(call Me Net a Man that, the fie man war not satisfed, He bent and gathered the whimper jing man's wrists with the ineention of fastening them to the fence with the handeutfs ly, hey, hey, Sutan! Let him go. Can't you see that you've hurt that man evough?? ‘The tension was building up to explosion point and the uniformed policeman sensed it. Let him go, boys. Forgive him. Let him go,' he sad, shooting ner vous glances in all directions, ‘Then the beatenup man did che most unexpected and hearuending. thing. He knele before the one ordering bis release and held his dust covered hands with the palms together in the prayer postion, and sil kneeling he said’Thaak you very much, my lord, God bless you. Now L ‘can go andsce my tins and my people arhome.' He would have done it. Only it never occurred ir his mind at that moment of thanksgiving to Kiss the red gleaming beots of the police ‘The miterable man beat the dust off his clothes at best he could, fathered his ovo parcels and clembered up the sais ying to rin hit thanks tothe crowd that had rized it vcice of protest on his behalf The policemen decided to call a day, The other unfortunates were shepherded tothe waiting kwelnkuele T tied to imagine how the man would explain his lumps to Wi wife. In the eye of my mind I saw him throwing his evins into the air and tathering tiem again and again at he played with ther, “There's stil along way to cover, my fiend,’ heard Mandla saying, into my ex. “Before” Lae. ‘Before we reach hell. Ha, ha hal Maybe there well be men ‘weve long been there, We've long been in hell! "efore we gct out, chen. A Glimpse of Slavery << Fer the suffering of injustice ie not the part of mon, but of slave, who indeed bad better die then lve; since vben be is wronged ard trompled upon, be is unable to belp himself, or eny other about whom be ears, ~ callidtes' words from Platc’s Gorgas. ‘Magisrate: Have you anything to say for youself before sentence i: passed? ‘Myself: ve nothing to say, your honour. All 1 wanted to sty has been sald. The evidence I gave before the court was the pure truth Tm oaly surprised now when you promise to sentence me, It is cleat to everybody in this court that I was merely defending myst, The ‘only thing I want to add isthat your honour must pass semence know- ing tht you, man well versed inthe principle of justice, ae about to violate the same principles that you swore never to undermine. ‘Magistrate: isthat all? Myself: Yes, your honow, Magistrate: Yam not moved by your lst words from my findings, Which I have akeedy exphined to you. The court sentences you 9 ‘twelve months’ imprisonment of which nine months is condiconally suspended for thie years The condition wat that 1 sbould not be found guilty of assauk idoring thove thiee years. 1 turned and grinned at my people to tht 4gullery. They smiled back at me triumphantly. Alsbough I bad de served a discharge, we all welcomed the three months, Assaulting + ‘ubite mam is sacrilege in South Africa. Even the courtroom constable arA Glimpse of Slavery eas pleased that I bad gor any with « sacation on some fart, The complainant derived a different satisfaction. He bad been the villain the siay, and a ‘sling, darned, olin’ in the courtroom. In the fist place be bad tied to steal fom the firm where we worked, sending ts to deliver an order that was les than tbat was listed on the itolee, Secondly, be bad insted us fit, And thirdly, be bad struck me fits, thout three blows bore I retaliated. Because of ell thi Iwas going t0 fal for three months and, sure os I sas being fingerprinted atthe very ‘momient, Thad lst my job oo. ‘Hey boys, come here, come here. The goods you have just de- livered do not correspond with the invoice. They are chore By sevens ‘wo lampshades, two electric irons and three kettles. What's wrong?” (ur firm dealt ‘in home elecre appliances and thee were four van ‘boys’ to every medium-sized van, Our group consized of two other youths of about my age then, owenty, and the Gtty-ve-yearold “boy, Alfed (otherwise Ntate Ali to us), our driver and group leader ~ he signed everything and we just loaded and offloaded the van. Nate Ali vas a goodicarted old man, his only shortcoming being that he did not allow any “bread” to come out in his van with hie know- ledge, pettaps afraid to be made an accomplice, although he éid not 0 o0t of his way to ensure that there was nothing ext i his va, [Neate Ali nied to hear what che white man was aking abou. He wanted us out of earshot because we always teased him about his teligious fear of whites We followed him else. ‘Where are the other things? asked the baldheaded manager type, ‘Look... Can you teal and coun?” "Yes, bun, sory, sic, Neate Ali answered nervously, conecting himself when he saw us out of the corner of his eye muding each other “Here, ald these ailes and come inside with me te check them.” Nate Ali went with che white man into the building, Preseadly he reappeared muttering to himself and folding a debit note, which he put beeween the pages of the signature book that he carried wich him fn our rounds ‘What isc Ali?" Sello asked. That one was on firstname terms with cverybody a the firm, incudingsome ofthe easy-going whites "That man gave we the wrong sede gpl the old man. 'No, AL, always tying co shld your bas. That guy stole the other suff, He was taking 4 chance on the stuf not being checked before A Glimpue of Slavery sve let the place If the mistake had been spotted later the firm would Ihave been notified and the order rectified just ike any other mistake ‘That's how Jan operates ~ if you don't know, Ali,’ suid Sello. “The ‘man tset you w steal and you pretend you don’t see, One day you'll goto; for him” “avo, shaddup ello. You thinkeverybody's a thief like you. Either ‘this ca wrong order orhe mde amistake counting” insisted Neate Ali, “Oho. Co ahead and remain sleeping, Vou'l se, He's going co tear ‘yp thet debit not and tell you to deliver the things.” ‘We pushed the matter tothe back of our mids and continued our round. If Thad known where it would lead me, pethaps I would have givens lice more thought. Manyathela — he was fatfooted and knockneed aad waddled like a duck wher he walked, so we eilled him that — stormed at us at ‘we went in through the wide, sliding glass door. Ar fist weardly took notice of him wadding towards us. He was an aggressive ype and you never knew whether he was really angry oF noc unl he was upon You. ‘Most ‘boys’ st onr firm had tasted hie wrath, sthich he wat inclined to runleath physicaly. Unel vac day he had stepped clear of me, maybe sensing that I was not the kind thet is easy to push around. How fever sometimes his guard slipped, and in such moments Ihad eaughe Fats locking at ive orth « dooted eye; anf he wanted te try me aod se if I could stand up aguinst him. Iuzied my urmost not to give hin a chance to earry out his experiment, in spte of his relenssgoading, hich even extended to pulling me up fr minor mistakes in my work, ‘Hey you stupids! Why did you tel those people to phone the firm for the undelivered things? Since when have you done that?” he screaned at us, ‘Er, Me DuToit. Iewes a, mistke ...' Nate Ali stanmered ‘What? A misake? Whose mistake? Your bloody mistake of course!” He adranced threateningly en the old man, ‘The next thing 1 found myself between him and Nute Ali, He risa his balled ets bue heated eo evike “Giher your own mistake or nobody's mistake, You know that this fold min hat nothing to. de with stealing. He just drives his van where Yyou send him, that’s all” Lheard myself saying in a nice even voice. | hhad the cistrbing feeling of welcoming the confrontation, Maybe ie twas because I had long bee coiled up inside and the person who had one the coiling up was standing in front of me giving me a chance to 2A Glimpse of Slavery ‘The white man was beyond himself with anger. He sucked in a seep breath through his slike rosuils and clenched his tech, grimace ing as if he wa in pain "Who told that marager to phone here? Why didn’t you tell him to shone dispatch? “There's only one phone number here’ I sad. ‘Or éo you have your, own?! “Then why didn't you tell him you didn’t know why you were Sort? “Why? Aggression contaminates, The anger was welling up inside “Because kaffers don't know anything! And what's more, don't you stand here asking me questions — hear?" 1 did not reply to this. We were going on like a par of schoslgcs. ithe was not going to do to me what he had started out to do to the ld man, then I might as well proceed t> the changing room. The Imoek-off buzzer had gone and the rest of che firm was packing up for the day, Those who bad finished came to form a sort of ring around 1s, a sprinkling of whites and Indians included. They stood there si- lendy and expectantly, with their arms folded, some of them holding their chins, the whites more towards Manyathela's sie, forming part ‘of the are behind him, the Indian guys on the sides, except for good ‘ld Moosa, whom I could not locate and guessed was behind me. I started turning. By so doing I gave Jan the chance he was waiting for. His vieous right caught me above the temple, I staggered a good two metre and juse managed fo stay on my feet. He had anarched the -alvantage, the cowardly bully, and he hung on to it, but only forthe two more Hows he landed on my jaw and chest, both not hard exough to scun me or knock the breath out of me, because I was moving away from him as he waded in on lat, awlewaed feet. { hadn't grown Up in the rough sects of Soweto without learning to defend myself. Every- thing 1 did nexe was purely instinctive. You live in x bretal environ rent, you develop an instinct forviolence. As simple a that. I went for Manyathela like a rabid dog. I ame to when I had him on all fours tefore me and was working my legs om him like pistens, tt was not a ‘white man 1 sas belting, don’t mistake me, It was a tally who needed some straigitening out. twas doing to him har he would have dane if he had ad the makings of a good fighter. In oer own dialect he ul eome to the stop station’ A Glimpse of Slavery Someone was pulling me off him. My half circle was cheering mad: fy, and ie was this noise cha brought the manager from the frst floor ‘When he appeared on the saircas, all went suidenly mum. 1 chink nobody wanted te be caught cheering. ‘Whats going en here?" the manager demanded to know. ‘The fist to snswer was Manyathela’s fiend, who caled himself ‘Vrysteat when he was in a happy mood, Miss Nalan, the receptionist and the only woman on the ground floor, wae quick £0 fick up the phone. Maybe if there had been only men on the ground floor the matter would have been secled in a manly way. Everybody had been treated to a goot, though unbalanced duel. All men enjoy watching 2 man-coman tutse, that is why boxing ie such a prosperous sport. The worst might have come by was to lose my job. ‘The lady and ‘Vrystaat’ were the sar witneses at the tial. Nate ‘Ali was bound by the fact that the fracas had started oer him to stand by me. The others Ileft out of the matter so as not to jeopar- ise their postions at the fim. Neate Ali was terroratricken through the whole cieus in which the main bone of contention was why Thad taken the law icto: my hands, not who had been the apprestor and why. ‘Koos de Wer, the man I was later to learn had once been heavy’ Psgit cling champion of the Transvaal, bid atone tat was act ‘much smaller thin that of the oxen bis servant, or rather slaves told ‘me he had trained wich, He was barelshaped and suntanned to a brick red. This hulk was covered with a shore thick khaki suit, cut Safari sryle, and on his head, the facial portion of whick reminded te of the nose of an archsic aeroplane with its propeller represented by his grey brush of mounache, was perched a scours hat with 2 Jeopardskin bané. The wide brim ofthe hat was pinned to the dome ‘on one side. Parners had come to choose theie labour since morning, when we ‘were herded into the square yard. They stood on the other side ofthe [pire fence aid pointed, Others had only stared the amber they ‘needed and taken their men away. The other three sides ofthe square ‘were bounded by walls. I sssessed each bidder and pushed the other Drisoners ahead ce hid behind them. fut now ie was about twelve and there were few of us, about twenty, left in the yard, which had grown in size as the occupants diminished, and there was no way you could hide, Up to now no bidderhad taken my fancy and I had stuck around auA Glimpse of Slavery hoping that a more Christian-looking perton would tam up. 1 oid net like Koos de Wet acall. He was taking in my physique with the prac ‘sed eye ofa livestock buyer. "Bk sock tyf gesond jonges, Dasrdie, dssrdie, daardie, dasi ex dash.” Koos picked his men, starting with me. [regretted waiting all morning anly to be picked our by the most unsetekng human being I had seen for a long time. I had heard tel of fearsomeness in people, but Koos rook the evp by «wide margin. He vas filling his pipe as we filed ovt of vhe small gate. When T passed him I felt my scalp shrinking. My whole body knew the sensa- tion of expecting a blow. The hers detosred, to lewe a safe ditance ‘when they pased hin. I guesed thar we were all feling the ame. Our behaviour tickled the ogre for, as he signed the papers at reception, he kept eyeing us with dead grey marbles and what I thought must have been «smile twitched at the comers ef his mouth. He had bought ts (we did not know how the acwal transaction, payments ind all took place) and we belonged to him. He could do whatever he liked ‘vith us, fissway in the wildemess where nobody would know. He ould kill es, buty us on his farm, and repre that we had escaped. We ‘would have todo all we could to slip out of that slave-master’s hands alive ‘A barteced misshapen pile of green metal sheets that might have. been a van once waited for us eutside the Modderbee prison grounds We were sill in our own clothes and I thought how cary it would be to run. Bur where would one ran in that open sca of brown waving highveld ass? These thoughts were wiped from my mind when we ‘ame to the van. The slavedeer opened the cab of the vehide and leant inside, When he came erect there was a rifle in hie right paw. L don't know anything about arms, so I don't know what model i¢ was. Tewas rifle right enough, He raised the gun and shock ic at us ‘Climb is,’ he growled in [Afrikaans "like to see if dh old roer can sil spit fre. I atk you to give me chance tery it, kaffers We sprang to obey the order Iwas afraid that the contraption we ‘aulted osrcives onto would fal spat under the sesin of our weight. To my surprise it remained intact, It protested loudy when Koos de Wet got into the cabin. Then ic quaked, whined, peered, and at the third uy roared to ile. With a screech of gears that set my teeth on Edge we were moving The pevrl fumes smothered us but soon deared ‘when we picked up speed on the infinite eared road to the shimmering A Glimpse of Savery istances of the Transvaal. BY way of speed that battered tn could do ‘wonder. The world came at us from where we were going and swept past us in one great blur. The few vehicles we passed on the road appeared to have been hurled from somewhere ahead of us by some ‘monstrous force. ‘After what appeared to be an ctemity ~ there was 10 way we could extmate the distance we had treveled on the never turning road Swe fee a reduction of speed ‘We tumed into a die road that branched off x aright angle to the north (all along we had been driving eastward), By the look of i, it was net very frequently used. Grass grew in che middle, making the dice read took Hke two parallel footpaths, The dust mushroomed bchind us lke a nuclear explosion cloud. None of us spoke. Trying to o x0 would have been fuse with the racket that our conveyance to the unknown raed. On that meandering dir read our main concern became tying to hold on to the sides ofthe carer as best we could in order not to be thrown off. The viclent bumping and cvisting pre- ‘vented us from placing landmarks which might have helped us know fur bearings. Homever 1 did my ett to note the general direction of the mtin'road and changing landscape. We were ascending some hilly and ersgey land; the roar of the engine and the fact that | could see the roid way down below us where the dust bad thinned, cold me hat, ‘The farm lay in the second, shallow valley, a rich saucerlike country bounded by thre low hills. Did you ever rave on land that has been lefe undisturbed since it was made by the Creator, and when You were beginning to think you would never arrive anywhere, sudéenly come ‘upon + place to which pecple once somehow found their way? The symmerrical huran touch scemed to be a wry joke in the face of fate. Wht Kooe de Wet hed done was to chooee a fertle dale for himself, place a city homestead on one hillside and below tis, plan his farm, ‘oully neglecting ardstic consicerations. He had arrested what rust have been a beautiful twinkling stream in the middle of the valley, Aartened acts of the downstream land, divided :his with ciss-crosing fences, planted maize, potatoes, onions and green pumpkins on four field, and lee perforated asbestos pips distribute che water from the am formed by 4 wall runaing across the valley. The pipes, some of Which were not perforated, opened inco 2 kind of trough from which the stcam continued on its way. The usval farm buildings dominated by a large hay-shed, were seutcred over the farm. The hay was the feedA Glimpse of Slavery for his innsmerableIvestock gresing wpstcam on the other side af the dam, That was the place where I would learn the extent to which ‘tuclty and hatred can turn man into something less than a wild beast. We passed the serants'shacis, They were low, crooked mud walls fon which were placed rusted corrugated icon sheets, kept there with boulders te sie of a man’s head. From one end to the otter the shancy wat a hundted yards. Dark holes which sered as doors gaped in the was. The foreground was nauscatingly filthy. Either i had rained oc they theew their waste water there, and the sour snell of rotting taih was sirlar to that of 2 pigsy, which | would have mis: Galen the cumay eonsteustion to be, but for the evo ragged women, tone heavily pregnant and the other lean and old, who came ontof two of the gloomy holes followed by a swarm of dirty children with soiled noses and teat marked faces, all of them aot much more than babies Some of te children were stark naked and those who had something fon looked no berter. The ones who mightbe gil wore straight dresses made of cotton flout bags and the boys wore old shirts that ime to thei ankles. The biggest boy wis sucking his chumb. They greeted our advent pasively Turning lft, Koos drove down bewween two luceme fields Figures were crouched in rove two husdred metres away, cutting the liceme with sie, With earspliuing squeaks ane squeals, and one final loud oar, the van eame to a stop beside a big, square brick building. Koos got out from the front and granted, ‘Klin of.” We jumped down and stetched ourselves. “At leat i's beter than beigg locked up in jail — neh? said Thabo, with whom I had paired theee days previously, on «Friday when we reached Modderbee ‘still too early to decide. If the people who live on his farm are ike those we passed, what do you think we'll be lke by the time we leave here? I don't rust that gorilla ar all, my fiend,” | answered, more convinced that Koos wat a psychopath the more I saw of him. The bass boy appeared around the comer of the building. com cluded that he was ene from the way he was dressed in heavy khakis and bots that were still in reasonably good condition. Sick people tend to be drawn together by their common plight. “Babbejean’ suf fered from the same mental sickness as Koos and for that reaton was exempt from his master’s sudism. In fact he was Kaoe's main hand. fm the farm, Ie was o ous hew he had earned the position of farm A Glimpse of Slavery loverecer. A few days afer our arrival onc of the farm labourers told sme thet Bobby, ashe prefered to be called rather than his bass full “*Bobbeiaan’, was born on the farm, had never beea further than Benoni, ‘the nearest town, where he accompanied Koos tothe market ro sll the produce, and never left che farm becuuse he knew no relatives other ‘than those few who lived there. He vas, pethaps, also afnid that he sigh come across some of the peoplewho had been through his hands fon the farm. Another reasoa might be that Bobby knew no other way fof life than farm life, and was by sarure neither adventurous nor imaginative. He had been brought up with hard farm labour nd as such expected everybody to be aole to work like an ox. It might have been for thac reasons, and the adiom ia common, thie he was fevoured by Koos de Wet, Bobby was about thiry-five years of age, of medium height, stone hard muscle and extreme cuelty. His leathery face told you that as f00n as You saw him. He examined us with the contempt rural people have for city peoole (an atctude city people hod, in revers, for rural people. He apparently condidered us in cerms of work, 28 kbour units instead of other human beings he was mecting forthe first ime. After sizing wa up he turned his arention to Koos. “Basie. Baas Van Tondet was here, He had come to see the cattle you discussed wich him, Hell come agnin tomorrow evening’ he said fa perfect Afrikaans, like + Lede boy telling ho father how he had spent the day while the father was away at work, ‘Ja, danke, Bobbejaan, How's the work proceeding?’ asked Koos at if soiloquiing, and took out his pipe. “Baie goed, bass.” Koos grinted his satisfaction like a pig. "Heres five more hands from Modderbce. See thar they leam the work fast, but fist I want that we stump removed feom the side of the granary, I want work to begin on the extension by che week ater next. Dress them and make ‘them start now, Im sil going co sce the Missus atthe house. Bobby stared at us with baleful eyes for some seconds before speak- ing. ‘Madods," he sid in a voice that might have chilled a milsop, ‘You must know that here on bass Koos farm no one is begged to work, more especially prisoner. Ifyou'te afaid of work, we soon make you like it. This is not the city where you come (rom, but a farm. Come and change We followed him to the entrance of the brick building next to Which the van had stopped. He took a key oat of his pocket and aA Glimpse 9 Slavery Ailocked the heavy pullock that held « herzonral irom rail crete ro. wooden doors that were covered with sheets of tin. The doors had thee rightangled iron hooks each, about halfway up. The ion rail rested in the nooks of these hooks and hell the doors fas. Ir was only When he pashed the doors open that I noticed thatthe room had no ‘windows, From the sunbeam tat flooded in I saw that chere were files of sacks on the floor. Take the stcks in the newest right hand corer, remove your tlothes and put the sackt on, They have three holes fo yous head and. sms at the hase’ Bobby said asif he was pving a most ordinary order. ‘When they had spoken of ‘change’ and ‘des’ it had never oceurred to rhe thar they might mean we were going to replace our clother sacks The five of us looked at each other in shocked surprise. We stood where we were without making any move 10 go inside or take off our dothes “Can't we work in out clothes, mister? Why the sacks? asked. ‘$0 that you may run away all the ease? On the other hand we are saving your city clothes for vow, becuese when baay Koos retare You to the prison you mu be dressed as you eame here, Bobby explained curly. ‘Well, tll your base thar Vm not dresng like save,’ one of ut Gehom oatne Udi ethno replied ‘0, you're not prepared to work? You forget quickly that you are = prisoner. 'l call faa; Koos and we'll remind you what you are.’ Seeing that all five of us stood motionless in spite of the mention of Koos de Wer's name, Hobby made a ove to attck the man who ad spoken *You touch him and we all rake you apart limb by limb before that spe arrives here" Thao threatened. "Vou jut ery, andyou'l ee Without any more words Bobby spun around and ran a8 fast as he could after is master. ‘Welte in for it now, maiz" 1 sid shat we ean pot on these sake Bue they're mad to think 1 should have said we were mad to think that we could refuse to obey anything that Koos told us to do as long as we were on his farm, When the pair of sudiss returned, the one time heavyweight wrestle Jul 2 long braided thong whip in his left hand, and in his eyes the line of a tamer of wild animals. Bobby: ood aside and smiled — in fact sneered ~ like 4 dirty minded person about to watch a filthy, A Glimpse of Slavery play. Koos asked no questions buc sarted Mogging us with brutish ‘enthusism. Tcovered my face and fel che lashes cutting my akin and setting it on fire, Two or three of us were crying out aloud. In the ‘background 1 heard Bobby laughing gleefully. Whip! Whip! Whip! the burning leather swished in the ar. Alter a storm of fire and brimstone that lasted close to forever there was a welcomed pause, “Trek wit” Koes spat out. His eyes shone like asnake's. Tey hypno- sized we into complete submiction, reduced ue t whimpering bage of pain. The ltdle nerve we had had apninst Bobby had been flogged out by the whip char lay coiled like a thn black snake near Koos de Wet's Tefe boot. ‘Trek mt, jong!’ he spat again, and in + flash we were out of ‘our clothes, as naked a we were born and eying co hide behind one another, both out of shame st our nakedness and because of the whip. felt dehumanized 281 stood there hiding my loins with my hands, The ‘ro in front of me had lacerations all over their backs down to theit Duttocis. “Give them the sacks, Bobbejaan.' The later went inside the building and cane out with five of the said sack, He threw them atx I