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The Mind of the AfricanThe Watchtower—1954 | June 1
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to grasp, because it is based on proper love. Instead of cherishing and loving each other, the binding tie is mostly a material bond. The man, or rather the man’s “village,” bought him his wife or wives. The dowry or bride price among the Zulus is lobola. Educated Africans try to apologize for this basis for marriage and family relationship, but the fact remains that lobola effectively numbs the expression and cultivation of true love. The motive for having and rearing children is mainly a materialistic one. The daughters will be “sold” for lobola, and the sons will, through purchase of wives and rearing of children, “build up the village” numerically.
With the breaking up of the restraint imposed through the harsh retaliation under the patriarchal social system, the African has been thrown into the twentieth century without any part of “the complete suit of armor from God.” The breakdown in African morals is quickening toward complete chaos. Most municipal areas for Africans are overcrowded, unsanitary, poorly lighted and filled with immorality, vice, sickness, housebreaking, fighting, drunkenness, riot and political agitation. The policy of the present government is to resort to strong-arm methods of cruelty, more police, heavier sentences.
The New World organization, thanks to Jehovah, is provided with the “weapons of the light” and has the only successful program for renovating the mind and clothing its subjects with a changed personality conformed to Christ Jesus, the Head. Secular education, admittedly, has failed to inculcate love. False religion, likewise, has failed to teach and follow true Christian principles, and the African has not been deeply impressed by what is so often hypocritical and partial. True religion, which does not make distinctions but which operates on the basis of love and abounds in the “fruitage of the spirit,” wins his approval, respect, sympathy and co-operation. The African mind has one obvious characteristic: it is childish and imitative. The visits of African circuit servants are doing much to set a good example. What could help much would be for African brothers to mix socially with the European brothers. This is ruled out by the strict segregation arrangements in South Africa.
All of Jehovah’s slaves in South Africa rejoice to do what he commands toward assisting men of good will there to come out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1954 | June 1
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Questions From Readers
● Can you please give me information pertaining to the translation of “young woman” in Isaiah 7:14 (Leeser translation)? Can you tell me if in the old translation it means “virgin”?—A. G., United States.
Not only does Isaac Leeser use “young woman” at Isaiah 7:14, but also the Revised Standard Version Bible that was published in 1952. The Hebrew word there rendered “young woman” is, as you may already know, ‘al·mahʹ, and in the sacred Hebrew Scriptures this word occurs only seven times, namely, at Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Proverbs 30:19, Psalm 68:25, Song of Solomon 1:3 and Ca 6:8, and Isaiah 7:14 now under discussion. If you will personally examine these Scripture texts you will see that in at least a number of cases ‘al·mahʹ is applied to virgins, and it is possible that in all seven Scripture verses the application is to virgins, but we shall not be dogmatic. The oldest written translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Greek Septuagint (LXX), and this Greek translation
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