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From a letter smuggled from prison to lawyers in Durban, dated January 1977.
Censorship of Incoming Correspondence. But the worst abuses in regard to the censoring of letters are committed in regard (to) incoming correspondence and, in this connection, the C.O and his staff have gone rampant. The censoring is malicious and vindictive and, again, is actuated neither by considerations of security and discipline nor the desire to promote our welfare.
I regard it as part of a campaign of systematic political persecution and an attempt to keep us in the dark about what goes on outside prison even in regard to our own family affairs. What the C.O is trying to do is not only to cut us off from the powerful current of goodwill and support that has ceaselessly flown in during the 14 yrs [years] of my incarceration in the form of visits, letters, cards and telegrams, but also to discredit us to our families and friends by presenting us to them as irresponsible people who never acknowledge letters written to them nor deal with important matters referred to them by the correspondents.
In addition, the double standards used in censoring letters is cowardly and calculated to deceive the public into the false impression that our outgoing letters are not censored. In the case of these we are requested to rewrite them whenever there is any matter to which the prison authorities object so as to remove any evidence that they have been heavily censored. Incoming ones are badly cut and scratched out as the censor pleases. Nothing will best convey to you the extent of the damage caused to the incoming mail more than actual inspection by you in person. Many of the letters from my wife consist of strips of incoherent information that are difficult to keep together even in a file.25
My wife has been in prison several times and not only knows the relevant Prison Rules well but also the sensitivity of your local officials to anything they might consider objectionable. She makes a conscious effort to confine herself to family affairs, yet hardly a single one of her letters escapes mutilation.
On Nov. 24, 1975 she wrote me a 5 page letter and only the remains of 2 pages finally reached me. The censorship policy adopted here is not followed even by your own officials in other jails. As you are aware my wife has recently served a 6 month sentence in Kroonstad.26 Some of her letters were posted by the C.O. of that prison but heavily censored [at] that end.
But what I intensely detest is to force us to be parties to a practice based on plain falsehood. It is immoral for the C.O. to destroy or withhold letters from our families and friends and at the same time prevent us from telling them about what he does. I consider it callous to allow our people to continue wasting money, time, energy, goodwill and love by sending us letters and cards which the C.O. knows will never be given to us… You ought to issue a public statement in which you clearly define the policy of your Dept and set out more particularly what you consider objectionable and the categories of persons who may not write or send us messages of goodwill.
Disappearance of letters in transit. The number of letters that disappear in transit is far too large to be explained on the basis of the inefficiency of the P.O. [Post Office] Dpt and from the unreasonable and persistent refusal of the C.O. to allow us to register our letters. I must draw the inference that their disappearance is not accidental.
Visits. Even here the measures taken by the C.O. in supervising conversations between prisoners and visitors go beyond security requirements. To put 4 or sometimes even 6 warders to one visitor and breathing or staring threatening[ly] at her is a blatant form of intimidation.
It is my duty to tell you that there is a widespread belief amongst my fellow prisoners that at these visits there is a listening device that records all conversations including confidential matters between husband and wife. If this be the case there is hardly any justification for the show of force now generally displayed during such visits.
Language qualifications of the Censors. The man who is directly in charge of censoring mail and magazines is W/O [Warrant Officer] Steenkamp who was previously in charge of the section. Although he may have passed Matric English he is certainly no more proficient in that language than I am in Afrikaans and I doubt if Sgt [Sergeant] Fourie is any the better.
Even the C.O. finds it difficult to express himself in English. In fact during the 14 yrs of my incarceration I have met no C.O. whose English is as poor as that of Col. Roelofse who commands a prison…where the overwhelming majority of prisoners are English-speaking and who know no Afrikaans.
Ban on correspondence with political supporters. Lt. Prins has now told me that we are not allowed to communicate with any people known to the Dpt to be our political associates nor to relatives of other prisoners irrespective of the contents of the letters.
Telegrams and Easter cards. The C.O. has introduced a new practice of not allowing us to see the actual telegrams sent to us. What happens now is that one is given a message scrawled on a piece of paper and without the date when the telegram was sent and received as well as other essential information. The current belief is that these telegrams are first referred for scrutiny to the security police before delivery to addressee and in order to cover up the resulting delay the C.O. has introduced this practice.
The people who send these telegrams pay more money in order to ensure speedy delivery of the message and it is a matter of public concern when a govt [government] dpt deliberately frustrates the smooth and efficient operation of a public service for which citizens pay a special fee.
Money received for prisoners. There is a general impression amongst prisoners that the C.O. and the Security Police are running a racket with our moneys. On May 31, 1976 Lt Prins sent a message to the effect that an amount of R30 was received from Mr and Mrs Matlhaku on Nov. 5, 1975. No explanation was given as to why this yr [year] he repeatedly told me that the money had not been received nor why the money was not shown as having been credited to my account in the statement supplied to me by the accounts section.
I must tell you that the negligent manner in which my complaints have been investigated and the lengthy delays involved in extracting simple information on what are essentially trust moneys is a matter of serious concern which you ought to investigate as soon as you can and clear the reputation of your Dpt at least in this particular respect.
Political discussions at the sittings of the Prison Board. It has been the practice for several yrs now at these sittings for its members to engage prisoners in political discussions. These discussions are used by the Board for the purpose of victimizing those who are opposed to the policy of separate development.
COP’s [Commissioner of Prisons] failure to visit political prisoners on R.I. [Robben Island]. The abuses described above are aggravated by your failure to visit the island and to give us the opportunity of discussing these problems directly with you. A visit by other officials from H.O. [Head Office] whatever their rank may be, can be no substitute for a visit by the Head of the Dpt in person.
One of the main causes of the friction here is the link between this Dpt and the Security Police and one of the first steps in your attempt to address our grievances is to cut that link completely. Many prisoners regard the COP in regard to all matters concerning us as a mere figurehead and that the real boss is the chief of the S.P. [Security Police] who orders the COP not only what to do but how to do it.
I have been wondering whether I should continue to be party to a practice I consider unethical and which gives the impression that I still enjoy rights and privileges which have been so whittled away that they have become practically valueless.
But I still believe that you as Head of this Dpt who holds the rank of General will not allow [or] condone these underhand methods, and until your actual decision on the matter proves me wrong, I shall continue to act in the belief that you are not aware of what is going on in this prison.
It is futile to think that any form of persecution will ever change our views. Your Govt and Dpt have a
notorious record for their hatred, contempt and persecution of the Black man, especially the African, a hatred and contempt which forms the basic principle of the country’s laws. The cruelty of this Dpt in subjecting our people to the indecent practice of thawuza, according to which a prisoner was required to strip naked and display his anus to inspection by an official in the presence of others, the equally obscene practice of a warder poking a finger into a prisoner’s rectum, of brutally assaulting them daily and without provocation was curbed by the Govt after it has erupted into a national scandal.
But the inhumanity of the average S.A. [South African] warder still remains; only now it has been diverted into other channels and has taken the subtle form of psychological persecution, a field in which some of your local officials are striving to become specialists. I have the hope that a man of your rank and experience will immediately grasp the gravity of this dangerous practice and take adequate measures to stop it.
It is pointless and contrary to the country’s historical experiences to think that our people will ever forget us. Although 160 yrs have passed since the Slachter’s Neck executions, 74 since the internment camps of the Anglo-Boer War and 61 since Jopie Fourie made his last speech.
I will certainly never believe you if you tell me that you have now forgotten the Afrikaner patriots, the men whose sacrifices helped to free you from British imperialism and to rule the country and for you in particular to become Head of this Dpt.
It is certainly unreasonable for any man to expect our people, to whom we are national heroes, persecuted for striving to win back our country, to forget us in our lifetime and at the height of the struggle for a free SA. Your people are slaughtering mine today and not a century and a half ago. It is present SA that is a country of racial oppression, imprisonment without trial, of torture and harsh sentences and the threat of internment camps lies not in the distant past but in the immediate future. How can our people ever forget us when we fight to free them from all these evils?
In SA as in many other countries various issues divide prisoners and officials. I do not agree with the policy of the Dpt of which you are Head. I detest white supremacy and will fight it with every weapon in my hands. But even when the clash between you and me has taken the most extreme form, I should like us to fight over our principles and ideas and without personal hatred, so that at the end of the battle, whatever the result might be, I can proudly shake hands with you, because I feel I have fought an upright and worthy opponent who has observed the whole code of honour and decency. But when your subordinates continue to use foul methods then a sense of real bitterness and contempt becomes irresistible.
The letter ends here. It is a mere summary and some important facts have been left out.
With regard to the question of correspondence, it may well be that this Dpt is only entitled to object to the actual contents of a letter and not to the writer as such. But I have no access to the complete Prisons Act and Rules and Regulations and none whatsoever to the Service Orders. Perhaps you would like to investigate the matter.
I almost forgot to tell you that on Sept 9 the C.O. informed me that he had received [a] letter from the COP dated Aug 26 in which the latter stated that he was satisfied that the administration on this island was acting properly and that he could not investigate the complaints of individual persons kept in custody in the country’s prisons. With this reply the COP has given his official blessing to the abuse of authority, systematic persecution and other irregularities mentioned in my letter of July 12.
Finally, I should like you to know that these instructions will only be cancelled by me either…under my signature or directly during an interview with a representative of your firm.
Yours sincerely
N R Mandela 466/64
January 1977
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From a letter smuggled from prison to lawyers in Durban, dated January 1977.
‘Old and famous horses keel over like many that went before, some to be forgotten forever and others to be remembered as mere objects of history, and of interest to academicians only.’
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From a letter to Archie Gumede, dated 1 January 1975.
1. FROM A LETTER TO ARCHIE GUMEDE, DATED 1 JANUARY 1975
Old and famous horses keel over like many that went before, some to be forgotten forever and others to be remembered as mere objects of history, and of interest to academicians only.
2. FROM HIS UNPUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN IN PRISON
(1) A story of one’s life should deal frankly with political colleagues, their personalities and their views. The reader would like to know what kind of person the writer is, his relationships with others and these should emerge not from the epithets used but from the facts themselves. (2) But an autobiography of a freedom fighter must inevitably be influenced by the question whether the revelation of certain facts, however true they may be, will help advance the struggle or not. If the disclosure of such facts will enable us to see problems clearly and bring nearer our goal then it is our duty to do so, however much such revelations may adversely affect the particular individuals concerned. But frankness which creates unnecessary tensions and divisions which may be exploited by the enemy and retard the struggle as a whole, is dangerous and must be avoided. (3) The utmost caution becomes particularly necessary where an autobiography is written clandestinely in prison, where one deals with political colleagues who themselves live under the hardships and tensions of prison life, who are in daily contact with officials who have a mania for persecuting prisoners. Writing under such conditions the temptation is strong to mention only those things which will make your fellow prisoners feel that their sacrifices have not been in vain, that takes their minds away from the grim conditions in which they live and that makes them happy and hopeful. An essential part of that caution and fair play would be to have the widest possible measure of consultation with your colleagues about what you intend to say about them, to circulate your manuscript and give them the opportunity of stating their own views on any controversial issue discussed so that the facts themselves may accurately reflect the standpoints of all concerned; whatever may be the comments of the writer on those facts. Unfortunately the conditions in which I have written this story, especially security considerations, made it impossible to consult any but a handful of my friends.1
3. FROM HIS UNPUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN IN PRISON
(15) The spotlight has focused on a few well known figures amongst us such as Wilton Mkwayi, Billy Nair, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu.2 This is but natural because they are amongst our leading men in the country, admired by hundreds of thousands of people here and abroad for their courage and dedication. All of them are cheerful and optimistic and have been a source of inspiration to all my fellow prisoners. They are amongst those in prison who have helped to keep our members constantly aware of the noble tradition associated with the Congress Movement.3 But this is only part of the story. Every [one] of our men is like a brick which makes up our organisation and there are men in the Main Section who, whilst we here deal with about 20 men, have handled greater and more delicate problems affecting several hundred men coming from all walks of life, the overwhelming majority of whom get no visits, no letters, have no funds to study, cannot read or write and who are constantly subjected to all the cruelties of prison life.
4 FROM HIS UNPUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN IN PRISON
Walter [Sisulu] and Kathy [Kathrada] share one common feature which forms an essential part of our friendship and which I value very much – they never hesitate to criticise me for my mistakes and throughout my political career have served as a mirror through which I can see myself. I wish I could tell you more about the courageous band of colleagues with whom I suffer humiliation daily and who nev
ertheless deport themselves with dignity and determination. I wish I could relate their conversations and banter, their readiness to help in any personal problem suffered by their fellow prisoners so that you could judge for yourself the calibre of the men whose lives are being sacrificed on the fiendish altar of colour hatred.
5. FROM A LETTER TO WINNIE MANDELA IN KROONSTAD PRISON, DATED 1 FEBRUARY 1975
Incidentally, you may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life. Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes. At least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10th attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.
Conversations with Myself Page 15