At College Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #40)

confident that I would pass the November examinations. Life was exciting and the future appeared rosy. In a year time I thought I would be a graduate, a B.A. just like our clever Gertrude Ntlabathi, Messers. Mahlasela, Newana, Lebentlele and a host of other graduates. After all, the principal of Fort Hare, Dr. Alexander Kerr, and D.D.T. Jabavu and Z.K. Matthews (both were later made professors) had told us on numerous occasions that we were the salt of the eart, the leaders of a new Africa. A university degree, I was made to believe, was the passport to community leadership. I would soon acquire that passport and the world would be at my feet. Above all, a degree would not only enable me to achieve my life's ambition. It would also bring me a steady income and make a world difference to my poor mother and sisters. I would be able to build a descent home for her with modern furniture and fittings and with large gardens, a home as spacious and beautiful as the Mqhekezweni residence. I would be able to give her a regular allowance so that she could have whatever her heart desired, buy clothes and make life meaningful and enjoyable for her. The SRC elections had taken place and we had sat for the examinations. The year was running out. Suddenly all my beautiful dreams crumbled and the prize that was so near my grasp vanished like snow in the summer sun. Those elections created unforseen difficulties for me, difficulties which in turn contributed in altering my future career. Had those developments not occurred I probably would have honoured the wishes of the Regent and remained at Sabata's side to the last moment of my life. Perhaps I would have been safe from all the storms that have blown me from pillar to post over the last thirty years. In terms of the constitution in force in 1940 six members of the SRC would be elected by the general body of students and the rest would represent the various hostels. Shortly before the elections, the students decided by an overwhelming majority to boycott the elections