Greater knowledge of native psychology will help to maintain the paternal relations which should exist between the natives of a district and their commissioner, and to which the most successful native administrators in the past owe their success.
(6) Education. This is essential, but, as has been explained, matters are not satisfactory at present, nor will they improve much until Government takes it over into its own hands, and it should begin by the formation of a well-equipped normal school wherein a large staff of native teachers should be trained by a picked European staff.
A boarding school should also be founded in each province where an effective industrial training can be given to a number of picked youths, and in conjunction with a sound rudimentary education.
The African is a receptive person, but has little persistence, and is apt to become weary before he is efficient. There are altogether too many young men about with a mere smattering of education which is nothing more than a surface veneer, and is often used as an excuse for escaping manual labour; this spirit needs to be vigorously combated. Very few natives leave the mission schools with anything more than this surface veneer of education, the outward sign of which is a passion for khaki coats, boots, collars and ties, and in this way they ape the European. This may appear ridiculous at present, but there is one thing certain and that is that a renaissance has now begun, and we must in the future be prepared for curious manifestations of the aspiration for self-realisation on the part of the African. The true art of government, therefore, will be to utilise with wisdom any real signs of their desire to rise to a higher cultural and social plane. The way will not be easy, but much can be attained by wide sympathy and by knowledge of the psychology of the subject.
It must never be forgotten that in a colony of the East African type the European colonist and the [[302]]native are interdependent. Due consideration and justice for the backward partner must be the keynote of the native policy, for a contented, friendly black population will connote a healthy and prosperous white community. [[303]]
L’ENVOI
The student of anthropology is urged to be precise and accurate in his record of facts, and the haunting fear of giving rein to the imaginative side, especially when dealing with beliefs which have almost ceased to evoke response from Western races, often tends to make one’s narrative seem dull and lifeless.
The poet is bound by no such paltry conventions, but it is rare to find one who strikes the true note—intimate knowledge coupled with acute insight.
The late Captain Cullen Gouldsbury of Rhodesian repute possessed this rare gift, and the writer takes the liberty of reproducing the following poem as a remarkable and unique attempt to express the native point of view: