Franklin's paper the statesman., 1912-01-13
THE AMERICAN NEGRO is NOT
WANTED IN AFRICA.

| have received the following letter
from a correspondent in South Africa.
Mr.. f. q. S. Peregrino, representative
at Cape Town of King Lewanika of
the Barotse II may be OF interest TO
readers of the Statesman:
My Dear Bruce
There is an element in the United
States of America, well meaning but
utterly wrong. who are engaged in
the advocacy Of the American NeSro's
exodus to Africa. because forsooth
Africa is the ancestral home of the
Negro. where he will work out his sal
vatiou. where he will be able to sit
under his own vine and fig tree, none
daring TO make him afraid.
This is beautiful theory. an at
tractive and enchanting picture and
one worthy of a niche in the gallery
of fancy. Disillusion gaunt and hide
Gus awaits he who embarks for South
Africa inspired by this picture.
A Condition. Not Theory.
| challenge the contradiction of the
assertion that the worst hated man
who sets his foot on South African
soil today is the man from America
who wears the shadowed livery of
the FURNISHED sun" and who is soon
Apotted by his tongue. Nav, | go
further. this hatred is by no means
confined to the American Negro.
There is a phrase or term here which
is known as the "Seakafr." This ap-
plies 10 all black men who have
crossed the briny or who hail from
over sea. The states. West Indies.
west ARIA. anywhere. and tell it
not in Goth" and no tongue rolls II
over more glibly than does that OF
that indescribable variety of the gen
us homo known as the Cape boy
Now. my dear Bruce. the specimen
is neither flesh, fish nor decent red
herring. is hated by his unnatural
parent. usually the male side of the
house. and for his assumption OF su-
perior airs. is equally damned by the
black man to whom he is relegated,
but who is not of him, and to whose
burdens he adds.
This mixed multitude are always
referred to contemptuously as boys
only when the variation of bastard is
employed Think of man proudly
claiming in court on the enquiry be
ing made as TO his ethnic classifica-
ton. IL am bastard" and | have
heard such boasts.
The sexagenarian. the septagenar-
I'm. the oClDEtUdildll Nh' t'hNNh
arian are each "boy"-just boy who
never attain to manhood
| remember during my earlier years
in America finding it necessary to pay
some attention to a brood who consti-
tuted the blue vein society o. one of
,,our Western cities, n thing which |
believe and hope is now dead. The
South African variety is not just mu-
latto or quadroon.
careful analysis of the creature
will reveal the presence in its veins
of tba blood of the Mongolian, Tartar,
Cauk ksian, Negro, etc, an heterogen-
ous and unassimilable mass, each
contending for mastery and resulting
in the production of an ignorant, pre-
stfNptuous and hideous caricature of
man.
A Strange Trinity.
The man from oversea who wears
a black face has often not alone to
contend against the white man nor
to submit to the annoyance or the
creature just described, but frequent
" in contact with the South African
black man. South Africa is after all
in point of population, civilized $50
called, is n small one, and one edu-
GATED black man from America, espe-
ssally II he comes in the garb of re-
Iieon and is glib of tongue and unc-
tuous withal, such man can do an
incalculable amount of harm II dis
posed to evil courses.
We have had such a man here who,
coming rs the representative or
great church, proved an incorrigible
roc,e and went in and out among the
natives, robbng right and left, while
Drawing fervently with his victims.
and who succeeded in getting away
inst in time to avoid being incarcer-
ated in n South African prison for
black folk. And. whew, what time
he would have had. Now the white
man makes good use of such exam