I am sorry about the Zambia affair.76 I would have been a C.C.F. victim77 if you had been granted permission to go. I thought both you and Benjie were being extremely optimistic even to make the attempt. But I agree with you one can only know the reaction when one has MADE the attempt. Then there are no “ifs” or “perhapses”, there is a definite, tangible result.
Oh yes, I answered Mili’s letter immediately. In fact I am certain that in the letter I wrote to you I mentioned that I was writing to Mili at the same time!
Well I hope you are able to make suitable arrangements for Dini. Don’t leave it until the last minute. I am glad to hear the autochthons are doing well at school. It should be interesting to see how they take to regular disciplined school life.
We’ve been having married men’s weather for the last three days or so – cloudy with intermittent showers and drizzle. I know I used to be impatient to get home on days like that knowing that we had a fine excuse for remaining in-doors.
There is quite a lot of talk about the population explosion. Drastic measures have been adopted in Asia and Latin America to keep the population down. In Japan over a million cases of legalized abortion have been recorded for a single year. The oral contraceptive pill is now the rage.
The fears are that if the present rate of population growth is maintained, pretty soon there will not be enough room for people to live and not enough food to feed them.
The latter fear is a little groundless. There will be enough food in the world for a long time to feed everybody well. Unfortunately, millions are overeating and have to go to hospital to reduce and take slimming pills and diets while others are perpetually under-weight, because they do not have enough to eat. Similarly with population figures: some countries are bursting at the seams while others are virtually “open spaces”.
The world has to do some re-thinking. Working in co-operation, the nations of the world can tame the Equatorial forests and make them habitable and they could absorb and support thousands of millions. So too can the deserts be reclaimed and made productive and habitable. Our own Sahara can absorb hundreds of millions. Our continent can support ten times as many people as there are at the moment. The development of the continent is a glorious challenge, requiring bold vision and imagination. As you say, with such a task before us, hatred is a waste of time and energy.
Well it’s good to learn that they have at last completed the clinic at Tladi.78 When I went to gaol five years ago the impression prevailed that at any time the Tladi clinic would begin operations. I don’t think you stand to benefit by applying for a post at Tladi. It’s farther away from Mofolo and from town and will mean increased transport costs. It will be altogether inconvenient, I feel.
Well, cheerio Kid. Love to all.
Your loving husband,
Mangi
P.S. I love you VERY MUCH. Remember that always. RMS
Robert Sobukwe
to Nell Marquard,
25 November 1964 (Bd1.9)
Dear Mrs Marquard,
Thank you for the sprayer and the powder which I received last week. I felt quite the progressive farmer as I moved round the garden spraying plants without fear or favour.
Thank you also for your most interesting letter. It was a bit cruel on Nixon, but I found the incident very amusing. After all, Nixon is an outstanding U.S. politician. And for him to be so effectively silenced by a “Negro boy” – from Alabama, at that!
Your references to the snobbery that attached to Nederlands79 in the olden days reminded me of our Coloured preachers at Graaff-Reinet. The African and Coloured people constitute one congregation, in all denominations, so that services are conducted in both Xhosa and Afrikaans. In those days, the thirties, the Methodist Church seemed to believe that a preacher was a more reliable agent of God if he was uneducated. The emphasis was on the “indwelling Spirit”. The result was that most of our preachers, African and Coloured, were barely literate. However, it was an unquestioned convention in those days that a preacher just could not see a word if he did not have his glasses on. And as most of them were labourers who had to change into their Sunday bests, it wasn’t unusual for them to find they had left their glasses behind.
But, and this is what all this nonsense is leading up to, they had to create the impression that they could read. It was very important in those days to be thought able to read. Those of our Coloured preachers who could read, enjoyed their “zechenen tot hem”.80 One old man, who couldn’t read, would invariably ask his congregation to sing “gesang 256 in die maXhosa taal” – for a very long time it was Kaffirstaal while the name used for the Coloured people by the Xhosa was as barbaric as the clicks it contained – “en 46 in Hollands:81 Dag des wonderen, dag des oordeel en al wat daar op volg.”82 And they would bring the roof down. For God was understood to be very indulgent. Some sinners had been known to go to heaven because they had used their musical talents for the glory of God. And musical talent meant lung-power, that’s all.
Oh, but they were an imaginative lot! Here’s one preaching on the “Fall of Man”, painting a picture of God calling “Adam! Adam!” and Adam replying from the black recesses of some thick bush, “here am I”. God then asks him if he has eaten of the fruit and he replies “It is this woman You gave me.” God ignores the implied accusation, passes on to Eve and she blames the snake. God looked it up and down as it stood there in arrogant defiance. “It’s these blinking legs that give you ideas” said God, and with that “whish”, he cut off the legs and flat on its belly fell the snake. This, mind you, is given in onomatopoeic language, with appropriate gestures – faithfully reproduced by the interpreter – and when the snake falls “bhaxa”, explosive consonants and clicks and gestures convey most vividly the precipitate prostration of the original snake.
I am sorry for this digression. Now for business. You ask what plays I should like to have. I have enjoyed Arnold Wesker’s, [Doris] Lessing’s and [John] Osborne’s plays. Eugene O’Neill is, of course, outstanding. You sent me three plays of his: “Ah, Wilderness!”, “The Hairy Ape” and “All God’s Chillun Got Wings”. As I said in my last letter, these people tend to be a movement, a school, rather than individual playwrights, so that the work of one is the work of all. I shall have to except O’Neill’s and Brendan Behan whose works really stood apart from the rest. In short, then, Mrs Marquard, except for O’Neill and Behan I have no strong preferences. I am quite willing to have you guide my reading!
I am sorry, really, if I have not thanked you for “The New Yorker” in the past. It contains some interesting articles for light reading and relaxation. I enjoyed it.
My wife will be leaving Johburg on the 29th December and on the 5th (fifth) December, I’ll be celebrating my fortieth birthday – entering into manhood!
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
RM Sobukwe
Robert Sobukwe
to Nell Marquard,
30 November 1964 (Bd1.10)
Dear Mrs Marquard,
When I wrote my reply, I did not have your letter with me. I had misplaced it somewhere. But, yesterday, when I took up a book on Economics I came across your letter resting snugly between the pages. I read it over again and as a result, I am sending this postscript to you.
I wish you to know that I appreciate very much indeed and am grateful for the solicitude that prompted you to write despite your rheumatic hand. I felt very rotten when I realized how imperceptibly I was becoming selfish and callous. I wish you a speedy recovery and a pain-free and happy Christmas season.
Forgive me if I indulge in my usual reminiscences. But I can’t help remarking that while the English pedantically wish one another a “Merry” Christmas and a