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FOREWORD 
 
 The author of this pamphlet, as secretary of 
 the American Board for the Near East and 
 Africa, has just completed a secretarial tour 
 throughout the mission fields of the Board in 
 Africa: He landed on May 11, 1924; at Beirag 
 visited Johannesburg, Lorenzo Marques, and 
 Inhambane of Portuguese East Africa; studied 
 the work of the Zulu Branch in the South 
 African Mission in Natal; investigated the 
 Board’s work in Rhodesia; and looked over the 
 so-called Beira field in Portuguese East Africa. 
 He then visited the West Africa field, which is 
 in Angola under the control of the Portuguese 
 Government. He arrived home in December, 
 1924. | 
 
 Secretary Riggs’ general impressions of the 
 Bantu race are given here, and some of his 
 
 findings also. 
 EER. 
 
 Entered as second class mail matter at the Post Office at Boston, Mass. Accept- 
 ance for mailing at special rates of postage provided for in section 1104, Act of 
 October 3, 1917, authorized on June 21, 1918. The American Board of Commis- 
 sioners for Foreign Missions, 14 Beacon St., Boston, Mass. Printed in U. S. A 
 Annual subscription, ten (10) cents. 
 
What of the Bantus? 
 
 By Ernest W. Reade 
 
 Some Snap Judgments 
 
 Snap One. “The nigger is more like a human than 
 
 any other animal.” This was the remark 
 of an agent of Henry Ford who had been traveling in 
 Africa for a number of years. In his business the 
 black native was not interested except as the roads 
 built for the use of the Ford car extend the white 
 man’s domination. These roads are built by black 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Typical Road Gang in Angola 
 The able bodied men have been taken for more permanent employment so the 
 mending of the road is mostly done by boys of 8-15. 
 
 3 
 
men, women and children, working without pay. If 
 the natives are fortunate enough to own a yoke of 
 oxen and a cart they must avoid these roads lest they 
 make them unfit for the rubber tired pleasure vehicles 
 of the white man. To this agent of Henry Ford the 
 Bantu was hardly more than vermin,—usually a 
 nuisance to be put out of the way, but more useful 
 than some other animals. 
 
 This is a point of view which some like to take with 
 regard to the Bantus. It seems incredible that any 
 man who has had any contact with these people can 
 really persuade himself that they are nearer the dumb 
 animals in intelligence and moral responsibility than 
 they are to the white man who uses them. At the 
 same time, for many who find their only source of in- 
 come through the abuse of the native it is impossible 
 to square their actions with what remains of a con- 
 science unless they assume the position that the black 
 man who slaves for them is no more than an animal. 
 
 Of all the native races in Africa the Bantus are 
 perhaps the most important. Many branches of this 
 race with differing but kindred tongues are to be found 
 from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and it is among 
 these tribes of Bantus that the work of the American 
 Board is conducted. | 
 
 Mr. Agent might have revised his opinion of the 
 Bantu if he had been with us on a launch trip from 
 Beira to the mouth of the Sabi River. A storm swept 
 up from the Indian Ocean and the little forty foot boat 
 was tossed about alarmingly. As the waves increased 
 in size and the wind in violence we realized keenly that 
 we were utterly at the mercy of a black native crew. 
 But the captain knew well the tides and the winds and 
 guided us safely behind the Island of Chiluane. The 
 native at the engine knew exactly how to handle that 
 beautiful piece of English machinery and we were as 
 
 4 
 
safe as we could have been with trained sailors of any 
 race. 
 
 While we were stopping at the Island of Chiluane I 
 made inquiries regarding the relatives of a Bantu 
 friend of mine, a young man born in a heathen kraal 
 not far from the Island. I tried to find his mother 
 who still digs over her little patch of ground for two or 
 three seasons and then moves on to another patch, 
 planting mealies while the soil is new, and never stor- 
 ing up more than enough to last her through the dry 
 season. The opinion of Mr. Agent might have re- 
 ceived another jolt had he met the son of this mother. 
 Beginning his education in a mission school this Bantu 
 boy has received his B.S. degree at Columbia Uni- 
 versity and is now studying the Portuguese language 
 in Lisbon preparatory to returning to help his own 
 people. He still longs to see his mother though fifty 
 centuries of civilization lie between them. 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Agent would have had another surprise 
 if he could have comprehended Abrahama, who was 
 engaged as the master mason in building an important 
 bridge over which the Ford cars might hope to travel. 
 For four months he had directed a gang of men in this 
 work successfully, and expected to be busy at this 
 task for one month more, and after he had completed 
 it Mr. Agent and his civilized white friends would pay 
 him nothing but tell him he was through and could go 
 and work for himself awhile. Last year Abrahama 
 built another bridge which took six months out of his 
 year and for which he received no remuneration. But 
 Abrahama is a Christian as well as a mason, one of the 
 first Christians of his tribe. His chief ambition is to 
 build Christian character among his workers, a char- 
 acter far finer than that of Mr. Agent, while he humbly 
 directs those who with him are subservient to the 
 white man. 
 
‘s0zenba 942 JO YyINos jysvod 3ysam 943 UO IOd JuUeIJOdUI 
 WOU sIy} Ul pedtd Aue jo sayveid A[UO 24} SI ‘WstuayIeeY JO INO sieak May ke ATUO ‘npunquiiyo9Q ue ‘assof 
 
 O[QOT 2 Spuvgy ay} UO UO1ZDSILSUOT) IY J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mr. Agent would utterly fail to appreciate the sig- 
 nificance of the work in Lobito where Jesse, only a 
 few years out of heathenism, is conducting services. 
 Lobito is an important town on the west coast of 
 Africa, the terminus of the Benguela Railway, which, 
 when it is completed will be one of the most important 
 highways of Africa. But in this bustling modern town 
 on the finest harbor of the coast there is not a church, 
 mosque or synagogue for the civilized white people. 
 Jesse, however, was sent down here by the church at 
 Bailundo 250 miles away because there were Christian 
 black men in Lobito who were losing faith and char- 
 acter amid the temptations forced upon them by con- 
 ditions in the port. He had tactfully become ac- 
 quainted with the head of Pawlings and Company and 
 was allowed a room in one of the Company shacks and 
 was given work on the docks. On Sundays and oc- 
 casionally through the week he gathers together quite 
 a group of earnest listeners including these Christian 
 boys who come from Christian communities in the in- 
 terior Unerew riont  byathe rollings ‘ocean, 1 met .d 
 congregation of a hundred on Sunday morning. 
 Seated on the sand under a tropical sun, they sang 
 happily the hymns they had learned in their own 
 church homes and offered earnest prayers not so much 
 for themselves as for their brethren in darkness, and 
 for the missionaries who were giving them the Gospel. 
 
 Snap Two. A point of view somewhat different from 
 that of Mr. Ford Agent and quite com- 
 
 mon in South Africa emerged on a steamer plying be- 
 tween Portuguese East Africa and Natal. A group of 
 
 * missionaries were seated in the dining saloon at their 
 first meal when a gentleman who described himself as 
 a white agent in a native reserve gave forth his dictum 
 as to the Zulus, who are among the most advanced of 
 
 7 
 
the Bantu peoples. He was speaking earnestly to one 
 of his companions from his long experience with the 
 natives, and said: “The Zulu in his natural state is the 
 most moral person in the world, but as soon as you 
 Christianize him he takes on all the vices and none of 
 the virtues of civilization.’ With some vehemence he 
 elaborated this statement, speaking of the evil that was 
 being done to the natives by the missionaries. “Keep 
 the nigger in, his place” is as often heard in Africa as 
 it is nearer home. But our Traveler had failed to re- 
 member that the “natural state’ of the Zulus has been 
 effectually ended by civilized agents of the white man 
 in Africa like himself. In their natural state the Zulus 
 were a predatory race, mercilessly slaying their ent- 
 mies and roaming over the vast areas of South Eastern 
 Africa. Now they are strictly shut up in reserves or 
 carefully watched as they work for the white man un- 
 der conditions far worse physically and morally for 
 themselves than the primitive state to which Mr. 
 iraveler reterred: 
 
 We cannot forget that for probably six centuries the 
 worst of Mohammedanism with its slave raiding and 
 the worst of Christianity with its demands for labor 
 have been making a far greater impression upon the 
 Zulu than all the missionaries that have been sent to 
 Africa in the last one hundred years. The white men 
 who have braved the inhospitable climate of this trop- 
 ical region do not bring white laborers from Europe; 
 they come to be the masters of thousands of native 
 laborers and to treat them as they will with little pub- 
 licity to fear and still less force of law to control their 
 dealings with the native. 
 
 Doubtless Mr. Traveler had not thought over the 
 relation between the primitive state of the native and 
 his present degeneration as it is evidenced upon the 
 Gold Reef at Johannesburg. Here, carried down 
 
 8 
 
sometimes a mile below the surface of the ground, in 
 cold and damp, and sometimes forced to breathe for 
 long hours the dust and chemical fumes of the process 
 of extracting the gold, 200,000 natives are having their 
 first taste of civilization. The white man has not per- 
 mitted them to stay in their natural state and has 
 built up for them an environment which though great- 
 ly improved over what it was a few years ago is still 
 far from wholesome. 
 
 I witnessed a native dance in one of the mine com- 
 pounds where these laborers live. Here with weird 
 music and wonderful rhythm the natives themselves 
 were trying to break in upon the monotony of their 
 idleness on a Sunday afternoon. From the strange 
 performances of the dancers my eyes turned to the 
 hardened faces of a large number of women in the 
 crowd which was enjoying the spectacle. These were 
 the temporary wives and prostitutes who live in open 
 shame among the workers and constitute the answer 
 of a heartless civilization to the social needs of this 
 great gathering of men. 
 
 From this dance we went to another compound 
 where an equally large audience of (2,500) men were 
 gathered in reverent silence to witness the motion pic- 
 ture of the life of Christ entitled “From the Manger 
 to the Cross.” As the beautiful pictures followed each 
 other upon the screen Dr. Bridgman told the story in 
 Zulu and it was quickly caught up and translated into 
 Susutu by an assistant so that the majority of that 
 great audience received the Gospel message by eye 
 and ear. This is the answer which is being given by 
 the representatives of the American Board, Mr. Har- 
 wood B. Catlin, Mr. Ray E. Phillips and Dr. Frederick 
 B. Bridgman, to the social problem created by this 
 restless mass of heathen men. The mine owners, ap- 
 preciating the value of this moving picture program, 
 
 § 
 
*punol3s 3 
 yO st OOF AIA YY} BION ‘UOIsIaId aynpOsqe YYW poejndexsa sil Yt PyIMm pue PJIOM st JUSWIIAOUT Sa acsnone 
 
 punodwmoy) aurpy singsauuvnyof wu a2uvg 9a1qD NN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
are meeting its full expense, putting into the enter- 
 prise something like $20,000 a year. Whatever ef- 
 forts for bettering the conditions of the Bantu have 
 been made, whether on the plantations or in the mines, 
 in the big cities or on the reserves, have either been 
 initiated by the missionary or have secured his early 
 and hearty cooperation. 
 
 Snap Three. The policeman with whom I happened 
 
 to ride for a few hundred miles on one 
 of the splendid railroads of the Union of South Africa 
 expressed his view of the matter with far more con- 
 vincing logic than was found in the excited utterances 
 of Mr. Traveler. This policeman with twenty-five 
 years of experience among the natives was weary with 
 his task and was going home to England. He said 
 somewhat sadly “You can’t hope to civilize the nig- 
 ger. He absorbs all the vices and none of the virtues 
 of the white man.” When my fighting blood began to 
 rise at this familiar remark he explained, again rather 
 lugubriously, “You see the white man always shows 
 him his worst side and the nigger is a good imitator. 
 I don’t refer to the missionaries; they of course are 
 different, but they can’t overcome the terrible influence 
 of the ordinary white man.” As the conversation in 
 the compartment continued the policeman found an 1l- 
 lustration of his remark in the story told by the young 
 fellow who had just come from Victoria Falls. He ex- 
 hibited to us a handsomely carved native cane and said 
 that the owner was quite unwilling to part with it be- 
 cause of its tribal significance. He explained that he 
 had got into his automobile, taken the cane with him, 
 held out a sixpence to the man and started the engine, 
 and then with a grin of satisfaction he said “It didn’t 
 take him long to decide to sell his cane for a sixpence.” 
 
 DI 
 
I was reminded of a similar incident which took 
 place while I was riding on the train through Bechu- 
 analand. The natives crowded about the train at the 
 stations to sell little curios. One little boy had with 
 him a number of tiny chairs made of porcupine quills 
 which he was offering at sixpence each. Finally un- 
 der protest he sold one for threepence. One of my 
 companions, taking another one in his hand, told the 
 boy he would give him a penny for it. The native boy 
 refused indignantly, but the man on the train had the 
 advantage and waited until the train started, holding 
 out all the while the penny. After the native boy had 
 run along the side of the moving train protesting the 
 injustice of it for some seconds he grabbed the penny 
 and with it learned a great big lesson in morals from. 
 the white man. 
 
 
 
 Heathen Chiefs of the Ovimbundu Tribe 
 
 Though heathen they eagerly welcome the missionary activities among their 
 people. 
 
 I2 
 
Better Bantus 
 
 As a contrast it will be interesting to note some evi- 
 dences of the influence of the missionary upon a whole 
 tribe in West Africa. The chief engineer of the rolling 
 stock on the Benguela Railway was remarking on the 
 freight being handled at the port of Lobito. He said 
 “Do you know that 20,000 tons of mealies and beans 
 are being raised and sold for export to Portugal and 
 the islands by the Ovimbundu in the region of Bail- 
 undo?” It was interesting to learn from the mission- 
 aries that this grain was raised among villages where 
 missionary work has been going on for forty years. 
 In no other part of Angola has such a record for thrift 
 and hard work been made by the native people. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chief Chisendi and His “Palace” 
 
 This man rules 30,000 people. Boy with the big knife at right was digging 
 jiggers from the chief’s toes as we arrived. 
 
 13 
 
The explanation of this influence of the missionary 
 upon the productivity of the native is evidenced by a 
 visit to two villages, one heathen and one Christian. 
 With Mr. J. A. Steed I called on Chief Chisendi, whose 
 village is near Chisamba. He is very old and near his 
 end. Seated on a mat in front of his royal palace he 
 was having a boy remove the jiggers from his toes 
 with a butcher knife and a safety pin. The aforesaid 
 palace was a one-room hut with cryptic signs of the 
 witch doctor painted on the door. It was surrounded 
 by a number of other huts for his twelve wives and 
 thirty children. He had had twenty more, but these 
 had “gone to the’spirit of. the earth” as he expressed 
 it. Though this man was the head of 30,000 people 
 everything was filth and squalor. After much per- 
 suasion he had been gracious enough to grant permis- 
 sion for a school in this his fortified capitol village. So 
 after paying him our respects we went to see the 
 school. 
 
 The teacher, a young lad just four months out of 
 Currie Institute at Dondi, took us to the “Onjango” 
 or palaver house of the chief where he was hoiding 
 school till the building which he was erecting with 
 the help of the people, outside the village, could be 
 completed. There were gathered a most unpromising 
 looking group of fifteen unclothed boys and girls of 
 varying ages. Behind them hung 250 jaw bones, black 
 with smoke and age. Each bone was a sort of receipt 
 or royal certificate to the fact that a case had been 
 tried before the chief and settled, and the beast of 
 sacrifice had been duly offered. In such an unpromis- 
 ing environment this boy had accomplished wonders 
 in four months. His pupils knew forty hymns from 
 the hymn book, and they sang us samples. They sang 
 the Portuguese National Anthem; they repeated the 
 Lord’s Prayer in Portuguese and also knew it in Um- 
 
 14 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Photo by E. W. Wright 
 Teacher from Dondi, W. C. A., and his school at Chisendi 
 
 bundu; they recited the Ist and 23rd Psalms in their 
 native tongue; they counted to one hundred in Portu- 
 guese; and all this in addition to their primary task of 
 learning the Portuguese syllables which some of them 
 showed they knew thoroughly. 
 
 Compare with this the village of Onjamba, where 
 there are eighty houses, each one a Christian home. 
 Here the streets are laid out straight with walled gar- 
 dens on each side and three or four room houses set in 
 each garden. An irrigation ditch supplies the gardens 
 with water and there is every appearance of a keen ef- 
 fort towards cleanliness and thrift. The people have 
 built a house where the missionary may rest, which 
 may also be used by the Portuguese official when he 
 comes to write up the taxes. Far out on the road, be- 
 fore we reached the village, a watcher sounded a horn 
 
 1 See 
 
to give word of our coming, and when the auto ap- . 
 proached the village, crowds of happy boys and girls 
 threw handfuls of leaves into the air as confetti might 
 be thrown at home, and shouted their welcome to the 
 visitors. And here the church and school are the very 
 heart of the community. This is only a few years’ re- 
 move from the crude beginning at Chisend1. 
 
 A new spirit of ambition to have things better, to 
 prepare a better environment for the next generation, 
 seems to have seized these people as they have accepted 
 Christianity. JI remember riding, unexpected, into the 
 village of Kaputu and seeing the fine new church in 
 process of erection. The people had begun this task 
 without the knowledge of the missionary, in their 
 spare time hewing the beams from the forest and 
 moulding the adobe bricks with willing hands. They 
 were eager that their children should have a finer 
 church than the small hut in which they had been 
 worshipping as the center of their village life. 
 
 Importance of the Problem of the Races 
 
 Significant statements appear in two mission study 
 text books recently issued for use in America. The 
 opening sentence of the foreword in “Adventures in 
 Brotherhood” by Dorothy Giles reads as follows: “Of 
 all the issues at stake today the most pressing by far is 
 that of the inter-relation of races.” The opening sen- 
 tence of the first chapter in Robert Speer’s book “Of 
 One Blood” reads: “The questions of race and race re- 
 lationships are the most insistent questions of the mod- 
 ern world.” If the race problem is one of foremost 
 importance in America it is vastly more important in 
 Africa. Under the direction of decent government the 
 
 16 
 
Bantus are increasing with astonishing rapidity. With 
 their increase in numbers is a corresponding increase 
 in influence so that a business man in Cape Town re- 
 marked to me that he felt the time was coming when 
 he must move out. “This is going to be a black man’s 
 country,” said he; “the oncoming tide is irresistible.” 
 
 It was decidedly illuminating to find that the gov- 
 ernment is extremely eager to sound the point of view 
 of the native on these questions of race relationship. 
 A few years ago there was initiated in Johannesburg 
 a movement to bring together the ablest representa- 
 tives of the native population to meet in joint council 
 with those among the whites who were the best think- 
 ers on the subject of race relations. This joint coun- 
 cil has steadily grown in importance and the plan has 
 been duplicated in a number of other cities of South 
 Africa. The council meets at stated intervals and be- 
 fore it are brought questions of moment bearing upon 
 the developing race consciousness of the black and 
 the methods adopted by the white rulers of the country 
 to direct his activities. At such a meeting which I at- 
 tended in Johannesburg there were present perhaps 
 not over thirty individuals and yet almost every phase 
 of Johannesburg’s industrial, religious and social life 
 was represented. As representing the government Dr. 
 Loram of the Native Affairs Department was present 
 to answer questions. He was placed on the defensive 
 by the black members of the Council but bore no ill 
 will towards them because of their searching ques- 
 tions. He frankly stated that the government was 
 eager to secure the reaction of the joint council upon 
 every piece of legislation which bore upon the relation 
 between the races. Thus does the government earnest- 
 ly seek the unofficial but powerful public opinion of 
 large-minded men of whatever color. 
 
 17 
 
Cooperation with the Government 
 
 The American Board has, since its first entry into 
 South Africa, ably cooperated with the government in 
 its efforts to provide for the native peoples. When the 
 plan of delimiting reserves for the Zulus was adopted 
 by the government twelve out of eighteen of these re- 
 serves were assigned to the American Board. This 
 was done with the expectation that the representative 
 of that Board on the reserve would be to the people 
 there collected both father and chief. Little by little 
 as the way was pointed out by the missionaries the 
 government has taken over the control of the natives 
 upon the reserves. First they assumed the duties of 
 collecting the taxes previously collected by the mis- 
 sionary. hen when these taxes were raised beyond 
 the ability of the people to pay, it was the missionary 
 who stepped in and secured a reduction in the tax. Of 
 the money thus raised even today the South African 
 government passes over one-half to the missionaries 
 for them to administer according to their best judg- 
 ment in the interests of the natives. A large propor- 
 tion of the other half is also used for promoting edu- 
 cation under the supervision of the missionaries. 
 
 Jt was striking to see at Umtwalumi the native Chris- 
 tian chief. He was an elder in the church and at the 
 same time he was the ruler of his people. He was re- 
 sponsible to the government as his administrative head 
 but he felt himself responsible to the missionary as to 
 his spiritual father. A striking contrast to this Christian 
 chief is the heathen chief whose life is full of debauch- 
 ery and who subjects himself and his people to the 
 wicked practices of the witch doctor. Under the di- 
 rection of the missionaries each one of these native re- 
 serves in Natal has become a center of Christianity. 
 Although the people have not all become Christian yet 
 
 18 
 

 
 So S 
 
 
 
 ge: Pe ¥ 
 . ue 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Zulu Pastors at Umtwalume 
 
 they have all deeply felt the influence of Christianity 
 and the government has been benefited in the peace 
 and prosperity which has developed in this atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 I was privileged to be present at the opening of a 
 new church building’ on one of the reserves. The 
 chief had provided food for the company, oxen had 
 been slaughtered, bags of beans, corn and rice were in 
 readiness for the big and little kettles which the wor- 
 shippers were bringing. Even the white planters so 
 recognized the uplifting power of the church and 
 school among the tillers of their fields that a number 
 of them came with their families to take part in this 
 dedication. 
 
 19 
 
Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, head of the Education 
 Commission to Africa sent out by the Phelps Stokes 
 Foundation, pays high tribute to the help which the 
 missionaries are rendering in the field of education. 
 He refers to the fact that ninety per cent of the schools 
 for natives in British, French, Belgian and Portu- 
 geuese colonies in Africa are carried on not directly by 
 the government but by the missionaries. Progressive- 
 ly the recommendations made by this most important 
 Commission are being followed out by the missionary 
 societies. Emphasis is being laid upon preparing the 
 native to live better in his own native environment 
 rather than to desert that environment for a new one 
 in subservience to the white man. 
 
 Specific mention should be made of the part played 
 by the missionaries in the education of the children in 
 Natal. Thousands of pupils are gathered into the 
 schools supported by the taxes of the people. These 
 taxes collected by the government and administered 
 by the missionary have secured for the natives the 
 best of training for their rural life. I have nowhere 
 seen a more complete exhibit of industrial work done 
 by pupils than in the school at Infume. Here on long 
 tables in a well lighted class room were samples of 
 woodcarving, basketry, pottery, embroidery, sewing, 
 cooking and garden produce. The whole exhibit was 
 arranged to show the practical training given to little 
 hands and eyes for the life of hard toil which was be- 
 fore them in the midst of most primitive surroundings. 
 All of this excellent training was in the hands of na- 
 tive teachers. It was interesting to note in the gov- 
 ernment curriculum that as much time is given to the 
 study of the Bible as to any one other subject. 
 
 This is but an illustration of the way the missionary 
 has cooperated with the government in Africa. The 
 secret of the success of the American Board’s work in 
 
 20 
 
Angola during the past four years lies in the willing- 
 ness of the missionaries to lay hold upon the best that 
 there is in the plans of the government and translate 
 it into serviceable methods for developing the people. 
 In the midst of acute problems of labor it has only 
 been the understanding sympathy of the missionary 
 that has held at the same time the respect of govern- 
 ing officials and the devotion of a misunderstood and 
 suffering people. The Portuguese government has 
 been bitterly criticized for its dealings with the natives 
 in Angola and Mozambique. Conditions have been 
 made extremely difficult for the Bantus. At the same 
 time, remembering the enormous size of these colonies, 
 some twenty-two times the area of the mother country, 
 and remembering that for generations these colonies 
 were considered little more than prison camps for 
 Portuguese criminals, we can sense the difficulties 
 which even the most conscientious official must meet 
 as he tries to work out the problem of administration. 
 I was deeply impressed with the parting words of a 
 high-minded and well educated young Portuguese 
 teacher in Angola. He said to me “As you go back to 
 America and tell the story of the native, do not forget 
 the weighty problem which we Portuguese have to 
 face. The wheels of government have sunk into a rut 
 and there is no one to lift them out.” 
 
 Fitting the Native for His New Environment 
 
 Perhaps no change brought into the life of the native 
 by an advancing civilization has been so difficult for 
 him to understand as the restriction of his land. The 
 primitive African never owned land. All Africa was 
 his. He was free to wander where he would, to build 
 his hut by any stream or upon any hill, to dig his gar- 
 den where the soil was most rich, using up its richness 
 
 21 
 
and then passing on to some other location. With the 
 ideas of personal property which came in as the coun- 
 try was settled he was totally unfamiliar. Restricted 
 in his migratory rights he found it difficult to wrest 
 from the*earth his living, ~[o be suresreservesanad 
 been set aside for the natives both in Portuguese and 
 British territory but these reserves were by no means 
 adequate to provide for the wandering life to which 
 the people were accustomed. Thus, to the Bantu the 
 restriction of his land is his greatest grievance. The 
 
 
 
 Boy returning from “Joni? (Johannesburg) with his new outfit. 
 (Hired carrier) 
 
 22 
 
missionary, however, is not so much concerned with 
 the extent of the land assigned to the native as with 
 the question of how he can be taught the intensive 
 cultivation of the soil he tills. Not only the tilling of 
 the soil must be taught but the construction of a per- 
 manent home adapted to the climate and which will 
 stand the ravages of insects. But both the training in 
 agriculture and the training in building are subservient 
 to the aim of leading the native to the great steadying 
 bower inealletheschanees: ofcitcumstance.. The?re- 
 lation between church and school and the adaptation 
 of the people to settled living becomes immediately 
 evident as soon as it is stated. 
 
 Since it is extremely difficult to teach the mature Af- 
 rican new ways of living, the missionaries of the Board 
 have made especial efforts to train the children. In 
 this training a most important element is to dissociate 
 ‘in the mind of the child the natural phenomena of 
 nature from the dominating ideas of witchcraft which 
 so thoroughly permeate the home life of the Bantus. 
 These boys and girls can grasp the fact that deep plow- 
 ing and fertilization will accomplish more in produc- 
 ing good crops than sacrifices to unseen but malevo- 
 lent spirits. They can be taught more readily than 
 their elders that death is due to preventable disease 
 and not to the plottings of an enemy as indicated by 
 the crafty witch doctor. When the children have 
 grown to manhood and womanhood it is also of the 
 highest importance that they separate themselves from 
 the dominance of the heathen chief and his witchcraft 
 by establishing a new place of residence where God’s 
 power through nature may have a chance to dominate 
 their rural activities. 
 
 Perhaps no portion of our field has made such advance 
 in providing for the training of the native in agricul- 
 ture and industry as the Rhodesia Branch of the South 
 
 26 
 
African Mission. Here a magnificent primeval forest 
 provides an abundant supply of the best timber not 
 only for demonstration but for the actual construction 
 of buildings both for the Mission and for the natives. 
 It would be difficult to overstate the wonder of this 
 forest. It seems to be a tiny remnant of some prim- 
 eval growth which once covered the entire east coast. 
 Now it is only about two square miles in extent, but 
 it makes up in quality for what it lacks in area. I 
 stood beside one straight red mahogany tree more than 
 200 feet high. Above*the spread of its giant root but- 
 tresses it measures over fifty feet around. Its perfect 
 trunk reaches up 150 feet without a branch. Though 
 this is the largest tree in the forest there are many 
 hundreds of giants too large to handle with the simple 
 machinery which has been installed at Mt. Silinda. 
 Then there is the brown mahogany, said to be found 
 nowhere else in the world. Its lasting qualities are 
 marvelous. While at Mt. Silinda I found that a trunk 
 which had lain in the forest for several years was being 
 cut and inside was fresh and valuable lumber. 
 
 Excellent clay has also been found at Mt. Silinda 
 and the natives are not slow in learning to make brick 
 and tile. Rolling country with an average fertility of 
 soil provides a splendid training ground for the pupils 
 of Mt. Silinda school in the cultivation of field and 
 garden. So keenly have the natives recognized the 
 relation between better farming and the possession of 
 land in perpetuity that they have raised before the 
 Mission urgently and repeatedly the question of 
 whether they could not be permitted to purchase home- 
 steads from the Mission, which owns in Southern 
 Rhodesia about forty square miles of territory. The 
 government is earnestly considering legislation which 
 will give the native individual freehold without aggra- 
 vating race jealousies. 
 
 24 
 
‘yIOM oURqUIeYUT 941 JO pua SinqsouuRYyof sy], 
 *JeIO-YOUM JO JUSUINIJsSUI peioes Jsou sIy ‘sauog jo Seq 3uljuasaid ‘polIaAuod 
 ouyM Ul UPYT “(eUIeIJ Ul) SSseIppe pejeUIUINT]I YUM sssry “IPL SsuTjUesoIg 
 
 uvy {0 pua ysvg ‘aurpy 27025 7D aaqZIWWMo') Y2INY puv 404SD 
 Ade Fa Lary g CEB LIS hl S GOGGLE DEAL d 
 
 « 
 
 Ajquese1 ‘10}DOP YUM JIUTIOY 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Native Convert Trained to Be a 
 Missionary 
 
 The missionary, unlike other men, looks forward to 
 “working himself out of a job.” In the Natal field 
 much progress has been made towards transferring the 
 burden of responsibility for the evangelization of the 
 people to the shoulders of native pastors and evan- 
 gelists. The church is well organized. Its annual 
 church council takes seriously the burden of the whole 
 field. The missionaries relate themselves to this native 
 church with its evangelistic program as advisors rath- 
 er than as administrative heads. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking illustrations of the evan- 
 gelistic zeal of the native church may be taken from 
 West Africa. The founding of the Mission in 1880 
 was followed by long years of slow progress. Up till 
 twenty years ago there were but few church members 
 and but little impression had been made upon the 
 people as a whole. During the last twenty years, 
 however, the church in. Angola has increased a thou- 
 sand per cent. School attendance has had a similar 
 record. The outstations have grown from thirty-two 
 to over two hundred. And still the work goes for- 
 ward. But the missionary personnel has hardly in- 
 creased fifty per cent in the same period. The secret 
 of this remarkable advance is in the deep sense of re- 
 sponsibility for their brothers which has been aroused 
 in the hearts of the Ovimbundu. In Chileso the na- 
 tive church itself has passed a rule that no new mem- 
 ber may be received except as he proves his spirit by 
 bringing some other individual to Christ. Most un- 
 promising candidates when faced with this test have 
 responded by bringing whole families into the catech- 
 umen class. In Sachikela, the station nearest the coast, 
 I learned that every outstation is wholly self-support- 
 
 20 
 
ing. It must build its own church and school, select 
 its own young man to go to Dondi, where he works 
 his way through the central training institute. When 
 he returns he and his wife raise their own food though 
 the village gives them some cloth with which to cover 
 themselves. The preaching is done without remun- 
 eration by the oldest Christian, or by some one elected 
 by the group to serve as their elder. 
 
 Each of our six older stations has an organized 
 church of which the outstations are but branches. 
 Bailundo is the oldest station and has the largest num- 
 ber of branches. At stated intervals the church mem- 
 bers from the eighty outstations gather at Bailundo 
 for Communion. With them they bring their offer- 
 ings. The actual cash value of these offerings for the 
 spread of the Gospel amounts to about $700 a year for 
 this one church. This gift means infinite sacrifice for 
 these people who are living in nakedness and poverty. 
 But the Gospel is everything to them. 
 
 Not only the giving is theirs; the administration of 
 the gift is also theirs, and it is interesting to hear how 
 they portion out the fund so that it may accomplish 
 the most in the spread of “the words.” At their last 
 session before I left the Mission these elders of 
 the church that is in Bailundo decided to send one of 
 their members 250 miles away, down to the coast 
 town of Lobito. This town, the terminus of the Trans- 
 Angola railway, is situated on the most remarkable 
 deep water harbor on the west coast of Africa and is 
 destined to be a most important port. The Mission 
 has long contemplated it as a possible location for a 
 missionary, but the plan has never been fulfilled. Lo- 
 bito had no service whatever, Catholic, Protestant or 
 Moslem. Three weeks after they had sent down their 
 man I had the privilege of going out with this mis- 
 sionary of the Bailundo church to his service on the 
 
 27 
 
sands, outside of the town. There, as has been stated, 
 I found a congregation of a hundred. Many of them 
 were Christians who had been converted elsewhere 
 and were eagerly cooperating. Time did not permit 
 me to go to the neighboring town of Catumbela where 
 he had an even larger congregation. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cali A 2ai/vado, 
 umbela Dow ore 
 
 
 
 ey Sachikelae 
 eS road o 
 
 
 
 
 | °Caconda 
 
 * G2/ange 
 o Nossamedes 
 
 A somewhat similar evangelistic zeal was seen in 
 Inhambane on the east coast of Africa where the 
 American Board has not yet placed any missionary in 
 residence. A large number of groups of Christians 
 have established little villages of their own in this re- 
 gion and claimed the American Board as their pro- 
 tector and guide. Nearly every one of these villages 
 has been started by a man who was converted upon 
 the Rand in Johannesburg under the preaching of some 
 representative of the American Board. Since his first 
 upward yearnings came through the services con- 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ducted by the missionary he builds a tiny church in his 
 new village and calls his people together for morning 
 and evening prayers. Each morning, before he and 
 his people go to work in the gardens, they linger after 
 prayers to learn their letters with the books which the 
 “Mfundisi’” has sent them. When a pupil has learned 
 his letters and can pick out words he or she joins the 
 “class” which studies the New Testament. And after 
 being in the “class” for six months or a year they are 
 ready to be baptized. What this boy who has barely 
 learned to read and count in the mine compound night 
 school can teach to these people, however crude it may 
 be, is an upward pull towards Christianity and civili- 
 zation. Unfortunately the age-long tribe loyalty of the 
 Bantu makes the young convert oftentimes more loyal 
 to his denomination than to Christian principal. Thus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dr. Bridgman and Pastor Likumbi Itinerating through Inhambane 
 
 \ 29 
 
a considerable amount of denominational rivalry has 
 been precipitated not only in Inhambane but in Johan- 
 nesburg where so many individuals have received the 
 light of the Gospel and from which they have carried 
 it to all parts of South Africa. “Whether in pretense 
 or in truth Christ is preached.” 
 
 In all of the efforts towards self-sufficiency whether 
 among the proud and able Zulus or among the faith- 
 ful plodders of Inhambane these native groups need 
 shepherding by the missionary. Such guidance is the 
 more urgently needed in view of the large number of 
 individual movements which claim a spiritual basis 
 but which often find their propulsive power in jeal- 
 ousies and factions rather than in a true spirit of love. 
 Of these individual “Ethiopian movements” there are 
 many in East Africa. 
 
 Fields Yet Unoccupied 
 
 Africa is a great continent and vast areas yet remain 
 without any representative of the Gospel. The Ovim- 
 bundu people are perhaps the finest of the Bantu group 
 in Angola, but there are many tribes to the north and 
 east and south of our American Board field as yet un- 
 touched by the Gospel. In our West Africa Mission 
 there is a close and practical cooperation between the 
 missionary activities of the Canadian Congregation- 
 alists, the Colored Churches of the South and the reg- 
 ular forces of the American Board. Swiss, Portuguese 
 and Dutch workers are also cooperating in this field. 
 The contribution of the Canadians has been most 
 important as the work has been brought to its present 
 maturity. Chisamba, Kamundongo and Dondi have 
 been their particular responsibilities. It is with no 
 little eagerness that we look forward to their enlarg- 
 ing capacity for service as the plan of church union 
 
 30 
 
 x 
 
in Canada matures. If the Canadian Missionary So- 
 ciety which will doubtless develop from the uniting of 
 the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational 
 churches in Canada is able to put a larger force of 
 workers into Angola they may reach some of these 
 untouched tribes. . There will still be, however, many 
 regions where no messenger has yet been sent, con- 
 stituting a great opportunity for expansion of mission- 
 ary-activities in West Africa. 
 
 Our American negro churches working through the 
 American Board with such missionaries as Henry C. 
 McDowell and Samuel B. Coles have tapped a new 
 field one hundred miles to the south of our older sta- 
 tions, and have opened the station of Galangue. 
 Graduates of Talladega supported by the churches and 
 schools of the South are thus passing on to their 
 brothers in Africa the Christian training which they 
 received through our Home Missionary work. A 
 splendid beginning has been made and it was a pleas- 
 ure to meet an overflowing church full of eager listen- 
 ers only eighteen months after the first bush was 
 cleared. But our Southern churches have a great field 
 yet to occupy around Galangue, especially to the west. 
 
 What has been called the largest unoccupied field 
 south of the Equator is that in Portuguese East Africa. 
 The whole colony stretches for 1,300 miles along the 
 coast of Africa opposite Madagascar. Its stretch of 
 area would correspond roughly: with New England, 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 
 Its population, though only roughly estimated, is 
 probably far less than that of Massachusetts. About 
 250 miles of the southern end of it, Laurenco Marques 
 and Inhambane, is fairly well occupied by missionary 
 centers. The Universities’ Mission and the Scotch 
 Presbyterians each have some work in the north. The 
 Dutch Reformed Society had some missionaries in 
 
 31 
 
Tete at the western extremity, but these were recently 
 expelled by the authorities because they had not been 
 willing to comply with the regulations of the govern- 
 ment. Aside from this the whole province is entirely 
 unoccupied. The central portion, and in many ways 
 the most important section including the city of Beira, 
 has long been recognized as the peculiar field of the 
 American Board. Various attempts to occupy this 
 field have been made in the past but have been for the 
 most part unsuccessful because of the fact that our 
 approach to the Portuguese authorities had been with- 
 out sufficient sympathy and understanding. In West 
 Africa, however, our missionaries have demonstrated 
 that they are able to cooperate with the government 
 in developing missionary work. No society has been 
 more successful in this regard than the American 
 Board. The Prudential Committee thought it best 
 therefore to ask Mr. J. T. Tucker, one of the members 
 of the West African Mission, to accompany me in a 
 visit to Portuguese East Africa in order that we might 
 there come to a better understanding with the Portu- 
 guese officials and gain for the American Board their 
 confidence in initiating a new task. It was the feeling 
 of both Mr. Tucker and myself as we approached the 
 authorities with this end in view that we were acting 
 not simply for the American Board but for the whole 
 evangelical Christian world. The securing of permis- 
 sion to establish our missionary work in the territory 
 of the Mozambique Company would facilitate the ef- 
 forts made by all other societies who might seek to 
 initiate similar activities in this unoccupied field. In 
 our application made in writing to the Governor in 
 the Mozambique Company’s territory there was no 
 attempt to hide the fundamentally Christian purpose 
 which we had in view. It was expressed in the fol- 
 lowing language: “We consider the center of our activ- 
 
 32 
 
ities Christian teaching. But we do not neglect pro- 
 fessional training nor the teaching of reading and writ- 
 ing in Portuguese, following the primary instruction.” 
 After careful and friendly approaches the American 
 Board was granted permission on September 9th for 
 “the establishment of a religious mission.” 
 
 EAST AFRICA 
 
 FIELD OF THE 
 AMERICAN BOARD 
 Seale of English Statute Miles 
 
 0 10 20 30 40 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 tema’s GOGOIOe 
 Southdown? 
 
 ’ | 
 
 » pungdbera 
 
 
 
 While plans have not yet been formulated for the 
 opening of a new mission in Portuguese East Africa, 
 such an enterprise would naturally link itself up with 
 the beginnings already made in Gogoyo near the 
 
 33 
 
Rhodesia border, and in Beira the chief port. Two 
 other mission stations would be necessary and an ini- 
 
 tial budget of perhaps $50,000 would be called for. A | 
 
 further yearly expenditure of some $30,000 for salaries 
 and expenses would undoubtedly follow. The regular 
 resources of the Board can hardly meet this unusual 
 call. The special appeal of the situation must reach 
 some special donors. There may be some individual 
 who, gaining a vision of the unparalleled opportunities, 
 will make a splendid investment for the Kingdom, 
 thus opening to the redemptive power of the all-round 
 Gospel another of the unoccupied fields of the world. 
 
 An element of urgency in initiating this new work 
 in Portuguese East Africa is evident when we consider 
 the progress of Mohammedans in the colony. A new 
 influx of Mohammedanism has begun. There are no 
 conquering armies, no evident missionary societies. 
 It is conquest by infiltration. All through the Province 
 Moslem traders are to be found.. One Indian comes 
 into a district; he marries one, two or more native 
 wives and the children come rapidly. In a few years 
 the one man has developed into a Moslem community. 
 These Moslem communities are increasing and 
 mosques are now to be found in the coast cities. 
 
 The heathen cannot remain in isolated ignorance. 
 We have declared before the world for forty years that 
 the responsibility for giving them the Gospel belonged, 
 in that specific region, to the American Board. We 
 now have permission from the government to go 
 
 ahead. 
 
 Who Has Failed? 
 
 A vivid picture remains in my mind of my three 
 days’ visit at Chileso, West Africa. The welcome 
 which was accorded me as the auto drew up at the 
 
 34 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Crowd Welcoming Secretary Riggs at Chileso 
 
 station was such as can never be forgotten. Men, 
 women and children shouting, clapping and wildly 
 waving branches of trees, pressed about me until I felt 
 like a foot ball hero being carried from the field by his 
 enthusiastic college mates. 
 
 These people were enthusiastic because of their deep 
 devotion to the Gospel and to the messengers who 
 brought it. For many years the station had been piti- 
 fully undermanned. At the time of my visit Mr. 
 and Mrs. H. A. Neipp were on furlough, and Dr. Mary 
 Cushman who had been on the field only two years and 
 Mr. James Lloyd who was also new in Africa and was 
 only temporarily substituting at Chileso, were carry- 
 ing on the full-rounded activities of the station as best 
 they could. . 
 
 I met with the teachers of the outstation schools and 
 heard from them some of the trials of their primitive 
 life. One said that when he was called by the Portu- 
 guese administrator to report on his work he had to 
 borrow a pair of trousers, as he had none, in order 
 
 35 
 
that he might make a fair impression as ‘an educated 
 leader upon the Portuguese official. I met with the 
 elders of the church and the heads of the Christian 
 villages, a group of nearly forty men, and they told 
 me of the great opportunity in the region of Chengue, 
 and pleaded that a missionary might be sent for resi- 
 dence in that region. They told of two hundred vil- 
 lages close about Chengue open to the Gospel but with- 
 out a single worker. I visited some of the thirty-five 
 outstations where the people had decorated their 
 churches with flowers and palm branches. Even the 
 road leading to the church was strewn with great ba- 
 nana leaves in honor of my approach. At one service 
 each sentence as it was translated was clapped because 
 of the appreciation of the people of a visit from a rep- 
 resentative of the Board. A farewell meeting was sched- — 
 uled for the last evening of my visit. The church was 
 packed with these people, whose rule it was that no one 
 could be admitted to church membership except as he 
 had won someone else to Christ; these people whose 
 giving would put the most generous church in America 
 to shame; these people who had so long begged in 
 vain for additional missionaries to give them courage 
 and support as they themselves preached the Gospel 
 to their neighbors. I confess that I was somewhat 
 nervous as to what requests would be put forward for 
 financial help or for new missionaries. After hymns 
 had been sung in four parts with wonderful harmony 
 and rhythm, and after earnest prayers had been offered 
 up in the Umbundu which I could not understand, the 
 leading elder came forward for his parting message. 
 In his simple way he asked me to carry to the churches 
 of America the greetings of the church in Chileso, and 
 then with quiet and sincere humility he said “The 
 American churches have not failed; the missionaries 
 have not failed; but we have failed to do all that we 
 
 36 
 
could. Your visit has encouraged us. We shall do 
 better hereafter and we ask for your prayers.” There 
 was nothing but the simplest sincerity in this parting 
 message. ‘These native leaders had no other churches 
 with which to compare themselves than the church of 
 the first century whose records they found in their 
 only book, the New Testament. 
 
 As the naked Christian natives filed out into the 
 dark with unfeigned happiness to go to their crude 
 homes so lacking in the simplest necessities of life, I 
 could not but think of audiences I had addressed in 
 America who did not realize that they had failed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Phelps-Stokes Education Commission in Africa 
 
 Left to right: Drs. Aggrey, Jones and Loram; they are inspecting agricultural 
 
 plots at Mt. Silinda. 
 
 37 
 
= 
 
 
 
Institutions of the Africa Missions 
 
 The Mission each belongs to follows name in parentheses; also 
 
 the Board responsible for it in abbreviated form: A. B.C. F. M. 
 for American Board; W. B.M. for Woman’s Board of Missions; 
 W.B.M.1. for Woman’s Board of Missions of the Interior; C.C. 
 
 C. for Canadian Congregational Church. 
 
 Adams: Amanzimtoti Institute (Zulu) A. B. C. F. M. 
 
 Bailundo: Boarding eer GVWWestsAirica aA Ba Ge He 
 M. and W. B. M. 
 
 Chikore: Boarding Seay URnodesia)) Aw ba. Gach om: 
 and W. B. M. 
 
 Chikore: Dispensary (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 
 Chisamba: Boarding Schools (West Africa) C. C. C. 
 Chisamba: Hospital (West Africa) C. C. C. 
 
 Day Schools. Three hundred and eighty-three primary 
 schools. 
 
 Dondi: Currie Institute (West Africa) C. C. C. 
 
 Dondi: Means Training School for Girls W.B. M. I. 
 Gogoyo: Dispensary (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 
 
 Inanda Seminary (Zulu) W. B. M. 
 
 Kamundongo: Boarding Schools (West Africa) C. C. C. 
 
 Kamundongo: Dispensary (West Africa) C. C. C. 
 
 Mount Silinda: Training and Practicing School (Rhode- 
 Sig bes. ee Mi band? Wo B.oM.. 1 
 
 Mount Silinda: Hospital (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 
 Ochileso: Boy’s Boarding School (West Africa) A. B. C. 
 F. M. 
 
 Ochileso: Dispensary (West Africa) A. B. C. F. M. 
 
 Sachikela: Boarding Schools (West Africa) A. B. C. F. 
 Mand WW. BOM. 1. 
 
 Sachikela: Dispensary (West Africa) A. B. C. F. M. 
 
25, 
 
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 PAMPHLET BINDER 
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 Manufactured by 
 
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