He reminds me very much of the Magistrate whom the Chief Justice spoke about lately, whose judgements were correct, but the reasons he gave for them so shockingly bad that the Attorneys were always appealing against them, and the Judges did not know- what to do with them. But perhaps it may be said that I have drawn my illustrations from one part of the Colony. This is quite true; but still I think there is some reason to believe that tho liberal views of the Christian Express are not universally held, even in. your neighbourhood. I don't think that the opposition to tho admission of a coloured man as a Law-Agent at Queen's Town was got up by people who looked only at the quality of the work, and not at the colour of the workman, I am pretty sure that the coloured man who was lately shot at Afiwal North would not have been shot if he had been a white man. And I am perfectly sure that if a white man had been shot in these circumstances tlie man who shot him would have been tried. 1 am ice.,