Are the blacks in Kenya Colony receiving an education of this nature? The answer is, it is feared, generally in the negative. Now the character of the education of the black is going to have a profound effect on his future and also on the relations of black and white. This is a truism, and as Dudley Kidd has so forcibly put it, “The problem is the progress of a backward race, and we allow inefficient teachers, whose only qualification for the difficult work is their own kind hearts, to form the character of the rising generation and to complicate our difficulties—has any State the right to allow unqualified people to intensify national problems in this gratuitous fashion?”
It is not to be inferred that missionary educational effort is mischievous. Far from it; but it is narrow in its outlook, it is not based on any sound foundation, and it does very little to develop latent powers.
The colonists do not, as a rule, favour literary education, but clamour mainly for industrial education. There is a germ of truth in this opinion, but a sense of proportion must be exercised or the industrial market may be flooded with artisans of mediocre efficiency far in excess of the demand. The great rôle of the African in the future must be, as it has been in the past, the cultivation of the soil. Improve his agricultural methods and teach him to extract more food per acre to feed the future increase of the native population and still have something to sell.
Mohammedanism needs a reference, for it is a factor of no mean importance in Africa. Some students of extreme views picture the growth of a pan-Islamic spirit which will bind all the blacks against the Europeans; and missionary publications often refer to this as an imminent danger possibly with the object [[294]]of eliciting financial support for Christian propaganda. The writer has no such fears. Mohammedanism is spreading to a limited extent in East Africa, but there is little religious fervour behind it, and it is difficult to see how it can ever become more than a veneer with the up-country tribes, for it is certain that they will never learn Arabic in order to be able to enjoy the Koran.
Among the up-country people who come into intimate contact with Mohammedan life, such as those who come to coast towns to work, it is readily embraced, for it becomes the religion of the cooking pot. The Swahilis and such like are hospitable folk, but may not eat with unbelievers, and it is therefore very expedient for an up-country stranger to become nominally a Mohammedan, for he may then dip his finger in the food bowl with his hosts.
Apart from this, however, there is no doubt that the easy doctrines of Islam appeal to the African; they are suited to his temperament, and more important still, Islamism is not looked upon as an alien religion, for although the Arabs are few, the Swahilis, who form the greater number of the followers of Islam in the country, are only Africans who are a little more civilised and better clothed than their cousins from up-country, while Christianity is always associated with the coming of the Europeans and with their domination of the country.
Although for many reasons Mohammedanism appears more suited to the black than Christianity—it is a ceremonial religion and it moreover countenances polygamy—nevertheless, it is inadvisable that the State should in any way foster its progress in our African colonies, for it contains many dangerous elements. The Mohammedanism of East Africa is a mild variety, but there is much inflammable material lying about in the Mohammedan world, and it might at any time be blown over to that area. Mohammedanism, too, has a reactionary influence; it stunts cultural development and it appears to be insusceptible to internal evolution. [[295]]
On these grounds it would appear expedient that the bias of the State should be in favour of the eventual spread of Christianity, for it is a religion of a higher ethical type. It is the religion of the Western world, and although its spiritual progress has been hampered by an extraordinary mass of mediaeval accretions in the shape of dogma, ritual and such like, there are signs that it is endeavouring to eliminate non-essentials and adjust itself to the plane of modern thought. The progress is slow but it has to such a great extent lost its authority and its influence over the people as a mass, that if it wishes to survive it must adjust itself to the age it serves and endeavour to carry mankind a step further in the way of spiritual evolution. As for faith, faith is common to and alike in all religions—faith is the vital spark without which no religion can live or can ever become a vital force—be it a highly developed creed of the West or a lowly primitive type such as we have been considering. Faith evades all logic, and even the higher criticism of advanced clerics leaves it untouched.
During recent years the rapid internal development of East Africa has produced an acute situation with regard to native labour, and although, owing to the present economic depression, this is relieved for the moment, it is bound to recur as trade improves and production increases. The supply of labour has vastly increased during the last ten years, but up to the outbreak of war the amount but rarely kept pace with the demand, and the loss of native life during the German East campaign was so heavy that if the pre-war demand had been maintained there would have been a general shortage; a few years of restricted demand will therefore give a little breathing space, and a number of youths who were not old enough for military service will become old enough to go out and seek work.
Among a certain section of people in England whose knowledge of the colonies is somewhat vague, and whose outlook is tinged with sentimental philanthropy, [[296]]the employment of blacks as agricultural labourers or industrial workers by British colonists is looked upon with suspicion and as being little removed from slavery. It is apparently based on the belief that such labour is forcibly seized, badly treated and paid only a nominal wage. Ill-informed criticism is generally faulty, and in the present instance it is particularly so. Twenty years ago the up-country natives were, generally speaking, reluctant to work for private Europeans or for Government, except occasionally to carry loads; as settlement, however, proceeded the demand for farm labour arose, the needs of the native gradually increased, and a few rupees had annually to be earned to pay the hut tax; as these stimuli became felt, so native labour gradually became available. Every year up to the war the supply increased, and more and more natives became accustomed to the idea of working for wages several months in the year. Is this desirable, and if so, why? In the old days, before European occupation of the country, the able-bodied male population had to be always ready to repel raids or participate in raids, and in times of peace its main duty was the herding and guarding of the tribal cattle. The danger of attack ceased with the advent of settled government, and if the younger men of the tribe do not go out to work, they spend the bulk of their time loafing from village to village attending beer feasts and philandering with the young girls; for tribal custom insists that the bulk of the agricultural work shall as formerly be done by the woman.