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Chapter 7 of the unpublished autobiography written on Robben Island. It covers the period when Nelson Mandela was banned in the 1950s.
Chapter 7: A Circle of Impressions
The bans confining me to Johannesburg and prohibiting me from atending meetings expired early in September 1955. I had last had a holiday in 1948 when I spent three months in Cape Town. Then I was a green lightweight in the ANC with hardly any serious responsibilities other than attending meetings in the Transvaal Executive, addressing public meetings, writing an article or two and accompanying the provincial president on his rounds. In the intervening years I had reached the light heavyweight division and carried more poundage.
Confined to Johannesburg for a whole two years and with the pressure of both my legal and political work weighing heavily on me, I was suffocated from clautrophobia and anxious for a bit of fresh air. Fourteen years of crammed life in South Africa's largest city had not killed the peasant in me and once again I was keen to see that ever beckoning open veld and the blue mountains, the green grass and bushes, the rolling hills, rich valleys, the rapid streams as they sped across the escarpment into the insatiable sea.
In 1953 my mother and sister in law,No england, has spent a year with me in Orlando and I now missed them very much. The political storms in which I had been caught on the Rand and elsewhere had made me neglect family affairs and I had now to confer with both Sabata and Daliwonga on several problems. On and off Daliwonga and I had exchanged views on the political situation and, with current developments in the Transkei, I thought the moment was ripe for a full
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discussion on the whole issue. I decided to holiday on Mthatha.
Duma Nokwe and others gathered at home one night to see me off. The young and promising barrister was in his usual jovial mood and as the evening lengthened he became more lucid and loquactious and kept us roaring with laughter. Occassianolly he would burst into song Russian and Chinese at the same time gesticulating zealously as if conducting an imaginary choir. We sat up unil about midnight and as they were leaving the house my daughter Makaziwe, then two years old, awoke and asked me if she could come along with me. Although I had been confined to Johannesburg pressure of work had allowed me little time to spend with the family and I was well aware of the longing that would eat away their insides as I drifted further and further from them on my way to the Transkei. For some seconds a sense of guilt persecuted me and the excitement about the journey evaporated. I kissed her and put her to bed and, as she dozed away, I was off.
I manoeuvred my car out of the maze of streets in the centre of the city and within an hour or so, I was on the national road to Durban, the first leg of my journey. The breeze was gentl and soothing and, although I had not slept at all that night, I was fresh as dew. Over the car radio I listened to light and sparkling music and felt as merry as my friend Duma Nokwe.
At daybreak I crossed from Volksrust into Natal. Once Getshwayo's country, the black King whose crack army wiped out the British at Isandhlwana, it was no longer ours. It had been grabbed from us by men whose sole title to it was gunpowder and who have no conscience whatsoever about
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robbing those weaker than themselves. Now we needed passes to travel through that beautiful country, to visit relatives and friends, to get material from the woods to build our homes and to hunt game.
Shortly after crossing the river on the border my eye was caught by the Majubas, the steep hills I has seen on several occassions before on my way to and from Durban. This time I remembered that this was the historic battlefield on which the inctepid Afrikaner once stoutly defended his independence and shook British imperialism. Was it the same Afrikaner who fought so tenaciously for his own freedom who had now become such a tyrant and who was persecuting us? I once wondered whether history knew any people as oppressive and cruel as the Afrikaner who could shoot down human beings as they did, work them to death on the potato farms of Bethal and treat them worse than animals. Later I came to discover, as many others did, that the Spaniards and Portugese, the English, Dutch, French, Belgians, Germans, Italians and Americans in fact all imperialist had done worse things than these. As for myself, twice he had locked me up and twice he had restricted me to Johannesburg and prevented me from attending meetings merely for demanding in 1952 and by non violent and peaceful means what he fought for through armed force seventy one years ago. With all the multiplicity of humiliations and frustration I has suffered and the opportunities that were closed to me, I was bitter and felt even more strongly now that South African whites neede another Isandhlwana.
I remembered that I was on leave and pulled myself together and forgot about the problem of
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human folly to which the relations between black and white, between African and Afrikaner, gave rise, continued on my journey and listened more conciously to the music. This time I had tuned to Radio Bantu whose politics revolted me but whose music I thoroughly enjoyed. At home I hardly missed the rediffusion service, as this programme was then called and which featured almost all the leading African stars in the country Miriam Makheba, Dolly Rathebe, Dorothy Masuku, Manhattan Brothers and others and which brought us into contact with the best choral music our people had produced.
The fight against a State enjoying vast resources and enormous powers of coercion is never easy and its opponents frequently find themselves leading contradictory lives. Although we fight against all forms of colour discrimination we are forced to live in separate areas and use separate travel facilities, separate entrances to private and public buildings and to accept lower wages than those paid to whites. Even in regard to matters where we have a choice, circumstances may compel us to act in contradiction to our beliefs. We go to separate shows, organise our own sposts clubs and tournaments and attend separate church services. To sing and dance is as natural to my people as to all others and I have never found it easy to ask the people to boycott a music programme, which was the only source of entertainment for most of them, without offering an alternative. I enjoy all music, indigenous,Euro African and western, and here in jail I even learnt to appreciate Eastern music much more than I did when I was out of prison. But those of Reuben Caluza, Joshua Mohapeloa, Hamilton Masizi and Benjamin Tyamzashe always bring a special message to me. Even on that beautiful morning I could not resist the urge and joy of listening to the voices of my
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own flesh and blood. My restriction to Johannesburg put me out of touch with developments in other parts of the country and I was now keen to pick up the old threads and brush up my knowledge. Although I read the newspapers as carefully as I could, journalists are usually not the best source of information for those who must plan on the basis of hard facts. What could offer me a better opportunity than to go out and talk directly to people who were in the centre of activities in their respective areas? My first stop was at G.S.D. Nyembe's home near Dannhauser. He was then vice president of Natal ANC and one of the top figures in Nothern Natal. I did the same in Ladysmith and paused to chat with Ahmed Sader, Frank Bhengu and his father. Dr. Ahmed Sader, while studying abroad had been associated with the International Union of Students (IUS). On completing his medical studies he had settled down to practicing medicine in Ladysmith and had emerged as one of the top figures in the Natal Indian Congress in Northern Natal. Between him and G.S.D.Nyembe, and with the assistance of other leading Congressites, they had organised the whole of Northern Natal as a strong base of the Congress movement. They all briefed me on the situation in their region and when later in the afternoon I left Rosebaum Township where the Bhengus lived, the cobwebs were beginning to fall away from the mind.
My next stop was Pietermaritzburg where I hoped to see Dr Chota Motala, Archie Gumede and Harry Gwala for an hour or so, so I thought. The Midlands, with Pietermaritzburg as the centre, was one of the best organised regions in the whole country for the COP campaign and to want to talk to its principal figures was but natural. Soon Moses Madiba, Dr. Omar Hassim and S.B.Mungal were there and we talked and talked for hours. I had not slept for two nights now and drowziness and
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fatigue were catching up on me. At dawn I had a nap. This altered my programme and I could not see Harry Gwala and Archie Gumede.
From Pietermaritzburg I travelled with S.B.Mungal, a veteran of many campaigns who had been active the the CP from the early 30s. His presence made the trip to Groutville brief and enjoyable. I still remember one of the stories he related to me during that trip. He was once visited at his place of work by the Security Police who were looking for the whereabouts of a cetain Mr.Baker. He told me that during the 1930s the latter was in charge of adult night schools organised by the CP. "Do you want to know where he is?" asked Mungal. "Yes", replied the policeman. "I'll show you come." said Mungal. He and the two policemen climbed into the police van with Mungal directing the driver. The police had apparently been looking for Mr. Baker for quite some time and the prospect of tracking him down at last excited them. As they reached the outer limits of the town, they came to a gravel road which led to a cemetry. "Does he work there?" enquired the policeman. "I'll show you", insisted Mungal. They reached the cementry and left the car outside the entrance. As they passed the offices and went deeper and deeper into the graveyard tension increased. Finally Mungal stopped next to a particular grave and said triumphantly, "there's Mr.Baker!"
He has a lively sense of humour and I enjoyed his story and puns.
Chief Luthuli and his family were pleased to see S.B.Mungal and we spent a lovely time at their home. Although the Chief had been confined by banning orders for more than 12 months he was
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well informed and ably outlined the urgent problems he thought the ANC head office in Johannesburg should attend to and made constructive suggestions. In the evening we returned to Durban and, as usual, I stayed with Ismail Meer, spending most of the time in the kitchen with his wife, Fatima. During the three days I spent in Durban I had discussions with Masabalala Yengwa, Stephen Dlamini and other leading members of the ANC in that city. Later, I met Dr. Monty Naicker and other members of the Executive of the NIC.
One of the questions I had been discussing with my colleagues during this trip and which I now raised with my NIC colleagues, was the effect that bans and restrictions imposed by the government on our leading members were having on our organisations. Once a person was banned he came to accept the restrictions and ceased to be active. In my discussions I set out to urge that this should not be allowed to happen and that banned members should continue to play an active part. In this instance Debi Singh, usually in a good frame of mind and keen on discussion, made the conversation lively when he protested against what he called constant meddling in the internal affairs of Natal by people from the Transvaal and asked me to leave them in peace, adding that we would do the movement a lot of good if we concentrated on organising the Transvaal first and solving its problems before we offered advice to others. But he was a disciplined and experienced man with his hart in the movement and, once he realised that his colleagues did not share his point of view, he immediatly fell in line and participated fully in the discussions.
From Durban I travelled along the south coast past Port Shepstone down to Port St. Johns. Places
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like these are typical of all colonial and semi colonial countries where the towns, streets, parks, buildings, railway stations, airports, dams and other public places bear the names of people from the imperial countries and not those of the indigenous population and other opponents of racial oppression. On merit men like Dr. John Dube, Professor Jabavu, Dr. Abdurahman, Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Andrews and Revered Michael Scott deserve as much, if not more, honour than Sir Theophilous Shepstone, after whom the former port was named, and a host of other white public men who have been similarly honoured.
Port St Johns is an even more sad commentary on the mentality of those responsible for the naming of the country's towns and shows that South Africa is prepared to honour other imperialist countries rather than its distinguished black citizens. The name commemorates the Sao Joao, a portugese ship that was wrecked near the mouth of the Mzimvubu in 1552. On principle there is nothing wrong in giving recognition to the many links between our history and that of Portugal. The human lives that were lost when the ship went down, the hardships suffered by the survivors as they travelled through the country to Delago Bay and the fact that some of them remained behind and lived among the Africans, deserves some form of permanent recognition and in the ordinary course the name Port St. Johns would be quite appropriate. We condemn the practice because, in this particular instance, the commemoration is part of a deliberate policy of discriminating against black people in South Africa.
Far from improving this position, white South Africa seems to be going from bad to worse. Names
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like "Sekhukhuneland" which used to appear in the old maps have now disappeared from the new ones. True there are a few insignificant places bearing the names of black historical figures like Shakaskraal, tucked up in an obscure spot on the Natal north coast. But such taken gestures are more of an insult than an honour to our people. It is not difficult to imagine what is certain to happen when freedom comes to this country. The radical changes in the naming of independent countries and public places in Africa, Asia and Latin America indi ate the sort of demands that will be made here.
I reached Mzimkhulu late that day and stayed with Dr. Wilson Conco who ran a large medical practice in the area. We were students together on the Rand and worked closely in the ANC and especially in the Youth League. I was happy to see him again and his wife Sheila again. Although active in Natal politics, he was actually living in the Transkei and acquainted with current developments there. After consultations with him, I had a cleareer picture of the situation in the area than when I left the Rand. In the evening of the third I reached Mthatha, my home town. Home is home even for those who aspire to serve wider interests and who have established their homws of choice in distant regions. The happy lift that seized me as I drove into York Road, the main street, is beyond measure. I had been away for the long strech of 13 years and although there were no fatted claves and festooned trees to welcome me I felt such like the Returned Wanderer of Biblical fame and looked forward to seeing my mother and humble home, the numerous friends with whom I grew up, that enchanting veld and all the paraphanalia that make up unforgettable days of childhood.
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My arrival coincided with the meeting of a special committee appointed to handle the whole question of the Transkei changing from the Bunga system tot the Bantu Authorities. For the greater part of their history the Transkeian Territories were treated as a separate administrative area and in due course even developed a system of local government which, despite its weaknesses and shortcomings and there were many was perhaps the most advanced to be found in any of the country's African areas.
Politically the Transkei had 26 magisterial districts with Mthatha as capital. By 1955 the Council system had existed in certain of these areas for about 61 years and from 1926 every district has its own Council, all of which were in 1932 federated into the United Transkei General Council (Bunga) with jurisdiction over the entire area and consisting of 108 members made up of the chief magistrate as chairman and 26 magistrates, all whites, and 81 African members. Each of the District Councils elected from its own members 3 representatives and the 3 Paramount Chiefs of Thembuland, Eastern and Western Pondoland were ex officio members. It is ironical that the Gcaleka chief, who is the traditional head of all the Xhosas (a district from the Tembus, Pondos, Pondomises, Bacas and Xesibes) on both sides of the Kei, and member of the most influential Royal Houses in the country, should have been denied by the government official recognition as Paramount Chief and ex officio member of the Bunga. The authorities have always been hard on the house of Gcaleka and that of his brother Rharhabe, because of their stubborn refusal to submit to foreign rule. Official policy has been to crush that Chieftency and to eliminate its influence
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completely. That the Nationalist government has repudiated official policies in this regard and recognised the Paramount Chieftancy of that House shows the extent to which they are prepared to go in buying the support fo the chiefs.
Under the UTTGC were the 26 District Councils with the magistrate as chairman, and 6 African members, 4 of whom were elected by the tax payers and 2 nominated by the magistrate. In Eastern and Western Pondoland 2 were elected by tax payers, 2 by the Paramount Chief and 2 by the magistrate. The main function of the Bunga was to advise the government on any proposed legislation affecting Africans in the area and exercise funcitons specifically entrusted to it by the government. These related mainly to taxation, agriculture, rehabilitaion schemes, construction of roads and dams, dipping and scholarships. Its resolutions were purely advisory and were subject to review by a separate conference consisting of the chief magistrate and the 26 magistrates. All of which thus made the Bunga a mixture of democratic impulse severely restricted by paternalism borm of white overlordship.
Although the Bunga was certainly the most influential political body in the Transkei and provided a platform for the people of the whole area to meet and review their problems, it was not the only political organ in the territory. There were a number of mass organisations, national and purely local, whose policies clashed with those of the official body and who held that African aspirations could never be achieved through government institutions. But these organisations were relatively weak and divided and at no time did they exercise the Bunga commanded.
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In spite of the fact that the Bunga was primarily concerned with the affairs of the Transkei, it frequently expressed itself on major national questions and at times did so quite forcefully. It consistently demanded direct representation for Africans in parliament, condemned the taking away of the franchise from the Africans, rejected apartheid and the Bantu Authotities Act in particular. Its opposition to Bantu Authorities was perfectly understandable as this is a system which is inherently feudalistic in character depending not on the personal ability of the man but on his birth and social status, whereas the composition of the Bunga, with the exception of the white magistrates, the 3 Paramount Chiefs, and the nominated members was based on the democratic principle of election. It is therefore surprising that it allowed the government to pressurise and entice it to sign its own death warrant in favour of an outdated system which would deprive the masses of the people of a democratic right which despite its limited application they had enjoyed for more than 6 decades, namely, to elect their own representative.
It may well be that some councillors were largely influenced by the promise that under the new system, the people of the Transkei would be able to run their own affairs free from immediate control by white magistrates. Be that as it may, on the night of my arrival at Mthatha I met some members of the Special Committee including Chiefs Tutor Ndamase, Douglas Ndamase and Sandi Majeke and Councillors S.Mabude and Elijah Qamata. I had a brief discussion with both councillors before and after one of the sessions and had a glimpse of the matters that were considered there. At that time Sabata was ill in hospital and I visited him regularly during the
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fortnight I spent at home. Daliwonga, who was playing a leading part in persuading the Bunga to accept Bantu Authorities, was also a member of the Committee and we met the same night. He was the central figure in the discussions quite pressed for time and we arranged to meet later at home. Meanwhile I slept in a boarding house in the town.
I thought I had left the Security Police behind on the Rand and had not suspected that they had spread their tentacles as far afield as my home town. I was still drinking coffee with two chiefs in my room when early next morning my hostess brought in a white gentleman. Without any courtesies he arrogantly asked, "Are you Nelson Mandela?" "And who are you?" I countered.
He gave his rank as a detective sergeant and his name. I then asked, "May I see you warrant, please?" He resented my impertinence much more than I detested his own arrogance but after some hesitation he produced his authority. I then told him that I was Nelson Mandela. He requested me to accompany him to the police station and I asked whether I was under arrest to which he replied that I was not. I refused togo. Whereupon he fired a succession of questions while at the same time noting my remarks in his notebook: when did I leave Johannesburg, what places had I visited, how long did I intend remaining in the Transkei, exactly where would I go on leaving the area, did I have a permit to enter the Transkei? I told him where I would stay, that the Transkei was my home and that I did not need a permit to enter it, but refused to answer the other questions. When he left the Chiefs criticized me for my abruptness, stressing that I could have answered some of the questions without any risk to myself. I expained that I had done so because of the man's discourtesy and
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hautiness and that I had justly rewarded him for his arrogance. I don't think I convinced them.
That incident, small as it was, brought sharply to me that I had returned to a Transkei far different from the one I had left behind 14 years ago, and that there was much at stake in the activites that had brought together the Chiefs and the Councillors assembled there at that time.
Much as I was interested in having a first hand knowledge of what was happening among that segment of our people that worked with the government institutions, my chief interest was to find out what the people's organisations outside the Bunga, and especially the ANC, were doing. The first thing I did on leaving the boarding house that morning was to visit the workship of Timothy Mbuzo, the ANC leader in the capital. Kenneth Qhina later joined us. I soon discovered that on the whole we were stronger than I expected, but our membersip was scattered all over the area and immobilized by the lack of funds and long distances to be travelled to meetings. Meanwhile the situation demanded a tighter organisaion, full time personel and a central office to plan and co ordinate our activities. In the limited time at my disposal I did what I could to help but such tasks require a strong team and far more resources than I possessed. When I left the Transkei I had done less than scratch the surface.
I was occupied with Timothy Mbuzo and Kenneth Qhina for the whole day and reached home at night. I blew the hooter from a distance, waking up the whole village and a number of people gathered at home to see what was happening. Having been away for so long I hardly suspected that
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such an incident would be taken more seriously than I meant it to be. Some thought it was an ambulance bringing tragic news, others feared that it was the police coming to investigate some offence I probably committed in Johannesburg. Nevertheless they were all relieved and happy to know that the noise was an announcement that I was back.
Being together with my mother in her home filled me with boyish excitement. At the same time I could not avoid a sense of guilt as my mother was living all alone and 22 miles from the nearest doctor. My sisters and I were each living on their own. Despite the fact that her children tried in their own way to render her financially comfortable, she chose to live an auster life and saving what one child gove her to distribute to any of her other children who happened to be in need. On previous occasions I endeavoured to persuade her to come and live with me in Johannesburg, but she could never face the wrench of leaving the countryside where she had lived all her life.
I have often wondered whether a person is justified in neglecting his own family to fight for opportunities for others. Can there be anything more important than looking after your mother approaching the age of 60, building her a dream house, giving her good food, nice clothing and all one's love? Is politics in such cases not a mer excuse to shirk one's responsibilities? It is not easy to live with a conscience that raises such questions from time to time. Often I am able to persuade myself that I have done my best at all times to bring a measure of ease and comfort into my mother's life. Even when at times I am plagued with an uneasy conscience I have to acknowledge that my whole hearted commitmentto the liberation of our people gives meaning to life and yields
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for me a sense of national pride and real joy. This feeling has been multiplied a hunderd times by the knowledge that right up to her last letter she wrote me shortly before her death, my mother encouraged me in my beliefs and in fighting for them.
I arrived at Mqhekezweni also at night and in spite of my experience at Qunu, my home, I again hooted continuously from a distance. At that time Justice has been deposed from chieftaincy by the government and was living in Durban. When the hooter was heard, many people thought their Chief has returned. To Africans a chief is such by virtue of his birth and not of his appointment by the government and there are many chiefs who hold no government appointment yet wield a greater authority and who are highly respected by their people. Perhaps it was because of this that Justice remained quite popular among his followers even during the period of this deposition. Imagine their disappointment when they discovered that it was not their chief who had come. Although they were happy to see me they would have been happier still to welcome him.
My sister in law No england who was asleep when I arrived, was so excited to see me that she demanded I drive her that same night to visit a relative. To do this I had to cut across a wild and rough veld, avoiding holes, rocks and shrubs, but we managed all the same. During the fortnight I kept moving between Qunu and Mqhekezweni, now staying with my mother and now with my sister in law, all the time visiting and receiving friends and relatives.
I could not leave the Transkei without visiting Dr.Jimmy Njongwe and his wife Connie. I had last
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seen them in Port Elizabeth at the end of 1952 where he ran a popular medical practice. Both of them were politically active there and he had become one of the commanding figures during the Defiance Campaign, acting as provincial president when Professore Matthews was away in the United States. He was now practising in Matatiele on the Basutoland border and I paid them a two day visit. In their house I have always felt perfectly at home much as if I was at Qunu, Mqhekezweni or Orlando. What was even more important, there hardly any person knew me and I could relax completely. I spent the greater part of those two days in bed.
I also visisted my nephew George Mathanzima, then practicing as an attorney in the Ngcobo district, and stayed with him and his family for a day. There I met A.P.Mda and Tsepo Letlaka, both serving articles under George and both still staunch supporters of the ANC, having done excellent work in that region. I had always enjoyed talking with A.P.Mda, with his ability to analyse situations and lively sense of humour. He had joined a nember of local groups and committees, sporting and otherwise, and reviewed not only the major political currents in the Transkei, but possessed a wealth of valuable detail on what went on behind the scenes.
When the Special Committee on the introduction of Bantu Authorities adjourned Daliwonga and I visited Sabata in hospital. Unfortunately the Chief's illness limited the scope of the discussions and we considered only urgent matters and agreed that the two brothers would resume talks as soon as Sabata was well enough to do so. Their father's were not only relatives but friends who kept close together all the time, a traditions which was faithfully observed by Chiefs Jongitaba and Dalubuhle
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who acted as regents respectively for the sons. It was a great moment for me to see the descendants of Ngubengcuka putting their heads together to sort out family problems.
From Mthatha Daliwonga and I drove to Qamata where we examined the proposed developments in the Transkei in the presence of George, A.P.Mda, Tsepo Letlaka and P. Breakfast. I approached the whole discussion not from the point of view of staging a show down or of fault finding, showing off, making propaganda or even debate, but with a view of persuading a man I knew was primarily ocncerned with the idea of an independent Transkei, and who was destined to play a leading role in the realisation of that ideal, and who would thereby help to set in motion similar forces elsewhere in the country.
Up to 1940 we were bound together by a common family background, a common outlook and common aspirations. But that year we took opposite directions and I found myself on the Rand, the hub of the country's political life, coming into close contact with forces that aimed higher that the welfare of a particular region. From Fort Hare, Daliwonga went straight home and became seniour chief of Emigrant Tembuland, a position he had held for no less than 15 years when we met at Qamata in 1955. I realised at the outset that he would look at the problem mainly from the point of view of his own background and of his aspirations as chief. In the circumstances I thought it advisable not to introduce any isms or cliches in the discussion, but to rely purely on truth and common sense and the facts of history, stressing in particular the demands that have been consistently made by African leaders throughout the country, the Transkei included.
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My initial argument was built on the premise that Africans were capable of determing their own future and that no racial group, the Nationalist Party included, has any right to decide for us. Any so called solution forcibly imposed on us, as was the case with the Bantu Authorities, could never succeed. But the central point I kept on hammering over and over again that night was the obvious fact that more Africans were already living in so called white areas and outside the Reserves, that apartheid offered no solution whatsoever for this section, that Bantu Authorities would affect not only a minority in the Reserves which would continue to shrink as economic factors drove more and more people to the urban areas and that, in any event the actual area covered by the new system was no less than 13% of the country too small to constitute a solution.
I added that since 1910 when the Union of South Africa was formed, African leaders throughout the country had worked for the unity of all our people, an objective which was being gradually accomplished and which was not just a utopian dream but a concrete ideal reflecting the direction of economic forces. African unity was a development that conflicted with the existence of white supremacy and, once it had been fully achieved, radical oppression would tumble down. By breaking up Africans into several small ethnic units through a system of Bantu Authorities the Nationalist government hoped to forestall that danger. I concluded by stressing that leadership in all fields, especially in politics, should be based on merit and not on birth or social status and that the principle of the masses of the people electing their won representatives to the organs of government was the basis of democracy which had already taken root amongst Africans and that a change now
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to hereditary leadership on levels similar to that of the Bunga was a backward step the people would definately resist. I earnestly urged him to reconsider his whole attitude and to use his talents and influence towards the realisation of the ideal of African unity, the defeat of white supremacy and the emergence of a free and united South Africa.
Daliwonga's reply was a simple one with a personal and wider motivation. On the personal level, he argued that Chieftaincy of the Right Hand House of Mthikrakra had been taken away from his great grandfather Mathanzima, and the status and influence of that House subsequently whittled down severely. He also outlined the difficulty he had experienced and humiliation he had suffered as chief under the United Party government and gave interesting figures in support of his argument. Under Bantu Authorities his full powers as chief would be restored and he pointedly asked me on what grounds did I expect him to reject a system which held such promise.
On the wider level he pointed out that his ultimate goal was also a free and united South Africa and praised the efforts of all those who had fought for this ideal, but he felt he could achieve this goal peacefully and quicker than us by making use of the opportunities offered by the government. He criticized our policy and method on the grounds, firstly, that multiracialism would create more racial friction in the country and that apartheid offered each racial group the opportunity to develop freely in accordance with its own heritage and culture. Secondly he feared that our method would bring about bloodshed and more tension and bitterness. He was startled to learn that in spite of my own family background I did not support the principle of traditional leadership in national affairs,
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insisting that such leadership was in accordance with our own history and heritage.
Daliwonga's plain answer as to why he, as an individual, had accepted Bantu Authorities simplified the issue not only in regard to himself but also in relation to other chiefs. They regarded the new system as a formal recongnition of their position as traditional leaders in the rural areas, where the system applied, the machinery of government would be based on chieftaincy. From now on the chiefs would occupy a commanding position in the community and would enjoy a measure of prosperity quite beyond the reach of their won fellow men. Everything else, including the welfare of the entire African population, was to be subordinated to the interests of the chiefs as a group. They accepted this bait even though it was clear from the outset that its overall intention was to save white supremacy in South Africa by forestalling the emergence of a united African community and handing over less than 13% of the country to ethnic regimes dominated by chiefs.
I told my nephew that I understoon his personal position quite well and the logic of his attitudeas a chief. But I thought it my duty to draw his attention to the fact that I considered his personal interests to be definately in conflict with those of the community, that placed in a similar position I would try to subordinate my individual interests to those of the people at large. I deliberately did not wish to say more on this aspect and turned to more general isssues.
I welcomed his statement that his ultimate goal was the same as ours but told him that to realise that aim he would have to resolve first the contradiction to which I had already referred. I spent some
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time explaining that social problems could only be solved through organisations and not by individuals, however influential and worthy their motives might be, that if he wished to contribute to the struggle to unite the African people and hasten their liberation his duty was to join the liberation movement as Chief Luthuli had done. On the question of multiracialism I reminded him that our country was the home of many races and that living together under one government was unavoidable. I thought to allay his fears by citing numerous examples in the world where different races were living together harmoniously and that there was no reason why a non racial social order in South Africa should lead to racial friction. I reminded him that South African whites were not a homegenious group and that they were a mixture of Afrikaner, English, French, German, Greeks, Jews, Portuguese, and Spaniards who differed in their historical backgrounds and culture but who lived together peacefully.
I repudiated the suggestion that our method would lead to bloodshed and racial strife and showed that it was precisely because of the peaceful and non violent methods we had consistently followed throughout our history of more than 40 years that worse massacres had been avoided, that the people who deserved his rebuke were his friends, the Nationalist government, whose cruelty and racialism was well known and who easily resorted to the rifle as the ordinary means of dealing with genuine grievances of the African people. It was the wicked schemes of such men that he was now urging us to accept as the blueprint for our freedom.
We argued through the night right until dawn. Early in the discussion he invited both A.P.Mda and
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Tsepho Letlaka to take part but they declined, preferring that the argument be confined to the two of us. Later Daliwonga insisted on hearing their views and both supported my arguments and disagreed with his. A.P.Mda was even more outspoken than me and bluntly told the chief to choose between personal comfort and the hardships of serving his people. George and P.Breakfast hardly spoke.
In this discussion I should have driven home the point that whether or not Daliwonga's views are correct would be judged, not by the independence of the Transkei, but by the answer to the question whether such independence would strengthen or weaken the struggle for a united and free South Africa. It is because we see in the whole policy of separate development and its fragmentation of the country, the entrenchment of racial oppression in the rest of the Republic and a direct threat to all our labours and dreams that we consider Daliwonga amongst those who have allied themselves with the main enemy of the black people in South Africa.
The discussion revealed a wide gap in our respective beliefs and methods of action and I immediately accepted that on political issues our roads had definitely parted. This grieved me a great deal because other than Justice few men have inspired me in my youth as he did and I would have loved to fight side by side with him and share with him the laurels of real victory. On family matters he had always been excellent and our friendship remains deep and warm. I was really sorry to come out of the discussion with empty hands.
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The next morning I returned to Qunu and I spent a few days with my mother and sister Mabel. During the day I would leave the car behind and visit friends and relatives on foot and walk long distances leisurely into the veld. But the magic world of my childhood evaded me and everything that remained had changed. Although it was no spring the grass was short and brown and I saw very few flowers, whilst the bushes that were once dense and tall not appeared stunted and scattered here and there. Even the streams whose sweet waters I used to enjoy and where I used to catch eels had dried up into numerous dirty pools. All the same it was a tremendous experience to see once again the old landmarks that reminded me of the exciting moments of my youth.
My time was no up an one evening I bade my mother and sister in law No england farewell and went off to Mthatha for final consultations with Timothy Mbuzo. My last act that night was to visit Sabata in hospital to wish him speedy recovery and to say goodbye. We shook hands and he wished me well in return. At 3 a.m. next moring I was on my way to Cape Town. In the bright moonlight and crisp breeze I felt fresh and light and drove at moderate speed past Dutywa (Idirtywa) and Butterworth and across the Kei. The road winds up the rugged mountains from that historic river and the majestic scenery on both sides of the road heightened the feeling of bliss that surged through me. From the top of the mountains I looked down on a beautiful valley with vast and green fields. I was last on that road 18 years before when Chief Jongintaba took me to Healdtown. Between 1937 and 1940 I had travelled on several occasions by train to and from Healdtown and Fort Hare but on all those occasions it passed the region at night. This was an ideal opportunity for me to see the area and I slowed down considerably.
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I was still enjoying the scenery when a limping man raised his hands appealingly. I stopped instinctively and picked him up. I had hardly travelled a mile further when I discovered that I had given a lift to an unusual companion. He told me that his car had broken down on the other side of Mthatha and he had walked for a whole week from there, his destination being Port Elizabeth. He brushed aside with ease some pertinent questions I asked him and talked ceaselessly all the way to East London. Although I was a bit uneasy about his evasiness, the man had a charming personality and from his remarks he appeared a good conversationalist. He also seemed to know the particular area quite well and was making interesting observations about the region as we travelled along.
We reached Robert Mahlangeni's house in East London but found he was away to see the British Lions Rugby team playing in Port Elizabeth. We met a few people in the township and after luch we left for Port Elizabeth. Now my companion had discovered who I was and he decided to introduce himself properly. He told me that he was driving from Pondoland coast carrying contraband when he ran into a police road block. As he jumped out of his car and dashed away the police fired hitting him on the leg but he escaped. He limped along from there until I came to his rescue.
I asked him a question the answer to which I knew fairly well: why did he choose such a dangerous source of livelihood? This touched off a lively speech. As a youngster his ambitions was to become a teacher but his parents were too poor to send him to college. After leaving primary school he
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worked in a factory but the wages were low and he could not manage. He tried to supplement his income by smuggling dagga. The sideline proved so profitable that he decided to leave the factory and concentrate on the risky but lucrative occupation of smuggling. In any other country, he argued, he could have found suitable opportunity for his talents. He added that he was a member of the ANC and that he had defied during the 1952 Defiance Campaign, all of which was confirmed by our people in Port Elizabeth. One needed only to spend a few hours with him to appreciate his talents. As an attorney with a large criminal practice I was fairly conversant with this type of problem and had come across tragic cases where otherwise talented and fine individuals were driven to crime because South Africa provided no opportunities for their talents. Black men saw people far less competent than themselves with higher incomes simply because they were white. Although there are important exceptions where children from well to do families resort to crime, it is now an established fact that racial oppression plays a role in turning law abiding citizends into criminals.
We reached Port Elizabeth at sunset and Joe Matthews arranged for me to stay the night with his uncle Wotana Bokwe. The following morning I met Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Frances Baard. I knew the latter quite will have worked with them in the ANC for several years. Although I was meeting Govan Mbeki for the first time I knew him from my student days as the author of the booklet "The Transkei in the Making" and one of the few African graduates in those days who had gone to business as a source of livelihood. He and several others were running a co operative society in the Transkei. In 1955 Govan gave up a teaching post to take up the post of regional
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manager (Port Elizabeth) of the weekly "New Age".
Later during the same morning Joe Matthews and I visited Christopher Gell who was noted for his non racial views and whose articles at the time were appearing in several South African newspapers adn arousing great interest in progressive circles. In spite of the fact that he was kept in an iron lung and rendered immobile through paralysis he was alert and cheerful. Although ours was more of a social than a business visit I complimented him on the outspoken manner in which he stated his views on current social problems and on the constructive solutions he suggested. Christopher Gell spent his last years working closely with the ANC and the Congress Alliance as a whole and one gets an idea of the esteem in which he was held by the masses of the people that when he died in the late 50s the ANC arranged for his funeral and that there were more blacks than whites at the graveside.
I left for Cape Town at about 11 a.m. in beautiful weather and travelled at a moderate speed. Although I had visited Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg several times and Cape Town once, the stretch between the two cities was unknown to me and I looked forward to the trip. I had hardly left the outskirts of the city when I unconsciously overran a serpent crossing the road, an incident which warned me of the type of country through which I wold be travelling for the greater part of that day. Soon the road cut through forests and beyong Humansdorp, the first town from Port Elizabeth, the forests became thicker and thicker and the road twisted and turned. For the first time in my life I saw troops of wild elephants and baboons and other small game. The scenery was breathtaking and
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it seemed I had rediscovered the lost world of my childhood. I wished I had a rifle and camping equipment so that I could spend a day or so the area hunting and enjoying myself far from the pollution and noise of the cities.
But seditious thoughts accompany a freedom fighter wherever he goes. Even to regions such as these where one should feel at peace with everything that lives and where grievances should be forgotten. Soon after I passed the tiny village of Clarkson I stopped for about 30 minutes and surveyed the area from the roadside for as far as the eye could see, an undatisfactory and even dangerous way of examining the natural features of any place. But the forest sprawled in all directions affording ideal cover for all sorts of human activity. My head was full of dangerous ideas. Late in the afternoon I reached Knyasna, the most beautiful place I have seen in South Africa. If I had been removed from Johannesburg blindfolded and had spent the whole holiday wandering in the area between Humansdorp and Knyasna, I would still have thought I had had a lovely time.
After sunset I could concentrate on the road and as I was beginning to tire I increased speed reaching Cape Town about 12 midnight. That night I slept at Johnson Ngwevela's house, then leading member of the ANC in the Western Cape. But for the two weeks I spent there I lived with Referend Walter Teka, a leader of the church in which I had been baptized.
Johnson Mgwevela and Greenwood Ngotyana, with whom I spent most of my time there, were most interesting personalities. Both of them were also leading members of the Congress Movement
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and the Wesleyan Church, the former being chief steward of the Cape Western Region of the Church. We had a heavy progrramme and travelled every day after working hours to places as far afield as Worcester, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Simonstown and Hermanus. Being from Johannesburg where we used weekends as well, especially Sundays, for political work, and because of the crowded engagements they had arranged for me, I insisted that we should work on Sundays also, but they firmly told me that this holy day was reserved solely for church affairs. I could not move them.
Cape Town interpreted the provisions of the Freedom Charter very literally and assumed that it had removed all differences between the ANC and its sister Congresses, and that from the moment the Chapter was adopted members of the one were now free to attend meetings of the other. At a meeting of the officials of the Cape Western Region of the ANC held at Langa I was surprised to see Benny Turok of the SACOD amongst those present and I immediately drew attention to the irregularity. I met with a wall of opposition from almost everybody there and it took quite some time to convince them that they were out of step with the Congress movement in this regard. However, I compromised and suggested that Benny Turok took part in the proceedings of that particular meeting. Later my hostess, Mrs Teka, invited him and his wife Mary to supper and we discussed the matter more fully.
This was my second visit to Cape Town and it differed significantly form the first one. When I visited Cape Town in 1948 I had a lot of time for pleasure and spent whole days sightseeing,
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visiting the Castle, going up by cable to the top of Table Mountain and swimming in Muizenberg and the Strand. It was on this occassion that I first saw Robben Island from the top of Table Mountain. I had no idea then that I would spend many years here subjected to the flippant and inept treatment characteristic of the country's Department of Prisons.
Secondly, during the first visit I spent many hours with I.B.Tabata dn A.C.Jordan, both leading members of the NEUM. The first was full time functionary of that organisation, whilst the latter was then lecturing at the University of Cape Town. Although the NEUM never had a mass following Cape Town itself they had built up an efficient machinery and kept watch on almost all the intellectuals that came to that city. I had arrived on a Friday afternoon and stayed with Cabel Mase, a member of the ANC and a relative of mine, at Langa. At about 11 a.m. the next day I.B.Tabata arrived with an invitation from the Jordans for the following day which I accepted. I had heard of them from Justice from the late 30s and he spoke of them in glowing terms. A.C.Jordan was the author of "Imqgumbo ye Minyanya" (The Wrath of the Ancestral Spirits) and the Thembus thought highly of him because of the favourable manner in which he portrayed a Tembu chief, obviously Chief Jongintaba. I was keen to meet him and his wife Phyllis and we met on the Sunday.
They lived amongst Coloureds in Sunnyside in a beautiful cottage built on their won freehold plot and I found three of my former college mates there. After the ususal preliminary courtesies I.B.Tabata led a discussion on South African history and politics and spoke eruditely on the subject. With a view to drawing me into the discussion he asked why I had chosen to join the ANC and not
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the NEUM and then proceeded to answer his own question. "I am sure you did so simply because your father was a member of the ANC!" To which I replied, "That would be quite enough for me". In addition I made it clear that I would never leave my organisation but that I considered co operation or unity between our respective organisations a worthly goal to strive for.
I also accepted an invitation from Goolam Gool, another top leader of the NEUM. At his house I met Drs Lebona and Leslie Mzimba who had just completed their medical studies at the University of the Witswatersrand and were then doing housemanship in one of the city's hospitals. Again I listened to another interesting lecture on history, this time delivered by Goolam Gool. The other prominent members of the NEUM I met then included Dr.J.Taylor and his wife, Ali Fataar and, of course, Jane Gool.
A.C.Jordan differed from I.B.Tabata in several respects. For one thing he did not seem to have the latter's initiative and hardly ever discussed politics with me. He was more reserved, prefering to deal with specific questions I asked. But he was equally impressive in his own field of languages and his academic achievements, reputation and modesty may have helped to influence a substantial percentage of the people who joined his organisation than the public is aware. At the end of my first visit I left Cape Town with the definite impression that the NEUM had many intellectuals and that I.B.Tabata was certainly one of the top theoreticians in his organisation. I was happy to be associated with such thinkers and was determined to do my best to help bridge the gap between the two organisations.
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But even of the first occasion I had heard him speak at the Jordans I gained the impression that Tabata regarded the ANC, and not the government, as his greatest enemy in this country, and he spat out all his venom on us. Betweeen 1948 and 1955 I read many of his speeches and articles and found them incompatible with the spirit of unity. Throughout he remained essentially sectarian, pompous and cynical and his views were often couched in intemperate and provocative language. I finally came to the regrettable conclusion that all talk of unity from him was mere lip service to a popular demand from a man whose vision was obscured by his hostility to the ANC and who was ever ready to support any new organisation that came up, however reactionary it might be, if it was also against the ANC. Unfortunately this sustained sneering ultimately blurred the initial image I had of the man and although I still respected and even admired him for the wealth of information he carried in his head, I completely ruled him out as a man who could help unite the people of South Africa. Accordingly when I returned to Cape Town in 1955 I thought I should devote all my attention to ANC work and was not very keen to resume discussions with him. Nevertheless I intended seeing him and the Jordans purely as friends, but the heavy programme prepared for me did not allow for this.
During my first visit I was in the city one afternoon when I saw a report in the "Cape Argus" that Mahatma Gandhi had been assassinated. That was a great shock to me because, although the world associated the Mahatma with distant India, he was always close to us, not just because he consistently supported our struggle at the height of his political career, but because he was one of the pioneers of South Africa's liberation movement. He cut his political teeth in South Africa and
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helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. It was in South Africa that he experimented and developed non violent forms of struggle which later payed such handsome dividends in India. He led the Indian people of South Africa in the historic mass campaign of 1906 to 1913 and owed the foundations of the satyagarha to his experience during these struggles.
(Perhaps add here the effect of Nehru and his books on my thinking). But to return to 1955. Early one morning I visisted the offices of "New Age". As I came up the steps I heard an exchange of angry words. On approaching the door I recognised the voice of Fred Carneson. I entered but immediatly pulled back. The Security Police were searching the offices. That afternoon we learnt from the press that the raid was countrywide. The records seized in that raid ultimately led to the arrest of 156 people for treason in December 1956 and were used as evidence when the proceedings began.
While staying at Langa I had a discussion with various people outside the ANC and one of these was Godfrey Kolisang who later became national secretary of the Basutoland Congress Party. He outlined the political developments that were taking place in his country, the difficulties they were experiencing and stressed the value of co operation between the ANC and BCP. I assured him that I unreservedly shared his sentiments and stressed that co operation was but natural since the ANC had helped in the formation of the BCP, Walter Sisulu and Ntsu Mokhetla having worked together on the project. I added that our attitude was clearly set out by Walter Sisulu when he opened their inaugural conference in 1952 and called for such close relationship between the two organisations. I
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further assured him that for our part the maintainance of harmonious relations between our countries would always form the basic premise of our policy and, on this note, we parted.
I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or plessure and have always tried to resist that wherever possible. I derive a lot of joy and strength from continued association with members of the family, chatting with them on numerous topics and helping as much as I can. During my first visit I was frequently with my nephew Nxeko, brother of Sabata, and together we called on members of the family in Cape Town. Even in 1955 I was always in the company of close relatives. Vulinyanga,a son of Dalindyebo, who is now chief where my father ruled, was frequently at the Tekas and we moved around together before my political engagements started in the late afternoon. On my last day at Langa he was with me for practically the whole day. In the evening we were joined by Johnson Ngwevela and other friends and we all kneeled down as Reverend Teka led us in solemn prayer wishing me a safe and pleasant journey.
We has early supper and I immediatly went to bed. At 3 a.m., my favourite hour for starting on a long journey, I motored cautiously to the highway and within half an hour was on the road to Kimberley, my next stop, arriving there in the afternoon. I had intended staying with Arthur Letele for one night but that same night I contracted a cold and, being mecical practitioner, he immediatly confined me to bed for two days. That completely upset my schedule. My plan was to visit Frenchdale in Mafeking district where Alcott Gwentshe, Joseph Lengisi and Chief Paulos Mopedi, the hero of Witzieshoek, were exiled. My illness forced me to alter my plans.
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Arthur Letele who was then Treasurer General of the ANC was one of the main pillars of our organisation and did well in his area during the Defiance Campaign. He left behind a busy medical practice and a large family and led his comrades to jail. It required a lot of courage for him to take such a risk in a small town where political action by blacks was rare, and where the reaction of the authorities was likely to be severe. In places like the Rand, where the head offices of the ANC are situated, the concentration of the top leadership in one place is an immense advantage and tends to inspire those involved. The frequency of political demonstrations and the large numbers taking part, the constant institution of civil actiongs against the State for offences committed by the police, the vigilance of the press and criticism by liberal circles forced the authorities to act less recklessly. But in isolated places like Kimberley the same authorities frequently run wild and do unbelievable things. To lead a resistance campaign in such a situation demand great determination. It was in Kimberley during the Defiance Campaign that one of our leading members Itoleng was give lashes by the magistrate.
Politicians who have a sharp eye for opportunities for activising their membership can be hard taskmasters even when they are medical practitioners dealing with sick men. In spite of my cold I had to address a meeting which Arthur Letele called in his house the following evening. That night I felt fresh and strong and ready to set out on the last lap of my journey back to Johannesburg. As usual I wanted to leave at 3 a.f. but the boss in that house was not Arthur but his wife Mary. She insisted that I leave only after breakfast and that is what I had to do.
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Kimberley is right on the border of the Cape and the Transvaal and soon after leaving it I was travelling in the Transvaal, my home province. From Christina I knew the area very well, having been there on many occasions either in the course of my political work or professional duties. I travelled even slower than ususal, stopping and seeing friends along the way. I reached home just before supper amidst great exitement from the family. I handed out presents I had brought from Cape Town and for a few hours had the pleasure of answering the barrage of awkward questions children are prone to ask on such occasions. I had now circled the country and the holiday was over. I was ready for another notice confining me to Johannesburg and prohibiting me from attending gatherings.
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