RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

Radical Middle | 139
among white people, universal franchise was shoot-on-sight
terrain. Somehow I got to speak to a Witbank public servants
club. I sat between the postmaster and the police commandant.
We chatted amicably until I went to the rostrum to put in my
half-hour on why their problems derive from the absence of full
citizenship. after that the chairman apologised for my presence
and I spent the rest of lunch in solitude, two large official backs
pointedly turned to me.
Most times there were some yes-but comments, afterwards.
Occasionally I’d hear echoes later. In unexpected places such
as a queue for a parking-lot cashier, someone would accost
me, quite often with blame: “I believed you, for a while. What
happened? Where did that stuff go? You suckered me.”
The chief spanner in the works was the africa factor,
obviously. “Look at africa! The blacks get the vote and see
what happens.” To me the logic was immaculate: the mess of
africa stemmed not from the acquisition of the vote but from
the ineffectiveness of the vote. Did the butchers and bakers of
Mozambique want a murderous civil war? Did the peasants and
proletarians of uganda ask for Idi amin and his research unit?
Logically the “look at africa” crowd should be the first to jump
at my case, but logic is a flimsy thing against the steamroller of
Other People’s failings.
I got letters:
“You do not seem to realise that democracy is foreign to
africa.”
“I do not understand how you expect our blacks to behave
responsibly when the proven history of africa is destruction
and shambles.”
“The black man does not understand democracy. He wants
to rule alone and is not interested in sharing.”
I was saying white fear was of rudimentary democracy;
thorough democracy was the remedy. It came across like saying
that to get over fear of flying, try parachuting.
Whites saw change as violence, robespierre and Dr Zhivago
and all; tumbrils for the pale people. I saw the mama on the