page 219 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_219.jpg]

it seemed I had rediscovered the lost world of my childhood. I wished I had a rifle and camping equipment so that I could spend a day or so the area hunting and enjoying myself far from the pollution and noise of the cities.

But seditious thoughts accompany a freedom fighter wherever he goes. Even to regions such as these where one should feel at peace with everything that lives and where grievances should be forgotten. Soon after I passed the tiny village of Clarkson I stopped for about 30 minutes and surveyed the area from the roadside for as far as the eye could see, an undatisfactory and even dangerous way of examining the natural features of any place. But the forest sprawled in all directions affording ideal cover for all sorts of human activity. My head was full of dangerous ideas. Late in the afternoon I reached Knyasna, the most beautiful place I have seen in South Africa. If I had been removed from Johannesburg blindfolded and had spent the whole holiday wandering in the area between Humansdorp and Knyasna, I would still have thought I had had a lovely time.

After sunset I could concentrate on the road and as I was beginning to tire I increased speed reaching Cape Town about 12 midnight. That night I slept at Johnson Ngwevela's house, then leading member of the ANC in the Western Cape. But for the two weeks I spent there I lived with Referend Walter Teka, a leader of the church in which I had been baptized.

Johnson Mgwevela and Greenwood Ngotyana, with whom I spent most of my time there, were most interesting personalities. Both of them were also leading members of the Congress Movement