IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

NATIVE HEADMEN. WHEN, at the memorable meeting with the Tembus Mr. DE Wet said that, the headmen who had been dismissed for attending a public meeting at Qoqodala would be reintated, SAMUEL SIGENU, an enlightened headman, intimated that they would take time to consider. He observed, with truth and force that, ' headmen have in ' the past been appointed for their ' well-known oratorical gifts, and now ' they are debarred from attending meetings on the ground that, ' they are the servants of Govern' ment, it is incumbent upon ' them to consider the altered position. If the interpretation of ' the duties of headmen is as given ' by the Secretary for Native Affairs, ' then they must resign. 'The natives loudly cheered. Mr. DE WET had thus expressed himself on this most important subject:— ' With regard to those headmen who have been suspended I must tell you plainly that for paid Government officers to take part ' in public meetings, it is utterly 'illegal. A man,' added the Native Minister, ' who receives an ' appointment from the Govern' ment and takes Government pay ' ought to do the work of the Go' vernment, but not attend a public ' meeting held against the action ' of the Government and with a ' view to frustrating the objects of ' the Government. Any Govern' ment servant who wishes to exercise ' such privileges must first come ' and resign his appointment and ' those five headmen who Were ' suspended were' simply treated ' according to what they deserved.' Thus then recently a native chief was by this canon, dismissed reinstated and again dismissed by the Secretary for Native Affairs. We are not going to question Mr. DE WET'S exposition of the duties of a ' servant of Government; ' but, as we ha m pointed out several times before, Mr. DE WET is apparently not aware that these rules have never been applied to native chiefs and headmen since British rule was established in South Africa. Headman are respectable and capable men chosen from among the people and are their spokesmen in matters affecting their welfare. We are therefore decidedly of opinion that SIGENU'S shorter explanation of the duties of the office of Headmen is the correct one, and that the Tembus are justified in craving for time to consider the new doctrine of which Mr. DE WET is the apostle. It is to be hoped the seriousness of the new departure in respect of native headmen will not escape the attention of the country, In thus — summarily dealing with a question that has embarrassed statemen who were more versed in native matters than himself, Mr. DE WET is sitting upon the safety-valve. He is muzzling an influential class of people who have been the spokesmen of native society from time beyond the memory of any living man. He would have them prophesy smooth things and keep back everything that would in any way jar in his ears. In short, he does not believe in the efficacy of allowing natives to ventilate their grievances, the alter- native of which is that they must brood over them in enforced silence. The result of such a course must be apparent to every sane mind. The Government of the natives must be carried on in ignorance and utter disregard of their feelings. This because, as Mr. DE WET stated in the same meeting, 'you (natives) 'have no yet advanced to that stage 'when you can act as white men 'do with regard to political matters. ' . . . . It has therefore been the 'habit that all meetings of natives 'should be held in presence of their 'magistrate as if natives have not held their meetings before the establishment of British rule. Now, GOD forbid that, we should in any way weaken or bring to contempt the authority of the magistrates among our people, but every one knows that magis- trates are the servants of Govern- ment just as headmen are said to be, and will they not' (according to the DE WETTAN logic) endanger their positions by attending public meetings held by natives ? But this apart; if Mr. DE WET does not know it, the natives- know that,. there are magistrates and magistrates. There are good magistrates, in whom natives also confide and there are bad magistrates to whom it would be injurious to themselves to lay their grievances. And we confess with regret that the magistrates that are good in native estimation are few and far between. There are not many W. B. CHALMERSES, E. GARCIAS, NIGHTINGALES, BLYTHS, STANFORDS and ELLIOTTS among magistrates ; and even if there were, magistrates have of late been so much shorn of the smallest discretionary powers that they are mere clerks and machines to do the behests—sometimes the most ignorant and absurd behests—of a minister who may know as much of native affairs as he does of the affairs connected with the inhabitants of Saturn or Jupiter. For these reasons then we think Mr. DE WET is not acting wisely in applying the gag to the natives. The idea of the natives being children and all the rest of the namby-pamby kind of things we had thought was by this time exploded ; and Mr. DE WET must have felt it when he was thrust into a corner by native arguments, and when he had to resort to such terms as ' liar,' ' agitator ' and coarse abuse. The country should, notwithstanding all this, insist upon having Light and Air introduced into the administration of Native Affairs as the presence of these elements is the only guarantee of peace and good Go- vernment.