The covenant - James A. Michener [641]
broodryk: I will assign myself.
scheepers: If we are all Africans, why the emphasis on the power of black Africans?
nxumalo: As I explained before, our people must develop pride in themselvesBlack Consciousness. And if you force meBlack Power. We cannot negotiate with whites from a position of inferiority.
scheepers: I see your Black Power only as an agency with which to confront whites and embarrass this government.
nxumalo: In the eyes of the civilized world, this government embarrasses itself.
broodryk (sternly): No flippancy, young man.
nxumalo: The protests sounding around the world against this trial are not flippant. They are very real, and one day
broodryk: No revolutionary threats will be tolerated. Mr. Kaplan, advise your client to mind his tongue.
kaplan: Believe me, my Lord, my client utters his words without any coaching from me.
broodryk: I believe you, Counsel, for this court has always found you to be a prudent, loyal and patriotic man. But you must warn your client that he damages his case by engaging in revolutionary threats. This court is not impressed by what happens 'around the world,' as he says. For some decades this nation has been endeavoring to act in accordance with God's dictates and not the yammerings of the discredited World Council of Churches.
After this resounding statement Judge Broodryk declared recess, during which Saltwood endeavored to talk with Nxumalo. No outsider was permitted to approach the prisoner lest the latter receive coaching, which was what Philip sought to offer, for he had seen signs that Broodryk wanted to avoid a severe sentence, if only Nxumalo would admit minor guilt and appeal for clemency. He suspected that for arcane reasons of his own Nxumalo would refuse to act humbly; this became evident when the prosecutor attacked him on language.
scheepers: May I put it to you, Mr. Nxumalo, that you borrowed your ideas about language from Laura Saltwood? It was her preaching, wasn't it, that encouraged you to advise your students not to accept any instruction in Afrikaans?
nxumalo: With your permission, respected sir, there are two errors in your question.
scheepers: And what are they?
nxumalo: I gave my advice long before Mrs. Saltwood was banned. And nothing in my advice was antagonistic to Afrikaans. What I said was, 'Learn English first, for it is the language of international communication.'
scheepers: But why should a Bantu . . . Excuse me, m'Lord. Why should a black child whose life is to be spent in South Africa bother with international communication?'
nxumalo: Because it will be our international associationsI don't mean international committees, I mean the contacts we establish with people overseasthat will go far in determining the nature of our future government.
scheepers: You mean, of course, Communist Russia?
nxumalo: I mean the civilized world. We cannot speak to them in Afrikaans, because nobody out in the world understands that language.
broodryk: You seem determined to insult this nation, Mr. Nxumalo. First you ridicule our most sacred holiday. Now you ridicule our language.
nxumalo: I said merely the truth. That it is not used anywhere outside this small country.
broodryk: You consider South Africa a small nation? In comparison with Belgium, say?
nxumalo: In comparison with Brazil and Indonesia. In comparison to the rest of Africa.
scheepers: When you advised your students not to study Afrikaans
nxumalo: I never advised that, sir.
scheepers: May I read from a transcript of your speech at Bloemfontein:
'Our program must be to insist that basic instruction be given in English, for then our young people will be able to communicate with the entire world and not only with a few bigoted Afrikaners stuck away in their little corner.' Are those not inflammable words, Mr. Nxumalo? Are they not an incitement to the blacks to ignore the laws of this land?
kaplan: Your Worship, I wish you would direct learned Counsel to read the next sentences of his police report.
scheepers: I've read everything I