RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

78 | denis beckett
had the north wing of the same floor and was run by Mike
and Marilyn Kirkwood. They came over to bid welcome and
Marilyn looked around sceptically. “You’re going to produce
a magazine? from here? forget it. There’ll never be a copy.”
Mike was more optimistic: of course there’ll be one, he said,
but not a second. Nonetheless he whipped out his chequebook
and took the first regular annual subscription. (freedom House
had been a consolation prize, really, though appreciated.) How
much, said Mike? I made it up then and there: r6.00, 60 cents
a copy and subscriber’s discount. I’d intended to make it 50c
but Nthato Motlana was doing me a column, which was quite a
coup, and he insisted that the cover price be more than Drum.
I said that after the hundredth copy Mike could have a
free subscription for life. He didn’t make it. Despite my steady
departure from orthodox anti-apartheid to a maverick status of
which he amiably disapproved, he kept up his subs for six or
seven years, but then he left for england and we lost contact.
Of the first five subscribers, only my parents renewed all the
way. Jacky Bosman was the art director of the Financial Mail
and a blessed supporter until she went to Sydney and put africa
behind her. Of Vita Palestrant, Rand Daily Mail consumer editor,
can the identical phrase be repeated.
The fifth, cedric Mayson, was just out of jail and visited 402
by mistake. It had been the christian Institute. He gave me a
lecture on the importance of opposing the Boers at all times
and in every way and then doled out his six rands in cash. This
was a seminal moment for me. I knew as I received it that I was
going to disappoint him. In my mind I was 100% anti-apartheid,
meaning 100% opposed to all evasions of black citizenship. It
was a jolt to realise that cedric, and many cedrics, would hardly
recognise that as anti-apartheid; it involved little villainy and
less retribution.
I looked for a printer and found the Mafeking Mail. I liked its
100-year history, I liked its small-town roots, I liked its prices,
I liked its boss, Joe Podbrey (who I later learned was born into
Struggle credentials). Printer, fixed.