Isaac Schapera - Western Civilization in Southern Africa

AFRICA
In 26 Volumes

First published in 1934

Reprinted in 2004 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2009

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Western Civilization and the Natives of South Africa

ISBN 0-415-32556-0 (set)
ISBN 0-415-33003-3
ISBN 978-1-136-53388-4 (ePub)

Miniset: Africa

Series: Routledge Library Editions - Anthropology and Ethnography

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

[1. Schapera

Isang Lentswe Pilane, Former Acting Chief of the BaKxatla ; Patron of Education and Economic Development

A MODERN BANTU CHIEF

[frontispiece

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiec., A MODERN BANTU CHIEF.

Isang Lentswe Pilane, Former Aing Chief of the BaKxatla ; Patron of Education and Economic Development. (I. Schapera.)

Plate.

I. CHRISTIANITY AND TRIBAL LIFE

II. THE NATIONAL SCHOOL, MOCHUDI, B.P.

III. RHYTHM IN BANTU LIFE

IV. AGRICULTURAL LIFE IN THE RESERVES

V. ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE RESERVES

VI. LANGA NATIVE TOWNSHIP, CAPE TOWN

VII. Street Scenes

VIII. NATIVE HOMESTEADS

IX. Scenes of Domestic Life

X. THE SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION

XI. ON SHOW FOR THE EUROPEANS

MAPS.

I. NATIVE AREAS IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA. (J. D. R. Jones.)

II. POLITICAL MAP OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

T HE Native problem as it exists to-day in South Africa is not a phenomenon of recent growth. The issues confronting the country are the produof many decades of inter-racial contaand adjustment during which Europeans and Natives have exercised a steadily growing influence upon each others lives. Under the influence of European civilization many of the Natives have abandoned their original tribal customs, and their social life is being reorganized on a new basis by the adoption of European habits and customs, and by their introduion to the economic and religious systems of the Europeans. On the other hand, the presence of the Natives has so profoundly afteed the social and economic development of the Europeans as to have become an indispensable part of the whole struure of civilization in South Africa. It is no longer possible for the two races to develop apart from each other. The future welfare of the country now depends upon the finding of some social and political system in which both may live together in close conta, without that increasing unrest and disturbance that seem to arise as the inevitable result of the lack of harmonious co-operation in any society.

It is obvious that any successful policy must be based upon a thorough knowledge and understanding of the present situation and of the processes which have led to its creation. Until we have investigated carefully the story of their relations in the past, we can neither appreciate the many sources of fri