page 510 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_510.jpg]

oppression. However it was a source of consolation to me that I had been sentenced on the 7th November, the anniversary of the day that had witnessed the birth of the first Socialist State in the world, and which not only obliterated oppression in the Soviet Union but which used its wast resources to aid the oppressed peoples throughout the world in their struggle for national liberation.

When I was taken to prison to start serving my sentence I was issued with a pair fo short trousers, a khaki shirt, a canvas "jacket", sandals and socks and a cloth cap. Whatever food had been left over was removed; so were the bed, chair and the table; the kaross met the same fate and which had been a source of embarrasment to the prison authorities especially the Commanding Officer Col. Jacobs who tried to prevent me from attending court dressed in the kaross. Only the threat that I would apply to court for a declaration of rights have made him capitulate.

The trial had taken place at the height of the Cuban crisis and under the atmosphere of the threat of a third world war. Unquestionably my sympathies lay with Cuba. The rise of the first Socialist State in the western hemisphere, the revolutionary means whereby Fidel Castro had seized power, the rapid improvement in the living standards and conditions of the people within the first few years of a socialist society, Castro and his people's unequivocal opposition to colonialism and their full support for the liberation movements, had made a favourable and lasting impact throughout the world. The ability of a new and small state to defend its interests and its independence, to repulse repeated attempts by the mighty USA to destroy it, no only shows the popularity of Fidel Castro and his government, but demonstrates in no uncertain terms the superiority of socialism over capitalism.