Are We Going To Let This Happen?
December 6th, 1887
As Africans we have been living together in South Africa for centuries. Our lives have been peaceful ones, going at our own pace, making our own advances, and following traditions centures old. Up until now, we haven’t really had much contact with the outside world in terms of influence.
But as I write this article, Britain is westernizing our country with all of their modern advancements. Are we going to just sit back and allow this to happen?
The first British settlement on our land was established by the Dutch East India Company in Cape Town in 1652. The settlement was there in order to supply passing ships but the colony quickly grew and only a couple decades ago did Britain turn this small colony into the international trading empire of industrializing Britain.
Slowly but surely this industrialization spread eastward throughout Africa affecting many of our tribes. And today, more than ever, Br
itain has started to take indirect rule of our country.(1)
The policy of indirect rule is a method of administering a local government to the colonies that Britain has made. Britain thinks that because our ways of life are vastly different, in order to be able to govern our communities (getting what they want from our country) they must rule through the political system that they create.
African executive councils have been replaced with British officers and the legislative councils only contain a few Africans.(2)
So, not only has Britain started to influence our daily lives with all of their modern technology and western ideas,(3) but they are starting to invade our government and tap into the heart of our country. Soon they might take over the entire South African country, then what will be left?
Just recently mineral discoveries have been made in Vaal and the Orange rivers. This sudden attraction of wealth and opportunity has brought thousands of settlers rushing into South Africa with the hopes of finding wealth.
This sudden wave of British has annexed us from the diamond fields which if I may remind you were found on our land, not British soil.(4)
So what right do they have to come barging into our country and push us around like we’re animals to be herded? These diamond mines are providing the British settlers and their colonies with 
unsurmountable amounts of money, which in turn will cause them to stay longer and eventually take complete control of our country.
These British people coming into our country where our ancestors once lived hundreds of thousands of years ago is uncalled for.
What have we done to insight this infringement of our property and rights? Nothing.
So, join with me my fellow Africans and help me fight against this terrible invasion. Help me fight for our freedom and our independence from this western influence. Let us return to our old ways and let us live our lives the the way we have for centuries, undisturbed by the pestulance that is the British empire.
Footnotes
Text
1. History of South Africa (2005). Available from: southafrica.net <http://www.southafrica-newyork.net> (accessed 05 December 2005)
2. Falola Toyin, Key Events in African History, (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2002), 189
3. Middleton John, Africa, (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002)
4. "The Mineral Revolution". Available from U.S. Library of Congress <http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/14.htm> (accessed 05 December 2005)
Images
1. http://www.nla.gov.au/pict/cook/t2996s.jpg African's Pleasing the British.
2. http://hierographics.org/yourhistoryonline/the_rhodes_colossus.gif The British Rule of Africa.
3. http://www.firestonediamonds.com/maps/saminest.gif Diamond Mines in South Africa in the 19th Century.