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Albie Sachs
Constitutional Court of South Africa
We'd heard about Mozambique -- Samora Machel, FRELIMO, the Front for Liberation in Mozambique. They declared independence, June the 25th, 1975. It gave a huge fillip to the struggle in South Africa. People now started using the word viva. "Viva! Viva!" Viva this, that and the other. In South Africa, they took over the Portuguese word, "A luta " they would say, " continua," (the struggle continues) from the Mozambiquan struggle -- became used in South Africa, and I wanted to see this country. The minute my foot touched the tarmac of the airport, I knew, this is where I'm going to be happy. It was the light, the vegetation, the people. That separation from a context that you'd grown up in, involuntary, that gets to you. I was back again. I was back in Africa. I was close to my country. The energy. The problems were my problems.
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Albie Sachs
Constitutional Court of South Africa
I was at the very first meeting in Cape Town, when one of the leaders of the African National Congress, named Johnson Ngwavela, voluntarily defied an order -- we called it "the banning order" -- put upon him, placed on him by the Minister of Justice, prohibiting him from attending any political gatherings. And he came into this little hall, and we all stood up and sang, and we sang freedom songs. It was a very emotional moment, and they called for volunteers to join the Defiance Campaign. And I was dying to volunteer. And my friend Wolfie Kodesh with me, he said, "Shhh, shhh. No, no, Albie, whites can't join." I said, "Why can't whites join? It's a non-racial struggle against racism." He says, "No, no, no, you can't." I remember holding onto the seat, clinging onto it to prevent myself from being hurled up with all the others rushing to sign that they wanted to be volunteers. And he said, "Look, I'll speak to some of the leaders and we'll see." And it was only in December, so that several months afterwards a small group of whites, four whites in Cape Town, were allowed by the organization to join. Looking back now, I can see, of course, it had to be a struggle by the oppressed black people, manifested under their own leadership, organized by themselves. And then whites could come in at a later stage to demonstrate that very point. But at the time it really hurt me as a young, anti-racist idealist.
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Fritz Scholder
Native American Artist
Fritz Scholder: It's strange, but all kids draw. I never stopped. I was real shy, and all I wanted to do was stay in my room and draw, so I wouldn't have to deal with people. This, at the time, was difficult. But in retrospect, I always knew what I had to be. There was never any question. It was all that I could do. Plus, I was a rebel, right from the beginning. If someone told me to do something, I'd do the opposite. So I was, in a way, a bad boy in school, and yet, because I was reserved and because of my talent, I was treated pretty nicely, I must say. I sold my first painting in grade school to a friend of mine for four dollars. And I sold my second painting to a grade school buddy for five dollars and slowly worked up from there.
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