Mandela's Way by Richard Stengel

Author:Richard Stengel [Stengel, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-46069-1
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2009-11-21T18:30:00+00:00

In a curious way, prison opened up Mandela’s view of human nature rather than constricting it. While prison embittered many other men, it broadened Mandela. During those early years on Robben Island, when prisoners were routinely beaten and assaulted, when there was almost no communication with the outside world and such violations went unreported, the head of the island was Colonel Piet Badenhorst, a man with a reputation for icy brutality. Badenhorst was considered the worst example of the unreconstructed Afrikaner prison head, a man who believed that the black prisoners were little more than animals and should be treated as such. He regarded the political prisoners as terrorists and Mandela as terrorist number one. Mandela butted heads with him on many occasions and found him unmovable.

In the early 1970s, a group of judges visited the Island, and Mandela was asked by his fellow prisoners to present their grievances. “There had just been an attack, a beating-up of our people in another section,” Mandela told me. Upon their arrival the judges—who tended to be English-speaking and more liberal than the prison officials—told Mandela that the meeting would not include Badenhorst so that Mandela could speak freely. Mandela said that he thought it was proper for Badenhorst to be there and that it would not intimidate him. At the meeting, Mandela began to relate a story of a recent assault. Badenhorst jumped in and asked, “Did you actually witness the assault?” Mandela replied that he had not. At that point, Badenhorst pointed his finger at Mandela and said, “Be careful. Don’t talk about things you haven’t seen or you will get in serious trouble.” There was a silence, at which point Mandela turned to the judges and calmly said, “You can see what type of commanding officer we have. If he threatens me in your presence, you can imagine what he does when you are not here.”

Mandela told that story to illustrate the worst side of Badenhorst. But then he quickly segued to a second story about when Badenhorst left the Island. Mandela was summoned to see General J. C. Steyn, the head of the prison system, who was making one of his occasional visits. Steyn was joined by Badenhorst, and the general asked Mandela whether he had any complaints. Mandela, in his deliberate, lawyerly way, began to list the prisoners’ grievances. He was never diffident about stating his case and that of his comrades in front of the authorities. When he was done, Steyn said that he had some news for Mandela: Colonel Badenhorst was being transferred from Robben Island. Mandela recalled that Badenhorst then turned and spoke to him directly.

“Badenhorst said to me something like, ‘I just want to wish you people good luck.’ He said this like a human being, and I was a bit taken aback by his moderate and even considerate tone. I must say, that was a bit of a surprise. I thanked him. I thought about this for a long time afterward. What it basically showed me is that these men were not inhuman, but their inhumanity had been put upon them.

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