Chapter I.

NECESSITY FOR BETTER EDUCATION OF THE
AFRICAN.
Wherever one turns in the Gold Coast one meets the same demand — a better education for Africans than our present schools are capable of providing. Apart from the fact that the people themselves are clamouring for a better education, the future of the country demands it. In the Government Service alone the need is urgent ; the development of the country is progressing so rapidly that we can no longer afford the proportionately larger number of Europeans required to deal with the work, for their long leave, their steamer-passages, and the higher rates of salary due to their employment in what can never be a " White Man's Country " are prohibitive. Government has definitely adopted the policy of employ- ing Africans in appointments hitherto held by Europeans provided that the former are equally qualified in educa- tion, ability, and character, but progress in carrying out this policy is slow owing to the scarcity of suitably qualified Africans. When, besides the need of Govern- ment, that of the European firms — mercantile, banking, and professional — is considered, is it apparent that there is a great field for the employment of well-educated Africans throughout the country.
More important still is the demand of the educated African of the existing literate classes for an education
6
and training that will fit him to take a greater share in the development of his own land. We have not to look far for the reason. To begin with, the southern portions of the Gold Coast have been in closer contact with European civilization for a far longer period than any other of Britain's West African colonies. In the second ' place, our great agricultural wealth and trade are far greater in proportion to our size and population than those of almost any other tropical unit of the British Empire. Our financial resources have, in comparison with our area, enabled us to cover the country with ^ communications far more completely than has yet been found possible in countries possessing an equally pro- ductive soil and greater population. The annual increase of trade has naturally been accompanied by a steady increase of wealth until to-day we are far richer per head of the population than any of our neighbours. Now, prosperity brings a desire for the better things of life, and when this desire is heightened by the know- ledge brought by the steady development of elementary education it is not surprising that there is to-day a rapidly increasing demand for better conditions of living, better sanitation, good water supplies, hospitals 'jfind dispensaries, and all the other benefits of modern civilization.
To comply with all these demands, to cope with rapidly changing conditions, Government acting by itself will make insufficient progress ; its efforts must be supplemented by African enterprise. Government's duty at present is to lay the foundations of development in every direction, to organise the departmental machinery necessary for dealing with each system, and to provide such European staff as the revenue permits ; while at the same time it must prepare, organise, and bring into being
7
a system of schools where Africans can obtain the better and higher education that will fit them to enter the various trades and professions, both in the public service and in private enterprise.
*****
This question of providing facilities for better educa- tion and training bristles with difficulties. There is, as I have said, a universal demand by the people. To comply hastily with this demand at the present moment would be fatal, for the simple reason that we have not got an educational staif sufficiently trained to carry out the work efficiently. To do it inefficiently would be to start on the wrong road, a road along which we should have ultimately to retrace our steps ; to trust the future of the race to insufficiently trained leadersh ip in education would be far worse than having no education at all. This, then, is our immediate task — the provision of well- trained teachers, instructors, and professors from among the Africans. Until we have done that we shall not be able to improve our present system of elementary education sufficiently to enable full use to be made of the secondary schools that we propose to start. Nor will the Africans themselves, who from time to time have initiated schemes for the provision of higher education by private enterprise, be able — no matter what funds they may raise — to carry out their intentions in a manner conducive to the ultimate success of their country with- out more and better trained teachers of their own nationality.
Higher education by itself will not solve the problem of the country. It must be accompanied by a better system of training in handicrafts, agriculture, and all those trades that go to provide for the necessities of a
8
community ; for althougli liiglier education may be the brain of a country, its productive capacity is its heart. Of what use is the brain if the heart ceases to beat? The education of the brain and the training of the hand, each accompanied hy the moulding of the mind, must proceed together if success is to be sure.
The moulding of the mind ! That is too important a subject to deal with here; it deserves — and receives in this booklet — a chapter to itself.
*****
I am well aware of the belief held by some critics — and who has not heard it enunciated? — that the African is not capable of exercising those qualities that will be conferred on him by higher education.
Now, whatever may be my own belief — and I believe my African friends know what that is — there are two sides to every question, so I am going to examine the contention of these critics dispassionately and ask them four questions.
Firstly, have the critics ever considered that character- training — the essential factor in every branch of educa- tion but the all-essential factor in higher education — has hitherto been omitted from the African's curriculum, at any rate in Africa? If they have not thought of this, may I ask them to reconsider their belief in the light of what is written in the next chapter? If they persist in their belief, then they deny that a human being can rise from a lower to a higher plane of development and it does not appear to me that they receive the support of history.
Secondly, are they aware that the African races, in spite of the lack of educational facilities, of character-
9
training, have produced men who have distinguished themselves in various walks of life, many intellectually, a number morally? America, where they have long studied the question of African education, has furnished many examples, even under the heavy handicap of white " opposition to after-employment. Our own African and West Indian colonies furnish others, suffi- ciently numerous to warrant the belief that, had charac- ter-training been in their school curriculum, success would have been wider and more complete.
Thirdly, are the critics aware of the immense field in Africa for the employment of Africans, and if so are they deliberately going to turn men who have an earnest desire for intellectual advancement — and some of whom have shown that they can benefit by it — into a race of malcontents by confining them to the subordinate work of trades and professions?
And lastly, do the critics honestly believe that we have the right to deny the African the chance of prov- ing that his race is capable of doing what other races have done in the past? If so, they have forgotten that Britain stands where she does to-day by giving her peoples and her opponents alike a " sporting chance."
When all is said and done, however, it is to future generations of Africans that we must leave the task of proving that the belief of the critics of their race is wrong, of justifying the confidence placed in them byj British Governments of to-day ; the present generations, except in isolated instances, cannot do so — they have not had the opportunity of receiving an education and a character-training that fits them for the task.
« » « « *
10
Other critics liave it that, in advocating the provision of a higher education locally for Africans, we are deliberately inviting political troubles in the Gold Coast. Surely the absolute contrary is the case. If politics are to come — and come they must if history is of any value as a guide — surely the safeguard against trouble is the local education of the many, accompanied by character- training, rather than the education in Europe of a few, an education that invariably lacks character-training and that more often than not results in bad European habits replacing good African characteristics? If secondary education is not introduced to fill the gap between the English University-trained African and the semi-literate product of our primary schools, we shall be continuing our present system of providing the easy prey of the demagogue that the late Lord Cromer warns us against.*
*****
Another criticism is, that in educating Africans to fill higher appointments in the Government service we shall be deliberately interfering with European employ- ment in the Gold Coast. This is a short-sighted view. I have already pointed out that the development of the country necessitates an annual increase in staif. No Government in the world could afford proportionately, the immense financial burden of European salaries, passages and long furloughs that would fall on the Gold Coast if this increase was to consist of Europeans only. Apart from that, the married European with children has not and never will have a real home life in West Africa, whereas there is a great field of employment for him in the good climates of the Dominions. It will be many long years before Africans are fit to fill the
*yee page 29, Chap. V.
11
higher appointments in the Government service ; in the meantime there is ample room for both.
*****
Let there be no mistake, however, about the time of transition of the African peoples from primitive to modern civilization, no false hopes about the rapidity with which they will fit themselves to stand alone. There is no short cut to success ; that can only be reached by hard and steady work, by a sustained eifort that will try the race as it has not been tried before. A good educa- tion and character-training are all that the Government can provide; application, work, and an honest determina- tion to prove himself worthy are the African's share in the general task.
*****
It has been said that we must go slow, that we must not force education on the people. With regard to the last point there is no question of forcing ; one has only to see the crowd of applicants for admission surrounding the primary schools of this country at the beginning of every term. As for going slow, we are going too slow. Although it is perfectly true that the races of the Gold Coast are now in a phase through which every other race has had to pass since time immemorial, yet every, century sees a quicker rate of advance made by the primitive peoples of the world. Therefore, although we may draw lessons from the past experience of other nations, it is essential that we should move faster, quicker even than the educational authorities did in the days of our youth.
*****
Taking advantage of such lessons as can be dug out of the buried history of the Gold Coast, watching carefully
12
for pitfalls on the road along whicli we are travelling to-day, striving to see through the mists of the future, we must prepare carefully the better and the higher education of the local races — and their character-training. In no other way shall we fit them to absorb European civilization unhurt — and it is my belief that in no other way shall we keep them permanently the loyal and worthy members of our Empire that they now are.
13