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First edition of 'My African Journey' by Winston Churchill, 1908. Published by Hodder and Stoughton.

Extract from 'My African Journey' by Winston Churchill (1908)

The Position of the Asian in Africa

'How stands the claim of the British Indian? His rights as a human being, his rights as a British subject, are equally engaged. It was the Sikh soldier who bore an honourable part in the conquest and pacification of these East African countries. It is the Indian trader who, penetrating and maintaining himself in all sorts of places to which no white man would go or in which no white man could earn a living, has more than anyone else developed the early beginnings of trade and opened up the first slender means of communication. It was by Indian labour that the one vital railway on which everything else depends was constructed. It is the Indian banker who supplies perhaps the larger part of the capital yet available for business and enterprise, and to whom the white settlers have not hesitated to recur for financial aid. The Indian was here long before the British official. He may point to as many generations of useful industry on the coast and inland as the white settler - especially the most recently arrived contingents from South Africa (the loudest against him of all), can count the years of residence. Is it possible for any Government with a scrap of respect for honest dealing between man and man, to embark upon a policy of deliberately squeezing out the native of India from regions in which he has established himself under every security of public faith? Most of all we must ask, is such a policy possible to the Government which bears sway over three hundred millions of our Indian Empire?

We are in the presence of one of those apparently hopeless antagonisms of interests which baffle and dispirit all who are concerned in their adjustment. And these questions are not confined to East Africa or South Africa. A whole series of problems has arisen, and will grow graver and larger as the immediate history of the Empire unfolds.'

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Kitoleo cha kitabu cha Winston Churchill 'Safari yangu ya Afrika' (1908)

Mhindi wa Afrika

Daawa ya Mhindi Mbritishi husimamaje? Zote mbili, haki yake ya kuwa binadamu, na haki yake kuwa raia ya Serikali ya Britani zahusiana sawa pamoja. Alikuwa askari Msikhi ambaye alihimili kipande kikubwa cha ushindi wetu, na kutuliza nchi hizo za Afrika Mashariki. Ni mtajiri mhindi ambaye kwa kupenya na kuishi katika vipande vya kila namna, vile ambako mzungu ama hakutaka kupenya ama hakupata riziki ya kutosha, amekuza zaidi na yoyote mwingine mwanzo wa biashara, na amefungua jinsi awali nyembamba za mawasiliano. Ilikuwa kwa ajili ya wafanya kazi wahindi reli moja muhimu sana ilijengwa, juu ambayo kila kitu kiingine kinategemea. Ni mkubwa wa benki mhindi anayetoa sehemu kubwa ya rasimali inayopatikana mpaka sasa kwa uchumi na mshikizao wa shughuli, na kwake ndiyo wazungu wahajiri hawakusita kurejea kupata msaada ya fedha. Mhindi alikuwa hapo tangu muda mrefu sana kuliko mtu wa serikali ya Uingereza. Anaweza kuelekeza kidole vivyo hivyo kama mzungu, kwa vyingi vya vizazi vya utendaji wa manufaa katika pwani na nchi za bara - hasa na vikundi vile vimevyofika juzi juzi kutoka Afrika Kusini (ambao walia zaidi juu yake kuliko wote wengineo) waweza kuhesabu miaka ya kukalia. Eti, yawezekana na serikali yoyote inacho chembe cha heshima juu ya vitendo vinyofu katikati mtu mmoja na mwingine, kuanza shauri la kuminya, kwa kusudi, mwenyeji wa Uhindi katika wilaya ambako amejikalisha yeye chini ya kila salama ya imani wazi? Tena kupita lote yapasa tujiulize, shauri hilo lawezekana kwa serikali inayotawala mamilioni mia tatu ya milki yetu ya Uhindi?

Tuko hadhara ya vipingano vile vya vipendo vyaonekana bila tokeo, ambavyo hufadhaisha na huchokeza wote wanaohusiana na mapatanisho ya vivyo. Na maswali haya hayaishi katika Afrika Mashariki au Afrika Kusini tu. Mwandamano mzima wa matata imeonekana kuwa, na itaendelea kuwa mkubwa na mzito zaidi inapofumbuka historia ya sasa ya mamlaka.

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