Documents: Africans Acting Alone

DOCUMENTS 48a-48m. The African National Congress Strives for Unity

DOCUMENT 48a. "The Exclusion of the Bantu." Address by the Rev. Z.R. Mahabane, President, Cape Province National Congress, 1921 (Printed, 13 pages)

Chiefs, headmen, ladies and gentlemen,

It affords me great pleasure to have to stand before you once more and speak to you on what I consider to be the subject of transcendant importance to our people. Since our last and first annual meeting since the reorganisation of the Cape branch of the S. A. Native National Congress, the year under review, 1920-21, has been an eventful one, both in this country and elsewhere in the world. What is known as the League of Nations, formed under the Covenant of Peace, held its first General Assembly in Geneva towards the end of the year 1920, when forty-two of the civilised nations of the world were represented at this Congress of Con­gresses. But perhaps nothing has attracted the eyes of the whole world more than the grim struggle for liberty that has been going on in Ireland for the last four years or so, culminating in 1920 in an event of the greatest historic significance, the death of Mr. MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of the City of Cork who suffered martyrdom for the great cause. In the East we note with encouragement the grant of a representative form of Government to India, whereby the Indians are to be directly represented not only on the Legislature but also on the governing councils of the country by Indian Ministers of the Crown. Steps were also taken during the year by Great Britain to give Egypt her practical Independence as a State, although this has not become an accomplished fact. In the West an event of far-reaching importance and of very great interest to the African was the Negro Congress held at New York, U. S. A., in August, and which we understand, was representative of the entire Negro world. This gathering marked the inaug­uration of what has been described as movement of the black people domiciled in the New World and elsewhere. We "wait and see."

In South Africa there was held at Bloemfontein, O. F. S., what was known as the "Vereniging" Conference, which was an attempt to heal the breach between two sections of the Dutch-speaking community, who have been seriously divided since 1912 on the principles preached respectively by the late General Botha on the one hand and General Hertzog on the other, or in other words on the issue of Imperialism vs Repub­licanism or Bothaism versus Hertzogism. The failure of this historical Conference was the occasion for the birth of a new Centre Party in South African politics, formed of the S. A. Party and the late Unionist Party, under the masterly leadership of General the Right Hon. J. C. Smuts.

This gallant soldier-statesman and political strategist seized upon the golden opportunity thus offered to call upon the entire European population of this country to make a "new start." It is significant that this happened soon after the tenth anniversary of the coming into being of the Union of South Africa.

Both the English and the loyal Dutch responded in a wonderful manner to this clarion call for national Unity. They thus agreed to let the "dead past bury its dead," to let by-gones be by-gones, sink racial differ­ences and join hands in the formation of a new party on non-racial lines; and the truth of the saying that "Unity is Strength" was amply demonstrated at the last general election when the United Party won a glorious victory and gained a clean majority of over 40 over all possible combinations. The Bantu community may profitably learn the great lessons and sinking, their petty, weakening and destructive differences purely on racial or tribal personal lines, make a new start by uniting all their labour and political forces under one great national organisation embracing all the various Bantu tribes of Southern Africa. Such an amalgamation of forces would certainly help to solve what is known as the "Native Problem."

The P. E. Affair

Of the events of the year must be men­tioned the manly and heroic protest of the non-European labourers of Port Elizabeth against the unlawful and unwarrantable arrest of their leader, Mr. S. M. Masabalala. This ill-advised action of the Police authorities of the Bay resulted, as have all ill-advised actions, in the unscrupulous and callous murder of twenty-three Natives and coloured men and the unnecessary death of three innocent Europeans, one of whom was a young woman who was visiting the Port from Johannesburg for health reasons. For the loss of so many precious lives the employers of Port Elizabeth, by reason of their turning a deaf ear to the claims of their employees, are primarily responsible for the "contributory causes" of the tragic happenings of the black 23rd day of October, 1920.

Time would fail me to refer to the troubles of our Israelite friends at Kamastone. I shall now pass on to deal with what I consider to be an event of more paramount importance in the history of the Bantu population of the sub-Continent, and that is the passing of the Union Parliament of

The Native Affairs Act, 1920.

This measure makes provision for the creation and appointment of a permanent Commission of Native Affairs, whose duties will be to study the Bantu questions on all its bearings, or, to be precise or follow the wording of the Act, "to consider any matter relating to the general conduct of Native Affairs or to legislation in so far as it may affect the Native population and recommendations to the Minister of Native Affairs." The Act further provides for the establish­ment of Native Councils in Native areas and for the convening of Native conferences of Chiefs and other delegates from any Native organisations or congresses for the purposes of ascertaining the sentiments and views of the Native people in regard to any legislative measure in so far as it affects the Bantu population or any portion thereof. The Queenstown Congress of last year took excep­tion to the measures as marking, according to some of the speakers who spoke on the question, a "final exclusion of the black man, the original inhabitant of the land, from participation in the Government of the affairs of this the country of his birth," his Divine appointment and of his permanent abode, and the final denial to him of political rights in the country and further marking the formal inauguration of the objectionable policy of the

Segregation Or Separation

of the African or black races from the European or white races of this the country of their common domicilium, a policy which, to our mind, is fraught with dire consequences for this country. Perhaps one would have no objection to separation if due provision had been made for the partition of the land into "hemispheres" of equal size and like quality for locating the respective races, each race being given the right to manage its own internal affairs, even though the assistance or advice of the more developed race might be necessary in connection with the affairs of the less developed race. It must be admitted that the Native Affairs Act, represents a serious attempt at the solution of what has been described as the

Native Problem

or "Native question" and to allay the state of unrest alleged to exist among the black people of the land, by providing channels for the ventilation of any grievances the Natives may have and by creating a medium of com­munication between the Government and the people. Now, looking at the history of the movement for the solution of the problem, one is struck by the fact that the whites seem to have decided to start on three propositions, namely, assimilation, extermination, segrega­tion. The tendency seems to be in favour of the last-named. To General Hertzog falls the honour or discredit of being the first Minister since Union who had the courage to put forward the first proposals for a scheme for the segregation of Natives. He was, however, not permitted to put this scheme before Parliament, for no sooner had he propounded his policy than fundamental differences arose between him and General Botha on the question of the connection with Great Britain, and he was consequently excluded from General Botha's reconstituted Cabinet. Then the late Mr. J. W. Sauer became Minister of Native Affairs, and he was the first to place before the House of Assembly legislative proposals in the discussion of

"Territorial Separation"

which is a milder form of segregation. He succeeded in placing on the Statute Book the famous Natives' Land Act of 1913, the operations of which inflicted untold hardships on thousands of landless Natives, many of whom became homeless. It must be said, however, that to such as possessed landed property the Sauer measure gave some secur­ity of tenure. A Commission was appointed under the provisions of the Act with Judge Beaumont as Chairman, to investigate condi­tions in regard to land and make recommenda­tions. Of this Commission the late General Botha, who was then Minister of Native Affairs, introduced to Parliament what was known as the Native Affairs Administration Bill of 1917 and succeeded in carrying through the House of Assembly the second reading of the measure. This Bill aimed at carrying out the policy of the Separation of the Natives, territorial as well as political, initiated by the Act of 1913. This measure met with strenuous opposition from the English-speaking section of the House, led by the Rt. Hon. John X. Merriman and the Hon. Sir Thomas Smam, then leader of the Opposi­tion. The matter rested there. At the death of General Botha in 1919, General the Rt. Hon Jan C. Smuts became Prime Minister and Minister for Native Affairs. He took up the matter and made another attempt at a solu­tion of the apparently big problem of the relations between black and white in South Africa. His scheme embodied in the Native Affairs Act No. 23 of 1920, aims first of all at political segregation, a system of class legisla­tion on race lines. We say this, for the right honourable gentleman had said that he could not allow black men to sit in the white men's Parliament.

These statesmen, however, appear to be only carrying out what is the general view of the white inhabitants of this country as voiced by such writers as one Roderick Jones, who wrote on the "Black Peril" about 14 years ago, and Fred W. Bell, who read a paper on the subject of "The South African Native Problem: A Suggested Solution," before the Union Club of South Africa and the Native Society of the Transvaal on October 14th, 1909. As a matter of fact Gen. Smuts declared in his reply to the debate on the second reading of the Native Affairs Bill, 1920, that segregation was the law of this country. Where these theorists make a grave mistake is in that they start from a very faulty point of view-the self-preservation and self-protection of the white race and the maintenance of white supremacy in the country. Schemes founded on such foundation of sand are

Foredoomed To Failure

The only solution that is calculated to prove a success is one that would be founded on the bedrock basis of justice and right, the whole justice and nothing but justice, or in other words on Christian equity: "Do unto others as ye would it should be done unto you."

You will recall that in his great speech on moving the second reading of the Native Affairs Bill in the Union House of Assembly last year, the Prime Minister declared that the "Natives were losing faith in the white man, in the white man's education and in the white man's religion." One would have thought therefore, that the measure would have been a serious attempt to remove this state of the native mind, restore the confidence of the black man in his white neighbour and in the civilisation of the white man, remove all grounds for the black man's suspicion and scepticism. But unfortunately the enactments have come short of this glorious achievement. I make bold to say that if native opinion had been consulted in regard to this measure it would not have been accepted, in its present form at least. As it is, only half a dozen of supposed leaders of native thought were asked for their views of the Bill, but as a matter of fact the measure was forced down the throat of the Bantu people. It has been, as usual in these matters, a case of "Government without the consent of the governed."

A Further Blunder

Let it be clearly understood that no self-respecting race of people in these days of enlightenment and democracy can consent to be governed by means of local or divisional councils and commissions, possessing and dis­charging functions of an advisory character only. And the Government has made the further blunder of refusing to accede to the request of the native people for the appoint­ment of at least a couple of natives on the Commission of Native Affairs. This at once makes it impossible for the Bantu to place any confidence on the Commission, even though they have confidence in men like Dr. Roberts and Dr. Loram, who have proved to be friendly and sympathetically disposed towards the united races of Africa. Further, we should not lose sight of the fact that supreme power is vested in Parliament. This august body consists of representatives of all sections and classes of the European population--the com­mercial, the agricultural, the industrial and the professional. All schools of political thought are represented. The Bantu population, the largest population of the land, by the way is denied this right of rights, the right of direct representation in the Legislature, the supreme legislative and administrative council of the land. The Native Affairs Commission itself will have to report to this body, through the Minister of Native Affairs. This must in itself render it imperative that the Bantu point of view be directly represented on the Commis­sion as well as in Parliament. Our patience has been exhausted in permitting the white man to continue to legislate for us. If the white man fears the possibility of being swamped, surely South African statesmanship is not so bankrupt as to be unable to devise a plan for the due representation of Bantu interests by Bantu members that would, however, secure the supremacy of the European.

This brings us to the question of.

The Colour Bar

To be something approaching perfection the Native Affairs Bill should have endea­voured to effect at least a partial removal of the Colour Bar from the Constitutional machinery of this country. This stigma of our constitution constitutes the source of all the unrest, discontent and ill-feeling that exists, among members of the non-European races in this country, and there can be no peace and contentment and happiness as long as this condition of things is allowed to continue. Why, the position may be put in a nutshell. The European came to Africa, robbed the African of his God-given land and then de­prived the African of all rights of citizenship in a country originally intended by Providence to be his home. Why, did not the Almighty in His wisdom and prescience divide the earth into four continents--Europe, Africa, Asia and America? The man whom He created was planted on this earthly planet. He made them white, black, yellow. To the white man He gave Europe to be his abode, Africa He gave to the black man, and Asia He allocated to the yellow man. America God seems to have intended as the land of the surplus population of each of the three great divisions of man­kind named above. The amazing thing to-day is that the white man claims Africa as the white man's country, and by his legislative action he has practically excluded the black man. This is injustice.

That Little Phrase

In supporting the motion for the second reading of the "Treaty of Peace and South-West Africa Mandate Bill" in the House of Assembly on the 10th September, 1920, the Hon. Sir Thomas Smartt, then leader of the Unionist Party, declared: "The statesmen who gathered together for the purpose of formulat­ing the Treaty of peace would have been wanting in their duty if they had not given example to the world of what the just punishments were to be of people who had so ruthlessly trampled or tried to trample upon the rights of other people as the Central Powers had tried to do." Now, does this not hold true of the action of the white man of South Africa? Has he not ruthlessly, wantonly and brutally trampled upon the rights of the Bantu people of the sub-continent by exclud­ing them, by the insertion in the Constitution of that little phrase "of European descent" from the rights of full citizenship in their country with all that that connotes. This is by far a worse crime than the action of the Central Powers, because these Powers made no attempt to deprive the Serbians or the Belgians of their citizenship in their respective countries.   General  Smuts and General Hertzog, as well as Sir Thos. Smartt, know full well that an injustice of an incomparably worse form is to deprive a man of such rights, and that in the land of his birth and adoption.

Inalienable Rights.

Let the European community of South Africa only deal out justice to the African and recognise the humanity and manhood of the latter, and so extend to them these inalienable rights of citizenship in their entirety, and then and not until then, can we all say with President Brandt, "Alles zullen recht komen." As a preliminary step in the direction of justice, let our white rulers remove the Colour Bar of the Constitution and make provision for some modicum of direct representation of native interests and the native point of view by native members in all the most important Councils of State, such as the Native Affairs Commission, the Provincial Councils in all the four Provinces of the Union and in both Houses of Parliaments. This might be done by the creation and delimitation of native elec­toral constituencies in each of the four Prov­inces, each returning one or two members to each of the legislative bodies mentioned above. This is wise statesmanship well worth trying.

Era Of Democracy.

We are living in an age of democracy, when all the peoples of the earth have become conscious of their divine right to rule them­selves by men chosen by themselves, and for the benefit of themselves. They will no longer submit to rule by autocrats for their own selfish aggrandisement. The native people of India are claiming this right and the Imperial Parliament has granted them a measure of self or representative government, whereby the management of the affairs of the country will now be in their hands. The Egyptians have also demanded that the great democratic principle of the self-determination of nations be extended to them, and an Imperial commission headed by Lord Milner has recommended that this request be conceded to them. The black people of British West Africa, comprising the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, who enjoy a measure of direct representation in the legislatures of their respective colonies, are also clamouring for a fuller measure of self-government and, in pursuance of a series of resolutions passed by their National Congress in 1920, they sent a deputation to England composed of their leading lights, members and ex-members of the legislative councils of their countries, a Chief and others, to present before His Majesty King George V. a series of resolutions embodied in a memorial.

The Devil of Disunion.

A large section of the Dutch population of South Africa also caught the fire of the new doctrine of the "self-determination" of the nationalities of the earth and they have been clamouring for the abolition of British rule in South Africa and the grant to them of the right to develop their own form of self-govern­ment, independently of any connection what­soever with the British Commonwealth of Nations. Of course, by reason of the fact that they could not present a united front, and also that they disregarded the English, Bantu and Coloured elements of the population of the country, they have utterly and hopelessly failed to achieve their objective.

The Irish people are demanding their right of self-determination as a distinct people. Unfortunately for them, too, the devil of disunion has frustrated their efforts in this direction. They are, however, determined and have made and still are making supreme sacrifices. They have given of their best sons and sacrificed their lives on the altar for the cause of causes, the cause of freedom and liberty, notably amongst whom is one of the Lord Mayors of the City of Cork, James MacSwiney, who suffered martyrdom in the cause of the liberty of the great Irish people.

Several of the people of Ireland who were imprisoned for what they believed to be their inalienable right as a nation, but what the Powers that be regarded as high treason, decided on a hunger strike and the Lord Mayor of Cork referred to above was one of the heroic souls who succumbed to self-starva­tion lasting nearly ninety days.

A Precious Thing

All these things should show the Bantu people of this country what a precious thing liberty is. Individuals as well as nations have made the supreme sacrifice for this great cause. Jesus, the Christ of God, gave the lead to mankind and the liberation from the thraldom of wickedness. Over 6,000,000 of the best sons of the four Continents of the earth made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War 1914-1918 for the liberation of the people of the earth from the thraldom of autocracy, despotism and militarism. The Dutch people of South Africa fought and suffered privations and final destruction as a distinct nation for this cause in the Boer war of 1899-1902. The American colonists also fought in 1775 for liberty, and the outcome was the coming into being of one of the greatest free States of the earth.

I am not urging the Bantu races to take up arms against the Powers that be, but I want to urge them with the whole might of persuasion that I can command to launch a big Constitutional fight for this divine right of peoples, for it was God himself who gave man the right of self-determination. It was in the Garden of Eden--right in the beginning of things--that the Almighty gave man perfect freedom to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, life and death. Why should we now have to submit to a condition of things which does not give us this God-given right, the inalien­able right of self-determination and self-government?

Treated As Children

For reasons of self-preservation, self-protection and self-aggrandisement, the white man has elected to treat the Bantu peoples of Africa as an "inferior race," or as Earl Buxton, in his Presidential address at the annual meeting of the African Society in London on the 15th of March last, described our people as the "child races" of the Empire. They have carried this to a logical conclusion by denying us the right, privileges and respon­sibilities of manhood. And thus as children, we have no voice in the affairs of the country. Our self-constituted "fathers" or our "step­fathers" for that, the white men, must think for us, legislate for us and determine our destiny and decide our fate. 1 refuse to submit to the unreasonable humiliation of a great historic people. I emphatically refuse to sub­mit or subscribe to this policy of treating men of maturer years as children or youths. According to the custom of the Bantu, only males who have not undergone the rights of circumcision are treated as youths or "Amakwenkwe," or "Maqai" and, no matter how old they may be or how bearded they may be, or what number of children they may have; as a matter of fact they were not even allowed to marry wives until they have under­gone this rite of formal initiation into man­hood. While in this stage they have no say in affairs, domestic or national.

The black man in South Africa is treated in exactly the same manner. He is a "political child," a political "Nkwenkwe" or "Maqai" or as the Sesuto saying is "Mosheman-mpshase-lanloa leboea ("What is boy a mere dog to be cast away, hairs and all."). The poor black man is consequently reduced to a position of utter voicelessness and votelessness, hopelessness, powerlessness, helplessness, defenceless-ness, homelessness, landlessness, a condition of deepest humiliation and absolute depen­dency. God forbid that we, as human beings, made in the image of and after the likeness of Himself, should permit other human beings, made in like manner, to abrogate to them­selves a position of superiority over us.

Chiefs, councillors, ladies and gentlemen, a new thing has just happened in the political life of South Africa. A Bill is engaging the attention of the Union Parliament purporting to extend franchise and citizen rights to the women folk of the European community of this land. The omens are overwhelmingly favourable to the measure, and in all probabil­ity it will find its way to the Statute Book of the Union, and in the event of that becoming an accomplished fact (I don't begrudge the ladies the right) then all persons of "European descent," irrespective of sex, will have been included in the political economy of the land and all male persons of African or non-European descent excluded, save only to a limited extent in one of the four Provinces constituting the Dominion of S. Africa, and then the ideal of a "White South Africa" will have been fully realised. The African will then be relegated to a position of an alien or political slave in his own country. In Egypt the position under the Pharaohs was quite the reverse. Only aliens or foreigners--the Israelites--were treated as slaves, not the natives of Egypt.

Even if the position be viewed from an ethnological point the South African position is strangely anomalous as well as it is untenable. A race of people cannot be held in a sort of "political slavery" only because that race happens to be primitive, untutored or uncivilised. Yet the Bantu of South Africa can no longer be said to be in a state of barbarism or savagism.

Co-operation Of All Races

Chiefs, ladies and gentlemen, I want to declare, in conclusion, that South Africa will never attain her noble ideal of peacefulness, happiness, prosperity, greatness and national unity, of which the Prime Minister and all lovers of Africa have been rightly dreaming, without the full and free co-operation of all the white and black races of the land and of all classes and conditions of men. Industrially, agriculturally and commercially we have been working together for the development of our common country. Let this policy of full co-operation be extended to our political system; let no race or class or creed be driven to such a condition of despair as it might be compelled to adopt the Gandhian policy of "non-co-operation"--taxation without representation leads to this.

And then when our common task in this country has been completed and the end of all things has fully come, we can look back and exclaim

"All's well that ends well."

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