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.