At College Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #35)

responsibility by making students themselves primarily responsible for the maintainence of discipline. But one aspect of these changes worried many students, especially those of us from the country, namely the mixed dinners where students of both sexes dined together on Sundays. Since many of us knew nothing about knives and forks, table etiquette, we left the table hungry and depressed. The standard of sports and athletics at Healdtown was far higher than at Clarkebury but during the first year I did not take part. The following year, however, my friend, Locke Ndzamela, the school's champion hurdler, encouraged me to try long distance running and offered a few useful hints. I started training but was not good enough to compete that year. It was also here that I learnt to box. The only prize I ever received at Healdtown was for writing the best Xhosa essay for the year 1938. James Njongwe, Lionel Majombozi and ... Pasha were also my friends. Little did I suspect then that years after leaving school we would become members of the same political organisation. Njongwe was a year ahead of us and at the beginning of 1939 Majombozi and I joined him at the University of Fort Hare. The college was built in 1916 on the site of an old fort through the initiative of the United Free Church of Scotland and until 1960 it was the only university for blacks in the country. It offered training to students from all over Southern Africa and from so far afield as Kenya and Uganda and produced men who today are playing an important role in the affairs of their countries. Here I immediately came under the influence of my nephew Daliwonga who is older than me. A kind man by nature, he welcomed me warmly and took me under his care. We were both Wesleyans and stayed at the same hostel. We attended church service at Lovedale regularly and visited various places together with our cousin Sonto Mgudlwa. I soon discovered that Daliwonga was ambitious and, like Justice, came to exercise influence over me. His approach