The Covenant Part 80

This angered both the Van Valcks, but it was the wife who replied, 'They are substantial. That girl's Coloured. Now get her out of here.'

'It had better be two days,' Mr. van Valck said sternly.

That afternoon Dr. Sterk held a meeting with three of his wisest teachers, two women and one man, good Afrikaners all, and their counsel was crisp and clear: 'The Van Valcks are troublemakers, especially the mother. She raised the merry devil last year when Minna received a caution on her deportment. If she's threatening to bring public charges, she'll do it. Better get the Albertyn girl out of here quietly and forget the matter.'

'But is the girl actually Coloured?'

'No sign we've ever seen,' the arithmetic teacher said, 'but she'd better go.'

'Mrs. du Plessis, you've always told me what a splendid child Petra is.'

'I did and I love her. But in a case like this, it may be best for the child's sake if she leaves.'

The three teachers were adamant. The welfare of this important school superseded all other considerations, and whereas to suspend Petra might be heartbreaking for the girl, even the rumor that she was Coloured might have disastrous consequences for the school if circulated by determined people like the Van Valcks.

But Dr. Sterk refused to accept such advice, and next afternoon drove out to the Aibertyn store, where he asked the owners to get into his car so that he might take them to some isolated spot on the veld where they could talk privately. As they drove in silence the Albertyns could only speculate on what painful thing might have happened at school: Petra had done something warranting punishment, and they were distressed, but they were also prepared to support Dr. Sterk and school discipline. Mrs. Albertyn placed her hand in her husband's and took deep breaths as the car stopped and the princ.i.p.al turned toward them. He looked ill-at-ease, distant, and finally he came out with it.

'Charges have been made that Petra is Coloured,' he said.

'Oh, Jesus!' Mr. Albertyn gasped.

'Most serious charges, by persons prepared to press them publicly.' 'Oh, my G.o.d!'

The anguish expressed by Mr. Albertyn was an indication of the gravity of this accusation. To make such a charge in South Africa was not like someone saying in Hungary, 'I think Lazlo's a Rumanian.' Or saying in the west of England, 'If you look into it, you'll find that Masterson is really Irish.' In normal countries such charges were matters of social judgment; in South Africa they determined life and sometimes death.

Ts there any foundation to the charge?' Dr. Sterk asked.

'None whatever,' Mr. Albertyn said, and right there the great suspicion began, for the princ.i.p.al noted that whereas Mr. Albertyn leaped forward to defend his family and his daughter, Mrs. Albertyn did not, and he said to himself: Why is the woman so quiet? She must be hiding something. I do believe Petra is Coloured!

At the conclusion of the interview on the veld Dr. Sterk suggested, 'I think under the circ.u.mstances you'd better take your daughter out of our school.'

'I refuse,' Mr. Albertyn cried. 'Have you any idea what it would mean to the child? Thrown out of school for doing nothing wrong?'

'I understand your sensitivities,' Dr. Sterk said with a certain unctuousness. 'But have you considered the consequences if a public charge is made? There would have to be a Race Cla.s.sification inquiry. The effect on Petra . . .' He paused, not ominously, but with just the hint of a threat: 'The terrible consequences to yourselves?'

Belatedly Mrs. Albertyn spoke, and she did so with quiet force: 'Have you been thinking of the consequences, Dr. Sterk? Of persecuting a poor little child?'

These words had just the opposite effect to what she had intended. Dr. Sterk interpreted them as a challenge to his integrity, and said crisply, 'I'm always mindful of my duty, Mrs. Albertyn, to my pupils and to my nation. If you are attempting to pa.s.s into a white society, that is against the laws of our country, and a board will determine the facts.'

He took them back to their cottage, then speedily returned to Venloo, where he joined a meeting of the school committee: 'A most serious charge, not yet formalized, has been made that our child Petra Albertyn is a Coloured. Have any of you evidence bearing on this?'

Two of Petra's teachers had asked to be present and volunteered their a.s.surances that Petra Albertyn was one of the finest Dr. Sterk cut them off: 'We're not testifying to her quality. We're interested only in her race.' And the way in which he spoke these words conveyed the clear impression that he now considered the accusations against this child justified. This encouraged the vice-princ.i.p.al to say that he had been watching Petra for some time, and she not only looked suspiciously dark, but she also behaved in distinctly Coloured ways.

'What do you mean?' Dr. Sterk asked.

'The way she says certain words.'

Venloo's dominee, Reverend Cla.s.sens, was a committee member, and he asked ponderously, 'Do we appreciate what we're doing here tonight? This child's entire future is at stake.'

'No one could be more sympathetic than we are, Dominee,' Dr. Sterk said. 'But if she is Coloured, then one of her parents must be Coloured, too. They can have a future among their own people. Not here in Venloo.'

'Does this mean,' the dominee asked, 'that you plan to examine every child who seems a bit dark?'

'They are examined every day. By their fellow students. By everyone who sees them. This is a Christian nation, Dominee, and we obey the law.'

'That is what I preach. But I also preach "Suffer the little children to" '

'We don't persecute little children. But we must keep serious priorities in mind.' 'Such as?'

'The moral welfare of every child in this school.'

After the meeting a grim-faced Dr. Sterk went to see the Van Valcks, and reported: 'I've seen the Albertyns and there is foundation for your accusations. The vice-princ.i.p.al has also had his suspicions.'

'That's what we told you,' Mrs. van Valck said smugly. 'What are you going to do about it?'

'I've asked the Albertyns to remove their daughter.'

'And they refused?'

'They have.' There was a long pause, in which each of the three considered the inevitable next step, the one that would throw the community into turmoil. Twice Dr. Sterk made as if to speak, then thought better of it. In a matter of such gravity the decision must be made by the people involved, and he would wait upon them.

Finally Leopold van Valck asked in a low voice, 'You want to know whether we're prepared to lodge formal charges?'

'We are,' his wife interrupted with great force. Having made the decision for all of them, she sat primly in her chair, hands folded, chin jutting out as if she were already bringing her testimony before the Race Cla.s.sification Board.

Dr. Sterk felt that he was the only one in this mess who appreciated the terrible confrontation that threatened; only he foresaw the consequences, once this social avalanche was torn loose, and he wanted to give the Van Valcks time to consider. He said nothing, and in the silence Mr. van Valck might have wavered, except that his wife rose suddenly, smoothed down her dress, and said, 'Well, that's that. It is our job to inform Pretoria.'

'You're sure you want to?' Dr. Sterk asked one last time.

'We are,' she said firmly, and next morning she went early to the Venloo post office to buy a money order for 10, which she carried to her husband's office. He had been in since seven, preparing two affidavits detailing the grounds for their complaint. When she filled out the forms, she took them back to the post office and mailed them to the Director of Census in Pretoria. At home she told her husband, 'I'll be proved right. They're trying to penetrate white society. And when the verdict's in, I'll get my ten pounds back.' This deposit, the government believed, was required as an indication of good faith on the part of accusers: 'It stops malicious persons from bringing frivolous or vexatious complaints.'

A tornado broke over the school, for rumor quickly spread that Petra Albertyn was Coloured; her father was white enough, but her mother was Coloured, maybe even a Bantu, and the inquisition to which children are p.r.o.ne ensued. Two teachers, unusually mindful of the race laws, told the princ.i.p.al they did not wish to have any Coloured child in their cla.s.ses, that to do so was not only illegal but also personally offensive. By midafternoon the school was polarized, a few older students and the two younger teachers defending Petra, the rest ostracizing her.

It was obvious to Dr. Sterk that such a situation could not be tolerated during the weeks it would require for a Race Cla.s.sification Board to be appointed, so once more he drove out to the Albertyns', imploring them, for the welfare of their daughter, to remove her from school. Mr. Albertyn, keenly aware of what could happen to his family if his daughter was declared Coloured, was disposed to comply, but his wife said, 'No. If a cruel charge like this can be made against Petra this week, it can be made against others next week. Let's settle this once and for all.'

But next day a deputation of parents stormed Sterk's office, demanding that the girl be removed immediately. One was the wife of the sergeant at the Venloo police station, and her husband stepped forward: 'Wouldn't it be best for all if if I drove Petratjie to her home?' So Petra's things were collected from the dormitory and placed in the sergeant's car. On the way to Blinkfontein he said little, but he did offer her several of his extra-strong white peppermints: 'Don't worry, Petratjie. These things always work out for the best. You'll be much happier with your own people.'

The Race Cla.s.sification Board was appointed by Pretoria, for this was one of the early cases under the new regulations and it was important that precedents be established. The membership was curious: the chairman, Detleef van Doorn, the lawmaker, who had at one time or another headed every important local organization and was still head of the committee of the Paulus de Groot High School; Mr. Leopold van Valck, the magistrate, who in another country might have been disqualified as being partner to the litigation; and the Venloo dentist with the good English name of John Adams, to avoid charges that the commission was overloaded with Afrikaners judging their own special laws.

They met in one of the town's two courtrooms and spent the first days taking testimony from any interested parties: teachers who had always suspected the child, playmates who might have observed suspicious behavior, village gossips interested in the Albertyns' personal life. The intention was to learn whether their friends and others regarded them as white persons. The testimony was conclusive that they did.

But the vital evidence was taken on the third day, and the community watched grimly when a motorcar brought the Albertyns, including two older children, to be inspected visually by the three commissioners. This was all-important, for what the investigators were endeavoring to decide was whether the Albertyns as a whole were Coloured or not, and looking at them face-to-face was one of the best ways to judge.

The four Albertyns, lacking Petra, were lined up before the commissioners, who studied them minutely prior to questioning. Mr. van Valck, whose name meant falcon, falcon, rose from his chair behind the prosecutor's table, where the commissioners sat, and suggested that they move onto the bench used by judges 'so we can look more impressive.' rose from his chair behind the prosecutor's table, where the commissioners sat, and suggested that they move onto the bench used by judges 'so we can look more impressive.'

'No,' Detleef objected, 'this is a simple family matter, so let's handle it that way. Our job is to start sorting out our nation, putting everyone in his place. This wouldn't have been necessary if the English had kept people properly separated, but once those first fatal steps of intermixing occurred, the damage was done. Now we must move back to an honest base.'

Detleef van Doorn began: 'Who were your grandparents?' He placed great store on lineage.

'Have you any Coloured friends?'

'What is your minister's name? His initials?'

'Is his church exclusively for whites?'

'Are you and your husband registered as voters?'

'Have your names ever been removed from a voters' list?' Here Magistrate van Valck interposed gravely: 'Remember, you are under oath, and one false answer will put you in jail'

'Have you ever traveled in a train for Coloured persons?'

'When you go on holiday, where do you stay? What hotel? Is it for whites?'

On and on, for three hours, the questioning went, inconclusively. The Albertyns seemed much like any other South African family, mostly Dutch, with a strong strain of German and perhaps a Huguenot ancestor far back. No English. Probably no Malay or Hottentot or Bantu.

Now the fascinating part of the investigation approached, when the commissioners actually inspected the bodies of the suspects. Each commissioner had his or her special clues for detecting Coloured blood, the result of rural superst.i.tions. Mr. van Valck, coached by his wife, placed emphasis on freckles and ear lobes: 'White people freckle. Coloureds don't. It's as simple as that.' But when he examined the Albertyns, he found Mrs. Albertyn and one son with no freckles, Mr. Albertyn and the other son with a copious supply. 'Now, with ear lobes,' he explained to everyone in the room, 'with whites, there's an indentation. With Coloureds, there isn't.' But again the Albertyns divided two and two.

The dentist had heard that something about the half-moons at the base of fingernails furnished some clue to racial origin, but he could never remember what it was. He considered an investigation like this offensive but felt he had better go through the motions, so he carefully studied forty Albertyn fingernails, and said, 'Hmmmmmm!' The other two commissioners were relieved that he was taking his a.s.signment seriously.

Van Doorn trusted only hair, especially on the backs of hands, where it could not be tampered with, as it often was on the head: 'Hand hair that twists in a certain way.' Eight Albertyn hands were carefully inspected, after which Detleef asked for a pencil, which relieved Mr. van Valck, since he placed considerable store in the pencil test. 'We twist the hair over the ears tightly around this pencil,' Van Doorn explained to the watchers, 'and if the subject is white, it unravels quickly when the pencil is withdrawn. With blacks, as you know, it remains crinkled.' Studying the pencil to see that the hair was properly drawn, he jerked the pencil away and watched with satisfaction as the hair responded. 'You may sit down,' he told the Albertyns.

Now came the time to investigate the little girl herself, the one who had technically committed the offense. Petra was brought into the room and told to face the interrogators, who went through the tedious business of asking her profound questions when everyone knew that it would be the physical examination that counted.

Even so, little Petra responded with answers that were innocent and sometimes charming. Yes, she understood this was a serious business. Yes, she knew that if she were indeed Coloured, she would have to go to a school with her own people. Yes, she knew that every group had its own place in South Africa so that it could be happy. In fact, she knew a great deal and demonstrated the intelligence of which her teachers had spoken, even those who wanted her expelled.

'Now, Petra, walk to the end of the room and back.' It was clear to Mr. van Valck that she walked like a Coloured.

'Now we come to the most important part.' It was Mr. van Valck speaking in a rather conciliatory voice, for he was about to impose the one inspection that some people deemed foolproof. 'Slip down your dress,' he said as gently as he could.

So the little girl, shyly but with no fierce embarra.s.sment, dropped her dress and then her petticoat until she stood practically naked before the commissioners. Since her b.r.e.a.s.t.s had not yet formed, she felt no need to cover them with her hands; nervously she twined her fingers over her flat stomach. 'Drop your hands to your side, Petra, so we can see how you stand,' Detleef said, and the commissioners examined her, paying special attention to the small triangle at the base of the spine, for as Mr. van Valck had a.s.sured them: 'If that's dark, you can be sure she has Bantu blood.' Dr. Adams, ashamed of himself for partic.i.p.ating in so ghastly a ritual, looked at the triangle and saw only the properly developing spine-tip of a little girl.

When the Albertyns, all five of them, were dismissed from the room, the commissioners excused Dr. Sterk and the two policemen and started their deliberations, and it became quickly evident that Mr. van Valck was determined to find the family Coloured, while Dr. Adams, a naturally sardonic type, would have none of it; indeed, he appeared to be contemptuous of the whole affair. The deciding vote would therefore be cast by Van Doorn, and he intended to be as just as Solomon.

I think we should begin our deliberations with prayer,' he said in Afrikaans.

'Why?' Adams asked in English.

'Because we're about to decide the fate of a family,' Van Doorn replied.

'Seems to me it's already decided,' Adams said. 'Not a shred of evidence that family's Coloured.'

'That's what we're here to decide,' Van Doorn reminded him, and he launched into a long, fervid supplication to G.o.d, asking Him to monitor their deliberations as they endeavored in good conscience to protect the nation.

Before the voting could begin, an investigator from Detleef's office broke into the room without having been invited and handed the chairman a report: 'It's what you asked for, Mr. van Doorn.' For three weeks this man and four of Detleef's a.s.sistants in Pretoria had been scrutinizing the Albertyn past, because the government was determined that this important race-cla.s.sification hearing be conducted so as to evoke maximum impact.

'Mr. van Doorn, sir,' the investigator whispered. 'I don't think you'd better let anyone see our report.'

'The other members are ent.i.tled . . .'

'It was the other members I was thinking of.'

Moving apart from Van Valck and Adams, Detleef read the doc.u.ment and became ashen. He was astonished that detectives could uncover so much and appalled at the possible consequences of what they had learned. The detective, seeing his dismay, whispered, 'Shall I burn the report, sir? I made only one copy.'

It was the severest moral test Detleef would ever face. His whole being urged him to quash this report, but the dignity of his office and its obligation to purify the race took precedence. If at this first hearing he smothered evidence, all subsequent ones would be suspect, and the good that such procedures might otherwise accomplish would be aborted. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he cleared his dry throat and said, 'Gentlemen, I think we should hear a rather remarkable report. It bears directly on our case. Mr. Op t'Hooft here is an investigator from my department, and he's been looking into the heritage of the Albertyns. You may proceed, Mr. Op t'Hooft.'

The detective squared his shoulders and read a concise account of the Albertyn record: 'The charge that Mrs. Albertyn is Coloured is completely false. There is no blemish of any kind on her family record. The possibility that she may have had s.e.xual intercourse with a Bantu is remote, for not only does she have an impeccable reputation, but we can find no occasion when she could have been in contact with a Bantu. Also, since her other children all look like Petra, there would have to have been repeated acts of intercourse with the same black man, and that seems positively impossible.

'Mr. Albertyn, however, is another matter. He is contaminated doubly, and proof of the contamination is contained in a straight, unbroken, demonstrable line back to 1694 when the Coloured slave Bezel Muhammad married the Trianon spinster Petronella van Doorn.

'Bezel and Petronella had four children who carried no last name, and they might have been lost in the general Coloured population except that neighbors kept track of them, knowing them to be Van Doorns. We have found numerous families well regarded today containing the blood of Bezel and Petronella.

'In or about the year 1720 their daughter Fatima, named after Bezel's mother, became the third wife of the notorious frontier outlaw Rooi van Valck, who had four wives, one yellow, one brown, one black and one white. Fatima was the brown one, and she became the progenitress of a large unruly breed.

'One of her daughters married an early Albertyn and was thus the direct ancestor of our Henricus Albertyn. Without question, he is doubly Coloured. Without question, his daughter Petra must be so cla.s.sified.

'Our investigators could not avoid remarking upon the extraordinary fact that our Petra thus becomes a lineal descendant of the original Petronella, who broke the rules of her community. Could this be an an example of Divine intervention?'

When Mr. Op t'Hooft finished reading the report, he waited in some confusion as to what he should do next. He looked in vain at Chairman van Doorn for instructions, but Detleef was too shaken to act intelligently, and as for Mr. van Valck, whose redoubtable ancestor Rooi had been dragged from his stormy grave, he was in a state of shock.

Dr. Adams reached for the report, but Mr. Op t'Hooft was not sure he should deliver it to a man known to be difficult where Afrikaner matters were concerned. Dr. Adams solved this by s.n.a.t.c.hing the paper and holding it aloft. 'Did you say this was the only copy?'

'Yes. Not even one carbon was made.'

'Good. I want you to watch what happens to your one copy.' Crumpling it in his left hand, Dr. Adams produced a match, scratched it across the top of the polished table, and set fire to the report. Holding it by one end, he watched the flames creep closer to his fingers, then dropped the burning paper on the table, where it vanished, leaving a scar.

'I think we should all forget this report,' Adams said. 'It can do no one in this room any good, and it could do distinguished citizens outside a great deal of harm.' When Mr. Op t'Hooft, completely bewildered, left, Adams said, 'It looks to me as if I'm the only one here who is not related to this little Coloured girl.'

Van Valck and Van Doorn glared at him, but he ignored them, saying brightly, 'I propose we declare the child white and end this farce.' He supposed that the shaken men, in order to hide their own involvement, would agree, but he underestimated Detleef's moral tenacity.

In silence the Commissioner on Racial Affairs lowered his head and pondered what to do. In his anxiety he could hear the voices of his family orating savagely on the problem of the Coloureds: Maria van Doorn: 'They are the children of sin, and G.o.d must despise them.' Johanna Krause: 'They are mongrels.'

But then he heard his own voice: 'They're ... a reminder of our fathers' transgressions.'

He was sorely tempted to follow Dr. Adams' advice and terminate the investigation, for he knew that if the facts became public, the sins of his ancestors must surface; but to evade his responsibilities would be craven, so he decided to plow ahead.

He was about to voice his decision when he saw, shimmering in air, that decorated page of the ancient Bible on which the data of his family were inscribed, and on it in blazing letters stood that second entry, the one that was never discussed in his family: Son Adam van Doorn born Son Adam van Doorn born 1 1 November 1655. November 1655. Generations of Van Doorns had tried to ignore that cryptic pa.s.sage, avoiding the question of who the boy's mother could have been. And there was the later entry: 'Petronella'but with no statement as to whom she had married. Always the Van Doorns had suspected that they were related to Coloureds; always they had submerged this truth. Now the gossip-whispers were about to rampage, and Detleef was sick with shame. Generations of Van Doorns had tried to ignore that cryptic pa.s.sage, avoiding the question of who the boy's mother could have been. And there was the later entry: 'Petronella'but with no statement as to whom she had married. Always the Van Doorns had suspected that they were related to Coloureds; always they had submerged this truth. Now the gossip-whispers were about to rampage, and Detleef was sick with shame.

But he was was the Commissioner on Racial Affairs, he the Commissioner on Racial Affairs, he was was the chairman of this Race Cla.s.sification Board, with a duty to perform. In a voice scarcely more than a whisper he said, 'Clearly the child Petra has contaminated blood from both the Van Valck and the Van Doorn lines. Clearly she must be cla.s.sified as Coloured.' the chairman of this Race Cla.s.sification Board, with a duty to perform. In a voice scarcely more than a whisper he said, 'Clearly the child Petra has contaminated blood from both the Van Valck and the Van Doorn lines. Clearly she must be cla.s.sified as Coloured.'

Van Valck shuddered: 'All along I thought it was Mrs. Albertyn who carried the fatal strain.'

'What in h.e.l.l do you men mean?' Dr. Adams exploded. 'Words like contaminated contaminated and and fatal strain? fatal strain?

'We mean the defilement of Afrikaner blood,' Detleef whispered. 'We have all been defiled this day.'

From the moment the date 1694 was mentioned, Dr. Adams had started doing calculations and now produced his results: 'At least eight, and possibly more, generations separate the slave Bezel Muhammad from our little girl . . .'

'She's not my little girl,' Mr. van Valck interrupted. 'She's a Coloured trying to penetrate our community.'