The end of a Chapter Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #414)

conversation with Patrick facilitated a concensus on various aspects of the campaign. I addressed an important group of ministers of an African township in Cape Town and one of them led us in an unusual prayer. He reminded the Lord of our people's disabilities and suffering and warned that if He did not lead us to salvation Africans would take things into their own hnds and show Him how oppressed people should be freed. I was in constant contact with our own men Archie Sibeko, Oscar Mpeta, Reggie September, Alex La Guma, Brian Bunting, Fred Carneson and others. Archie had tremendous drive and he never allowed me to rest. As Greenwood Ngotyana did with me when I visited the city in 1955, Archie took me to some meeting every evening, at times as far out as Worcester. One morning as I was leaving the hotel with George Peake, a member of the National Executive CPC, I thanked the Coloured manager for looking after me so well during my stay there. My habits must have aroused his suspicion and he and he must have guessed who I was. According to him the Coloured community as a minority group feared that a future African government would leave them in the same position as they were now. I briefly told him about the Freedom Charter and explained that the Congress movement, of which the CPC formed a part, would come into power only if the country accepted the policy embodied in the Charter and that no section of our people would have any reason to fear from a government