Mandela Nelson - Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela

THE PRISON LETTERS OF

NELSON MANDELA

EDITED BY SAHM VENTER

FOREWORD BY ZAMASWAZI DLAMINI-MANDELA

LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION

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Copyright 2018 by the Estate of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Copyright 2018 by the Nelson Mandela Foundation

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JACKET DESIGN BY STEVE ATTARDO

JACKET ILLUSTRATION BY JAYMI CROOK / NELSON MANDELA

PORTRAIT NELSON R. MANDELA, IMAGE BY ANDREW ZUCKERMAN

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CONTENTS

B y the time I was born, my grandfather had already been in prison for seventeen years. In a letter to my grandmother, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, shortly after his sixty-second birthday, he lists the people that he has received telegrams and cards from, including my Aunt Zindzi, my sister, Zaziwe, and me, and the people hes expecting and hoping to hear from. So far I have received not a single one of the multitude that friends have sent from all over the world, he jokes. Nevertheless, it is very comforting to know that so many friends still think of us after so many yrs. Its one of many examples in this book that shows how communication from the outside world bolstered him through his twenty-seven years in prison, and just how much he yearned for those letters.

During his incarceration, my grandfather wrote many hundreds of letters. The selection that appears in this book intimately acquaints readers not only with Nelson Mandela the political activist and prisoner, but with Nelson Mandela the lawyer, father, husband, uncle and friend, and illustrates how his lengthy incarceration, far away from everyday life, impeded him in carrying out these roles. It revisits a very dark time in South Africas history where those caught opposing the apartheid governments system to oppress an entire race of people, endured terrible punishments. Through his letters he documents the ongoing persecution of my grandmother and provides insight into what it must have been like for his children, Thembi, Makgatho, Makaziwe, Zenani, and Zindzi, to have an absent father that they could barely communicate with or this I found unbearable even visit until they turned sixteen. As much as he tried to parent his children from prison, he couldnt.

What has particularly affected me, especially as a mother, is witnessing through my grandfathers letters what my mother and my Aunt Zindzi went through as children. Often they were left parentless while my grandmother was imprisoned as well, sometimes because of her involvement in anti-apartheid activities but often for being the wife of one of South Africas most well-known political prisoners.

Most heartrending, is the wistful optimism in many of the letters to my grandmother and his children where my grandfather suggests, Perhaps one day we will... and One day we shall.... That happily-ever-after day never came for my grandparents, my mom, and my aunts and uncles. The children suffered the most, and ultimately the consequences of forfeiting a stable family life for his ideals was a sacrifice that my grandfather just had to make peace with.

My grandfather always reminded us that we should never forget our past or where we come from. The democratic society that both my grandparents and their comrades fought for was achieved after a lot of suffering and loss of life. This book is a reminder that we could easily go back to that place of hatred, but it also shows that personal resilience can overcome unendurable situations. From day one in prison, my grandfather resolved that he would not break or waver; instead he would insist that he and his fellow prisoners be treated with dignity. In a letter to my grandmother in 1969, he recommends she boosts her spirits by reading psychologist Norman Vincent Peales 1952 bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking. He writes: I attach no importance to the metaphysical aspects of his arguments, but I consider his views on physical & psychological issues valuable.

He makes the basic point that it is not so much the disability one suffers from that matters but ones attitude to it. The man who says: I will conquer this illness & live a happy life, is already halfway through to victory.

This inspirational outlook sustained my grandfathers unwavering pursuit of justice and an equal society for all South Africans, and is one that I think can be applied to many of lifes challenges.

This collection has answered many of the questions that used to baffle me: How did my grandfather survive twenty-seven years in jail? What kept him going? Through his words we can find the answers.

Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela

A raft of draconian regulations governing the writing of letters by South African political prisoners and their random implementation by mean-spirited guards was designed to control the most precious aspects of a prisoners soul their contact with loved ones and news of the outside world.

After political prisoners were sentenced in court, they were assigned to the prison where they were supposed to serve their punishment. In Nelson Mandelas case, his life as a condemned prisoner began in Pretoria Local Prison after he received a five-year sentence on 7 November 1962 for leaving the country without a passport and inciting workers to strike. Already a prisoner, he was brought back to court on sabotage charges in 1963, and on 12 June 1964 he received a lifelong sentence. His wife, Winnie Mandela, visited him in Pretoria that day, and hours later, without warning, he and six of the seven comrades sentenced with him were taken from Pretoria for the long flight in a military aircraft to the notorious prison on Robben Island. They arrived on a bitterly cold winter morning on 13 June 1964. Unlike inmates who had committed common law crimes like rape, robbery, and assault, who were classified as C Grade and sometimes B Grade on arrival, political prisoners were assigned to D Grade, the lowest possible classification with the least privileges. They were allowed only one visitor every six months and were entitled to write and receive only one letter of five hundred words every six months. So unpredictable was the process of sending and receiving letters that six years after he was imprisoned, Mandela met with his lawyers on Robben Island and listed examples of unreasonable and vexatious behaviour and conduct of the authorities. He said that the disruptions to his correspondence, indicate a deliberate intention and policy on the part of the authorities to cut me off and isolate me from all external contacts, to frustrate and demoralise me, to make me despair and lose all hope and eventually break me.