few- ?*.+wc.-rt. • At rw2 a ^ --— Striking Contrasts in South Africa AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, Boston, Mass. Z\2- dhttrnfturtiiry Not? In this sketch Secretary Patton summarizes the main impressions of a remarkable tour of inspection through the South African Mission of the American Board. It is a question which is more vivid, the text or the pictures. Taken together they furnish a demonstration of what Christianity has wrought in a dark and degraded land within seventy-five years. The South African Mission has just cele¬ brated its Diamond Jubilee. We are here shown the abundant reasons for rejoicing — the marvelous accomplishment and the good hope of yet swifter advance in the years ahead. No contributor to foreign missions can read these pages without realizing more keenly yet the effectiveness of the work to which he is giving his money. And it would seem that one who claims to have no interest in foreign mis¬ sions can hardly face the evidence here pre¬ sented without being convinced by it and with¬ out wishing to have a hand henceforth in the redeeming of this Zulu race. W. E. S. Scenes in the Dark Continent, showing the remarkable uplift of the people from the lowest barbarism by means of Christian churches and schools Illustrated by Original Photographs BY CORNELIUS H. PATTON Home Secretary of the American Board When David Livingstone went from Central Africa to Cape Colony to marry Mary Moffatt, daughter of the famous missionary, he was six months trekking back to the Zambesi River. The traveler can make the same jour¬ ney now on the Zambesi Express in four days; and instead of encountering all sorts of perils and hardships, as did Livingstone and his bride, he can recline in a sumptuous compartment, have excellent meals served in a dining car, enjoy a good bed at night, refresh himself with a shower bath in the morning, and in general take solid comfort along every mile of the way. I wonder how many of the hundreds of tourists who take this “train de luxe” for the purpose of visiting the Victoria Falls stop to think of the missionary who discovered the won¬ derful cataract and of his weary journey by ox wagon or by carriers through the vast stretches of the African wilderness. I wonder how many have ever counted the 1 cost, in human life and self-sacrificing endeavor, of plant¬ ing civilization in these parts. Livingstone, who has writ¬ ten his name across this continent, is but the foremost rep¬ resentative of a noble company of men and women who have given Africa to the world and are to-day leading Africa’s dusky millions into the kingdom of Christ. Contrasts in The railroads first struck my attention Transportation, upon landing in South Africa, intent upon making a careful investigation of the work of mis¬ sions in the region below the Great Zambesi. It is amaz¬ ing what one can see in a few months by availing him¬ self of the government system of railroads. Coming down the east coast I was struck by the fact that eight railways penetrate the interior between Suez and Cape Town. Had I been asked about this before taking the journey I might have counted the three roads running inward from Mombasa, Beira, and Durban. But to these we must add five others! When the Cape to Cairo road is completed it will resemble the backbone of a fish, with branching ribs on either side. East and west will run many side lines tapping the coast whenever there is a harbor or a good river connection. Then the continent may be said to be truly opened. The missionaries have been quick to avail themselves of the mighty highways already constructed, and as a result of the improved transportation facilities the work has been extended into regions which formerly could not be reached or could be worked only at a great dis¬ advantage. By the passing of the trek-wagon, with its line of lumbering oxen, “ outspanning” every two hours, 2 Old-fashioned Trek-wagon Crossing a River The Zambesi Express Four days from Cape Town to Victoria Falls 3 and making about fifteen miles a day, the missionary avails himself of the time gained in actual work among the natives. It is safe to say that the railroad has doubled his efficiency. Industrial The railroads are but one factor in a mighty Contrasts, industrial change which has come over the face of South Africa. As is bound to be the case where a land inhabited by savages is taken possession of and developed by civilized nations, every change is a revo¬ lution. To the native African the transformation is cataclysmic. Only with the most sympathetic and wisely directed assistance can he possibly adjust himself to the industrial revolution which he sees going on all about him. For untold ages he has been a child of nature, living in a bowl-shaped wicker hut, wearing only a bunch of monkey skins or a leather apron about his loins, eat¬ ing the fruit of the land, hunting the abundant game with his unerring assagais, or raising a few cattle on his native hills, content to squat and smoke and drink beer, un¬ disturbed and uninspired by the fierce competition of the workaday world beyond his shores. Now that world is upon him with a rush. With its railroads, steamboats, electric trains, plantations, factories, mines, laws, taxes, magistrates, police, armies, maxim guns, gin shops and prisons, civilization has descended upon the poor African like an avalanche. Is it any wonder that he sits around his beer pots half dazed and half crazed by the insistent demand of the white man that he adjust himself to the changed condition! To make mat- 4 ters worse epidemics have swept away his wealth in his cattle. First the rinderpest and then the tick fever have robbed the South African native of his all. With the loss of his cattle he has lost his chief articles of diet, milk and meat; he has, lost the means of plowing his field, and he has lost means of transportation for his crops. Was ever a primitive people in a more sorry plight? Was there ever a people in whose case it was more brutal and cowardly to be scornful and hard and impa¬ tient, to call them “lazy niggers,” “good-for-nothing Ka¬ firs”? If ever there was a chance for Christian civiliza¬ tion with its kindliness, its patience, its sympathy, and its wisdom it is right now in South Africa. But there is a good side to all this overturn. For one thing, the industrial revolution has compelled the negro to work. The young men have been forced to leave the kraals and seek work in the cities, especially in Kim¬ berly, Johannesburg, and Durban. By the hundreds of thousands they are flocking to the mines and other places where labor is in demand. In the Johannesburg region — the “Rand” as they call the great gold mining section of the Transvaal — 300,000 natives are employed at the present time. This plunge into the very maelstrom of modern civi¬ lization is full of peril to the unsophisticated African. He is quicker to learn the vices than the virtues of our city ways. The opportunity for missionary work is ap¬ parent, and the enterprising workers we send out from America have been quick to take advantage of the change. 5 The Old Way of Preaching To a few people in a Kraal; this way is still followed in out-reaching tours and away from the Chrbtian communities. In the old days the missionary or the native preacher was obliged to seek the people in their villages, which rarely contain more than a dozen huts. Arriving at the village or kraal, likely as not he would find the men away on a hunt or engaged in a beer drink, while the women would be working in the mealie fields. Audiences were few and small and very inattentive. Now the missionaries find the natives coming to them in vast numbers. They can be preached to by the thousand any Sunday in the compounds which surround the mines in the Rand or in the native barracks in Durban. And these strapping young natives listen with reverent attention. The young Zulu is lonely in the great city; he meets no white man who can speak to him in his own tongue except the missionary, and he knows the missionary is his friend. In company with Mr. Good- enough, our American Board representative at Johannes¬ burg, and Mr. Norton, his assistant, I preached to eager throngs of natives — all men — in three different groups, and never have I had better attention; never did preach¬ ing seem to pay so well. Every Sunday forty native preachers go through the different sections of Johannes¬ burg under the missionary’s direction carrying the sav¬ ing word to thousands of their fellows. At Durban our missionary, Mr. Bridgman, took me to seven different native services, two of them in churches but the others in all sorts of out-of-the-way places. It was one of the most rewarding days of my life. A notable feature of this city work is that the Zulu young men, after working 7 six months or a year, usually return to their homes. In this way the converts are spreading the good seed of the kingsom in every direction. Individual and But I am sure it is contrasts in the Social Contrasts, character and status of the people that American Board friends will want to hear most about. And here I must restrain myself for fear my enthusiasm may produce incredulity. The contrasts in social status between the heathen and the Christian natives are simply amazing. And they meet you on every side; they stare at you along every highway. The evidences of the uplift of the natives by means of Christian schools and churches are so numerous and conspicuous that he who runs may read. I ven¬ ture to say no open-minded tourist can journey for one hour along any road in the interior of Natal with¬ out being convinced of the vast change which has come over the Christianized section of the population. Here is a husky Zulu coming up the hill. He is clad mostly in his rich chocolate-colored skin; but his skin is set off by white bands of beads about his neck, by plumes of horsehair on his arms and legs, and by his shield of black cowhide ornamented with white stripes. 8 In his hands are knobkerrie and assagais, and as for cloth¬ ing he is content with a cluster of monkey tails dangling about his loins. You can see that man any¬ where in Natal or Zululand. He is all over the landscape; and a mighty picturesque object he is. But he is a heathen of the heathen. He may have three wives; more likely he has seven; if you press him and he owns up to eighteen you need not be surprised. And the way he treats those wives! Well, here come a bunch of heathen women; let us take a look at them! I will not say how far off you can detect them by another sense; that depends upon which w T ay the wind is blowing; it is w r ell to hint at the fact, for the filth of the kraal people is one of the dreadful things that have to be overcome. Look at these women. If they are unmarried they will draw out your admiration by their robust figures and their splendid carriage. You wall be dis¬ gusted wdth the hair hanging down to the nose in strings slimy with red clay and oil; but you cannot deny a certain air of distinction which their simple garb af¬ fords, especially if into their hair they have woven white 9 and red beads and if they have well-designed bead- work about neck and waist. These Zulus are artists in their way and they never fail to produce bold, effective designs. These young women may be wearing nothing but their beads, or they may have on an ornate apron or have thrown over the shoulders a blanket filled with oil and red clay. Along any road and on any day you can see them by the dozen and score. What they are in charac¬ ter I will not offend my readers by describing, but will simply say that virtue, as we conceive of it, is unknown among them. I doubt if any women on the face of the earth grade so low in essential morality. As some one has remarked, “The Zulus are not so much immoral as unmoral.” They simply do not know what morality is. If the women you meet are married they will have their hair up and combed over a huge basket-work frame, which is rather picturesque. But every mark of dignity, independence, and sprightliness is gone. They are poor old hags at middle life. You can hardly be¬ lieve they ever looked like the vigorous damsels you have been passing on the road. This is what marriage means. This is what the home — no, let us not debauch the sa¬ cred word home by such a connection — this is what the polygamous hut does for the Zulu woman. She is a poor drudge of a creature, the mere tool of her brutal husband. But long before you have seen all these “raw heathen” you will have passed groups of Christian natives, for they, too, are everywhere in Natal. There is no difficulty in detecting them, as they all wear European clothes. 10 Two Types of Motherhood The Christian mother is bringing her child for baptism What the Gospel does for Women Two Christian women and two heathen women of Ifafa, Natal 11 They may not be dressed for parading down Fifth Avenue, but for the most part they are neatly clad, and even without shoes reveal the higher social status to which the gospel has lifted them. They seem to belong to a different world, and they do. In nearly every case they can read and write. If you address them in English they will ordi¬ narily understand. With cleanliness, education, and character have come sense of worth and an entirely commendable purpose to get on in the world and to maintain their rights. The colonials often say, “An educated Kafir is necessarily an impudent Kafir.” I did not find it so, nor do the mission¬ aries find it so. They are not saints by a good deal; and the missionaries are the first to recognize certain strains of weakness in their characters, and to admit sad lapses into sin; but the man who refuses to see the vast change for the good in the native Christians, taking them all in all, is either blind or prejudiced. Contrasts in After all, the homes tell the story better Home Life, than anything else. The home is the highest product of Christianity, and the work of the mis¬ sionary may be tested at this point. As you pass along the roads or wander through the bypaths of South Africa 12 you are struck by the difference between the kraals of the heathen and the houses of the Christians. Many travelers never get far enough off the railroad to appre¬ ciate the real social conditions of a people like the South Africans; and those who do travel in the country seldom enter the kraals. To do so you must get down on your hands and knees and humble yourself in a way that some people do not like. But it pays, because in these huts you see life as it is. If you will squat down on the dirt floor with the natives and not mind the close proximity of goats — not to mention smaller inhabitants — or the thick and choking smoke which arises from the fire in the center of the floor, you may be able, by the aid of a friendly missionary, to draw out the occupants so as to really know their manner of life. Personally I made this my practice wherever I went in Africa, because I wanted to know my facts at first hand. I even penetrated a hut filled with dirty men and women, some fifty in number, engaged in one of their beer-drinking debauches. Now I say that the man who passes from these kraals to our native Christian homes and refuses to admit the revolutionary change is unworthy of argument. Com¬ parisons can hardly be more conspicuous. From the one- room hut described above, without cleanliness, without decency, to the home of the Christian with its several rooms, its suitable furniture, its orderliness and good health is a leap upward of vast social significance. Some one has said, “The first sign of a changed heart with an African native is a changed house.” Up in Gazaland, where the American Board established 13 How the “Raw” Zulu lives in Natal The Zulu “ Kraal” or village consists of a circle of huts, like huge beehives. A single hole in the side of each hut answers for door, window, and chimney. How the Christian Zulu lives in Natal In the house, in addition to the usual furniture, I found wallpaper, china dishes, and Pears’ Soap. 14 its work twenty years ago, there are social transforma¬ tions of a marvelous kind. Nothing but the redeeming power of God can account for the transformation wrought at a place like Chikore. Sixteen years ago, when Dr. and Mrs. Wilder began work, the people were as low down and gross as superstition and sin can make a people. The deviltry of the witch doctor and rain maker constituted the only religion. Incantations, sacrifices, orgies under the great Chikore tree on a hilltop were their only serv¬ ices. One Christian man and his wife built a home among those people. They learned the people’s barba¬ rous language, sought them out in their huts, cared for their sick, taught them helpful methods of agriculture, opened a little school for the children, and by and by they organized a church. What is the result of it all? I spent six days at Chikore in order to study with some care the effect of the Gospel among primitive heathen. I found a well-ordered and rapidly growing Christian com¬ munity. The typical heathen kraals were all about in abundance, but in the midst of them was a cluster of Christian homes — neat little square houses, divided into rooms, having glass windows, doors on hinges, tables, chairs, beds, fireplaces, dishes, and books. Best of all, I found a loving Christian welcome from father, mother, and children. I found a schoolhouse running over with bright boys and girls, classes going on inside and outside at the same time. I found boys being taught to use agricultural implements and carpentry tools. I found a lusty young church, with its evangelists and deacons, its Sunday School and its system of benevolence. I 15 Ten Chiefs at Chikore Who, clinging to their heathenism, asserted that the old times were better than the present, and asked to have the missionaries taken away. The “ Beira Boys ” at Mt. Silinda The cream of the Mt. Silinda school and eager to return and work for their people. Picture taken when they called to ask that the American Board would reopen its mission at Beira. 16 How the Heathen live in Rhodesia A typical family in the Ndanga country How the Christians live in Rhodesia This man built his house with his own hands, making doors and windows, and rendering it white-ant-proof by a unique cellar. He also made the chairs shown in the picture. The house has two rooms and a fireplace. 17 officiated at a solemn and well-ordered communion serv¬ ice. I found the whole region lifted up in intelligence, morality, and material prospects. In sixteen short years the progress of centuries had been made in social evolu¬ tion. I said, “It is a miracle,” and I say so still. The more I meditate upon it the more I am convinced that this work is the very work of God. Historical Attendance upon the 75th anniversary of Contrasts, our Zulu Mission made it possible to appre¬ ciate the contrast between the beginning of the work and its present status. When Dr. Adams and Messrs. Grout and Champion first brought the Gospel to Natal they found the people without a written language and liv¬ ing in utter barbarism, under cruel and licentious chiefs. What have we to show to-day? With 6,000 church members, 4,000 school children, 100 day schools, be¬ sides three boarding schools, normal school, theological seminary, industrial work and hospital, an impressive array of literature, and above all the Zulu Bible, we have a right to praise God for mighty things accomplished. The total impression of this work came to me with great force one evening at Amanzimtote, beautiful Aman- zimtote, which may be regarded as our leading station. I was sitting at sunset on the veranda of Mr. Ransom’s house, high up on the hillside. Far off on the horizon the Indian Ocean shone like gold. There was a soft mist gathering about the hills. Nature seemed at perfect rest. Not a soul was in sight, although the roofs of our institutions were visible through the trees. Then the sound of voices rose from the valley below; the girls 18 of the normal school were singing as they worked in the garden, and I could catch some of the words. They were singing about “the ever-green land” and “the beautiful shore.” Never shall I forget the effect of their melodious voices coming up through the trees and blending with the harmony of that sunset hour. My eyes wandered to a spot down by the river where I knew the first Christian convert in Natal was buried, and where Dr. Adams, too, was laid to rest. He worked eleven years to win that one convert — a poor old blind woman, named Bhulosi. And thus there came to my mind a vision of the 60,000 church members of all Boards among the Zulus in Natal to-day, the children, too, of these Christians and all the adherents, making possibly a company of 200,000 souls; and I thought of all the redeemed from the Zulu race who, since Bhulosi’s conversion, had gone to “the ever-green land,” and had met Dr. Adams and his associates there; and as these things came to my mind my heart was very full. Words cannot convey the sense of God’s presence and guidance in this work which comes -to a man under such circumstances. One can simply silently lift his heart to God in praise and thanksgiving. A few days later the missionaries and native pastors went down to Bhulo¬ si’s grave and held a praise service there; then passing to Dr. Adams’s grave, near by, we sang the hymn which he translated into Zulu and which the Zulus greatly love, “From Greenland’s icy mountains, From India’s coral strands—” and when we came to the lines, “Where Afric’s sunny fountains Roll down their golden sands,” 19 one man there at least concluded that the results of the Board’s work in Africa abundantly paid for all the pre¬ cious treasure in life and money which the people of America have contributed during these seventy-five years. Praise Service at Bhulosi’s Grave Father Pixley, now the senior missionary of the American Board in Africa, who is standing near the centre of the picture, remembers Bhulosi. His missionary life covers the entire era of transformation described in this sketch. 20 The American Board Announces Three New Stereopticon Lectures BY SECRETARY CORNELIUS H. PATTON New and Different Hinduism. The Religion of 333,000,000 Gods Buddhism. The Religion of the Pessimists Mohammedanism. Christianity’s Greatest Rival These lectures are intended to meet the increasing interest in the study of comparative religion and to do it in a popular way. Instead of requiring people to read voluminous and abstract treatises on the non- Christian faiths, these lectures follow the method of travel. It is as if you were taking a journey through India, China, Japan, and Turkey, and learning by the way, a little here and a little there, until you come to understand the strange religious practices and beliefs of the people by first-hand knowledge. You will see with your own eyes the on-goings of Hinduism, Bud¬ dhism and Mohammedanism, and will learn how these cults have expressed themselves in architecture, in wor¬ ship, and in life. Secretary Patton had these lectures in mind in making his recent trip through mission fields. He took numerous photographs of shrines and temples and of worshipers in out of the way places, so that much of the material is fresh and original. Amrriratt loarii Publtraitmts iUiaaiottarg l^rralii Published monthly. Contains information from all our missions. 75 cents per year. In clubs of ten or more, 50 cents each. This organ of the Board was never more prized by its readers than now, and it is essential for those who would keep informed in regard to the work of our Foreign Missions and the great religious movements in non-Christian lands. Enuring* S>rrira A quarterly issued by the Home Department of the Board, in which we present some of our most important articles. Subscription, 10 cents a year. Nrvua HuUrttn Issued by the Home Department from time to time, and invalu¬ able as a brief, newsy .synopsis of the leading current events in the missionary world. Furnished free upon payment of postage. “Qlljr 0tnrg of tl|r Amrrirmt $5nariT By William E. Strong The new history of the Board, completing the full century, just printed, should go into every pastor’s library and every Young People’s Society. Over five hundred pages, with sixteen new maps, forty portraits, etc. $1.75 net, postage 18 cents. Special Exposi¬ tion edition, paper covers and without maps, 50 cents, postage 12 cents. Literature and leaflets of the American Board may he had by addressing: John G. Hosmer, Congregational House, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. Or at the District offices: Rev. Edward Jmncoln Smith, D. D., 4th Avenue and 22nd Street, New York City. Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, D. D., 10 So. La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill. Rev. H. Melville Tenney, D. D., Mechanics Bank Bldg., San Francisco, Cal.