Long Walk to Freedom: Parts Two–Three

The watchman replied that a search was routine, and he looked through the bag in a cursory way, not even disturbing the clothing.

My friend looked at me with a mixture of consternation and confusion as they led him away to the local police station.

He was a friendly, solicitous man, and after I had been there a short while, I told him that my real aspiration was to be a lawyer.

There, I saw not only flare-ups of ethnic animosity, but the comity that was also possible among men of different backgrounds.

He hated the idea of the black inferiority complex and castigated what he called the worship and idolization of the West and their ideas.

Dr. Dadoo, president of the Transvaal Indian Congress, castigated the restrictions and dismissed the offer of parliamentary representation as “a spurious offer of a sham franchise.”

Malan’s platform was known as apartheid. Apartheid was a new term but an old idea. It literally means “apartness” and it represented the codification in one oppressive system of all the laws and regulations that had kept Africans in an inferior position to whites for centuries.

What had been more or less de facto was to become relentlessly de jure.

The often haphazard segregation of the past three hundred years was to be consolidated into a monolithic system that was diabolical in its detail, inescapable in its reach, and overwhelming in its power.

We advocated the redivision of land on an equitable basis; the abolition of color bars prohibiting Africans from doing skilled work; and the need for free and compulsory education.

We remonstrated with him, but to no avail. He would not go along with our proposal.

In addition, it called for a national day of work stoppage in protest against the racist and reactionary policies of the government. This was a departure from the days of decorous protest, and many of the old stalwarts of the ANC were to fade away in this new era of greater militancy.

If it had not already been so, race became the sine qua non of South African society.

On that first day of the Defiance Campaign, more than 250 volunteers around the country violated various unjust laws and were imprisoned. It was an auspicious beginning. Our troops were orderly, disciplined, and confident.

Marupeng was considered something of a demagogue. He used to wear a military-style khaki suit replete with epaulets and gold buttons, and carried a baton like that made famous by Field Marshal Montgomery. He would stand up in front of meetings, his baton clutched underneath his arm, and say: “I am tired of waiting for freedom. I want freedom now! I will meet Malan at the crossroads and I will show him what I want.”