The end of a Chapter Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #404)

Leagues also resented their dissolution and some elements among the latter became disgruntled. But actual experience has vindicated the wishdom of the precautions we took. In a country such as South Africa were there is a wide gap in the living standards of black and white, and where the enemy commands vast resources to entice individuals to inform on their own people, it is remarkable to note how insignificant are the numbers of those who have gone over to the enemy from our organisation, as well as the difficulty the enemy has had in its attempts to penetrate our ranks. It was only as a result of merciless torture in detention and the grim threat of death sentences that the enemy was able to impose a deal on several of our members. I wonder whther John Dube, P.I. Ka Seme, Sol T. Plaatjie or W.B. Rubusana and other founders of the ANC ever imagined that on the 48th year of its history it would graduate into an underground organisation defending its position with even more vigour than it had ever done before; closing a page in the struggle of a people that once pursued their faith on the strength of their cause and their ability to influence public opinion through the logic and earnest persuasion. But an even more significant landmark and one that is the hope of millions of our countrymen occurred only 6 months after the advent of Verwoerd's Republic. In the long run South Africans, black and white, will never permit the Nats to forget their crimes, for it is their extreme racialism and arrogance that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, and the emergence of Umkhonto We Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation), MK for short, on December 16th 1961 underlines