|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: we ought to give him food for the road, and tell him to go back to his
people, and tell them we hadn't come to take their land but to teach them
and love them. 'It's hard to love a nigger, Captain, but we must try it;
we must try it!'--And every five minutes he'd break out with, 'And I think
this is a man I know, Captain; I'm not sure, but I think he comes from up
Lo Magundis way!'--as if any born devil cared whether a bloody nigger came
from Lo Magundis or anywhere else! I'm sure he said it fifteen times. And
then he broke out, 'I don't mean that I'm better than you or anybody else,
Captain; I'm as bad a man as any in camp, and I know it.' And off he
started, telling us all the sins he'd ever committed; and he kept on, 'I'm
an unlearned, ignorant man, Captain; but I must stand by this nigger; he's
|
