Introduction
In the 1880s, competition for Africa’s resources drove European powers to a frenzy of colonial exploitation. Frances Colenso, daughter of the Bishop of Natal, acknowledged that Britain had brought technology and education to Africa; but if the average African was still a child in some matters, that did not mean that we should treat Africans as if they were children. If we continued to do so, she warned, there would soon be a reckoning.
England must have a duty in South Africa, or else she has no right there; since, for us human beings, for nations as for individuals, our rights and our duties depend on one another, and cannot exist apart.
Now, Africa does not belong exclusively to the African, and the crowded citizens of Europe have treasures of invention and research to exchange for a share in broad acres, gold, and gems. But it must be share and share alike in the joint stock of good things. The African has an equal right with the European to them all. He is not a subordinate, but a partner in the business, whose rights must be only the more scrupulously respected, so long as, like a child, he is not yet able to appreciate or make use of some of them. And though, meanwhile, we may be tempted to ignore those rights, we may be very sure that in one way or another a law, above all human law, will enforce them against us when the time is ripe.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Archive
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
Related Posts
Frances Colenso admired the gallantry of the men who defended the fort at Rorke’s Drift, and the restraint of the men who attacked it.
Picture: By Alex Bassano, published 1885. Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 26 2024
John Clayton, a British colonial official lost in the African jungle, is caught unawares by Kerchak, the gorilla.
Picture: Abigail Brodsky, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted September 7 2022
After one of the worst outrages in modern British history, Winston Churchill stood up in the House of Commons to label the Amritsar Massacre an act of terrorism.
Picture: © Jmacleantaylor, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted October 23 2020
