1. Sandy Cash
Mailbox #108
One of Mandela’s reasons for the ANC decision to defy the government decree outlawing
the group is that they believed that a result of Government policy, violence by the African
people had become inevitable. This being said, they figured unless responsible leadership
was give to canalize and control the feelings of their people, there would be outbreaks of
terrorism. Lastly, they are struggling against the principle of White supremacy.
Mandela justifies the violence that the ANC did by saying, “we felt that without violence
there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the
principle of White supremacy.” The form of violence the ANC adopted was sabotage,
because it did not kill people. They also used sabotage, because they thought it offered
the best hope.
Mandela describes the segregation by saying, “The Whites enjoy what may well be the
highest standard of living in the whiled, whilst Africans live in poverty and misery.” He
goes on to say, “Forty percent of the Africans live in hopelessly overcrowded and in
some cases, drought stricken Reserves, where coil erosion and the overworking off the
soil make it impossible of them to live properly off the land.” The other thirty percent are
laborers, on White farms and work and live under condition similar to those of the serfs
of the Middle Ages. This white supremacy has gotten so bad that the White man will look
for an African to carry or clean, whether or not he works for him. These are the reasons
Mandela gives for defy the government, the violence that the ANC did, and how the
experience of blacks under apartheid was.