Abstract
AT a meeting of the Anthropological Institute on the 28th ult. Sir Bartle Frere gave a lecture treating of the results of contact of civilised with uncivilised races in South Africa. The first part of the lecture dealt with the historical results of such contact in other countries, and the lecturer, after a sketch of the recent history and present condition of the various South African races, maintained that on the whole natives have increased in numbers as well as improved in physique and in Intellectual status by contact with Europeans, and that there was also little real reason to doubt an improvement in moral status. The conditions required to raise and improve races like the Kaffirs were (1) a strong imperial government; (2) freedom from slavery and equality before the law. To secure these two requisites it was necessary (3) to determine whether the standard of moral and social progress shall be that of the European or that of the native races; (4) education according to English standards. The general results arrived at in the lecture were summarised in the following propositions:—(1) It is possible for the civilised to destroy by war the savage races, to expel, or repel, or turn them aside in their migrations; (2) proximity of civilised and savage races has led or is leading to the decay and probable extinction of the Bushman race. But this result is doubtful in the case of the Hottentot races, and is certainly not taking place with regard to the Bantu or Kaffir races; (3) the changes consequent on proximity of civilised and uncivilised races are an approximation to the European type of civilisation; (4) the essentials to such approximation are (a) a pax Romana or Anglicana, bringing with it (b) protection of life and property, which involves equality before the law, individual property in land, abolition of slavery, abolition of private rights of making war? of carrying arms without the authority of the supreme ruler; (c) power of local legislation on European principles, with a view to secure education in the arts of civilised life, taxation sufficient for state purposes, restrictions on the use of intoxicating substances, as measures essential to the full attainment of any one of the preceding objects.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Civilisation and Barbarism in South Africa . Nature 24, 227 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024227b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024227b0