The leaf stems tug at their chains, the branches bending like boer cattle under tory whips that drag every wagon nearer to apartheid. based on the allusion to tory whips, readers can infer that the speaker thinks that

This passage is taken from the poem, Midsummer, written by Derek Walcott. When we think about things like chains and Tory whips, we can reasonably conclude that Walcott believes we can find examples of oppression that have taken place in the past. He also talks about "fairy rings" indicating that the idyllic picture some had of England was just a fairy tale and did not actually exist.