The Black Man's Burden/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
The Story of Southern Rhodesia.
The portion of the Continent south of the Zambesi is—with some exceptions—suitable for settlement by white races, so far as the climate is concerned. The exceptions are the vicinity of the Zambesi itself, the desert and waterless coast regions of Damaraland, and a fairly wide belt of Portuguese territory on the East Coast. The whites are, however, incapable, save in a very limited degree, of performing the more arduous forms of manual labour. The actual development of the country, both agricultural and mineral must depend, therefore, either upon African labour or upon imported Asiatic labour—to which the whites are opposed for various reasons, which need not here be discussed.
For a century the healthy tablelands and plateaux of this region have been the scene of the kind of racial conflict which occurs when an invading race, of a higher culture than the aboriginal population and possessed of superior offensive and defensive weapons, disputes with the latter for the occupation of the land. Natural man presently finds himself threatened in his liberties. Civilised man is filled with the terror which comes from the knowledge of overwhelming odds. Mutual fears inspire reciprocal cruelties.
An unusual amount of light has been thrown upon the incidents of this racial strife in South Africa, because of the contest and rivalry between various sections of the invading whites: between the Dutch and French Huguenot element on the one hand—known to us as "Boers"—and the British on the other, and between British and German. This rivalry has engendered a natural desire on the part of the warring sections to advertise and accentuate the shortcomings of the other, thus adding to the sum of general knowledge. Other causes have also contributed. Before Southern Africa became a political and international storm-centre, and the Mecca of large financial interests, when the troubles between colonists and aborigines were looked upon by the Home Government as a nuisance, British Secretaries of State were disposed to display a. sense of impartiality in judging of such troubles and a freedom of expression in commenting upon them to which the present generation is quite unaccustomed. The older British Blue Books dealing with these native wars and the part played by the colonists in provoking them, are marked by a vigorous candour inconceivable in these days, except when it is a matter of State policy to paint the black records of an opponent even blacker than they are. Thus Lord Glenelg on the earlier "Kaffir" wars:
- "The Kaffirs had ample justification of the war into which they rushed with such fatal imprudence … urged to revenge and desperation by the systematic injustice of which they had been the victims … the original justice is on the side of the conquered, not of the victorious party."
Twenty years later we find the Committee of the Privy Council speaking of the warfare against the South African native peoples as "revolting to humanity and disgraceful to the British name." And thus the late Earl Grey in 1880:
- "Throughout this part of the British Dominions the coloured people are generally looked upon by the Whites as an inferior race, whose interest ought to be systematically disregarded when they come into competition with their own, and who ought to be governed mainly with a view to the advantage of the superior race. And for this advantage two things are considered to be specially necessary: First, that facilities should be afforded to the White colonists for obtaining possession of land heretofore occupied by the native tribes; and secondly, that the Kaffir population should be made to furnish as large and as cheap a supply of labour as possible."
That judgment is as true to-day as it was then.
No detailed narrative of the struggle between white and black in the colonisable parts of the Southern Continent is possible here. It is stained, so far as the British are concerned, with pages almost as dark as those which disfigure our earlier Indian records. Unhappily there has been no Burke to gather up the sinister threads, and weave them by his sublime eloquence into the national conscience. Lord Morley once said of our treatment of the native races of South Africa that:
- It is one of the most abominable chapters in the history of our times; one of the most abominable chapters in the history of our dealings with inferior races.
Few who have really studied the history of South Africa will be disposed to quarrel with this tremendous indictment by a statesman of ripe experience and wide knowledge, not prone to the use of extravagant language. And few who are acquainted with the splendid South African work of Sir George Grey, Sir Marshall Clarke, and Sir Godfrey Langdon, can fail to realise how different that history might have been if men of their stamp had controlled its more decisive phases.
I propose to recall two recent and typical examples illustrating the particular Section of the history, of contact we are now examining. The first is concerned with Rhodesia, the second with German South-West Africa.
••••••
Between the Zambesi and Limpopo rivers stretches a country some 148,000 square miles in extent, i.e., just about three times the size of England. It is now known as Southern Rhodesia. In 1911 it contained 23,606 whites, 744,559 African natives, and 2.912 Asiatics and other "coloured persons" In the twenty-four years, 1890–1913, it yielded 6½ million ounces of gold, valued at £25¼ millions sterling.
In the middle of last century this country was occupied by a ruling African people, calling themselves the Amandebele (since corrupted into Matabele) "the naked men with shields." They had conquered and incorporated other tribes, the Mashonas and Makalakas, who were the descendants, or the successors, of many ancient peoples inhabiting the country when the Phœnicians [or as some think, Arabs of the pre-Islamic period] were drawing from it large quantities of gold, and covering it with those remarkable monuments which still continue to be a fertile subject for scientific disputation.
When, at a later date, it became necessary in the interests of certain parties, to paint the Matabele in the light of brutal conquerors, much was heard of the cruel treatment inflicted by them upon the Mashonas. An impartial authority has, however, placed it upon record that under the Matabele, the Mashonas increased both in numbers and in cattle, always a sure sign of the prosperity of a South African people. "They say themselves," he adds, "that they preferred the Matabele rule to ours, because under them they were troubled but once a year, whereas now their troubles came with each day's rising sun."
The story which follows is the story of what befell the "naked men with shields" at the hands of the clothed men with guns seeking for "concessions."
In the 'seventies and 'eighties of last century, British, Boer, Portuguese, and German adventurers began wandering about the Limpopo River. Boers and British had been in touch with the Matabele since the early 'fifties and competed to acquire political influence over the then ruler of this people, by name Lobengula. They made unpleasant remarks about one another. "When an Englishman once has your property in his hands," wrote the Boer Joubert to Lobengula in 1882, "then he is like an ape that has his hands full of pumpkin seeds: if you don't beat him to death he will never let go." But Lobengula was partial to the British. Between his father and the famous missionary, Dr. Moffat, a real friendship had existed. The link was perpetuated in the person of Lobengula and Dr. Moffat's son, a British official in the adjoining territory of Bechuanaland, over which a British Protectorate was established in 1884. These personal relations determined Lobengula's final choice. In February, 1888, at his capital, Buluwayo, he signed a treaty with Moffat acting for the British Government, in which he undertook to hold no communications with any "foreign State or Power." It was stipulated in the treaty that "peace and amity shall continue for ever between Her Britannic Majesty, her subjects, and the Amandebele people."
The knowledge that the country over which Lobengula held sway, was passing rich in gold, had been gradually permeating South Africa. The signing of this treaty had been preceded, and was followed, by numerous efforts on the part of rival corporations to secure special privileges from its ruler. In the October following the conclusion of this bond of friendship, Messrs. Rudd, R. Macguire, M.P., and Mr. F. R. Thompson, commissioned by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and by Mr. Alfred Beit, succeeded in getting Lobengula to append his signature to a document. By its terms, in exchange for a monthly payment of £100 and material products of European civilisation in the shape of 1,000 Martini-Henry rifles and 100,000 rounds of ball cartridges, they obtained "the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals" in the country, together with "full power to do all things that they may deem necessary to win and procure the same, and to hold, collect and enjoy the profits and revenues, if any, derivable from the said metals and minerals."
This all-embracing instrument became known as the Rhodes-Rudd concession.
The scene now shifts from Buluwayo, the capital of this African community to London, the heart of the mighty Empire over which the sun never sets. In April, 1889, the Colonial Office was approached by certain persons, representing the Bechuanaland Exploration Company on the one part, and the Goldfields of South Africa Company on the other. These corporations proposed to amalgamate their interests provided they could secure a Royal Charter, "in that region of South Africa lying to the north of Bechuanaland and to the west of Portuguese East Africa (i.e., embracing Lobengula's country). On October of the same year the charter was duly granted, the grantees being the Most Noble James Duke of Abercorn (Groom of the Stole, and one time Lord of the Bed Chamber to the Prince of Wales); the Most Noble Alexander William George Duke of Fife (son-in-law of the late King Edward); Lord Gifford (one time Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, and of Gibraltar); Cecil John Rhodes (then a Member of the Executive Council and of the House of Assembly of Cape Colony); Alfred Beit, Albert Henry George Grey (afterwards Earl Grey and Governor-General of Canada), and George Causton. Thus was born the British South Africa Company Chartered and Limited, with an original capital of one million sterling. Its principal objects, as set forth in the charter, were the working of concessions, "so far as they are valid" in the territories affected by the grant, and the securing of other concessions subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. One of the grounds upon which the charter was granted was, that "the conditions of the natives inhabiting the said territories will be materially improved and their civilisation advanced."
The Matabele and their ruler do not appear to have been consulted in respect to this transaction, and I have not been able to discover that they even figured on the list of the company's shareholders. It must, however, be borne in mind that Lobengula stood to acquire £100 a month, not to mention the rifles.
Meanwhile consternation reigned in Matabeleland. Very shortly after Lobengula had affixed his seal to the Rudd concession, the rumour became current among the Matabele that their ruler had been induced to part with his people's rights in their land. Lobengula sent in hot haste for certain British missionaries with whom he entertained friendly relations, showed them a copy of the document, and asked them for their opinion. They appear to have confirmed the popular fears. Whereupon Lobengula caused his Head Counsellor, who had advised him to sign, to be executed as a traitor, and despatched two other counsellors to London on a mission to Queen Victoria, begging her to "send someone from herself," as he had no one he could trust, and he was "much troubled" by white men coming into his country and asking to dig for gold. The messengers reached London in February, 1889. On March 26, a month before receiving the petition for the grant of the charter from the influential personages named above, Lord Knutsford, the Secretary of State, answered Lobengula in the Queen's name as follows:
- Lobengula is the ruler of his country, and the Queen does not interfere in the government of that country. But as Lobengula desires her advice, Her Majesty is ready to give it. … In the first plaice the Queen wishes Lobengula to understand distinctly that Englishmen who have gone to Matabeleland to ask leave to dig for stones have not gone with the Queen's authority, and that he should not believe any statement made by them, or any of them, to that effect. The Queen advises Lobengula not to grant hastily concessions of land, or leave to dig, but to consider all applications very carefully…
On April 23, Lobengula followed up his first representation to the Queen by a further communication, in which he formally protested against the Rudd concession. His letter contained the following passage:
Again on August 10, Lobengula wrote to the Queen to the effect that:
- The white people are troubling me much about gold. If the Queen hears that I have given away the whole country it is not so.
But these pathetic appeals from an untutored African ruler, victim of trickery, or guilty of misjudgment, had no effect upon the course of events. No scruples as to taking prompt advantage of what was manifestly an action repented of directly its significance became apparent, appear to have been entertained. The white man was determined to assume the "White man's burden," which offered prospects of being an exceedingly light one. The negotiations for the charter went through, and it was in a very different tone to that adopted in his communication of March 26, that the Queen's advisor, Lord Knutsfoid, replied on November 15—a fortnight after the charter had been conferred upon a company with which the ducal husband of the Queen's granddaughter was intimately connected—to Lobengula's protest. Lobengula was now told that it was "impossible for him to exclude white men," and that it was in the interests of himself and his people to make arrangements "with one approved body of white men who will consult Lobengula's wishes and arrange where white people are to dig, and who will be responsible to the chief for any annoyance or trouble caused to himself and his people." The letter went on to say that the Queen had made inquiries as to the persons concerned and was satisfied that they "may be trusted to carry out the working for gold in the chief's country without molesting his people, or in any way interfering with their kraals,[2] gardens,[3] or cattle."
In such fashion were powers of government and administration, involving the establishment of a police force, the making of laws, the raising of revenue, the administration of justice, the construction of public works, the grant of mining and forestry concessions, and so on, in an African country three times the size of England, eventually conferred upon a corporation, whose interest in that country was to make money out of it: and conferred, on the strength of a document construed by the European signees in a manner which its African signee had repudiated in the name of his people.
The events ensuing from the grant of these powers have now to be examined.