Long Walk to Freedom ( Nelson Mandela ) Chapter 13 Part 1

Long Walk to Freedom ( Nelson Mandela ) Chapter 13 Part 1

AFRICANS  could not vote, but that did not mean that we did not care who won elections. The white general election of 1948 matched the ruling United Party, led by General Smuts, then at the height of his international regard, against the revived National Party. While Smuts had enlisted South Africa on the side of the Allies in World War II, the National Party refused to support Great Britain and publicly sympathized with Nazi Germany. The National Party’s campaign centered around the  swart gevaar  (the black danger), and they fought the election on the twin slogans of  Die kaffer op sy plek  (The nigger in his place) and  Die koelies uit die land  (The coolies out of the country)— coolies  being the Afrikaner’s derogatory term for Indians. The Nationalists, led by Dr. Daniel Malan, a former minister of the Dutch Reform Church and a newspaper editor, were a party animated by bitterness—bitterness toward the English, who had treated them as inferiors for decades, and bitterness toward the Africa…