WILLIAM WELLINGTON GQOBA

The subject I have selected for this evening is so wide, that I can briefly and superficially treat it. Each day is making more manifest the fact , that the natives are and will continue to be an important factor in the future of these Colonies. The deeper investigations goes into Native questions, the nore interesting they will become, and the two races will gradually understand each other, and all suspicions and grievances as well as all ill-feeling towards one another will be removed for ever. First, I shall briefly give a sketch of what the natives of this country were some centuries ago, as handed down to us traditionally by our ancestors. . . I will, in conclusion, make an attempt to point out that in the case of the South African Natives, there is no deep-rooted idolatry or fanaticism to contend against. From what I have already shown, in spite of all the various and hideous, as well as absurd notions, the natives entertain and their superstitions, yet in some respects yjet are much nearer the light, thoughthey dwell in darkness, than many would suppose. It is therefore with sanguine hopes that we look for the growing sucess of those hundreds of God's faithful and devoted servants, who, for our sake, and our physical and spiritual welfare, have left their homes, in the Old Country, to undergo privations, and hardships, even from those who should with heart, soul, and spirit, put their shoulder to the wheel, alongside the missionary, to bring about not only the success of the missionary, but who, for the sake of their own race, should be true patriots, not in mouth only.

- William Wellington Gqoba, "The Native Tribes: Their Laws, Customs and Beliefs", The Christian Express, June 1, 1885.