Identity area
Reference code
ZA COM NMPP 2009/57-20-1
Title
Soweto youth arrive in prison [EUeKxTbbqbE]
Date(s)
- 1993-02-08 (Creation)
Level of description
page
Extent and medium
1 audio clip
In-point: 15:04
Out-point: 17:54
In-point: 15:04
Out-point: 17:54
Context area
Name of creator
Name of creator
(1955-)
Biographical history
Editor and author. Collaborated with Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (published 1994). Co-producer of the documentary Mandela, 1996. Editor of TIME magazine.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Rick Stengel
Content and structure area
Scope and content
After the 1976 Soweto Uprising Robben Island and other prisons in South Africa swelled with new prisoners – young people who had taken part in this watershed period in the country’s history. The Soweto generation who had faced down the armed police of the apartheid regime had been killed, driven into exile or captured and jailed. These militant young people brought with them news that the opposition to apartheid that the regime had crushed since the Mandela generation had risen. Hope was at hand. Anti-apartheid forces were again on the march. The older prisoners were inspired.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access by permission of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright held by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
STENGEL: Now, those young people that started coming in ‘76, who were, for the most part, products of Bantu Education and for the most part Black Consciousness people. Was that a challenge to you to try to teach them about the ANC, to recruit them?
MANDELA: No, no, no, no. There was firstly, I welcomed the revolutionary spirit, aggressiveness on the part of the youth. It was the best way — their arrival on Robben Island was the best way — of informing us what was happening outside politically. The youth had came with a new spirit altogether. They hated white supremacy from the bottom of their hearts, and in comparison to them, we were moderates, in comparison to them. I mean we were quite correct — I mean our policy was the right one of sorting out problems, trying to influence warders and solving problems. That was the correct policy. But at the same time I welcomed the aggressiveness, lack of impatience on the part of the youth, because it gave us an idea of just what was happening outside. Our youth – it was ironical because the whole purpose of Bantu Education was to produce a generation of intellectuals that was subservient to white minority rule, that would serve white supremacy, intelligently. In the process they produced the most radical of the youth of our country, and to that extent, therefore, they were a challenge, in the sense that they showed us that we should be ahead or we should keep pace with the revolutionary feeling, climate outside the prison. And to that extent that was a challenge. Not that it was a challenge against them, it was a challenge as to how we should, ourselves, adopt a more aggressive approach, you see.
MANDELA: No, no, no, no. There was firstly, I welcomed the revolutionary spirit, aggressiveness on the part of the youth. It was the best way — their arrival on Robben Island was the best way — of informing us what was happening outside politically. The youth had came with a new spirit altogether. They hated white supremacy from the bottom of their hearts, and in comparison to them, we were moderates, in comparison to them. I mean we were quite correct — I mean our policy was the right one of sorting out problems, trying to influence warders and solving problems. That was the correct policy. But at the same time I welcomed the aggressiveness, lack of impatience on the part of the youth, because it gave us an idea of just what was happening outside. Our youth – it was ironical because the whole purpose of Bantu Education was to produce a generation of intellectuals that was subservient to white minority rule, that would serve white supremacy, intelligently. In the process they produced the most radical of the youth of our country, and to that extent, therefore, they were a challenge, in the sense that they showed us that we should be ahead or we should keep pace with the revolutionary feeling, climate outside the prison. And to that extent that was a challenge. Not that it was a challenge against them, it was a challenge as to how we should, ourselves, adopt a more aggressive approach, you see.