Books: People of Africa
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Edith A. How >> People of Africa
All the Europeans have some work to do. The men see that the
ploughing and sowing is done well, and, because the farm is large,
this takes a long time. They have to look after the cattle and horses
and sheep, and to take care that their food and water are good and
that their sleeping sheds are clean. If the cattle get ill, sometimes
a whole herd will die, and the farmer will lose a great deal of money.
The children watch the herds while they are grazing, and take care
they do not stray too far away. The women have to see after the
household. There are always African women servants to help, but there
is a great deal of work in a European house. In every room there are
many chairs and tables which have to be moved when the room is swept.
On all the beds there are blankets and white cotton sheets. A white
cloth is spread on the table when food is to be eaten. Europeans wear
many clothes. All these have to be washed whenever they are dirty,
and so one person will be kept busy all day washing and ironing if
there are many people living on a farm.
Then Europeans eat three or four times a day, and have many different
kinds of food. Maize or wheat flour is made into bread or cakes.
Meat is either roasted or boiled, and is often eaten with green
vegetables. Sometimes meat and vegetables are cut up into small
pieces and all boiled together for a long time. Then it is called
soup, and is eaten with a spoon. Milk from the cattle is used to
drink, and is also made into butter and cheese, which are hard, and
can be eaten with bread. Europeans drink coffee like the Arabs, or
tea which is made from the leaves of another plant. When mealtime
comes all the family come to the big room where a large table is
covered with a white cloth. The food is brought in a large bowl or
dish, and the farmer or his wife puts some on a plate for each person.
Europeans use knives and forks and spoons in eating food. The men and
women and children all sit together round the table. On the farms as
a rule there is no wood or coal to make fires, so the sweepings of the
cattle-shed are made into cakes and dried in the sun. This makes very
good fuel for fires.
4. How South Africa is Ruled
The Europeans on the farms do not see many other people, as the farms
are very large and are long distances apart. Sometimes the men have
to go to town to sell their grain or cattle and to buy other things,
but they cannot leave their work very often. The children are taught
to read and write at home, and sometimes when they are big enough they
are sent away to school in some town. There they will live with
children from many other parts of South Africa, and will learn that
their farm is only a little part of a very big country. Europeans are
Christians, and the children are taught that they must love and help
their country and other people always. It is because European
children are taught to be ready to give up everything, even their
lives, to help their country to be good and great, that the Christian
European nations have grown as strong and wise as they are. The
countries of Europe learnt about Christ many hundreds of years ago.
We said that South Africa was ruled by Europeans. Their king is King
George who lives in England, but he does not rule or make laws by
himself. In South Africa and in each of his other countries, King
George sends a Governor, because he himself is so far away. Then the
people of South Africa choose someone in each district to go and help
the Governor to rule wisely. When all these men from different parts
meet together it is called a Parliament. This Council or Parliament
decides everything about ruling the country, and tells the Governor
what it is best to do for all the people in South Africa.
So in thinking of South Africa we have to think of a nation of people,
each doing one particular kind of work which is needed both by himself
and by everyone else. Everyone's work is useful to the whole nation,
whether he works in a town, or on a farm, or on a railway. The great
towns are where people sell what they have made and buy what else they
need. The farm families live far away from one another, growing food
or wool for the nation. But they, too, meet from time to time, and
they read newspapers about what is done in the great towns. Then,
when the time comes to choose the men for the Parliament to help the
Governor, farmers and townsmen in each district say which man they
wish to go to it. In this way everyone can help the nation by his
work, and everyone can help to keep peace and justice in the country
and to prevent bad people hurting the weaker ones.
VIII
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CONCLUSION
Now our book is finished, and we have read about some of the other
people who also live in our country of Africa. There in the north are
the Bedouin and the traders, always moving from waterspring to
waterspring across the sand of the great Sahara, ever on the watch
against robbers. Next there are the Egyptians living on the great
River Nile: some in towns with shops and trades; some very poor in the
villages, planting their seed when the river rises. All these
Northern people are Mohammedans and the men marry several wives, and
the women are veiled and live apart.
Farther south it is very hot, and is a land of great lakes and rivers.
Here we read about the Baganda, the dark-skinned Africans who learned
to make a strong nation where all the people helped each other and
obeyed their king. These are now Christian, and are quickly learning
other things from the Christian European nations who trade with them.
Then we read about the tribes farther west in the land of the River
Congo. These people still move their villages from time to time, and
each man makes only what he needs in his own home. There is often
fighting between the tribes, and many people are killed. These Congo
people have learnt very little, and some eat the flesh of men and
women, and the little Pigmies do not even live in villages, but each
family by itself.
Farther south still is the great country of South Africa. Here it is
not so hot, and Europeans have made their homes in it. There are
Africans living in tribes and villages, but learning to be peaceful
and to help each other by their work. Many of these at times go to
work in the mines to find useful things deep down in the ground.
There are also the Europeans: some in towns, some in farms, all
European and African bound together in the great nation of South
Africa, each doing his own part of the nation's work.
So that in this great land of Africa we have people living very
different kinds of life, in the deserts, in the forests of the Congo,
in Uganda and on the Nile, in the mines of South Africa, and on the
great farms on the veld and in the great towns. The country itself is
different in different parts: the sand in the north; Central Africa,
with its hot sun and its lakes and rivers and mountains and forests;
South Africa, with its great grassy plains, and the mines and towns
joined by the railways which make it easy to get quickly to places far
away. Yet, although the people of Africa have such different homes,
we must remember that they are very much like ourselves. They wear
other clothes and speak other languages, but all love their families,
and each is doing his best to make his home a happy place in which he
can live.
Printed in Great Britain by
Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher
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