Page:Sons of Africa (Gollock).pdf/27

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SONS OF AFRICA
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feature in African mentality. Finally, to an extent unknown in the West, the religious sense is dominating and pervasive; an African is full of wonder; the whole of his life is in touch with a spirit world. While customs with religious content pass unchanged from age to age, the Western association of religion with mere theological formulæ is unnatural to the African; unhappily, however, it is sometimes acquired.

Here, at the outset, belief has been avowed in the sons of Africa, and the value of their discovery for the world. It is only the echo of what David Livingstone said. In his day there were few Africans who had acquired higher education or qualified themselves for professional work. There was then no opportunity for a Bantu in the south to share in administrative work with the whites. Few of the African friends of Livingstone could read and write. Yet he discovered their qualities and proclaimed them to the world. "I have no fears," he once said in addressing an English audience, "as to the mental and moral capacity of the Africans for civilization and upward progress. I who have been intimate with Africans believe them to be capable of holding an honorable place in the family of man."