Diary from a South African Prison

by Tshenuwani Simon Farisani, John A. Evenson (Editor)

This is Tshenuwani Simon Farisani's harrowing account of the suffering inflicted on a single human being by the brutalities of apartheid. Farisani shows us the terror of torture, the fear of death, and the eventual victory of faith.

Genres: South Africa, Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity

93 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1987

About the author

Tshenuwani Simon Farisani was a South African politician, theologian, and Lutheran minister. During apartheid, he was one of the country's most prominent black clergymen and preached anti-apartheid liberation theology from his diocese in Venda and Transvaal. He founded the Black Evangelic Youth Organisation with Cyril Ramaphosa in the early 1970s and was also active in the Black Consciousness movement, especially as president of the Black People's Convention from 1973 to 1975. He was arrested on four occasions, according to Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and he testified abroad about the torture he was subjected to by the apartheid police.
After the end of apartheid, Farisani represented the African National Congress in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and National Assembly. He was a Member of the Executive Council in the Limpopo provincial government under the inaugural Premier of Limpopo, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, from 1997 to 2004, and from 2004 to 2009 he was Speaker of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature.

Reviews

[Kali]

No rating. This book is very dense in some way I can't quite put my finger on, but I suffer from ADD, and it makes reading certain books difficult, as my brain jumps around in the text; words and ideas get jumbled and I can no longer tell if it's the text that's confusing me or just my mind.

I wanted to absorb the ideas and experiences Farisani has to share in this book, and I appreciate the ones I gleaned from what I was able to absorb, but the book just isn't a good fit for me.

[Brett Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A South African pastor is jailed and tortured during the apartheid regime for the high crime of opposing apartheid. A great short and important read.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A South African pastor jailed and tortured during Apartheid. Not an enjoyable topic. The book is frank and direct. Yet it is very important to read. Because I know pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA) as well as the area where Rev. Farisani served, this book hit hard. And as a Lutheran pastor from the United States, I could see how far my experience of caring for justice has been from the experiences of the pastors who served during Apartheid in South Africa. My respect and admiration for them and for their work grew even stronger through the reading of this book. I commend this book to anyone willing to read it. It is well worth the time it takes to read this slim volume.