XVI

Nowhe~e in the world is racism developed to

such an extreme as in South Africa. South Africa

is unique among the countries belonging to the

orbit of Western civilization

in that racial discrimination is not only a fact in practice but

is actually engraved in the formal law of the land

as the guiding policy, if not the raison d’etre of

its government. The illegal regime of Premier

Smith in Rhodesia has taken South Africa as its

Were Adolf Hitler alive today, it can

mode).

safely be assumed that he would feel thoroughly

at home in SouthAfrica and be mosthighly gratified that the racism is his book,

.J!El~V KA.MPH

has been put into the fullest practice.

Since no other Western country bas carried racial discri-

mination to such extremes as this, many readers will no doubt assert that it is most unfair to cite South Africa as a typical example. The fact is, however, that the same attitudes which havt\ made the atrocious practice of apartheid possible, pre-

vail everywhere in Western Europe, North Ame-

rica, Austra1ia, New Zealand and Israel and if

faced with the same circumstances as South Africa,

the governments of these countries would take similar action along the same lines without the slightest hesitation.

HOTE

Sミ

APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA\

It is toJd of Smuts that when he eaid farewell to any of his friendli or tlii;tinguishod visitors leaving South Afriea, ho q11ot\<’d iu that high-pitched voice of his the Jines of d1• l[^11].\Inn·:

“Look thy last on all things lovely, every hour.’’ I havo uo doubt that to Smuts, the loveliness of South .\frica was it!’ natural beauty, and grandeur ; its wiltl Jlowcn; and grasscR about which he knew so mu ch, the grc11t emptiness of ite skies above the silence of the n:hlt.

“Look thy last on all thfogs lov ely … “ Most of my time in , ‘outh Africa has been spent in Johannesburg, and half of it in one of the slums of that city of gold. No one, L think, could call Johannesburg a lovely place. It is too stark and too uncompromising ; too lacking in any softness of light and

shade. Johannesburg itself, which is the place (

know and love h eHt, would be regarded by most people as lying outside t.he real Africa; a cosmopolitan, crowded city, muc·h like those smaller cities of America, new. brash and hard. Of the beauty of its rich homes and gardens 1 will not wrjte for T have never been able to sec that beauty without remembering the C’oirugat,ed iron shacks and the muddy yards where our A fricnn people live. T Rhall

‘Nou~h.t ForYowiirOom./°”‘• T revur Huddll’eton, Co llins. Loudon, l:i5ti.

write this hook as a partisan, for 1 believe that C’hrist ians a.re committrd in the lield of humnn relationships to a partisan approach. 1 Leliove that

bocause Goel became man, therofore human nature in ilst>lf has a dignity and n value whirh i ~ infinite.

I believe that this CClnrrplion rH’C’C.’Snrily C’nrries

~i~L it the Htatc.

trny do~trinc basecl on rnl’inl or or (‘t•lour prejudice and Pn In recd by tJw 1-\tnte is

thc·re.foro an affront · to human dignity an1l thuR nn

imrnU to Gcd Hinu-;elf.

Th\<’ trut.h is tlrnt the ovorwhelming majority of Houth Africant’ of the ‘whit\<’’ g-roup ha.’c no con-

1·ept;·)11 whn tever of human relationships cx”ert that bni·rnd on racial domina.thm. Thr only .\fricans

they know, t hoy know as serYantR or as employees.

w:1ile the· \<’entre of the South .\frican ·cenP hns

shifted incvitnbly to the citieR n.nd tlwir industrial

arens, the vast majority of ·Europeans· bnvo no know lodge whatm?E1r of the urha n .\ friPan or of his

lmckground.

lt was H oly Saturday in ‘ophiato\\ n ; the husir~t day in the year for any pric t who has chnrge of n pnrish as lively ns that of Chri”l the King. For in ord\<’r that Easter and the Lord\ Rc’urrection shnll br thr most gloriouR and triumphant day in the \<’alcntlar, thert.’ iR much tn L\<’ done in preparation. t’u on this Saturday m orning, 1 \\a:- not too pleased

when there s trode into my office . and t>vidontly

nngry · the young l!l.ana_ger of the one nntl only lllill,-bar in ~oph1a.wwn, an ‘\-Bcn·ic\<’ mnu who had l1~~un a few m onths back an expn11nent . a Euro-

435

pean in an African township running an .American style soda fountain.

‘’Its Jacob … ,, he began … “ ‘•Father, I’m going to do something about this. It’s a shame Father, you’ve got to h elp me!”

On l\1aundny Thursday night at .Teppc station ,Jacob Ledwaba had bec11 arrestetl for being out after tho curfew and without his pa.SR. On … aturday morning he came home.

He told his wifo he had been kirked in the stomach in the rells and that he was in such pain that he coulcln ‘tgo to work. Would 1

she go nnd tell the boss and explaiu? It was this that brought the rqana~-er of the milk-bar t.o my ~; Bice on Holy ‘aturday morning.

It would be easy to dramatise thiA incident and in many recent novels on 1-iouth Africa such incidents

have been described.

All I want to say is this. Jacob was taken to the hospital and died of a bladder injury lc~,ving a widow and a month-old baby. We brought a

~:\-Se against the police and in evi. dence, produceJ two.u!fidavits concerning the nature of the injury from the two doctors who had attended .Jacob.

The ;erdict (long after .Jacoh’1:1 body had been laid in tho cemetery and loug after a11y

fresh medical evidenc.e rould possibly cocne to light) waR that. he had died .;.f congenital syphill i ~.

Thl’

magistrate added :i ridor to his verdict to tho pffoct that the police bad heen Rhamefully misrcorc>sf’nted in this case and that ~here wa~ no evidenre whnh’ver inculpating them.

Ro ~Jacob died ir~ the first place because he JJid

forgotten to c·arry lus pa.as.

ln th\<’ second, because

Good Friday being a public holiday in South .\frica, he had Hp.:mt twm1ty-fonr l1011r::> in the poliro cells

at Jeppc.

ThiH thing happened quite a long time a~o now.

I Ruppose if .Jn.cob’s ~on is still alive, hci, just at the

I {, will bo only a row

beginning or his Hrhooldays.

ycarR mor\<’ till t.he day com\<’S when he too, must carry a p11ss.

I hop\<’ and pray he will not J)(‘. so cnrel\<·ss n:-: hi:-. father was a.n\<l f’or~1·t it ono cvcnin~ whrn he goo:-: t (\ vi::;it his friend~. It can he very

costly .,,, l’orgt’ t your JH\SS.

Now th1· impact of such an i11cident as this ULJOn

a pricHt i~ ratlwr diffrrcnt, I suppose from it. iru-

pt\.C’t upon tJ11· ordinary.South African citizrn, for to n pri\<>Ht, .J at’ob Lcdwahu, h n~band and hend of

f:unily, a nH’mher of the congregntion of Christ

the l\i11).! whosc> jo:v~ and sorrows 1 have kmrnn, an\<l who’c sins he r.onl’essed

unto me, 1 ha.vo fur-

j!iven a:-: he knelt in our lovely church.

‘l’o the ordinnry South .\frican citizen, hi’ is n native boy

(nml he would Rtill be a hoy if he lived to t•venty)

who hadn ‘t got a pass and who was probably cheeky to the pnli\<’e when they arrestC’d him.

A pity ho died.

Hut W t’ mu::;t have 1·onlrol.

Prustrn tinn \<incl fear ar\<’ th~ mrn;t obviou cha·

ractni::itii’s 1>1’ the prosC’nt timt} for the: African. And thPr\<’ iR t~ sent-’\<’ in which it would ~eem that they

mw;:t romn in

RO fnr rt Vt’ L’Y long while, an\<l of the~e

elcmrnt!’ of foar and frustration, the pa:—s IM\ ii nrc a

particnlurl,Y pPwerfuJ instrument.

437 There is, some tweleve wiles from l~rn centre of ,Johannesburg but lying very clos\<’ to it:-1 northern