On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela left a South African prison after being imprisoned for 27 years. He had been given the option to leave earlier, but he refused to leave until his people were made free. Can you imagine it? Prison is supposed to break the prisoner’s spirit, change his resolve. But here was a prisoner who dared to dictate the terms of his own release. Mandela said in effect to his captors, “I will leave only when you change, when you transform.”
Mandela’s release was celebrated by freedom-loving people everywhere. But not doubt his witness meant the most to those who, like himself, were held captive in various dictatorships around the world. The NY Times last Sunday (Sunday Opinion, p. 11) printed statements from six of these individuals. I will summarize three of those accounts here.
Jack Mapanje was in Mikuyu Prison in Malawi when Mandela was released. The news was whispered to him by a daring prison guard. President Banda, a fervent support of apartheid, was shamed, says Mapanje, and almost immediately afterward, the prisoners’ food improved, the strip searches happened less frequently, and political prisoners held in isolation were allowed into the general population. By the end of 1992, Mapanje writes, there were no more political prisoners at Mikuyu, and multiparty elections were initiated. “Nelson Mandela’s release changed permanently the politics of Malawi . . . .” JACK MAPANJE is a visiting fellow at Newcastle University Center for Literary Arts in Britain.
Wei Jingsheng was one of the Tiananmen Square demonstrators. In August of 1989 he was sent to Hebei Prison for “incitement to overthrow state power.” Those imprisoned with him were pessimistic about China’s future and wondered why they should bother to persist. But then they read newspaper reports and saw TV news about Mandela’s release. Jingsheng writes, “He had never lowered his noble head in front of his enemy, and eventually his enemy had retreated.” Jingsheng told his guards, “This guy is just as ‘silly’ as I am, but he reached his goal.” He ends his statement by saying “it is important to bear life’s setbacks, and maintain unbending confidence in eventual success.” WEI JINGHENG was in jail in China from 1979 to 1993 and now lives in Washington.
It was during Ko Bo Kyi’s second term as a political prisoner in Burma that an article on Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, was smuggled into the prison, and he had a chance to learn of Mandela’s refusal to give up his witness. Mandela became an inspiration to all of the other political activists confined there in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. The Burmese authorities pressured Ko Bo Kyi to co-operate with them, but he was able to resist. When he was released, he escaped to Thailand and got a copy of Mandela’s book, where he read the words, “The challenge for every prisoner, particularly every political prisoner . . . is how to emerge from prison undiminished, how to conserve and even replenish one’s beliefs.” KO BO KYI spent nearly 8 years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand and co-founding the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Not everyone is a Nelson Mandela, called by history and place, and given the courage, to make social change. But never forget that each of us lives as a witness every day, in word and in deed, and others are watching and listening. Something we say or do we may see as inconsequential, but it may have a lasting influence on another’s life. To understand this is to walk in the world with more grace, courage, and compassion.
