The end of a Chapter Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #411)

go underground. I had an obligation to Zami and the children. She had been the breadwinner since our marriage and the thought that she would play this role indefinitely worried me. She read my thoughts as I walked in from a meeting of the Working Committee and we discussed the matter at once. She felt there were obligations more important than that of a man to his family and considered my political work such an obligation. At that time my eldest son, Madiba, was schooling in Qamata in the Transkei and on the eve of my disappearing underground I fetched Kgatho and Maki from their mother in Orlando East and we spent the day together. That afternoon I was visited by Leo Sihlali, president of the NEUM and his colleague Victor Sindlo, for preliminary discussions on the question of unity. It was an opportune time for such a move and I welcomed the idea, but as it was on the eve of my departure, I referred them to Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe. Although it would have made little difference to my future work I was anxious to disappear before the police banned me again and I spent a restless night hearing all sorts of motor car noises in my sleep. Early the next morning I saw Lawrence Gandar, chief editor of the Rand Daily Mail to discuss the campaign for the Convention. A cold but liberal Englishman whose editorials sharply criticised apartheid, I had met him on social occasions several times before. He was worried by divisions amongst the African leaders and feared that the ANC was dominated by communists.