Robben Island’s Escapee

No future without forgiveness.

Robben Island, South Africa’s Alcatraz, had not suffered a loss for 27 years, until the S.A. government released its most notorious tenant according to what it had decreed. Life imprisonment was the unexpected verdict, but twenty-seven years was all that was served, the rest of the world deeming finally that the penalty was too harsh for a man who merely insisted that democracy was owing to all, no matter what his colour or race. How often were his hands blistered and bleeding and how often were his guardians addressed courteously and with dignity, how often did forgiveness underlie his greetings, responses, hellos? 

And how often did this practise infuse the Committee for Reconciliation which he and Bishop Tu Tu formed wherein members of the brutal executive branch of the South African State could acquit themselves of their heavy-handed ways by truthful admission of what they were accused of by survivors. What was meant by this practise stemmed from the belief that for S.A.s there was no future without forgiveness. Something that was accepted laughably by much of the so called civilized world. 27 years in hard labour and many weeks before heavy testimony of what transpired through the days of the Commission. Such strength for both men, and how such strength inspired others around the world, school children, parents, teachers, politicians, self-appointed rulers, many of those who declared to be in charge.

Nelson Mandela, after Ghandi, was one of the first to show that peaceful resistance could bring down governments that had strayed from its democratic planking, had forgotten what it declared when it sought election. It must be remembered by many of those leaders who attended Nelson’s funeral, to bring some of his sentiments home. For what’s the use of funeral attendance if nothing’s learned and subsequently, nothing’s done?

There is no future without forgiveness. May this appear in every language of this troubled world. Good bye Nelson, Thank you.

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