Around Mother Africa Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #437)

All these freedom fighters represented revolutionary movements that were already engaging the enemy in their respective countries or that were preparing to do so. In Rabat which was then the headquarters of the Co ordinating Committee of the Freedom Movements of the Portuguese territories, I had lengthy discussions with all these men including a lady, Amalia Fonseca, from the Cape Verde Islands who represented Cabral on the Co ordinating Committee. There were already men from Angola, the Cameroons, Portuguese Guinea and French Sudan who were undergoing military training in several countries in North Africa. One of my missions to Africa was to arrange military training for our men and I felt that the formation of MK was a wise and timely move on the part of a movement that spanned the African continent as a whole. The whole atmosphere on the continent made our mission fairly easy. The impact created by the two military parades I had seen was beyond words and dominated all my thinking as we went round the continent. The main passion that inspired me was the birth of a South African liberation army commanded by ourselves and fighting on our soil. I felt sure then, as I still do now, that once our units, operating from a friendly territory, set their foot on our soil, they would grow in numbers and striking power so rapidly that in due course Verwoerd would be plagued by all the problems which once tormented Chiang Kai Shek, Ngo Diem, De Gaulle, Batista and the British. I was confident then as now that the democratic social order we hoped to build, our superiority in numbers, the isolation of white South Africa and the overwhelming support we enjoy