Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom - Revision 1 - Chapter 2 Page 1

CHAPTER 2 Removing Roadblocks A sensitive and provocative roadblock, and a persistent one which continued to plague us even during the period of the Government of National Unity, was mainly a historic and psychological one reflecting itself in endemic contempt which the white community, especially Afrikaners, had for blacks. For almost three and a half centuries, a conservative and arrogant white minority had tried to apply the doctrine of Nazi Germany and preached the unscientific theory that blacks were inferior to whites, in fact that blacks were sub-human. One of the main architects of this theory was Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, a former South African Prime Minister who held that blacks should not be allowed to venture into pastures where they were not allowed to graze. They should never be permitted to rise above the status of hewers of wood and drawers of water. The apartheid regime, even during the period of negotiations between the ANC and the apartheid regime, still believed that they could save white supremacy with black consent. Although the 14