Satyagraha in South Africa - Mahatma Gandhi

Satyagraha in South Africa
most of the places sweet and poetical Negro names whose European
equivalents I have mentioned. I am sorry I do not remember them and so
cannot present them here to the reader.
According to the Christian missionaries, the Negroes previously had not, and
have not now, any religion at all. But taking the word religion in a wide sense,
we can say that the Negroes do believe in and worship a Supreme Being beyond
human comprehension. They fear this Power too. They are dimly conscious of
the fact that the dissolution of the body does not mean the utter annihilation
of a person. If we acknowledge morality as the basis of religion, the Negroes
being moral may be held even to be religious. They have a perfect grasp of the
distinction between truth and falsehood. It is doubtful whether Europeans or
ourselves practice truthfulness to the same extent as the Negroes in their
primitive state do. They have no temples or anything else of that kind. There
are many superstitions among them as among other races.
The reader will be surprised to learn, that this race, which is second to none in
the world in point of physical strength, is so timid that a Negro is afraid at the
sight even of a European child. If someone aims a revolver at him, he will
either flee or will be too stupefied to have the power even to move. There is
certainly reason for this. The notion is firmly impressed on the Negro mind,
that it is only by some magic that a handful of Europeans have been able to
subdue such a numerous and savage race as themselves. The Negro was well
acquainted with the use of the spear, and bow and arrows. Of these he has
been deprived. He had never seen, never fired, a gun. No match is needed,
nothing more has to be done beyond moving a finger and yet a small tube all at
once emits a sound, a flash is seen, and a bullet wounds and causes the death
of a person in an instant. This is something the Negro cannot understand. So he
stands in mortal terror of those who wield such a weapon. He and his
forefathers before him have seen that such bullets have taken the lives of many
helpless and innocent Negroes. Many do not know even now how this weapons.
‘Civilization’ is gradually making headway among the Negroes. Pious
missionaries deliver to them the message of Christ as they have understood it,
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