The Denver star., 1915-10-30


Lack Of Understanding - The Lat'
Mary Kingsley Suggested Way o
Avoiding Common Error Of Judgment
| Professor S. NJ Harden of Lagos
West Africa, in an admirable address
delivered at public meeting of the
native Baptists of Lagos recently
among other things, which We wish We
had space for, said:
| "The greatest difficulty that the Eu
| ropean-and by European l mean the
white man neutrality-suspicious. in
| his dealings with the natives in the
political as well as the religious life
arises from Il want of understanding
of the native character. The white
man does not understand the natiH e.
He does not try to understand him his
customs and Institutions. 1t is SO much
easier to cut the Gordon knot Of any
thing unintelligible in native customs
by branding it as 'heathenish' and 'su-
perstitious,' and this is what the white
man does as u rule.
"It was the late Mary Kingsley, a
lady who, although not missionary.
devoted her life to Africa and the
Africans. who said that if the Euro
pean would only try to get at the
back Of the African mind, to think
black, lie would see many things in
African customs and institutions to re
spect and admire. The white man
does not try to do this, and he is there
fore always committing the most seri
ous blunders and coming to the most
illogical conclusions.
Take one example: The African
rain doctor and his pretension to be
able to draw rain from the clouds are
Il subject of constant ridicule with the
white man. He is looked upon as a
charlatan, an impostor. and the people
who believe in him are credulous fools.
Now, / am here to tell you that the
white man does make rain. or at least
has made rain. 1t happened some years
ago when was in America. In one Of
the western or southwestern states is
II large tract of land that would have
been u splendid place for agricultural
purposes but for the fact that scarcely
any rain ever fell there There was no
method Of irrigation found by which
the land could be watered. and here
was fine tract of country lying use
less for want Of little rain.
Captain Dryenforth. who thought
out things and did them. set to work
to see if he could not produce rain by
artificial means. In turning the sub
ject over in his mind the thought oc-
Cured to him that after every grcat
battle, especially battles in which
heavy artillery was used and there was
a great deal of cannonading. there was
heavy dOwnpour of rain. as at the
battle of Waterloo, when the belliger-
ents went from the field drenched i'm a
heavy shower. Why was this: He
came TO the conclusion that the con-
cussion in the air caused by the dis
charge of heavy guns. together with
the volume of smoke, created some at
mOspheric disturbance which resulted
in rain.
He had no heavy guns to let off. but
he got some detonatOrs that went of
with loud report. attached them to a
number of kites which he sent up into
the sky. timing them to explode after
the expiration OF some minutes. and
patiently waited to see what would
happen. The result was a success he
yOnd his most sanguine expectations.
Rain descended in few hours. l
watched the papers to see what use
had been hIade Of the invention but
saw no further mention made of it, It
may have been that the cost of the ma
terials was 50 heavy as to make the ap-
plication of the invention to general
use practically impossible. Now you
do not laugh at that man and his In
veHtiOD. Why! Because you under
stand his methods. He explains them
to you. He proves to yon that. given
certain conditions. certain causes must
produce certain results, and you arc,
satisfied and call that man genius.
THE African. on the contrary. hides
the secret Of his invention. and small
blame to him for doing SO. The white
man has his invention protected by
patent rights which are renewable and
before the time comes when he cam no
longer renew them he has enriched.
himself for life and his children after
him. The black man has no such pro-.
lection: hence he surrounds himself
with mystery In order more effectuat-
ly to guard his secret. which he be-
queatbs as valuable legacy to- his chill
dren.
1.-The white mans methods, which he
explains and you understand you call
science: the black man's, that You do
not understand, you call fettshism and
the work Of the devif. AS In temporal
so in spiritua! matters the white man
does not understand the maDners Of
the African"