Found in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (Sydney, NSW : 1876 - 1954) 
Saturday 7 April 1906 p 11

OUTBREAK AMONG THE ZULUS. 

Mr. Stanley Portal Hyatt writes in the London "Daily Mail" of 14th February:- 

The recent outbreak among the Zulus in Natal can have come as a surprise to no one who has followed 
the developments of the African native question through the last ten years. Since 1884, when Lobengula, 
the last independent chief south of the Zambesi, was driven out by the Chartered Company, a complete 
change has taken place in the relations between the white men and the aborigines. The tribal system, 
which formerly meant the division of the sub continent between a score of mutually hostile clans, 
received Its death blow when the once powerful Matabele kingdom fell. 

The war which ended in the occupation of Bulawayo was the last which could ever be waged between a 
purely barbarous people and the forces of civilisation In South Africa. The days of looting, burning, 
and murdering were gone for ever; and even the most degraded race of all, the Mashona, began to realise 
dimly that no single tribe had any chance against the might of the invader. Moreover, as all were now 
equal in the eyes of the new rulers, there were no longer the same reasons for hating one another, 
Inter-tribal warfare was repressed with a stern hand: cattle looting was regarded by the new laws not 
as a manly exercise, but as a punishable offence; the growth of the railway system enabled men of one 
tribe to mix freely with those of another, to learn that the hated foes of former days were, after all, 
very much like themselves, possessed of all the same ambitions, and suffering under the same real or 
imaginary grievances. 

The Inevitable result took place, the old animosities died out rapidly. Instead of hating one another 
and wasting their strength in mutual strife, the natives transferred their whole hatred to their white 
rulers, and out of this common bond of hostility a black nation began to come into being. At first this 
change passed practically unnoticed, save, perhaps, by the Boers, who, however, were too much occupied 
with their quarrel with ourselves to spare much attention for anything else. The natives themselves 
were equally unaware of any alteration, It was a purely natural process, and it might have remained a 
comparatively harmless one for years had it not been for the preaching of the "Ethiopian Doctrine," 
which supplied the cardinal necessities of any new movement - an organisation, a definite policy, and 
a popular rallying cry. 

The new crusade had its beginnings not in Africa, but in the United States. The first preachers were 
American Negroes who were sent out as missionaries to convert the benighted heathen of the British 
colonies. The descendants of West African slaves, born in another hemisphere, they were almost as much 
aliens as the white men themselves; but the bond of colour remained, and gave them a hold on the 
African native such as no European could over obtain. They were not reverenced, as many white teachers 
have been, they were hardly respected, but they were listened to, believed in, and followed, for they 
taught doctrines which all could understand. They came out ostensibly to teach Christianity; they were 
paid by Christian societies, and paid liberally; but they were not many months in the colonies before 
they relegated their religion to a back place, and devoted themselves mainly to politics. 

The Ethiopian missionaries arrived at the psychological moment, the natives were bonding themselves 
into a great mass, which only needed direction to convert itself into a great power. The newcomers 
were undoubtedly able men - men who had been bred up in that atmosphere of politics which pervades 
the life of every class In America. They were quick to see the opportunity, and they made the most of 
it. They taught religion perfunctorily, but they preached politics enthusiastically, To the white 
community they posed as simple missionaries, labouring for the conversion of the man of their own 
colour; and as such they prevailed on a Church of England bishop to give them his episcopal benediction, 
greatly to the chagrin of those who know a little more about the question. 

Among the natives, however, the Ethiopian preachers took a very different line. They emphasised the 
need of an outward Christianity, as something necessary to secure the sympathy of the world at large, 
and as a bond of union between their adherents: but the end of all their teaching was purely political
 - a crusade against the white man, in which they themselves, with their superior knowledge must 
inevitably be the leaders. 

Prior to the Boer war, the rallying cry of the Dutch was "Africa for the Afrikander," for the white 
man of African birth. With the downfall of the Republics the phrase went out of use, the issue which 
it strove to uphold was dead; but the Ethiopian caught the idea, adapted it to their own purpose, and 
taught the native to aspire after "Africa for the Africans." The latter is the keynote of the whole 
movement. It Is no mere political privileges that the agitators want, not the franchise, or even equal 
rights in everything with the white man. They go much further, and aspire to drive the whole of the 
invaders, Boer and Briton alike, out of the sub-continent. Moreover, they have a following, a large 
and growing following in every colony, and, unless their influence is checked soon, they may involve 
the whole sub-continent in a terrible racial war. The first fruits of their efforts have just become 
apparent in the recent outbreak at Richmond, Natal, which, according to the cables, is directly due 
to their preachings. 

On the Ethiopian question, nearly every section of the white community in South Africa is now agreed. 
Briton and Boer, capitalist and miner, missionary and anti-missionary, are united on this as on nothing 
else. Some may favour more drastic measures than others - a certain section proposes to settle the 
matter crudely and conclusively by lynching - but on the main point, the need of official action, they 
are all at one. It is no mere political problem, which can be argued out in a leisurely manner and 
settled at some forthcoming election, but a peril which threatens the very existence of the white man 
in the sub-continent. European and Afrikander both know well that they hold their position not by 
force of arms or weight of numbers, but merely through the semi - superstitious awe which has been 
instilled into the native mind in the past; and that once this awe was dispelled, and the aborigine 
taught his own strength, nothing could avert a life-and-deatih struggle between the two colours. 

And it is for that struggle that the Ethiopian preachers are striving to prepare the natives.