Private
Confidential

No. 1

Kaffir sale of women in Natal

The degradation of the kaffir women in Natal is unspeakable, they are so degraded that they do not know their own degradation. I, a woman, cannot give before men the facts, the customs supported by our Law, for that is the curse, which show what that depth of degradation is. Unchastity is there that of animals: but its consequences in bearing children are deliberately avoided, so that the innocence of animals is exchanged for the art of the savage.

If the sale of women for cows could be illegal, that is unsupported by legislation, then it would be unsupported by public opinion, for of all peoples Natal kaffirs are most subject to law. How otherwise could a population of 20000 whites exist among a population of 300000 kaffirs?

Once the legislation making women saleable slaves were done away with, once there were an easier law of exemption or naturalization, once kaffirs saw that exemption was considered by their masters a good thing: their barbarous customs would fall away of themselves. But, as long as our legislation supports the selling of women, they think it ‘all right’. How indeed can they do otherwise? They think that we think that their native law is the ‘proper thing’ for them. Can anything be more demoralizing? For as soon as a kaffir knows a thing is law, he is inclined to obey it. These people, so capable of intellectual development and of intelligent obedience, would make a first rate working population. The Makolwa Xtian leads a higher life than the white Christian.

What would be the thing needful for the Natal kaffir is
1. To do away with woman selling legislation.
2. To extend to kaffirs a simple naturalization law: if he wishes to be naturalized, let him apply to the magistrate, answer certain questions, the magistrate has to take care to verify his statements, pay a small fee, take the oath of allegiance, possibly have a month or two’s probation. And it is all settled.

Give these two things to the kaffirs, give them social, not political rights. And you will make out of these women slavetraders one of the finest peasantries in the world.

F.N.

10/1/80

2

The kaffir women are so degraded that they do not know their own degradation. And their degradation is supported by our law. This is the curse.

If the sale of women were unsupported by our legislation, then it would be unsupported by kaffir public opinion, for of all people kaffirs in Natal are most subject to law.

Once the kaffirs saw that exemption was considered by us, their masters, a good thing, instead of seeing that we think their native law the ‘proper thing’ for them, their barbarous customs would fall away of themselves.

Might we suggest that two things are needful for the Natal kaffirs.
1. To do away with woman selling legislation.
2. To extend to kaffirs some such simple naturalization law as: an application to the magistrate, answering certain questions, the magistrate to verify the statements, payment of a small fee, possibly three months’ probation. And this to be all.

Might it not be that, if these two things were given to the kaffirs, together with education, out of these degraded women sellers might be made what they have every capability for: a first rate working population and one of the finest peasantries in the world?

F.N.

10/1/80