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But as I got closer to the car that would take me away, I realized that when I went through that gate, if I still hated them, they would still have me. I wanted to be free. And so I let it go.”
“the oppressor defines the nature of the struggle.”
the oppressor is also a prisoner of prejudice and narrow-mindedness,
With very few exceptions, Africans at the time did not enjoy private title to land in South Africa but were tenants paying rent annually to the government.
Weird to think about how WRONG that feels
He did not need to be ordained, for the traditional religion of the Xhosas is characterized by a cosmic wholeness, so that there is little distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the natural and the supernatural.
I always remember the regent’s axiom: a leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
We are slaves in our own country. We are tenants on our own soil.
I cared more that he had helped found the League of Nations, promoting freedom around the world, than the fact that he had repressed freedom at home.
FASCINATING (he = Jan Smuts)
I was beginning to realize that a black man did not have to accept the dozens of petty indignities directed at him each day.
an educated man could not be oppressed because he could think for himself.
While I was stimulated by the Communist Manifesto, I was exhausted by Das Kapital.
Our problems, while distinctive and special, were not entirely unique, and a philosophy that placed those problems in an international and historical context of the greater world and the course of history was valuable.
I did not need to become a Communist in order to work with them.
For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.
It is important for a freedom fighter to remain in touch with his own roots, and the hurly-burly of city life has a way of erasing the past.
A philosopher once noted that something is odd if a person is not liberal when he is young and conservative when he is old. I am not a conservative, but one matures and regards some of the views of one’s youth as undeveloped and callow.
In discussing the ANC’s policy of nonviolence, he emphasized that there was a difference between nonviolence and pacifism. Pacifists refused to defend themselves even when violently attacked, but that was not necessarily the case with those who espoused nonviolence. Sometimes men and nations, even when nonviolent, had to defend themselves when they were attacked.
As I was boarding the plane I saw that the pilot was black. I had never seen a black pilot before, and the instant I did I had to quell my panic. How could a black man fly an airplane? But a moment later I caught myself: I had fallen into the apartheid mind-set, thinking Africans were inferior and that flying was a white man’s job.
Guerrilla warfare, he explained, was not designed to win a military victory so much as to unleash political and economic forces that would bring down the enemy.
Some held heavy antitank and anti-aircraft guns. But even these soldiers did not march with the smartness and precision of the Ethiopians. This was a guerrilla force, and they were soldiers who had won their stripes in the fire of battle, who cared more about fighting and tactics than dress uniforms and parades.
Wherein I wonder about the throughline from these freedom fighters to later-era extremists
While I abhorred the notion of British imperialism, I never rejected the trappings of British style and manners.
WHEREIN one ponders if you can fully disentangle the aesthetic from the political?
the sights of the city that had once commanded nearly two-thirds of the globe: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament. While I gloried in the beauty of these buildings, I was ambivalent about what they represented.
During the proceedings, the magistrate was diffident and uneasy, and would not look at me directly. The other attorneys also seemed embarrassed, and at that moment, I had something of a revelation. These men were not only uncomfortable because I was a colleague brought low, but because I was an ordinary man being punished for his beliefs. In a way I had never quite comprehended before, I realized the role I could play in court and the possibilities before me as a defendant. I was the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, the representative of the great ideals of freedom, fairness,
...more
The kaross was also a sign of contempt for the niceties of white justice.
The “kaross” here being some traditional garb that he decided to wear into court to make a protest statement — pretty bold move, very strong
I do not believe, Your Worship, that this court, in inflicting penalties on me for the crimes for which I am convicted should be moved by the belief that penalties will deter men from the course that they believe is right. History shows that penalties do not deter men when their conscience is aroused, nor will they deter my people or the colleagues with whom I have worked before.
PRISON NOT ONLY robs you of your freedom, it attempts to take away your identity.
Ironically, the same government that was telling us to embrace our culture in the homelands forbade Winnie from wearing a Xhosa gown into court.
We were jubilant—that is, if men facing the death sentence can be said to be jubilant.
I fought only against injustice, not my own people.
Ahmed Kathrada once said that in prison the minutes can seem like years, but the years go by like minutes.
Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.
Like everything else in prison, diet is discriminatory.
Given the nature of the system, you might receive a late fine without ever having received the book.
your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.
Once the decision was taken, however, I would support it as wholeheartedly as any of its advocates.
Decision = hunger strike
disagree and commit
A mother’s death causes a man to look back on and evaluate his own life.
Although I often urged others not to worry about what they could not control, I was unable to take my own advice.
Bureau of State Security (BOSS), South Africa’s secret intelligence agency.
NICE ACRONYM YOU GOT THERE
Ultimately, Badenhorst was not evil; his inhumanity had been foisted upon him by an inhuman system. He behaved like a brute because he was rewarded for brutish behavior.
Bram was a free man who fought against his own people to ensure the freedom of others.
Black Consciousness was less a movement than a philosophy and grew out of the idea that blacks must first liberate themselves from the sense of psychological inferiority bred by three centuries of white rule.
I was a back-court player, only rushing the net when I had a clean slam.
METAPHOR!
(Although I would never miss a movie with Sophia Loren in it.)
Every man has a type
Prison is a still point in a turning world, and it is very easy to remain in the same place in jail while the world moves on.
These were men and women of science, and science had no room for racism.
"Well, Mandela you say that but…"
each new privilege contained within it a catch.
Even Christ, I said, when he was left with no alternative, used force to expel the moneylenders from the temple. He was not a man of violence, but had no choice but to use force against evil. I do not think I persuaded them.
At a meeting of the British Commonwealth in Nassau in October 1985, the leaders could not reach agreement on whether to participate in international sanctions against South Africa. This was mainly because British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was adamantly opposed.
Once again, I cannot stress enough: FUCK MARGARET THATCHER
“Major, I am sorry. If this breakfast will kill me, then today I am prepared to die.”
I did not dwell on the prospect of my release, but on all the many things I had to do before then. As so often happens in life, the momentousness of an occasion is lost in the welter of a thousand details.
