A LONG WAY TO FREEDOM - SOUTH AFRICA'S JOURNEY One of the new guest speakers onboard is Victor Matom, a photojournalist from South Africa who will be with Peace Boat until Seychelles. In his first lecture, 'A Long Way to Freedom' Mr Matom gave an introduction to the history of South Africa and also focused on its political developments over the last years. The first white people to arrive and settle down in South Africa were the Dutch in 1652. They soon started subjugating the native African people and imposed discriminatory racial ideas on them, which are still deeply rooted in society to this day. White men abused the hospitality of the African people and by implementing 'divide and rule' tactics managed to effectively rule the local population. Everything in South Africa was organised by way of segregation ~ the school system, transport, church and so forth. Black people were seen as inferior and in many cases ended up being deported to townships where they were made to carry a passbook as an ID and as a proof of employment. Eventually the injustice and inhumanity inflicted by the regime became so unbearable for the black population that people started to organise themselves and in 1954 put forward the Freedom Chapter with people's wishes. This was then declared illegal by the racist government, which also began imprisoning people, such as Nelson Mandela, who had been active in the ANC. Father Hadelson was one of the people who, after leaving South Africa to live in England, started organising protests and telling the outside world about the terrible situation in South Africa. His efforts, together with other anti-Apartheid activists and NGOs led to the implementation of international sanctions on South Africa by which gold, sugar and diamonds were not to be taken from the country. Interestingly, Japan was the only country that did not support these sanctions, but continued trade with South Africa throughout the Apartheid era. The 1970s became times of great upheaval and there was a lot of protest against the government mainly by young people. The state responded with barbaric brutality. The first victim to be killed by the police during those demonstrations was a 13-year-old boy called Hector Peterson. His martyr death became a strong symbol of that time. Consequently feelings of pain and anger were rife among young people as many of them were losing their family members and friends in conflicts with the racist regime. Victor, himself, as a result of losing 20 relatives and friends decided to undertake guerilla training. He was also a member of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), one of the organisations opposing Apartheid. Although working conditions were very bad, to the extent that the SACC office was bombed, Victor was determined to work as a photojournalist and spread the word to the rest of the world. People like him were considered terrorists in South Africa just because they were reporting the truth and therefore posed a threat to the government. Besides, many international journalists who tried to report what was really going on were forced to leave the country. NGOs also played important roles in the struggle against racism by supporting families or offering education for political prisoners. The lawyer Nelson Mandela for example, received sponsorship for his Ph.D. while imprisoned on Robben Island. Apart from Mandela, countless other activists, among them John Slovo,( who was involved in South African Communist Party), Steve Biko and Desmond Tutu made great contributions to end the racist regime. In 1994, when Nelson Mandela came to power the Freedom Chapter finally became part of South Africa's constitution. However, the struggle to overcome apartheid in South African society and above all in people's heads still continues. Shingapore-Mombasa / Peace Boat's 36th Voyage