GUM OF MECAlS LIBERATION STRUGGLE - KORA

The Gathering Rain Cloud
ter of economic affairs, called attention to support that AJ?SAR was giving
to the campaign and the relief of those arrested.
On April 15, 1953, elections (for whites) were held in South Africa, the
first since the Nationalists came to power in 1948. They strengthened theu
hold on the government by increasing their majority in parliament. Apartheid
was extended, and the Population Regismtion Act was passed,
requiring all people in South Africa to register with the government by
race. Plans were laid for ekting Sophiatown, an area of Johannesburg
where Afriams could own land, and creating the area now called Soweto.
Toward the end of the academic year 1952-1953, during which he had
spoken all over the country, Z.K. Matthews ran into some difbdties. He
had been told when he tried to testify at the UN that his job at Fon Hare
was in jeopardy. He had planned to stay in New York until June and then
sail to Sou& Africa, at about half the cost of flying. His problem was that
his South African passport expired at the end of May, and the government
adamantly refused to grant an extension. This meant that he had either to
leave Union Seminary before the end of the term or undertake the expease
of plane tickets. With the help of friends the extra money for the airfare
was raised.
Matthews had been apprehensive about the treatment he would receive
when he returned home. He sent a cable on May 20 saying, "Arrived safely.
Survived close police scrutiny. Some documents seized," He wrote me on
July g, 1953, detailing his harrassment: "Any day now I am expecting to be
raided the same way other leaders of the ANC have been. I understand the
purpose of the raids is to find, if possible, evidence of treason or sedition or
contravention of the Suppression of Communism Act. Altogether we are
Living in a state of uncertainty about what is going to happen next." The
government was Iaying the foundation for the infamous treason arrests of
1956.
Since the Defiance Campaign had come to an end, we in AFSAR had a
series of meetings to decide whether we should disband, set up a more
permanent o ~ t i odealing n with South Africa, or establish something
even broader. R decided on the third course. Thus AFSAR was transformed
into an organization that would relate to the whole anticolonial
struggle in Africa. I, of course, was now most eager to visit South Africa as
well as other parts of the continent. I wrote to Bill Sutherland, who was in
London waiting to go to the Gold Coast, that the National Council of FOR
had voted that I should cry to visit South Africa somctime in 1954. "I am
exaemely skeptical that there is any chance of getting in, but I am going to
give it a uy."