Board of Trustees, Boston University
The Career of Mabel Carney: The Study of Race and Rural Development in the United States
and South Africa
Author(s): Richard Glotzer
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1996), pp. 309336
Published by: Boston University African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/220520 .
Accessed: 22/09/2012 12:44
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Boston University African Studies Center and Board of Trustees, Boston University are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The International Journal of African Historical Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
TheItemaionad lJowwa of Afdca
Histodd
Stbdes, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1996)
309
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY:
THE STUDY OF RACE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
IN THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AFRICA*
By RichardGlotzer
Mabel Carneywas an Americanauthorityon ruraleducation,highly regardedby
educationalpractitionersandacademicpeersalike.Her areasof specialinterestand
expertise-teacher educationandruralschool development-broadenedover time
to include infrastructuraland organizationalconcerns of rural communities,
includingracerelations.Giventhe opportunityto applyhereducationalexpertisein
Britishcolonial Africain the mid-1920s, Carneygainedacceptanceas a uniquely
qualifiededucationalauthorityby Americanfoundationexecutives andprominent
figures (bothconservativeand liberal,as definedat the time) in the race relations
establishmentsof the United States,Britainand SouthAfrica.Her access to these
centers of power and influence was paralleled by her unique ability to form
friendshipsacrossraciallines with importantblackleadersin the UnitedStatesand
colonial Africa. For several generationsof black studentswho came to Teachers
College, Columbia,fromAfricaand the United States,she servedas a mentorand
advocate,helpingopen avenuesfor achievementin an nationalcontextpermeated
by racism. Because her career and active retirementspanned more than five
decades, she was able to see the acceptanceof many of her beliefs in the United
States, as well as theirwholesale rejectionin SouthAfrica, a countrywith which
she hadmultipleinvolvements.
Carney's Early Career
Born in Carthage,Missouri,in 1885, Mabel Carney'schildhoodwas spent in the
OklahomaTerritory,and her high school years in ruralLaSalle County,Illinois.
*
Early drafts of this article were read by Professors R. Hunt Davis, David Gardinierand
KathleenO'Mara,and I am most appreciativeof theircomments and suggestions. Dr. David Ment,
Rare Books and Manuscripts, Milbank Memorial Library, Teachers College, Columbia, Janie
Duggan and Diane Winters,Archives Department,Killie CampbellAfricanaLibrary,University of
Natal and CarolynSperl, Reference Department,HartfordTheological Seminary,made my archival
research a pleasant task. I am also most appreciativeof the thoughtful suggestions from IJAHS's
reviewers. The opinions and interpretationsof fact expressedin this articleare my own.
310
RICHARD GLOTZER
Between 1901 and 1909, Carneyspent two years at the State Normal School at
Dekalb, and held threeteachingposts. In 1909, at the age of twenty-four,Carney
enrolled for a third year of study at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Carney'syearat TeachersCollegemarkedhertransitionfromclassroomteachingto
teachertrainingand administrativework.In 1912 she authoredan importantbook,
Country Life and the Country School, a formulation of her basic ideas about rural
educationandruraldevelopment.1
In Country Life and the Country School Carney placed the central
educational mission of schools first, although her list of importantsecondary
was substantial.2Imbuedwith
functionsfor schools, teachersand administrators,
the values of the CountryLife Movement,Carneybelieved that science, religion
of farmlife by freeingpeople
andeducationcould contributeto a "spiritualization"
fromdrudgeryandpoverty,affordingthemthe opportunityto developmiddleclass
"culturein the home and community."Thata parsimonioususe of resourceswas
integral to Carney's "systems approach"in time came to appeal to white
communitiesin the United States and South Africa since it offered a means of
supplementingscarceeconomicresources,especiallyduringthe 1930s.3For black
communities,systematicallydeniedthe economicmeansof pursuingdevelopment,
herapproachemphasizedthe potentialof humanresources.
In 1917 MabelCarneyreturnedto TeachersCollege,Columbia,to complete
her undergraduatestudies. At age thirty-two, she had held a variety of teaching
posts, directedruraleducationdepartnentsin several"normalschools,"supervised
teachertrainingfor the State of Minnesota,and writtenan importantbook. Her
substantialbackground,keen and broad ranging intellect, and rapid academic
progress(B.A. 1917, M.S. 1919), led her quicklyfromthe half-timejuniorfaculty
1 Carney'sbasic approachwas comprehensive,covering everything from effective teaching,
the economics of the home, school fmance, and community organization, to "applied road
science," or road construction. Employing an interdisciplinaryapproach,one of her greatest skills
was demonstratinghow the various components of rurallife were interrelatedand interdependent.
For Carney, institutions which promoted scientific agriculture,rural education and hence local
expertise, deserved strong community support,as did the transformationof one room schools into
graded, diversified institutions or "consolidated schools". Mabel Carney, Country Life and the
Country School (Chicago, 1912).
2 See also Mabel Carney, "The Community Relations of Rural Schools," in William
Bagley, Orville Brim and Mabel Carney,Rural School Survey of New YorkState (Ithaca, 1923),
211-253.
3 Mabel Carney, "ThePre-servicePreparationof RuralTeachers,"Teachers College Record,
Vol. 34, 1932-33, 111-113.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
311
appointnentwith whichshe financedherstudies,to a full-time facultyappointment
as AssociateProfessorof Rurl Educationat TeachersCollege (1919).4
By the mid-1920s Carney'sscholarlyinterests,and her academicpost at
TeachersCollege, drew her into becoming an active participantin the ongoing
debateon how to developeducationsuitableto the comparablysegregatedsocieties
(or so they appeared)of the SouthernUnited States and South Africa. Carney's
high ethicalandmoralstandards,Christianidealism,anduncommoninterpersonal
decency, coupled with her academic talents, favored her to occupy a unique
position in the areaof "Negro"and later"Native"education.*Highly regardedby
white academicpatemalistliberalsas well conservativesin the United States and
South Africa, she was also a tireless advocate of fuller and more egalitarian
education for black peoples, particularlyfor the large numberof "Negro"and
"Native"studentswith whom she workedandoften befriended.Her appealto such
a varied constituency rested on a complex merging of personal qualities and
professionalperspectives.
Whilerejectingsegregationconceptually,Cameywas pragmaticanddid not
risk alienatingthose with more conventionalviews by stridentlyadvocatingits
abolition. Instead,like many of her colleagues at TeachersCollege, she viewed
racialprogressin the contextof an evolving culturalpluralismpermittingpointsof
contactbetweenthe races, especially betweenbettereducatedindividuals.5If her
advocacyof educationalegalitarianismand acquiescenceto segregationappeared
inconsistent, Carney'sunwillingnessto toleratediscriminationon an individual
4 Carney's recruitment by Dean James E. Russell stemmed Eromher reputation as an
energetic and dedicated advocate of rural school development, as well as from the favorable
attention she received after the publication of Country Life and the Country School (1912).
Russell, a strongadvocate of the scientific study of education,and educationalresearch,recognized
at broadpracticalexperienceand the "intuitive"expertisethatcame frm hands-onexperiencewas
also important It was not uncommon for faculty members also to have had experience as county
agricultural agents, farmers, school administratorsor teachers. This pattern extended to the
selection of graduate students and the College often gave preference to mature students (like
Carney), many in their thirties or older. By the standardsof the day, Teachers College provided
unusual opportunities for women to pursue academic careers, provided they accepted the
"incompatibility"of careerand marriage.Mabel Camey, like many othersof her female colleagues,
never married.James E. Russell, Founding TeachersCollege (New York, 1937), Penina M. Glazer
and MiriamSlater, Unequal Colleagues (New Brunswick, 1987), 3443.
*
[For the sake of readibility, a series of terms which cred more than merely descriptive
meaning in historicalcontext, and were recognized at the time in that light, will be markedin their
first instance with quotationmarks,and subsequentlywith capitalization. Ed.]
5 Ronald K. Goodenow, "TheProgressive Educator,Race and Ethnicity in the Depression
Years:Anoverview,"
Historyof EducationQuarterly,
15 (Winter1975).
312
RICHARD GLOTZER
level eased this contradiction.6Carney'smodest social origins and early life
experience-that of spending her formativeyears on one of the last American
frontiers--madeher sympatheticto whatshe perceivedto be the problemsof South
Africa'ssettlerpopulation.
By the 1870s the OklahomaTerritoryhad become a vast reserveoccupied
by Native Americans-almost all of whomwere forciblyremovedfromotherparts
of the UnitedStates.Five majorlandrushesbetween1885 and 1895, cappedby the
Curtis Act (1895) which provided for the final allotment of Indian lands for
settlement, put an end to their autonomy. Thus the Oklahoma of Carney's
childhoodwitnessed the legal dissolutionof Native Americanauthorityover the
region,andthepoliticalandculturalsubjugationof NativeAmericansby expanding
white settlement.Given these experiences,and contemporaryAmericanattitudes
aboutculturesperceivedas primitive,one can understandwhy Carneyso readily
the notion
empathizedwithwhite SouthAfricanuse of frontierimagery,particularly
of buildingup an ostensiblyemptylandin the face of hugeobstacles.7
Race, Culture, and South Africa
The year Mabel Carneyjoined the TeachersCollege Faculty, Columbia
Universitywas attemptingto returnto peace-timenormalcy.In this new post-war
environmenttherewas uneaseaboutthe ethniccompositionof the studentbody and
the proximityof Columbiato an expandingblackcommunity.Both controversies
had touched on the ability of this avowedly white Anglo-Saxon Protestant
institution to adjust to changing conditions. Columbia developed its western
civilizationcore curriculumanda variantof "openadmissions"to cope with whatit
regardedas an assaultby unassimilatedJewishstudents.The new policy, designed
meansof curbingJewishenrollment,involved using
to find a "nondiscriminatory"
6 Walter G. Daniel, "Negro Welfare and Mabel Carney at Teachers College, Columbia
University,"TheJournal of Negro Education, 11 (1942), 560-562.
7 FrederickJackson Turner'sThe Frontier in Amenrican
History (1920) was quite influential
duringthe 1920s, and Carneymade many indirectreferencesto the TurnerThesis. In her 1934 visit
to South Africa, she remindedaudiencesin her "Trendsin AmericanRuralEducation"lectureof the
shared(settler) experience of combating "savages"in earlier times. If Turner'swork dealt in some
measurewith the closing of the AmericanFrontier,his perspectiveon frontierexpansion was quite
appealing to white South Africans. For an adaptationof the Frontier Thesis to South Africa see
Ian MacCrone's Race Attitudes in South Africa (Oxford, 1937). Martin Legassick's important
analysis of MacCrone's work, "The Frontier in South African Historiography," appears in
Economy and Society In Pre-industrial South Africa, ed. Shula Marks and Anthony Atmore,
(London, 1980), 44-79. Also see Leonard Thompson and Howard Lamar, eds., The Frontier in
History (New Haven, 1981), and Dennis Hickey and KennethC. Wylie, An EnchantingDarkness:
The American Vision of Africa in the TwentiethCentury(East Lansing, 1993), 93-133.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
313
a variationof the Alpha and Beta tests which the U.S. Arny employedon a wide
scale duringthe FirstWorldWar.8 These tests had allegedlyestablishedthatJews
as a group were not highly intelligent.9 By the mid-1920s, the new policy had
restrictedthe presence of Jews on campus to numbersacceptable to university
authorities.
MiddleEastern,andOriental
At firstextendedto personsof Mediterranean,
origins, "open"admissionssoon came to include Africansand Americanblacks.
The lattergroup,presentat Columbiaoff andon since the 1830s, hadbecomemore
importantfor severalreasons.'0Due to northernmigrationduringthe FirstWorld
War, America'sso-called Negro problemhad grownfrom a southerndilemmato
one that increasinglyencompassednortherncities. Thus, black life in the urban
settingbecamean increasinglyimportantareaof studyandresearch.Secondly,and
as if to underscore this migration, Harlem, literally on Columbia'sdoorstep,
promisedto become a largely black enclave by the late 1920s and an available
laboratoryfor researchersof "NegroLife."11
During this period, the predominantmodel for Negro Education in the
United States was based on the concept of "IndustrialEducation."Its chief
proponent,Booker T. Washington,had arguedthat the economic, cultural,and
psychologicalsalvationof AmericanBlacksrestedon basiceconomicdevelopment
broughtaboutthroughself-help. Blacks shouldacquireliteracyskills along with
training in manual occupations which promised steady employment and
respectability.Economic security, in turn,could create the environmentfor the
developmentof social and culturallife centeredon home, family, and the church.
Claimsfor equalityandpoliticaladvancementwereconsideredsecondary.Not only
would aggressive demands by blacks antagonize an increasingly racist white
America,but such considerationsmight be given willingly, once the capacity of
blacks to participatein society in a "useful and constructive"way had been
demonstrated.Advocatesof IndustrialEducationbelieved thatwhites who looked
favorablyon this mode of self bettermentshould be allowed to be advisors, and
8 Harold S. Wechsler, The Qualified Student,A History of Selective Admissions in America
(New York, 1977), 131-185. Also see Joel H. Spring, "Psychologistsand the War: The Meaning
of Intelligence in the Alpha and Beta Tests,"Historyof Education Quarterly, 12 (Spring 1972), 315.
912. Joel H. Spring, "Psychologistsand the War."
10 Carleton Mabee, Black Education in New York State from Colonial to Modern Times
(Syracuse, 1979), 247-259.
1 1 By 1920, Harlem's black population was over 152,000. Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem the
Making of a Ghetto (New York, 1963).
314
RICHARD GLOTZER
indeed leaders,of this gradualistmovement.Althoughsome progresswas made,
particularlyin showcase institutionslike Hamptonand Tuskegee Institutes,the
realitywas thatpaternalisticallyinspiredwhites and conservativeblacks not only
of NegroEducation,butthey vehementlyopposed
controlledthe halting"progress"
those, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, who advocatedthe developmentof liberal arts
trainingfor blacks, while demandinggreaterNegro participationin all facets of
Americanlife.12
As the United States extended the Industrial Education model to
accommodatethe aspirationsof its recentlyacquiredcolonial indigenesin Puerto
Rico, Cuba, the Philippines and the HawaiianIslands, the distinction between
Negro Education and Native Education became increasingly blurred. For an
institutionlike TeachersCollege, the blurringof the distinctionbetweenNegro and
Native in the educationalspherehad a special significance,for if the College were
to remainin the forefrontof educationaltheoryandpracticeit hadto accommodate
these new trends in its curriculumand research-in addition to "urbanNegro
Education."Thus, as a ruraleducationstudentat TeachersCollege, MabelCarney
not only took classes with persons concernedwith "AmericanNegro Life" and
"NativeEducation,"but also white colonialsstrugglingwith the problemsof settler
controlin Africa,Asia, andthe MiddleEast.13
The evidence suggests that from her "student"days at TeachersCollege,
Mabel Carneyhad takena particularinterestin the comparativeand international
componentsof the TeachersCollegeprogram.14Cameywas drawnto the overseas
students at the College, particularlythe "Native African"students, and white
colonials from Britain'scolonies. For Carney,who had no overseas experiences,
these students were a window to the outside world. Carney did not simply
encourage students,but she befriendedtheir spouses, whether students or not,
12 John Sekora, "MurderRelentless and Inpassive: The AmericanAcademic Communityand
the Negro College," Soundings, 51 (1968), 237-271.
13 By the 1920s, the American South, with its distinctive pattem of segregation and broad
range of institutions subsumed under the rubric "Negro Education,"was well traveled by race
relations "experts,"missionaries, members of the British Colonial Office, and "Native affairs"
officers of other colonial powers. The United State's experiment in social engineering offered
practical lessons for colonial powers and settler societies beset with problems of control,
accommodation (and the judicious use of repression). Cf. Kenneth J. King, "Africa and the
Southern States of the U.S.A.: Notes on J.H. Oldham and American Negro Education for
Africans,"Journal of AfricanHistory, X, 4 (1969), 659-677.
14 For an excellent overview of this aspect of the Colleges' development during this period
see: Ronald Goodenow and Robert Cowen, "The American School of Education and the Third
World in the Twentieth Century:TeachersCollege and Africa, 1920-1950," History of Education,
15 (Spring, 1986), 271-289.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
315
acquiringa wide and variedgroupof friends,includingJ.E.K.Aggrey of the Gold
Coast, Kamba Simango of SouthernRhodesia, and Simango's wife Kathleen
Easman,of SierraLeone. Carneybecameparticularlyclose to the largecontingent
of white South African students drawn to the College by Teachers Colleges'
various programs.15 Among this group were EarnestGideon Malherbe,Janie
Malherbe,and CharlesT. Loram,who was well knownfor his workin the "Native
schools"in NatalProvinceandwhose doctoralthesis, "TheEducationof the South
African Native" (1917), was regardedas a standardwork in Native Education
circlesfor manyyears.16Loramheld thatlimitedpracticaltrainingin the "Industrial
andHouseholdArts"providedthe best opportunitiesfor "Nativeadvancement,"in
a context of benign segregation,with whites like himself, who "knewthe native
best," serving as intermediariesalong with traditionalAfrican leaders ("tribal"
chiefs). ForLoram,the best environmentfor gradualculturaldevelopmentwas the
TribalReserve.17 Like his Welsh-bornfriend,and directorof the Phelps-Stokes
Fund,ThomasJesse Jones (a ColumbiaUniversityalumnus),Lorambelieved that
extensive liberalartstrainingfor "underdeveloped"
peoples encouraged"Natives"
to thinkprematurelyin termsof equalitywith "Europeans."18
It was from Loram,the Malherbes,and the otherdozen or so white South
Africanstudentsat the College,thatCarneyreceivedmost of herinformationabout
southernAfrica. From Aggrey and the Simangos, who were deeply involved in
conventonal missionaryeducation,which was largely fmancedand run by white
patemalists,Carneydid not get a muchdifferentperspective.19Camey'simage of
15 "TeachersCollege and South Africa," undated manuscript(1936?), C. T. Loram/E. G.
MalherbeCorrespondence,E. G. MalherbePapers,Unaccessioned Files, Killie Campbell African
Library,University of Natal, Durban,South Africa. (Hereaftercited as E.G. MalherbePapers.)
16 R. Hunt Davis, "CharlesT. Loram and the American Model for African Education in
South Africa," African Studies Review, 19, 2 (1976), 87-100, Also in Apartheid and Education,
ed. Peter Kallaway, (Johannesburg,1986), 108-126.
17 Ibid., Davis.
18 Paul B. Rich, WhitePower and the Liberal Conscience (Manchester, 1984), 54-76. Also
see R. Hunt Davis, "Producingthe "GoodAfrican":South Carolina'sPenn School as a Guide for
African Education in South Africa,"in Independence WithoutFreedom: the political economy of
education in southernAfrica, ed. A.T. Mogombaand N. Nyaggah (SantaBarbara,1980), 83-112.
19 Dependent on mnissionary
support,neither the Simangos nor Aggrey offered controversial
opinions. The Siunangos, as 'good Africans," narratedan elephant hunt and provided a witch
doctors'incantationsfor one college program.In the 1920s they starteda mission school at Beira,
Portuguese East Africa, under the American Board of Missions. Aggrey, already known for his
charismatic personality and extravagant habits, enjoyed the trappings of power too much for
radicalism. When he died in the late 1920s, leaving his family destitute, Carney sought a Dean's
Scholarshipfor his eldest daughterAbna, a graduateof Shaw University. The Dean thoughther too
inexperienced for graduate work, adding also that; " ..we should not encourage young negro
316
RICHARD GLOTZER
southernAfrica, acquiredsecond hand,was stronglyimbuedwith the concept of
"the white man's burden."The necessary question to be raised about a EuroAmericanwoman such as Mabel Carneyis not whetheror not she was racist,but
what role she played in sharing the "white man's burden,"and what kind of
ambivalenceor questioningof colonialism,paternalismandeconomicexploitation
she demonstrated.White South African "Native"educatorswere one group of
peers,but she shouldalso be comparedwith otherwestem white women-colonial
officials'wives, unmarriedtravelers,andmissionaryeducators-who encountered
and looked at Africa throughthe lens of western imperialismand racism and
refracted an image mediated by their own gendered, class and personal
experiences.20MabelCarneywas not an anti-feministandunabashedpropagandist
for British colonialism like the journalistFlora Shaw (eventuallyLord Lugard's
wife), norwas she an uncriticalChristianmissionaryeagerto cover Africanbodies
and save souls.21Rather,she possessedher own oft-timescriticaleye, directedby
her own Americanfrontierand educationalexperiences,with which she looked at
her work in the U.S. and Africa, maneuveringsomewhatuneasily in male space
like otherwesternwomenin Africaandat home.22
In 1925 an opportunityfor travelemergedfor Carneywith the promiseof a
sabbaticalfor Spring 1926. She was able to get supportfor a tripto Africa, under
the joint auspices of the British Ministry of Education and the International
MissionaryCouncil, to make an extended survey of the mission schools in the
British colonies and the Dominion of South Africa. The semester before her
women to come to New York," "College News," Teachers College Record, Vol. 22., No. 2, 1921,
181-82; "ProgramAnnouncement, Ruml Education Club," December 14, 1923(?), Folder 184B,
James E. Russell Papers, Milbank Library;Teachers College, Columbia (Hereafter cited as J.E.
Russell Papers); Carney to WY. Russell, May 13, 1929, Folder 186, Camey to W.F. Russell,
March 17, 1930, Folder 187, W. F. Russell to Camey, March 18, 1930, Folder 187, William F.
Russell Papers, Milbank Library,Teachers College, Columbia (Hereafter cited as W.F. Russell
Papers). For a sketch of Aggrey's career see James T. Campbell, "OurFathers,Our Children:The
African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa" (Ph.D. dissertation,
Stanford University, 1989), 342-348. See also Edwin W. Smith, Aggrey of Africa: A Study in
Black and White(London, 1929).
20 See for example Katherine Frank, A Voyager Out. The Life of Mary Kingsley (New
York, 1986), also Nupar Chaudhuriand MargaretStrobel, eds., WesternWomenand Imperialism
(Bloomington, 1992).
21 Helen Callaway and Dorothy 0. Helly, "Crusaderfor Empire:Flora Shaw/Lady Lugard,"
inWesternWomenand Imperialism,ed. Chaudhuriand Strobel,79-97.
22 If Carney had strong feelings and commitmentregardingthe feminist issues of her times,
she was aware of the potential consequences for her career and was careful to separate such
involvements from her academic work. Few, for example, knew thatshe was a featuredspeakerfor
events supportingthe Woman Suffrage movementon more than one occasion.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
317
sabbatical,Camneyhad introduceda graduatelevel course, "NegroEducationand
Race Relations,"in partbasedon hervisit the previousyearto Negro institutionsin
the South. She estimatedthe new course was "attendedannuallyby 200 to 300
students including white, colored, native and foreign."23Carney also helped
organizea Negro EducationClub with an integratedmembershipand featuringa
speakersprogramlikewise titled "NegroEducationand Race Relations."The club
servednot only as a focal pointfor the College'sblackstudentsbut also as a sortof
social science laboratoryfor whites interestedin race relations.In many ways, the
club was a complement to Columbia's InternationalHouse, which provided
housinganddiningfacilitieson a non-racialbasisfor its internationalstudents.
Carney'sAfricanvoyage would startat the Gold Coast Colony and end in
Egypt.Carney,aged forty-oneanda first-timeinternationaltraveler,visited eleven
countries,publishingprivatelya detailed accountof the journey as her African
Letters, which reveal much abouther world view. In them Carneyemerges as a
complexpersonality,capableof penetratinginsightand greatcompassion,yet also
of acceptingthe commonprejudicesandnaiveteof her times. The AfricanLetters
also reveal Carney'swell developed sense of humorand her flare for exposing
some of the ironies of life and humanbehavior.Indeed, even she was quick to
realizethatthe Africaof herimaginationwas romanticized,andprobablycoloredby
the experienceof herOklahomachildhood.24If by the 1930s Camey'sviews came
to reflectthe realitiesof Africaundercolonialism,she continuedto struggleagainst
romanticizednotions of the good achieved by white paternalism,buttressedby
westem medicine,technologyandorganizational
expertise.
Carney'saccountof the Gold CoastColony,herfirst point of embarkment,
reads almost like the descriptionof a Hollywood set. Throughouther travels the
romanticismremains,but occasionallynaivete is supplemented(if not replaced)
with flashes of overt racialism,which appearseven when Carneyis criticizing
colonialor missionaryenterprises.Her snapshotof a Native weddingperformedin
"trueFifth Avenue style" she labeled "apingthe west,"unsureof which was the
bigger ape-the bridegroom,or the missionarywho performedthe ceremonyand
furnishedthe weddingpartyfor sixty at missionexpense.25
23 Untidtled
and Undatedletter, Folder 187, W.F. Russell Papers.
24 Mabel Camey, African Letters, (Private Publisher, 1926), Carney file, J.E. Russell
Papers (Hereaftercited as AfricanLetters). A copy of AfricanLetters can also be found in the J.H.
OldhamPapers, File 4, Box 6, Rhodes House, Oxford University. Certainof her letters were also
reprintedin The SouthernWorkman(1926).
25 Ibid., 6.
318
RICHARD GLOTZER
What Carneyperceived as the efficient administrationand humanitarian
orientationof Britishcolonialpolicy left herdeeply impressed.26Carneyhad been
very skepticalof the value of missionaryworkbeforearrivingin Africa.Although
she did not stateherobjectionssystematically,she was concernedthatmissionaries
relied too heavily on ideas and methods she regardedas old fashioned, and paid
insufficientattentionto educationaltechniquesshe saw as modem.However,after
close inspection,her view of missionaryeducationwas revised to one generally
favorable, although she saved her highest praise for the work of the American
mission societies. The evidence of "progress"she observedproved persuasivein
herreadyacceptanceof the standardview thata benigntrusteeshipwouldultimately
resultin vast improvementsin thequalityof "Nativelife"acrossthe continent.After
the "winning"of the AfricanContinent,a vast frontierin and of itself, trusteeship
offered the hope of preparingAfrica's peoples for eventual participationin a
"civilized"world.
However,MabelCarney'sendorsementof colonialismprovedproblematic,
for herown sense of socialjusticeoftenconflictedwith the realitiesshe saw around
her. Despite evidence to the contrary,she maintainedthat greed, brutality,and
racismwere generallythe faultsof individuals,andnot inherentlycharacteristicof
the colonial system. Thus, one finds CarneydescribingKenya as "temperateand
suited to the needs of the white race"while simultaneouslywriting indignantly
about "nativeexploitation."Her descriptionof the Portuguesecolonies was a
departurefromher generalview of colonialism,butechoedthe Britishview thatthe
Portuguese were "bad"colonists. As Carneyput it; ". . . today the very word
corruptionandinjustice."27
Portugueseis a synonymfor mismanagement,
Perhapsthe least flatteringsection of AfricanLetters dealt with Carney's
descriptionof Islamicculture."Fewof us . . . have any adequateconception... of
the greatcurse Mohammedanismor Islam has been to the world, or of the heroic
efforts now underway to combatits evils."28Her naive acceptanceof (Christian)
colonialism presumedthe incapacityof the colonized for self-development, her
cultureswas anbivalent,andeven AfricansCarneycalled
attitudetowardtraditional
civilized sometimesappearas amusingcuriositiesin AfricanLetters.Imbuedlike
26 Carney'svisit was monitoredby J.H. Oldham,an influential member of the International
Missionary Council and editor of the InternationalReview of Missions. A friend and confidant of
Lord Lugard, Oldham was influential in the writing of the 1925 White Paper, Educational Policy
In British Tropical Africa, outlining British policies toward Native Education. See Dutton to
Oldham, December 3, 1926, and Oldham to Ormsby-Gore,January7, 1926. Both letters Box 6,
File 4, J.H. OldhamPapers,Rhodes House, Oxford University.
27 Ibid., 19.
28 Ibid., 26.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
319
her peers with a typicallywesternand Orientalistview of Islam, Camey made the
obligatory visit to Egyptian harems with a Christianmissionary worker; also
typicallyof the times, she was concernedabouther virtueand the appearancesof
propriety.In the Gold Coast colony, Carneyvisited a Christianvillage which
followed a code of strictnudity.Apparentdy,
the villagers'behavioranddedication
was such thattherewas no cause for anxiety.Indeed,Carneywas amusedwhen at
the end of her visit her hosts requestedtypewritersto aid themin duplicatingtheir
religious tracts, noting the unique opportunityfor Remingtonor L.C. Smith to
create unusual advertising copy!29 At other points her anxiety is clearer, as in
Liberia:
Occasionallyall bridgesfailedandwe hadto be caried on the backs
of sturdyblack men. ImagineMiss Wrongor myself . . . walking
besideourhammocksthoughfallingbackuponthemnow and again
from sheer fatigue-and with a line of thirty naked black men
railingbehind.30
And againon another"safari":
The unique appearanceand sensation of our quartetduring this
walk-one white man, one black man and two white womentrudgingby lanternlight in the dead of night through18 miles of
African"bush"I mustleave to yourimagination!31
Carney'sconcludingcommentson Liberia,the second stop on her travels,
providesan interestingexampleof hergoodjudgmentandher broadknowledgeof
how politics, economics and humanrights were interrelated.In remarkingon aid
for development,Carney'scomments were progressive and insightful, warning
against aid as a vehicle for pursuing ". . . the old world policy of imperialism."32
As enlightenedas Carney'sconclusions were, her remarksraise the question of
how Carneyreconciled these views with the policies of her hosts. She opposed
imperialismalmost as an abstraction,rebukingall forms of brutality.Naively,
CarneylargelyexemptedBritish(andAmerican)imperialventuresfromcriticism,
accepting Whitehall's claim that a commitment to "Native advancement"
29 Ibid., 3.
30 Ibid., 2. MargaretWrong, a Canadian,had lecturedin Historyat the University of Toronto
before joining the staff of the InternationalMissionary Council in London. See Ruth Crompton
Brouwer, 'Mrgaret Wrong's LiteraryWork and the 'Remakingof Woman' in Africa, 1929-48,"
Journalof ImperialandComnonwealth
History,23, 3 (1995),427-452.
31 Ibid. 7.
32 Ibid., 8.
320
RICHARD GLOTZER
increasinglypamlleledBritain'seconomicandpoliticalactivitiesin Africa.Thusfor
Carney, the Anglo-Saxon "mission"in Africa, imbued with an enlightened
paternalism,was in a separatecategory from the "imperialism"of the French,
Belgians and Portuguese,whose economic exploitationand "bigpower rivakies"
stood at cross purposes with the welfare of "retarded"peoples.33 Her own
profoundpaternalism,the ideological linchpin of Negro/Native education, also
comes throughin her remarkson Liberiain which she felt compelledto quote the
commentsof one "sympatheticobserver"who noted that "...Liberia, to sum up
the whole situationin a nutshellis just whatanyonewho knows Americannegroes
wouldexpect"34
From Liberia, Carney traveled to South Africa, where she anticipated
having,in herwords,"aroyalgood time."If in therest of Africa,Carneytendedto
emphasizethe underdevelopednatureof people andresources,in SouthAfricashe
was takenwith settlersocietyitself.
Ten days afterher arrivalin CapeTown, the CapeArgus ranan articleon
Carney.35As expected,the Argushighlightedherworkin ruralschools andschool
consolidationbut her interestin NegroEducationand "farmeconomics"were also
cited. Her views on ruraleducationand farmingreceived favorableattention,but
her "liberal"racial views got only a lukewannreception.36 Carneyretumedthe
ambivalenceregardingwhiteSouthAfricanattitudes:
Race prejudiceis even strongerthanwith us. This has given rise to
an extremedislike of nativesandeverythingpertainingto them, an
odium which has even carriedover and attachedto the physical
work that they do. Worstof all this view has permeatedeven the
childrenuntil a properappreciationof manualworkconstitutesone
of the chief educationalproblemsof thecountry.37
Across South Africa, Carneywould renew contacts with formerstudents
and Teachers College alumni.38 On arrivalshe was met by Ruby Adendorf,a
33 Ibid., 8. Also see Carney to Russell, May 7, 1925. Folder 184B, J.E. Russell Papers.
(The expression "retarded",used by Camey in this instance to describe rual village education in
China, Indiaand Africa, was also used by FranzBoas.)
34 Ibid., 5.
35 "A Lady Professorof Education,"Cape Argus, Cape Town, May 31, 1926.
36 African Letters, 9.
37 African Letters, 9.
38 "AlumniNotes", Teachers College Record, 23, 2 (1924), 171; also "AlumniNotes," 23,
4 (1924), 348-49.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
321
recent graduate,then active in the South African temperancemovement, and a
lecturerin HealthEducation,at the TeacherTrainingCollege at Paarl.Herprimary
hosts in Cape Town, however, were Janie and Ernest Malherbe. Ernest G.
Malherbehad been a studentin Carney'scourses and was now lecturerin the
Faculty of Educationat the University of Cape Town. In his Teachers College
dissertation, The History of Education in South Africa: 1652-1922 (1924),
Malherbe adopted some of Camey's ideas regardingrural school systems. As
"HonorarySecretary"of South Africa'sgrowing "TCClub,"Malherbearranged
most of Carney'sspeakingarrangementsas well as a meetingwith Jan Smuts,the
formerPrimeMinisterandnow leaderof theparliamentary
opposition,anda dinner
party attended by fourteen of South Africa's twenty-six Teachers college
graduates.39Afterher departurefrom the Eastem Cape,Malherbewrote to Dean
Russell:
I do not think I am makinginsidious distinctionsamongstthe TC
professorswhen I say thatMiss Carneyis a greatfavoritewith the
SouthAfricans,and you have gladdenedour heartsby sendingher
out to this country.We did hustleherin trueAmericanstyle, lest she
shouldnot feel quite at home in this land of glorious sunshineand
dreamyhours.40
Across South Africa, Carney met with former white students and
classmates,most of whomwere now universitylecturers,headsof teachertraining
colleges, or governmentofficials. She was well received,andofferedmuch in the
way of constructive criticism of South Africa's rural schools and plans for
development.In the end she concludedthat South Africa'srural(white) schools
were very similarto those in the United States in their self-reliance, inadequate
resources,andneed to serve schoolage populationswith a varietyof needs.
The countryneeds nothingso muchas a big awakeningalong rural
education lines with more of the extension work, community
organization,specializedteachertraining,constructivesupervision,
andcurriculumadaptationwhichhaddone so muchfor ourfarmlife
andruralschools at home.41
Camey encouragedthe adaptationof Americaneducationalmethods and
culturalvalues, stressingthe role of the communityin public school systems, and
39 By the mid-1930s the numberof TeachersCollege graduatesin South Africa would swell
to nearly seventy. Mailherbe,"TeachersCollege in South Africa,"7-15.
40 Malherbe to Russell, June 17, 1926. Folder 184A, J.E. Russell Papers.
41African Letters, 15.
322
RICHARD GLOTZER
the belief thateducationwas a primarymeansof achievingupwardmobilty. Some
of these so-calledAmericanideas were also fmdingexpressionthroughthe Union
Departmentof Agriculture's
new Divisionof AgriculturalEducationandExtension,
established in 1925, and modeled after the United States' [racially segregated]
CooperativeExtensionService, itself only a decadeold.42 For Carney,and those
active in CooperativeExtension,especiallyin the AmericanSouth,"goodschools"
encouragedachievementfor all pupils,narrowig the advantagesa privilegedhome
might provide. That the AmericanSouth had createdparallel paths of "upward
mobility"for whites and blacks, seemed radicalto many [white] South Mricans,
but the promise of opportunityfor blacks did not negate the basic concept that
education provided mobility based on merit. After all, as many white South
Africansreasoned,Americanblackswere "furtheralong"thanAfrican"Natives,"
andIndustrialEducationdidreflectthe lesserinherentpotentialof the students.43
The greatestfault Carneyperceivedwas a lack of local interest,initiative,
and hesitancyin mattersof curriculumandtaxation.But the difficultiesin funding
ruraleducationin South Africa were long standing,and probablymore complex
than Carneymay have realized.The sparsityof a rural(white) populationmade
school consolidationimpractical,andthe natureof the conflicts betweenEnglishspeakers and Afrikaners, were surely more intractablethan Carney realized.
Moreover,the "PoorWhitism"that Carneysaw across South Africa remaineda
problemthat would not move towardresolutionuntil the 1930s, when it was not
improvementsin educationalpreparation
alonethatmadethedifference,butalso the
creationof an elaboratecolorbarexcludingblackpeoplefrommost decentavenues
of employment, coupled with state-created employment opportunitiesfor the
(mainly Afrikaner) white poor. In this context, Carney's beliefs about the
spiritualizationof the home and the role of teachersas communityleaders, long
42 "Agricultural
Extension,"staff,Farmingin SouthAfrica,(May 1960), 151-161;J.P.I.
vanVuren,"Agricultural
ExtensionServices,"Farmingin SouthAfrica,(March1952),227-230.
43 Fearof theAmerican
paralleldevelopment
model,highlighted
by educational
opportunity,
A decadebeforeCarney'svisit,Mauice Evans,in
was tiedto anxietyaboutAfricanurbanization.
hisBlackand Whitein theSouthernUnitedStates(London,1915),warnedthaturbanization
and
of urbanizedAErican
educationcouldlead to a self-consciousproletarianization
communities;
a
precondition
formasspolitcal action.A quarter
centurylater,R.F.A.Hoernie,grapplingwiththe
racialimplicationsof SouthAfricanindustialization,and havingobservedEvan'sworstfears
realized,offeredsegregationas theliberalpathforracialharnony,rejectingbothintegration
and
pluralism,as potentiallyexplosiveand threateningto white rule. See R.F.A. Hoernle,South
AfricanNative Policy and the Liberal Spirit (Johannesburg,1939).
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
323
popularnotions amongDutch Refonned Churchclergy, becamepartof an ethnic
mobilizationfor politicalactionunderthePoorWhiteprogramsof the 1930s.44
Across SouthAfricaCarneywas obviously far more comfortablewith the
westernstyle educationprocess importedby missionariesfor "Natives"thanwith
traditionalAfricancultures.Her commentsin AfricanLeuers on Africancustoms
andtraditionswere hostile andinsensitive.In the Transkeishe was appalledby the
". . . filthy habitsof the Griquasin soakingtheirclothingin grease andplastering
theirhairinto a vile looking cap of kinks and strings.. ."45The Xhosa practiceof
rubbingred ochre and clay on the body and blanketsshe foundless objectionable
only by degree."Whateverits sanitaryvalue, . it certainlyaddsmuchcolor to the
landscape. . .",46
She was most comfortable at such mission-inspired institutions as
Lovedale,Inanda,andAmanzimtotiInstitutes.Indeed,usingthe AmericanSouthas
her basis for comparison,CarneylikenedLovedaleto the HamptonInstitute.Her
discovery of Max Yergan, a black American attachedto Fort Hare University
College, who also served as secretaryof the StudentChristianAssociation for
Natives at Lovedale, seemed to confim this picture for her. That Yergan had
alreadyspentfour yearsin SouthAfrica,itself an accomplishmentconsideringthe
Union Government'ssuspicion of "educatedNegroes" and "advancedNatives,"
demonstratedfor her the beneficial impact of well thoughtout (and supervised)
44 Rather than youth clubs and the Extension Service providing leadership,as in the United
States, it was the Federasie van Afrikaans Kulturverenigingsor FAK (Federation of Afrikaans
Cultural Associations), that would coordinate many aspects of rural development. The FAK,
imbued with a cultural-religiousoutlook, recognized home life as central to traditionalAfrikaner
culture. Thus Home Economics (or Domestic Science), played an important part in the
political/cultural mobilization of rural AMtikaners.In the 1920s Ivy van der Merwe and Jesse
Daviditz, both formerstudentsat TeachersCollege, Columbia,with ties to the FAK, organized the
first two university level departmentsin that field at Stellenbosch and Pretoria,respectively. Both
women, who knew Carney, hi long and influentialcareers.It is noteworthythat the choice of the
Executive Committee of the Carnegie Poor White Commission (1928-1932, see below) to head
the sociological section of the nquirywas J.R. Albertyn,a well known Dutch Reformed Minister.
It was at a 1934 Kimberley Volkskongress, called by the Church to discuss the Poor White
Inquiry'sfindings, thatthe young Stellenbosch Sociologist, HendrikVerwoerd,offered the outlines
of a systematic programof action imbued with the tenets of Nationalist inspired self-help. E.M.
Aekerman, (for Jesse Daviditz) to the author,Pretoria,December 2, 1983. See volume five of the
Poor White Report, J.R. Albertyn, Sociological Report: The Poor White and Society, also M.E.
Rothmann,Mother and Daughter in the Poor Family (both Stellenbosch, 1932).
45 African Letters, 15.
46 Ibid., 15.
324
RICHARD GLOTZER
missionary enterprise.47It is interestingto note that while the Mabel Carneyof
1926 hadlittle appreciationof traditionalAfricanculture,she defendedthe need for
increased opportunities for Negroes in America before the Dutch Teachers
Association in Cape Town. In keeping with the IndustrialEducation model,
in theUnitedStateswas notnecessarilyincompatiblewith
customarydiscrimination
social progress.She was, however,highlycriticalof the IndustrialConciliationAct
of 1924, whichextendedandcodified SouthAfrica'sown industrialcolor bar.
From Pretoria,Carneytraveledinto SouthernRhodesia, spending three
weeks observingmission and governmentschool projects.Writingon her South
Africanvisit nearlya monthlater,MabelCarneyobservedthat"blackandwhitecan
live together justly, happily, and well, and that both may share the mutual
advantagein a commonprosperityandwelfare."In concluding,Carneydescribed
SouthAfricaas "thischarmingregionof sunshineandcordiality-the second best
countryin the world."48Customarysegregation,as practicedin SouthAfrica,was
also compatiblewith socialprogress.
MabelCarney'svisit to SouthAfricahad significancethatwent far beyond
herown personalexperience.As the firstTeachersCollege facultymemberto visit
South Africa, her assessmentof the educationallandscapewould prove vital in
furtheringTeachersCollege's involvementin South Africaneducation.This was
especiallyso since TeachersCollegewas developingstronglinks with the Carnegie
whose expandingmandatepermittedsponsoringprojectsin the British
Corporation,
Empiretrugh a DominionsandColoniesFund.
FrederickKeppel,the formerdeanof ColumbiaCollege, was now head of
the Corporation,and he was joined at Carnegiein 1926 by JamesE. Russell after
47 Yergan would spend 15 years in South Africa. Increasinglydisillusioned by South African
realities, Yergan gradually abandoned his Christian-orientedposition in the late 1920s. By the
mid- 1930s Yergan had assumed a double role, fulfilling his offlcial duties as YMCA Secretaryby
day while pursuing radical political activities at night In 1936 he resigned his post, visiting the
Soviet Union the same year. For an glimpse of Yergan'sgrasp of South Africa, see his proposed
itinerary for Rheinnalt-Jones'visit to the Transkei. Yergan to Rheinnalt-Jones, April 28, 1926;
also see Yergan's Carnegie Corporationgrant proposal, Yergan to Keppel, November 23, 1927,
AD 1433, CJ 2.1, File 7. Both letters Johannesburg Joint Councils Correspondence, Cullin
Library,WitwaterwandUniversity. Also see David H. Anthony, III, "MaxYergan in South Africa:
From Evangelical Pan-Africanist to Revolutionary Socialist," African Studies Review, 34, 2
(1991), 27-55. For a comparison of Yergan's experience in South Africa with Ralph Bunche's
1937-38 visit and W.E.B. Du Bois' proposed visit, see Robert R. Edgar,An African American in
South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph Bunche (Athens,Ohio, 1992), 5-42.; Cf. Du Bois
correspondencerelating to his proposed trip, GrantSeries One, Box 134, Du Bois File, Carmegie
CorporationArchives, ColumbiaUniversity, New York.
48 AfricanLetters, 19. The words "secondbest"are italicized in the original.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
325
the latter'sretirementfromTeachersCollege. Carney'suniquepersonalqualitiesnotablyhercapacityfor hardwork,fairess andopennesson an interpersonallevel,
andabilityto nurturefriendshipswith a wide, andseeminglyincongruousgroupof
people-were an importantingredientin the cement that transformedan alumni
club, membersof the TC faculty,andthe CarnegieCorporationstaff into an active
and powerful "old boy/old girl" network.With her own personal quirks put in
good-humoredperspective,Carney'sjudgmentswere generallyhighly respected.
CharlesLoram,for example, had been trying to get J.E. Russell to come out to
South Africa for a decade, and Carney'sglowing report,coupled with Russell's
new post, fmallypersuadedRussell (in 1926) andKeppel(in 1927) to come out for
an in-depthlook at philanthropic
possibilitiesin the Union.49
In a CapeTownmeeting,E.G. Malherbewas able to persuadeKeppelto set
up an informalSouth African "trust"for an extensive study of Poor Whitism in
South Africa.50 Loram was made a trustee and Malherbe entrusted with the
educationalaspectof the project.The five volumePoor White study,publishedin
1932, was to have profoundconsequences for South Africa.51 By the time the
project was completed, Teachers College and the Carnegie Corporationwere
important,if "silent,"bulwarksof the liberalEnglish-speakingestablishment.52
Indeed,the influenceof the two, and the "oldboy/old girl"networkwas such that
Britisheducators(andAfrikanerNationalists),worriedaboutAmericaninfluences
underniningtheirpositionsof dominancein the society.53
49 E.G. Malherbe,Never a Dull Moment(Cape Town, 1982), 119.
50Ibid.,, 119-121.
51 See Report of the Carnegie Commission on the Poor White Problem in South Africa.
Vols. I-V (Stellenbosch, 1932).
52 BrahlmFleish, "American Influences on the Development of Social and Educational
Research in South Africa, 1929-1943", Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the History of
EducationAssociation, Atlanta,Georgia, 1992.
53 By the 1920s British and Americansocial science were converging on the idea ta culture
and environment were central to the study and practical development of "nonwestermpeoples".
Competitionover theory, methodology and influence surely existed, underscoringgrowing AngloAmerican rivalries. Graduatesof American universities equipped with modem research tools and
trainedin programscovering issues importantto a developing South Africa-including "similar"
racial problems, grew in stature across the 1920s. Carnegie support for research in the Union,
coupled with individuallyawardedTraveland ResearchGrants,could not be matchedby the Union
Government or Whitehall. (In 1928, the Corporation allocated $500,000 for work in South
Africa.) The Hertzog Government, pleased with the prospect of achieving intellectual and
technological transferswhich diminishedBritishinfluence, remainedsuspicious of Corporationties
to the Colonial Office and their shared interest in African development. Carnegie supportfor the
newly formed South African Institute for Race Relations in 1929 brought relations with the
326
RICHARD GLOTZER
There were, of course, other links that were independent of Teachers
College and Carnegie.For example, the Malherbeswere life-long friends of the
Isaac Kandel and Paul Mort families. It was through the Carnegie funded
InternationalInstituteat TeachersCollege, and its Yearbookof Education, that
Malherbewould be able to promoteSouth Africaneducationto the international
community,in his variousYearbookarticles.5 Kandel,the Institute'sdirector,also
edited the Yearbook.Mort, by the 1930s America'sforemostauthorityon school
finance,was persuadedto go to SouthAfricafor a joint projectin 1936, fundedby
the CarnegieCorporation.In the late twenties and throughthe thirties,Carnegie
would providea varietyof projectfunds (e.g., the SouthAfricanInstituteof Race
Relations),as well as variousvisitors'grants,and travelexpenses for international
conferences.55
SouthAfricabenefittedgreatlyfromthe involvementof TeachersCollege,
as well as from the relationships developed with overseas universities and
philanthropicorganizations.The significant numberof South African scholars
trainedat institutionslike TeachersCollege providedthe Union'suniversitiesand
withwell trainedstaff.Studentstrainedat home
colleges (andthe statebureaucracy)
from
contactsestablishedby faculty trainedabroad.The infonnal "old
benefitted
boy/old girl" networkhelped many studentssecure overseas study and research
opportunitiesthatmightotherwisehave been difficultto obtain.Finally, given the
political and cultural polarization of the Union's academic establishment
(underscoredby the languageissue), it is in some measuredue to the bondsforged
with overseas institutions like Columbia, Teachers College, and the Carnegie
Corporation, that South Africa's university system (particularly its English
languageinstitutions)developeda breadth,depth,andprestige,disproportionate
to
the size of the populationit served.56
HertzogGovemment to a nearrupture.For a discussion of the substantivesocial science issues and
their policy implications see Paul B. Rich, Hope and Despair: English SpeakingIntellectuals and
South African Politics (London, 1993), 15-35, 44-62.
54 During the same period Malherbealso placed a series of articles on South Africa in the
Educational Yearbookpublished by the Institute for Education, University of London. Sir Fred
Clarke, the Institute'sDirector, was a memberof the Carnegienetworkand had close personal ties
with Malherbe,Loram, Kandel, JE. Russell and Keppel. See note 56.
55 For a detailed account of a 1934 conference in which Mabel Carney, John Dewey and
HaroldRugg participatedsee E.G. Malherbe,ed., Educational Adaptationsin a Changing Society
(Cape Town, 1934).
56 RichardGlotzer, "SirFred Clarkein South Africa and Canada:CarnegiePhilanthropyand
the Ideology of the Commonwealth,"EducationResearch and Perspectives, 22, 1 (1995), 1-21.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
327
Mabel Carneyreturnedto TeachersCollege from her first trip to South
Africain September1927. In shortorder,the impactof hertip was reflectedin her
academic work. From 1927 on, she placed increasingly more emphasis on her
foreigncontactsandthe studyof NegroandNativeEducation.
Carney'sNegro Education and Race Relations course, joined by a new
offering,The Educationof Negroes in the UnitedStates, increasinglybroughther
into contactwith blackeducationalandcivic leaders,as did the speakerseriesof the
NegroEducationClub.In 1930 the club acquiredsupportfor an expandedprogram
from the RosenwaldFund of Chicago, bringingimportantfigures such as Mary
McLeodBethune,E. FranklinFrazierandW.E.B Du Bois, to TeachersCollege.57
Carney,like her anthropologistcolleague from Columbia,Franz Boas, was also
interestedin the economic and social problems of Harlem. In the fall of 1926
CarneywroteBoas introducingherself,askingalso if he could assistherin locating
photographsof "earlyhottentotsandprimitiveBushmen."
You may know . . . I am the woman in RuralEducation. . . who
acted for nearlyfour years as facultyadvisorto KambaSimango.I
have long had an interestin Negro educationin America,and have
recendyhadthe privilegeof extendingthis interestto Africa,having
just completeda 25,000 mile triparoundthe darkcontinent.58
Boas' response to Carney'sastonishingintroductiondoes not survive. But with
shared interests in Africa and AmericanNegro culture, the two came to enjoy
friendlyrelations.Boas becameone of the sourcesCarneyperiodicallytappedon
behalf of her Africanand African-Americanstudents,enablingthem to use their
linguisticandculturalknowledgeto supporttheirstudies.
Carney also became close friends with the W.E.B. Du Bois family,
particularlyMrs. (Nina) Dubois, who shared Carney'ssmall town midwestern
origins.59 Her contacts with black educators, and firsthandknowledge of the
economic hardships black students often suffered in attending an expensive
institutionlike TeachersCollege, broadenedherperspectiveon race relations.Her
57 The grant was for $1500. Carney to Embree, April 30, 1930, Embree to Carney, March
31, 1930, and Embree to Camey April 30, 1930. All letters Folder 187, W.F. Russell Papers.
58 Camey to Boas, October 26, 1926. Mabel Carney File, Franz Boas Papers, American
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia,PA. (Hereaftercited as Boas Papers.)
59 Personal Communication from Dr. Frank Cyr, Stamford,New York, August, 1991. Dr.
Cyr (1900-1995) taught at Teachers College between 1934 and 1965 and knew many of the
individuals discussed in this essay. Like Carneyand Mort, Cyr, the "father"of the yellow school
bus, came to the College as an established educator, having started his career in Education as a
teacherin one room school.
328
RICHARD GLOTZER
empatheticnatureled herto makeinformalloansand grantsto manystudents,even
in the depths of the Depression. Gradually, during the 1930s, she came to see the
bankruptcyof patemalisticallyinspiredNegro Education,and the realities of its
inspiredNegro
consequencesfor blackpeople.First,the low level, paternalistically
Education,could now be more clearly seen as allied to repressivepolitical and
economic institutions, particularlyin the South. Negro Education was often
education for subservience rather than advancement. Second, through her
friendshipswith black students,she learnedof the raciallyinspiredindignitiesand
humiliations they suffered on a daily basis, including the way in which their
professionalexpertise was often discountedby contemptuouswhites. Although
Carney was more attuned to the indignities suffered by individuals, the
pervasiveness of racial discriminationlead her to think in terms of broader
categoriesof injustice.60
Carney'sviews on race relationsand educationwere furtherinfluencedby
several black South African studentswho attendedTeachersCollege duringthe
1930s.Of this small group,whichincludedEva Mahuma,Abe Desmore,Frederick
Dube, and Reuben Caluza, she was most influenced by her first student,
Sibusisiwe Makhanya,who arrived at Teachers College in 1929. The eldest
daughterof Nxele-Jeremiah, a cousin of chief MthamboMakhanya,she was
broughtup in the Congregationalist
Church,attendingUmbumbuluSchool, Adams
Day School, InandaSeminary,andAdamsCollege.61
Originally sponsored for overseas study by Charles T. Loram with PhelpsStokesFundsupport,SibusisiweMakhanyaandAmeliaNjongwanawere to attend
"Industrial"schools in the South.62Already qualified teachers, both found the
program of study at the Penn School and Tuskegee Institute rudimentary.
Njongwanareturnedhome. Makhanya,cut off from Phelps-Stokes supportand
6 Nina Du Bois, raised in CederRapids, Iowa, might have been an abler "mentor"for Mabel
Carney than was her husband, for she possessed the kind of interpersonalwarmth and directness
Carneyadmired.If conventionalin many respects, Nina Du Bois first experiencedsouthernracism
as an adult and she sharedCarney'sChristianoutrageat racial discrimination.See David Levering
Lewis, W.E.B.Du Bois: The Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 (New York, 1993), 178, 192, 212.
Also see Manning Marable,W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Radical Democrat (Boston, 1986), 24-26.
61"Sibusisiwe Makhanya,"Notes by Marguerite Malherbe (November 18, 1977) from a
biography dictated to Myrtle Trowbridge by Sibusisiwe Makhanya. File 4, KCM 14534, 1.,
Sibusisiwe Makhanya Papers, Campbell Library,University of Natal, Durban, S.A. Marguerite
Malherbe, an Afrikaner from Pretoria (no relation to E.G. and Jar.ie Malherbe), was a
contemporaryof Makhanya'sat TeachersCollege who became a life long friend.
62 Davis, "Producingthe 'Good African.'"Also see Richard D. Heyman, "C.T. Loram: A
South African Liberal in Race Relations,"InternationalJournal of African Historical Studies 5, 1
(1972), 4150.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
329
politely defiant of Loramand the Phelps-Stokes Fund, enrolled in a religiously
orientedsocial welfare programat the SchaufflerTrainingSchool in Cleveland,
Ohio, financing her studies by cleaning bathrooms.63In Cleveland she began
receiving fees and donationsfor giving talks aboutZulu life and customs, and it
was an extensivespeakingtouracrossAmerica,arrangedby herClevelandfriends,
thatfinancedher studiesat TeachersCollege, Columbia.64It was also in Cleveland
that Makhanya'sidea for a multi-purpose youth organization in Natal was
developed. The Bantu Youth League of Umbumbulu,which she subsequently
founded,became her life's work. In time programswould include secondaryand
nightschools,as well as a thrivingcommunitycenter.
Bright,energeticandwith a good sense of humor,the thirty-fouryear old
"Fifl,"as she was known at the College, was in some respects not unlike her
mentor, only nine years her senior. While remaining single themselves, both
women maintainedclose ties with their families. If Carneylearnedmuch from
MakhanyaaboutSouthAfricafroman Africanperspective,Makhanyain turnwas
appreciativeof Carney'senthusiasticsupport,althoughearlyon Carneywas forced
to gently ask her pupil to stop turningup at her apartmentunannounced.65The
Rev. John Dube of the Ohlange Institute,who had intercededwith Makhanya's
parents when she was first offered a chance to study overseas, remained an
energeticsupporterof her work.Makhanyano doubttold Dube of her experiences
in New YorkandhelpedspreadCarney'sreputationin SouthAfrica.
Carney'sprofessional and personal interactionswith these talented and
dedicatedstudentspermnitted
herto reacha deeperunderstanding
of Africanpeoples
and culturesat a time in her life when she was most receptiveto personalgrowth.
And if she could not entirely appreciatetraditionalAfricancultures,she at least
came to betterunderstandthe enormityof the repressionbeing visited on black
SouthAfricans.Herpersonalgrowthwas also nurturedby anotherinvolvement.
In 1928 Carney began teaching part-time at the Kennedy School of
Missions of the HartfordTheologicalSeminary.66Arrangedon a trialbasis in an
effort to betterpreparemissionariesgoing to Africa, Carney'swork at Hartford
63 Ibid., 1.
64 Ibid., 2.
65 Cited in Shula Marks, ed., Not Either an ExperimentalDoll (Bloomington, 1987), note
95, 52.
66 Capen to Carney,February1, 1928. (Edwin W. Capen was Dean of the Kennedy School
of Missions.) Box 28, Folder 381, Edwin W. Capen Papers, Hartford Theological Seminary
Archives, Hartford,CT. (Hereaftercited as E.W. CapenPapersand as HT'SArchives).
330
RICHARD GLOTZER
continued until her retirement.67As she acknowledged,the Hartfordteaching
contributedto her understandingof the escalatingracialand culturalconflicts she
hadobservedacrossAfrica,andparticularly
withinSouthAfrica.
With the ascendence of General Hertzog and the National Party, even
paternalisticNativeEducationworkhadbecomeincreasinglydifficultto pursue.In
1931 Carney'sfriendCharlesLoramimmigratedto the United States, acceptinga
professorshipat Yale. HoweverpaternalisticLoram'sapproachto NativeEducation
may have seemed,his ideas were farin advanceof those gainingcurrencyin South
Africa.68
Loram's emigration left E.G. Malherbe as Teachers College's most
distinguishedand influentialgraduatein South Africa. However, Malherbewas
beset with financialproblems,the pettyjealousiesof colleagues, andthe alarming
growth of the Afrikaner right. Increasing hostility to the reform of Native
Education, greater bilingualism among whites, and reasoned adherence to
democraticprincipals,were featuresof the emerginglandscape.Janie Malherbe
advisedCamey of theirproblemsand she respondedby alertingIsaac Kandeland
Paul Mort of the situation.69 Carney suggested that Malherbebe given some
67 Camneyenjoyed cordial relations with students, faculty and the administrationof Hartford
Seminary,particularlyDean Capen. Theircordial correspondence,and the amountof effort Carney
put into developing such courses as Methods of Approach to Primitive Peoples, Village Education
and Methods of Education in Foreign Lands, suggests the personal importanceof this work to her.
Cf. "MinuteOn the Retirementof Professor Mabel Carney,"Item 9518, Box 28, Folder 388, HTS
Archives.
68 While less open to new ideas than Carney, Loram'sthinking underwentsomething of an
evolution in his decade at Yale. Initially opposed to Africans acquiring "European"education,
Carney'sacceptance of Makhanyaas her student,and Makhanya'sunqualifiedsuccess at Teachers
College, forced Loram to rethinkthis position. Loram soon brought "his own" African students to
New Haven. An annual luncheon brought Yale students together with the Rural and Negro
Education group from Teachers College, and Loram and Carney spoke in one anothers'seminars.
Carney also brought her Hartfordstudents to Yale. Hartford'sDean, Edwin W. Capen, was not
much taken with Loram, writing Carney after a guest lecture that ". . . we were not greatly
impressedby him as one who could do the work which you [Camney]are doing with our students."
Both Carney and Loram kept Malherbe,Director of the Union Government'sNational Bureau of
Educationaland Social Research since 1929, appraisedof the progress of South African students.
At Yale Loram'sinterestsincludedsuch diversegroupsof "retardedpeoples"as Pacific Islandersand
Native American Indians. Capen to Carney, January 27, 1932. Box 28, File 381, E.W.Capen
Papers, HTS Archives. Cf. The Navajo Indian Problem, TJ. Jones, C.T. Loram, et. al. (New
York, 1939.) Also see "College Notes," Teachers College Record, 37, 8 (1936), 745, "College
Notes," Teachers College Record, 38, 7 (1937), 629-30.
69 Carney to Janie Malherbe,June 6, 1935, File 422/2, E.G. MalherbePapers.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
331
"distinctivehonor"by Columbiaor anotherinstitution,that would make South
Africaneducators"situp andtakenotice."
Both Mabel Carney and the Carnegie Corporationsought to improve
Malherbe'sstandingat home, for both Loramand Carneyknew he was giving
thoughtto immigration.70As the Malherbe'sadopted"aunt,"Mabel Caney felt
fiee to give personalas well as professionaladvice:
Ernest'soperationwas a most seriousaffair,. . and I surelyhope
he will never take such risks again. I feel the same way about his
encounterwith the native burglar.It was most courageousand fine
of him to have capturedthe rascal,buthe mighthave been killed in
the process, and thinkwhat a loss this would have been for South
Africaneducation!Do tell him for me to let the nativego hereafter,
and not to endangerhis life ... A nativewith an eight year prison
recordis muchtoo desperatea type to confrontduringthe middleof
the night!71
If Carney'slettertypifies her concernfor her friends,her "advice"also suggests a
lingeringamnbivalence
aboutcertaintypesof blacks.
The mid-1930s saw Mabel Carneybusy with a varietyof activities.72In
1934, she hadjoined the advisoryboardof theJournalof Negro Education(JNE),
70 Malherbeto Loram,undated.File42211,E.G.Malherbe
Papers.
71 The operationwas for a burstappendix,keepingMalherbefrom attendinga 1934
Volkskongress
calledby the DutchReformedChurchin Kimberleyto studythe CarnegiePoor
WhiteReporLMalherbe,
whowasto haveled a sectionof theprogram,
wouldhaveappeared
with
theyoungStellenbosch
Sociologist,HendrikVerwoerd.Supporting
theCarnegierecomnmendation
that"Natives"be replacedwith "civilizedlabor,"VerwoerdarguedthatreplacingAfricanswith
Europeanswas regreuablebut served the interests of the entire "community."He also pressed for
the implementation of another Carnegie recommendation; the establishment of a national
departmentof social welfare. Carney to Janie Malherbe,June 6, 1935. File 422/2, E.G. Malherbe
Papers.
72 Carney conducted a summer course in Mexico in 1935. Her students included black and
white South Africans who attendedas equals on this neutal ground.Like Carney'sprimaryfrme
of reference,Mexico's educationaldevelopmentwas compoundedby a wide diversityof populations
and pronouncedruraland urbandifferences. Moreover,despite substantialaccomplishmentssince
the revolution, doubts about the capacities of Indians, and indeed Mexicans as a national entity,
remained a racial subtext for many interested in Mexican education. Thus Carney's Mexican
interests were grounded in familiar themes. Based on the success of the 1935 program, Carney
sought (unsuccessfully) to repeat the Mexican course for 1937 and get the College to sponsor a
similar course in South Africa for 1938. Interestat TeachersCollege in Mexico and Latin America
had been strong since the twenties, in large measurebecause of John Dewey's work. See Ronald K.
Goodenow, "TheProgressiveEducatorand the ThirdWorld: A first look at John Dewey," History
of Education 9, 1 (1990), 23-40. For an "racialdefence"of Mexicans writtenduringthe hey-day of
332
RICHARD GLOTZER
a position she would hold until 1965. CarneyofferedtheJNE substantialtechnical
expertiseandher substantialprofessionalinfluence.In turnherworkwith the board
provideda uniqueopportunityto keep attunedto new developmentsandfurtherher
own education. Because the JNE also covered Native Education, Carney was
exposed to interpretationsof colonialism offered by such important black
intellectualsas Eric0. WilliamsandRalphBunche.73
In 1934 Camey was askedto head the RuralEducationsection of a major
internationalconference organizedby the New EducationFellowship in South
Africa.HaroldRugg and JohnDewey also attendedfrom TeachersCollege, their
expenses paid by the CarnegieCorporation.The conference, held in both Cape
Town and Johannesburg,placed Carney before two very large audiences of
professionaleducators.She made a point of visiting formerAfricanstudentsand
observingtheirprofessionalwork. These visits were both an endorsementof her
formerstudents'workas well as an affmnationof theircompetenceandworth.Of
145 speakersat the Conference,only five were black. And Carney'spresentation
withEva Mahumawas the onlyjointpresentationthatcrossedraciallines.74
PerhapsCarney'sgreatestachievement(untilherretirementin 1942) was as
mentor to the large numbersof black studentsshe guided throughmastersand
doctoral work. Between 1935 and 1942, Teachers College students produced
twelve dissertationsinvolving variousaspects of black education,nine of which
were producedby blackstudents.Indeed,the first mastersdegreeanddoctoratein
education awardedto black studentsat TeachersCollege were awardedto Eva
MahumaandJaneEllen McAllister,respectively.75
Carney worked with most of the black South Africans who attended
TeachersCollege duringthe 1930s, as well as studentsfrom otherpartsof Africa
the Eugenics Movement see Jose Casauranc, "PublicEducation in Mexico," Teachers College
Record 27, 10 (1926), 865-72.
73 See Eric 0. Williams' devastating critique of R.F.A. Hoernle's South African Native
Policy and the Liberal Spirit, in Journal of Negro Education 9 (1940), 187-88. Cf. Ralph Bunche's
review of Monica Hunter'sReaclion to Conquestin Journal of Negro Education, 6 (1937), 63942.
For an excellent look at Bunche'searly careerand his 1937-38 visit to South Africa, see Edgar,An
AfricanAmenrican
in SouthAfrica.
74 D.D.T. Jabavu, K.T. Motseti, D.G.S. M'timkuluand X.B. Xuma were the other black
speakers. See Mabel Carney(with Eva Mahuma),"Trendsin American Rural Education,"in E.G.
Malherbe,ed., Educational Adaptationfor A Changing Society (Cape Town, 1937), 301. Also on
the programwere W. Eiselen, H. Verwoerd,Nazi spy Graf von Duerckheim-Montmariinas well as
(then) Freudiananalyst, FritzPearls.
75 Winona Williams-Burns, "JaneEllen McAllister: Pioneer for Excellence in Teacher
Education,"Jousrnalof Negro Education, 51 (Summer1982), 342-357.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
333
and the Caribbean.76Reuben Caluza, a popularcomposer and musician across
South Africa, was one of the most interestingof these-students.77Caluza had
workedas an informantfor Boas and Boas' student,Jules Henry,when he was a
studentat HamptonInstitute.At Columbiahe astutelymaintainedthe connection,
nearly getting himself an additionalyear of study time beyond the M.A. when
CarneylearnedthatCaluzacouldnot writein Zuluandwould "haveto learnthis art
fromyou [Boas]righthereat ColumbiaUniversity!"t78
Boas was apparendywilling
to acceptCaluzaas a student,buttherewas no meansof fundingfurtherstudies.As
with her other black South African students,Caluza'swork reflected academic
prowess,individualityand social awareness-while disavowinga directinterestin
politics. His M.A. thesis was a string quartetbased on the spiritual"Go Down
Moses",a far cry from the innovativejazz he played for his recordingsessions.79
Caluzawas awarethatwhateverhis personalrelationswith his mentors,the limits
of "liberalism"
were best not probed.
76 Eva Mahumabecame Principalof the WilberforceInstitute,at Evaton, nearJohannesburg.
Unlike Makhanya, She had great difficulty readjustingto African social norms, which she now
regardedas primitive.FrederickDube completedhis studiesand returnedto Ohlangeto teach. Noted
"Coloured"educator Abe J.B. Desmore was already established as Principal of Cape Town's
TrafalgarJuniorHigh School, and a well known figure in educationaland civic affairs in the Cape
Town area. Camey wrote Malherbe with enthusiasm about Desmore's abilities, encouraging him
to work for an advanceddegree. (RalphBuncheand Desmorebecame friendsduringDesmore'stime
in America.) There were approximeately thirty-five African students from other parts of the
continent at Teachers College during the 1930s, as well as students from the Caribbean.Students
came from North Africa as well as Nigeria, Uganda, the Rhodesias, Haiti and Jamaica. See
Campbell, "OurFathers,Our Children,"319-378, especially 360-361; also see Edgar'sAn African
American in South Africa, for Bunche's thoughts on Desmore. See Desmore's Torch Bearers in
Darkest America: A study of Jeanes Supervision in Some Southern States of the United States
(New York,1937),basedon his thesiswork,andhis Elenents of VocationalGuidance(Cape
Town,1939).
77 For a sketch of Caluza's career see Veit Erlmann,African Stars: Studies in Black South
African Performance (Chicago, 1991), 112-155. Also see David Coplan, In Township Tonight!
SouthAfrica'sBlack City Music and Theater(New York, 1985).
78 Carney to Boas, April 3, 1935. Camey File, Boas Papers.
79 After completing his M.A. under Professor Dykstra, Caluza returned to South Africa,
becoming head of the new School of Music at Adams College, Amanzimtoti, Natal. Erlman,
African Stars, 137-138.
334
RICHARD GLOTZER
Retirement
MabelCamney
retiredfromTeachersCollege in August 1942, due to a progressive
loss of hearing.80In 1942, Howard University awarded Carney an honorary
doctorate.In the sameyearthe NegroAlumniClubof the CollegepresentedCarney
RuralEducation
witha grantenablingherto producea bimonthlynewsletterentidtled
and Race Relations.81 In June 1943, Carney spent the first of two summers
conducting education workshops at HamptonInstitute, and the following two
summersconductingrace relationsinstitutesat Fisk. From 1947 to 1950, she ran
ruraleducation workshopsat SouthernIllinois University, and was honored in
1949, at Tuskegee,duringthe celebrationof the 40th anniversaryof the founding
of the Jeanes Schools. Throughpersonalcorrespondenceand an occasional open
letter, she kept in touch with former students and colleagues over the years,
althoughshe did not travel overseas again.82 Mabel Carneydied in Estes Park,
Coloradoin 1969 at the age of eighty-four.
Conclusion
It is difficult to make a single judgementon the significanceof Mabel Carney's
careerbecauseherprofessionallife spannedmanyareas.A solid academician,with
a wealth of personal experience, she was surely a pioneer in utilizing an
interdisciplinaryapproachto examining educationaland social problems, now
commonto manydisciplines,includingAfricanstudies.Her enthusiasticinterestin
Africaanddevelopingpeopleshelpedpromotetheidea thatthesewere areasworthy
of seriousintellectualattentionat a time when theywere often consideredmarginal
80 Camey's service to the College was noted by the unusualretirementpackage provided by
the trustees,which gave her retirementbenefits of a person leaving university service at age sixtyfive (Carneywas only fifty-seven). Her savings had been drainedby the Depression as well as by
the financial help she gave family members and needy students-both at Teachers College and
HartfordSeminary. Carney to Hungate (Controller, TC), January 5, 1942. Folder RGG-No. 1,
WF. Russell Papers.
81 Carney's own estimate was that between 500 and 1000 persons regularly receiving her
newsletter which covered trends in public education and educational research, book reviews and
personal items, including obituaries. Carney to W.F. Russell, January 1, 1953. RG6, Folder 1,
WF. Russell Papers.
82 Carney lived in a sixty-five year old farm house surroundedby a four acre farmstead.She
manageda vineyard, orchard,pasture(and a few cows and sheep) by herself despite near deafness
and impairedvision. In 1957 she was joined by one of her unmarriedsisters, recently retiredfrom a
career in social work. She remained interested in South Africa. Carney to Ernest and Janie
Malherbe,April 26, 1956, File 422/2 KCM 56972(319-45) E.G. MalherbePapers.
THE CAREER OF MABEL CARNEY
335
within the university.83 Given her wide ranging circle of associates, Carney
emerges as one of a numberof figures who encouragedthe forging of modem
educational links between the United States and South Africa, helping in the
process to shape the contoursof public perceptionof South Africa for several
generations.
Carneywas also one of the firstin a long line of (oftenidealistic)scholars,
who contributedboth to the growth and developmentof South Africa's rich (if
distorted)academiclife andto the legitimationof whiteminorityrule.In fairnessto
her, Americanvisitorsto South Africafrom the twentiesthroughthe early sixties
were themselvescomingfrom a segregatedandracialisticsociety.White "experts"
on Negro/Nativeeducationand developmentoften maintainedthe prerogativeof
movingin andout of blacksocietywithlittleconcernthatblacksmightcome calling
on them-or have muchto say abouttheirresearch.If Carneyherselfcame to reject
suchobviousforns of patemalisticliberalism,it remainedproblematicfor her.
Like MabelPalmer,an economic historianwho spentthe latterhalf of her
careerin SouthAfricainvolvedin NativeEducationwork,Carneydrewon herown
genderedexperiencein developinginterestsin Nego/Native education.84Perhaps
hardenedby the "loosecannon"label bestowedon them early in theircareersby
male colleagues, both women not only crossed boundariesof race where few
ventured,but came to repudiatethose aspectsof conventionalpaternalismwhich
they could recognize.Neitherhoweverwere able to completelyovercomedoubts
aboutthe value andintegrityof nonwestemcultures.ShulaMarkshas detailedhow
Palmer,late in life, befriendeda bright,energetic, young African girl, who had
appealed to her for help in continuing her studies. Too advanced in age and
unsuitedby temperamentto respondto herprotege'sdeep emotionalneeds,Palmer
enlisted Sibusisiwe Makhanyato mediatetheirtroubledrelations.85But as Marks
suggests, an African presence was not the answer, let alone an accurate
identificationof theproblem.
On the eve of her own retirement,Carney astonishedher colleagues at
HartfordSeminary by advising against hiring the highly regardedDr. Lew, a
Chinese national, as her interim replacement. In Carney's words: ". . . foreign
representativesseem far betterqualified for courses on the cultureof their own
83 The African Studies Association (U.S.A.) was foundedonly in 1957.
84 While the two women probablyknew of one another'swork, a search of the Carney and
Palmerpapersreveals no corespondence between them and no suggestion they had ever met
85 See Marks, Not Either an Eperimental Doll, 30-40, for a detailed analysis of this
relationship.
336
RICHARD GLOTZER
landsthanto give a generalcourseon theprinciplesof educationin whichAmerican
practiceis far aheadof most foreignpractice."Thusfor Carneyalso, non-western
notionsof race and culturecoexisted with ideas and assumptionsarrivedat in her
earlycareer.86
Even with suchcontradictions,
morereadilyapparentandobjectionablenow
thanin 1942, one of Carney'saccomplishmentswas helpingto createan academic
and intellectualspace for small numbersof Africans and African-Americansto
develop and mature, equipping themselves with the knowledge, skills and
credentialsto challenge the racial assumptionsof the societies from which they
came. For many of Carney'snewly arrivedstudents,her well known "fieldtrips"
to Harlemwere an importantintroductionto blacklife in America.Her willingness
to sharehercontactswith blackculturalandintellectualleadersin the UnitedStates
andAfricaencouragedthe growthanddevelopmentof her studentsaway from the
university.87
In a generalway, examininghow and why Mabel Carneymoved beyond
the comfortablelimitsof paternalisticNegro/Nativeeducationprovidesinsightinto
the evolving study of race and developmentamong the institutionsand societal
constituencies concerned with these issues. For Africanists and comparative
specialists,the specialsignificanceof MabelCamey'scareerlies bothin the nature
of herown contributions,as well as in the richandbroadrangingdetailthe studyof
hercareerprovidesaboutthisimportanthistoricalperiod.
86 Carney to Pitt, March 18, 1942. Item No. 9456, Carney to Pitt, March 21, 1942, Item
No. 9457, and Barstow to Pitt, March 24, 1942. Item No. 9458, all three Folder 386, HTS
Archives.
87 Carneybecame an increasingly outspoken critic of the universitycommunity'sneglect of
Harlem. She was one of several co-sponsors who broughta young pastor, Adam Clayton Powell
Jr., to speak at Teachers College. "PresentConditions in Harlem,"(Announcementof a meeting,
held December 11, 1942), Item 9523, Box 28, File 388, E.W. Capen Papers, HTS Archives.