2. Sep. 1938

Sep 2.  

[/P] Goolam [Goolam Gool] and Halema [sic: Halima, Halima Gool] drove me to the Docks CapeTown [sic:  Cape Town] — We picked up Lippy [Lippy Lipshitz] at 3 Sir George Grey Street — Suggested interview with the Cape Times but changed our minds because of the possibility of rousing [sic: arousing] feelings in South Africa — black man going abroad to study art etc etc.

[/P] Arrived and boarded the Balmoral Castle

[/P] Halema [sic: Halima] looks gorgeous in red — Goolam very helpful with practical assistance - Showed Lippy the Mother and Child in the cabin.  He said he liked it — feelings and emotions very African and intense —

I saw them off and expressed gratitude for Halema’s hospitality and Goolam’s assistance – returned to my Cabin to find Miss Gregory, dear old soul, also Dr v M. also and elderly English missionary worker – both happy to see me – I was struck by the oddness of age trying in vain to find a place in the new order of things – Miss Gregory wished to know whereabouts of Old Fort Hare Bedans. Moshesh, Kwoinana Pakale’ – She seemed happy at the news of some but not the others.  News of Tabata [I.B. Tabata] pained her because when I told her I had been staying with him, She said she had heard he had turned C. [sic: Communist] as if he became something satanic or inhuman – (diseased) [.][1]  I was uncomfortable because I was expecting Jaineb [Jaineb Gool] to arrive —

She did not arrive and my heart was sore — I love Jaineb —

Instead Tabata [I.B. Tabata] arrived when the ship had 30 mts [sic: minutes] before sailing —

A crowd of Moslem Malays boarded the boat to see one of their number in Cape Town go overseas — Close on a hundred came — Red fezs [sic: fezes] and pink and green silks the order of the day — A contrast to the drab and demur dress of the Europeans [.]  The young women are very pretty but the old ones are very ugly –

A young small Malay man accosts me at the dock rails [,] becomes talkative — asked if I was going abroad too and what for, when I explained he became still more loquacious and ranted about the black man showing to the world what he can do as if there was a proof required to show the blacks to be human too!  A regular Nazi I thought.  He was a teacher and had had interest in architecture sometime ago — (Old Cape houses the product of Malay workmanship) -

A group of Malay and Indian Varsity students and to my surprise Patel is among them — Had not seen him for ages — Greets me good naturedly and tells me he is doing engineering at the Cape Varsity [University of Cape Town] — Sounds futile with the Colour Bar[2]  in South African heavy industry - where black man must be a servant at the beck and Call of White skilled labour — e.g. medical aids etc etc.  Surprised me at remarks on politics as I knew him as a carefree Rugby scrum half and not given to the dull discussions on Politics.  He told of the efforts of the N.E.F. to foster among non Europeans pride of race and the filling of posts where necessary with competent Coloured men to cater for the needs of their Community — It struck me he had become older and saner and that he had began to wonder if after all his engineering was not a child fancy that had stuck on to him despite the passing of the years — Education after all has to prepare one for the future accommodation of oneself to Society - but the only openings for Non Whites in South Africa is teaching in mission schools and cannot ever imagine Patel a respectable dignified school teacher —

The ship bell rings and the Malay Crowd troops troops down the gangway again –

Among the crowd I see Tabie [I.B. Tabata] accompanied by a Coloured man coming up – It’s too late to come up the bridge – I meet him halfway and give him the letter I had written to him -

He shouts of something and wishes me to smile but how could I but grin stupidly [.]  Jaineb loves both myself and himself.  Me as a man and Tabie as a fellow worker – I do not regard T. [sic: Tabata] as a rival in love but as a [illegible] in his relations personal with Jaineb -  He lacks that finesse of character and that something [.]  He dominates over her as a [illegible] giant and puts her at the wrong at every turn, but humans are humans and not machines. 

The ships band strikes up a tune and the cables are loosed — The Ship moves slowly away from the shore — The Moslems look like moving toys and multicoloured clothes.  They cluster together instinctively and the whites too seem to understand to keep off them — They have been conditioned by centuries of segregation — Tabie waves now and again & then left for work.

The pilot jumps from the [illegible] onto the pilot boat and we are away —

I stand at the ‘backdeck’ and watch the opening out of the scene CapeTown and Table Bay — The buildings of the town are like [illegible] of animals fastened as parasites onto the skin of some animal

“Seeing the last of S. Africa?” says a young European fellow passenger leaning over the rails.  “Yes and I am not too sorry either” was the instinctive remark.  “You won’t come back”, butted in his friend with a disagreeable face, trying hard to adjust himself to an extraordinary situation.   The other fellow came from Wits [sic: University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg] had seem Ratabe Vilakazi etc. blac

For me it was an ugly sight though Drake [Sir Francis Drake] remarked “the most lovely Cape in the world”.  For me it represented the starting point of the rape of Africa by European Colonisation[3] — fascism par excellence — by centuries of readjustment and … a system evolved to turn Africa into a Ghetto for the smashing of African hopes, aspirations, and progress.  Hertzog segregation policy[4]  — melting away of a bad dream!

I meet Abraham [,] the cause of the stir in the Malay quarter — a small fellow with a cheerful face—with teeth turned inwards and made his smile attractive — We sat together on deck and began to talk —

He was going to Edinburgh for medicine—had been in Cape Town University [sic: University of Cape Town] for 2 years but could not complete owing to race prejudice in the hospitals Cape Town — They (the matrons and staff of the hospitals are averse to medical students as a rule but Coloured Students they cannot stand even in coloured hospitals) - He says they are forced to go overseas despite the big heavy demands of study abroad financially -

Mentions the lack of unity among the non Europeans, Malays [,] African & Indian but points out that there is a coming unity, owing to the segregation laws in CapeTown — e.g. Contest in local elections

See cutting Cape Argus —

He says the celebration by the Afrikaaners of the Voortrek[5] roused [sic: aroused] + perpetuated bitter feelings—were the Dutch the only section of the Community that suffered massacres and raids, what of the Bushmen and Hottentots [,] what of the Africans who were dispossessed of their land and driven from pillar to post by tax and pass laws—were they also not justified to make a fuss of their past misfortunes.

CapeTown Students (white) better than Stellenbosch [.] Case of the coloured principle in a school staffed by European teachers [.]  Abraham pointed out that the individual Coloured Educated men do sometimes make themselves objectionable by throwing their weight about — from inferiority complex.  Trafalgar had at the moment a Coloured principal who worked harmoniously with his European staff [.]   Some brilliant Coloured students at Cape Varsity [sic: University of Cape Town] — But Stellenbosch [sic: University of Stellenbosch] allowed no Coloureds and hated Cape Town Varsity —Growing beards in commemoration of Voortreck —

I asked why the feeling was so bad despite the fact the Coloured in Cape Town spoke Afrikaans as a home language — Abraham says the Dutch farmers brutalized the Coloured servants on the farms -  Hence the trooping into the towns now the municipal council proposes sending them back to the land (see McMillan) [.] History repeats itself!

Rugby enthusiasts has had sprains on both legs but he says coloured Students tried to form a team on their own to play sections of the university but had to give it up –

At Table supper-time met Watson a huge West African and very interesting — big loose features and stupid-looking — On the Civil service in Gold Coast — knows Achimcota[6] [sic: Achimota]  On holiday had to stay at CapeTown for month, could not get accommodation to see the East Coast because he is black. Hoped to meet Dr Wilkie of Lovedale [Arthur Wilkie] — thinking Lovedale near CapeTown — Tells me he never heard of Pass Laws[7] —

After supper sat on deck and listened to Ship Orchestra — watching the water - Two young fellows stared at the rails and chat [.]  After a time they turn their faces to me and ask if I am sea sick - They come closer and want to know my destination and one points to the lights of a ship – Julius Caesar [,] says one of them.  “You can almost see Mussulini’s [sic: Benito Mussolini] land stretched out” he continues bitterly.  He does not impress [,] I cannot see why he should rave Mussulini though late in the day he wants a place in the sun – Cecil Rhodes did it for England. 

A huge fellow comes along around the deck and halts stupidly in front of us — Talks a lot of gibberish about sea-sickness and going to the lavatory and going to the dispensary — “Are you alright Jim”, he says leering at me [.]  I nod and he disappears to my relief -  And I ask my friends (Indians) what he was jabbering about.  “Oh don’t worry the further away we move from South Africa the more intelligent they will become.  He’s probably the last one. [“]

The music ends with God Save the king[8] and the Mussolini [,] a finger of fire disappears into the night.