Eric no longer lives in South Africa. The police harassed him steadily about his black girl friend, so he and she moved to neighboring Swaziland, where there is no Immorality Act. He is a large, powerfully built man, who is covered in tattoos. One evening, he gave me the official version of life underground. “Here’s what’s supposed to happen. They start dropping the day shift at five or six, to the bottom level first. The blacks wait down there. They can’t even enter the stope (low-roofed chamber) until the white miner arrives, at seven. When you get there, you take your baas-boy, and your picannin, and check everything. You look for loose hanging rocks, or gas. Then, picannins with hose-pipes put down water to keep the dust down. There are signs around that say things like ‘Keep Dust Low.. .with H2O.’ “Next, you direct your timber-boys to put in the props... a solid pack here, a five-pointer there. You supervise your malaisha-boys, who are shoveling the blast from the previous day. You mark the rock-face, and you tell the machine-boys to start drilling. Then, you charge up. You chase everybody out before you start blasting.” Eric paused, a raconteur with timing. “That’s what’s supposed to happen.” He winked. “Here’s what really hapYour distributor of high quality organically grown and natural foods. 1-800-4R^ ^ To11 pree 1-800-223 J ? ” °n'y) I. nr.es (Toll P^ 3: 1883 TOWN/NORTH BEACH • BASQUE CUISINE • ROOMS FROM $30 • 1208 STOCKTON ST. • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94133 • (415)989-3960 • 6^7 zn pens. You stay in the canteen on the surface until about nine, just talking shit with the other white miners. When you get to the face underground, the black guys are drilling holes already. They’ve put in the props and marked everything. Your picannin takes your jacket and boots, hangs them up, and brings you a cup of tea. You sit and read the newspaper. You might take a look now and then, just to make sure nobody’s fucking up. [You’re paid partly on the amount of rock you move.] But really, your baas-boy can take care of everything. About all you do is hand the oke the matches before you blast.” Eric waited for his story to register. Then he added: “ I trained twelve months for my blasting ticket. No baas-boy has had any course. But every single baas- boy in the mine, if they tested him right now for a fucking ticket, he’d get it.” He concluded maliciously: “I think they just don’t give blasting tickets to blacks because they might start to blow up whites all over the country.” I James North has reported from the Third World for the last six years for such publications as The Nation and The New Republic. Freedom Rising copyright ®1985 by James North. 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