A Social History of the American Negro / Being a History of the Negro Problem in the United States. Including A History and Study of the Republic of Liberia

by Benjamin Griffith Brawley

Pressed to the wall, dying, but—fighting back!

5. [The Widening Problem]

In view of the world war and the important part taken in it by French colonial troops, especially those from Senegal, it is not surprising that the heart of the Negro people in the United States broadened in a new sympathy with the problems of their brothers the world over. Even early in the decade that we are now considering, however, there was some indication of this tendency, and the First Universal Races Congress in London in 1911 attracted wide attention. In February, 1919, largely through the personal effort of Dr. DuBois, a Pan-African Congress was held in Paris, the chief aims of which were the hearing of statements on the condition of Negroes throughout the world, the obtaining of authoritative statements of policy toward the Negro race from the Great Powers, the making of strong representations to the Peace Conference then sitting in Paris in behalf of the Negroes throughout the world, and the laying down of principles on which the future development of the race must take place. Meanwhile the cession of the Virgin Islands had fixed attention upon an interesting colored population at the very door of the United States; and the American occupation of Hayti culminating in the killing of many of the people in the course of President Wilson's second administration gave a new feeling of kinship for the land of Toussaint L'Ouverture. Among other things the evidence showed that on June 12, 1918, under military pressure a new constitution was forced on the Haytian people, one favoring the white man and the foreigner; that by force and brutality innocent men and women, including native preachers and members of their churches, had been taken, roped together, and marched as slave-gangs to prison; and that in large numbers Haytians had been taken from their homes and farms and made to work on new roads for twenty cents a week, without being properly furnished with food—all of this being done under the pretense of improving the social and political condition of the country. The whole world now realized that the Negro problem was no longer local in the United States or South Africa, or the West Indies, but international in its scope and possibilities.

Very early in the course of the conflict in Europe it was pointed out that Africa was the real prize of the war, and it is now simply a commonplace to say that the bases of the struggle were economic. Nothing did Germany regret more than the forcible seizure of her African possessions. One can not fail to observe, moreover, a tendency of discussion of problems resultant from the war to shift the consideration from that of pure politics to that of racial relations, and early in the conflict students of society the world over realized that it was nothing less than suicide on the part of the white race. After the close of the war many books dealing with the issues at stake were written, and in the year 1920 alone several of these appeared in the United States. Of all of these publications, because of their different points of view, four might call for special consideration—The Republic of Liberia, by R.C.F. Maugham; The Rising Tide of Color, by Lothrop Stoddard; Darkwater, by W.E. Burghardt DuBois, and Empire and Commerce in Africa: A Study in Economic Imperialism, by Leonard Woolf. The position of each of these books is clear and all bear directly upon the central theme.

The Republic of Liberia was written by one who some years ago was the English consul at Monrovia and who afterwards was appointed to Dakar. The supplementary preface also gives the information that the book was really written two years before it appeared, publication being delayed on account of the difficulties of printing at the time. Even up to 1918, however, the account is incomplete, and the failure to touch upon recent developments becomes serious; but it is of course impossible to record the history of Liberia from 1847 to the present and reflect credit upon England. There are some pages of value in the book, especially those in which the author speaks of the labor situation in the little African republic; but these are obviously intended primarily for consumption by business men in London. "Liberians," we are informed, "tell you that, whatever may be said to the contrary, the republic's most uncomfortable neighbor has always been France." This is hardly true. France has indeed on more than one occasion tried to equal her great rival in aggrandizement, but she has never quite succeeded in so doing. As we have already shown in connection with Liberia in the present work, from the very first the shadow of Great Britain fell across the country. In more recent years, by loans that were no more than clever plans for thievery, by the forceful occupation of large tracts of land, and by interference in the internal affairs of the country, England has again and again proved herself the arch-enemy of the republic. The book so recently written in the last analysis appears to be little more than the basis of effort toward still further exploitation.

The very merit of The Rising Tide of Color depends on its bias, and it is significant that the book closes with a quotation from Kipling's "The Heritage." To Dr. Stoddard the most disquieting feature of the recent situation was not the war but the peace. Says he, "The white world's inability to frame a constructive settlement, the perpetuation of intestine hatreds and the menace of fresh civil wars complicated by the specter of social revolution, evoke the dread thought that the late war may be merely the first stage in a cycle of ruin." As for the war itself, "As colored men realized the significance of it all, they looked into each other's eyes and there saw the light of undreamed-of hopes. The white world was tearing itself to pieces. White solidarity was riven and shattered. And—fear of white power and respect for white civilization together dropped away like garments outworn. Through the bazaars of Asia ran the sibilant whisper: 'The East will see the West to bed.'" At last comes the inevitable conclusion pleading for a better understanding between England and Germany and for everything else that would make for racial solidarity. The pitiful thing about this book is that it is so thoroughly representative of the thing for which it pleads. It is the very essence of jingoism; civilization does not exist in and of itself, it is "white"; and the conclusions are directly at variance with the ideals that have been supposed to guide England and America. Incidentally the work speaks of the Negro and negroid population of Africa as "estimated at about 120,000,000." This low estimate has proved a common pitfall for writers. If we remember that Africa is three and a half times as large as the United States, and that while there are no cities as large as New York and Chicago, there are many centers of very dense population; if we omit entirely from the consideration the Desert of Sahara and make due allowance for some heavily wooded tracts in which live no people at all; and if we then take some fairly well-known region like Nigeria or Sierra Leone as the basis of estimate, we shall arrive at some such figure as 450,000,000. In order to satisfy any other points that might possibly be made, let us reduce this by as much as a third, and we shall still have 300,000,000, which figure we feel justified in advancing as the lowest possible estimate for the population of Africa; and yet most books tell us that there are only 140,000,000 people on the whole continent.

Darkwater may be regarded as the reply to such a position as that taken by Dr. Stoddard. If the white world conceives it to be its destiny to exploit the darker races of mankind, then it simply remains for the darker races to gird their loins for the contest. "What of the darker world that watches? Most men belong to this world. With Negro and Negroid, East Indian, Chinese, and Japanese they form two-thirds of the population of the world. A belief in humanity is a belief in colored men. If the uplift of mankind must be done by men, then the destinies of this world will rest ultimately in the hands of darker nations. What, then, is this dark world thinking? It is thinking that as wild and awful as this shameful war was, it is nothing to compare with that fight for freedom which black and brown and yellow men must and will make unless their oppression and humiliation and insult at the hands of the White World cease. The Dark World is going to submit to its present treatment just as long as it must and not one moment longer."

Both of these books are strong, and both are materialistic; and materialism, it must be granted, is a very important factor in the world just now. Somewhat different in outlook, however, is the book that labors under an economic subject, Empire and Commerce in Africa. In general the inquiry is concerned with the question, What do we desire to attain, particularly economically, in Africa, and how far is it attainable through policy? The discussion is mainly confined to the three powers: England, France, and Germany; and special merit attaches to the chapter on Abyssinia, probably the best brief account of this country ever written. Mr. Woolf announces such fundamental principles as that the land in Africa should be reserved for the natives; that there should be systematic education of the natives with a view to training them to take part in, and eventually control, the government of the country; that there should be a gradual expatriation of all Europeans and their capitalistic enterprises; that all revenue raised in Africa should be applied to the development of the country and the education and health of the inhabitants; that alcohol should be absolutely prohibited; and that Africa should be completely neutralized, that is, in no case should any military operations between European states be allowed. The difficulties of the enforcement of such a program are of course apparent to the author; but with other such volumes as this to guide and mold opinion, the time may indeed come at no distant date when Africa will cease to exist solely for exploitation and no longer be the rebuke of Christendom.

These four books then express fairly well the different opinions and hopes with which Africa and the world problem that the continent raises have recently been regarded. It remains simply to mention a conception that after the close of the war found many adherents in the United States and elsewhere, and whose operation was on a scale that forced recognition. This was the idea of the Provisional Republic of Africa, the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League of the World, the Black Star Line of steamships, and the Negro Factories Corporation, all of which activities were centered in New York, had as their organ the Negro World, and as their president and leading spirit Marcus Garvey, who was originally from Jamaica. The central thought that appealed to great crowds of people and won their support was that of freedom for the race in every sense of the word. Such freedom, it was declared, transcended the mere demand for the enforcement of certain political and social rights and could finally be realised only under a vast super-government guiding the destinies of the race in Africa, the United States, the West Indies, and everywhere else in the world. This was to control its people "just as the Pope and the Catholic Church control its millions in every land." The related ideas and activities were sometimes termed grandiose and they awakened much opposition on the part of the old leaders, the clergy, while conservative business stood aloof. At the same time the conception is one that deserves to be considered on its merits.

It is quite possible that if promoted on a scale vast enough such a Negro super-government as that proposed could be realized. It is true that England and France seem to-day to have a firm grip on the continent of Africa, but the experience of Germany has shown that even the mailèd fist may lose its strength overnight. With England beset with problems in Ireland and the West Indies, in India and Egypt, it is easy for the millions in equatorial Africa to be made to know that even this great power is not invincible and in time might rest with Nineveh and Tyre. There are things in Africa that will forever baffle all Europeans, and no foreign governor will ever know all that is at the back of the black man's mind. Even now, without the aid of modern science, information travels in a few hours throughout the length and breadth of the continent; and those that slept are beginning to be awake and restless. Let this restlessness increase, let intelligence also increase, let the natives be aided by their fever, and all the armies of Europe could be lost in Africa and this ancient mother still rise bloody but unbowed. The realization of the vision, however, would call for capital on a scale as vast as that of a modern war or an international industrial enterprise. At the very outset it would engage England in nothing less than a death-grapple, especially as regards the shipping on the West Coast. If ships can not go from Liverpool to Seccondee and Lagos, then England herself is doomed. The possible contest appalls the imagination. At the same time the exploiting that now goes on in the world can not go on forever.