The covenant - James A. Michener [643]
It was deplorable, Philip thought, that these three fine white people should know so little about the Nxumalo family with whom they had shared their farms; had they reached out to form a partnership with Daniel and his brother Jonathan, they could have built a powerful force, able to lead their section of the country into better understandings and more logical arrangements, but they had remained enemies. Worse, they had remained strangers. Now they listened intently as Nxumalo was interrogated on his politics:
scheepers: Let us return to that provocative phrase 'Black Power.' Doesn't that mean black supremacy and the expulsion of whites?
nxumalo: You seem to have a complete file on me, Mr. Scheepers. Nowhere in it will you find a word I have ever said advocating the expulsion at any time in the future of all white men. In the society I visualize, you white men will be needed, most urgently needed. Twenty years from now when
kaplan: I must warn my client against completing that statement.
broodryk: I am most eager to hear what awaits us twenty years from now.
nxumalo: Twenty years from now, when blacks have the vote, not one-man, one-vote, perhaps, but some reasonable concession for the moment, I would expect Prosecutor Scheepers to be serving exactly as he is serving now, and Defense Counsel Kaplan to be defending some business client
broodryk: And the judge?
nxumalo: I would expect the judge in this court to be black. (Laughter)
broodryk: I thought so.
nxumalo: By that time, your Honor, you might well be in the Appeal Court, you and three black judges. (More laughter)
broodryk: You, as dictator, would appoint me?
nxumalo: A consortium of the people, white and black, would want the best judges they could get.
broodryk: 'A consortium of the people?' That's Communism, isn't it?
nxumalo: No, your Honor, that's democracy.
broodryk: Sounds more like dictatorship.
nxumalo: No, we have a dictatorship now.
broodryk (in towering rage): I cannot allow you to denigrate this government.
nxumalo: I meant no offense, your Honor. I was merely speaking the truth. In the great election of 1948 that threw Jan Christian Smuts out of office and brought your party in, that was against the wishes of white people. You might say you engineered a takeover, like the Communists in Czechoslovakia.
scheepers: That's a lie. We won that election fair and square.
nxumalo: No, the record must be kept straight. You won seventy-nine seats in Parliament to seventy-one.
scheepers: A majority of eight, as I said.
nxumalo: But in the popular vote you lost by a substantial majority. Something like six hundred thousand against you and four hundred thousand for. Many white people did not want your brand of government.
scheepers: How could that
nxumalo: You know very well. The white vote in this nation is heavily weighted in favor of the farmer, heavily skewed against urban dwellers. A farmer's vote may count as much as thirty-five percent more than a city dweller's.
scheepers: And rightly so. The virtue of a nation resides in its farmers. The rot that destroys a nation thrives in the cities.
nxumalo: Then we blacks, who are mostly farmers, ought to have a larger vote than anyone.
scheepers: We're talking of civilized voters.
And there it ended, with Daniel Nxumalo having offended the judge, the prosecutor, his own advocate and most of the public. Even Philip Saltwood had to concede that he was guilty as hellbut of what? No overt act of treason had been proved; he had been in contact with no foreign power. He had said certain things which college professors and students around