Africa from Port to Port by May Mott-Smith (1930)
The Ebony Elite of Lagos
"There are young negro women in Lagos, of well-to-do parents, who drive their own motor cars. They dress in quite the latest fashion and have been educated in England. In Britain they may have been received socially, but not now in Lagos. It is not uncommon in London to see a white woman with a negro or vice versa.
On certain occasions at Government House the Africans are invited with the Europeans. A bid for either black or white man to one of these functions is a command. A valid excuse must be given for intendance. But as one prominent negro merchant confided to me, it was never a soirée of joy for any one of them. This trying to fraternize didn't fool him. He knew, and they knew, just how far to go which wasn't very far.
At the reception, after the first intermingled greetings were made, he and his wife would have to walk around and around until tired out, wishing mightily all the time they could go home. But the invitation had stipulated certain hours for the affair and it would be lèse-majesté to leave before the specified time.
I did not hear of one case of a white man marrying a black woman. In fact that was another point most energetically and bitterly discussed about the plot of " White Cargo ". The Britishers were quite unanimous in saying that no minister on the Coast if called upon to do so would ever perform a marriage ceremony between a white man and a negro woman, not even with a half-caste person.
However, at least eighty per cent of the men who go out to the Coast cohabit with the native women. Some men openly live with their dark mistresses. There must be some appeal. Men return time after time on each of their tours to the same woman. In one case there was such an attachment that when the wife of the white man was coming out to join him, the night before her arrival the negress and the white man spent the hours together in tears — a genuine agony on both sides at the thought of separation...
The Bonanza was opposite the tennis courts and gardens which belonged to Glover Hall. The building was on the corner — a sort of public clubhouse which could be hired by anyone. From my balcony I could see under the back porches and into the hall.
One stifling night the music from a band over there kept me awake. Finally I went out on my own balcony for a breath of air. What I saw made me run back and get my opera glasses to be sure my eyes were not deceiving me. Negro men were dancing with white women ! Black hands were on pale backs ! Some months later on my way to Madagascar, when I told this to a British officer from Mauritius, he said it couldn't possibly be so! It was inconceivable that any of his country women - even in the colonies — would ever do such a thing. But there was the evidence of my own eyes. I noticed when the dancers sauntered out on the porch that the little group of white women clustered together away from their darker sisters..
There are about seven white women in Lagos married to negros. What their life is can only be conjectured. They are pariahs to both races. Usually the woman was some hard working girl from England who had been won by tales of the riches and princely importance at home of her dusky suitor. Too late she learned the real conditions."
