As we travel northwards up the South Atlantic we can feel the move into the tropics again. I am sitting on the balcony feeling the intense heat and humidity again. Not feeling very much like talking today. The sea is calm and there's minimal swell so nausea is a distant memory from the Indian Ocean, and long may it stay that way. We have another 2000 nautical miles to travel before our next stop in Cape Verde. We are currently at 6 degrees south of the equator and 12 degrees west, that puts us in the part of the Atlantic to the west of Angola. I am guessing that means there'll be an uneventful an equator crossing while we sleep in our air conditioned cabin. We are continuing with our art classes - Namibian sand dune landscape yesterday, and Namibian Gecko today. All good.
Once again we have been to hear an inspirational talk by Chris Lubbe, the second of three. Apologies if the following summary seems a bit disjointed. I didn't write anything down at the time and there's so much to remember. I only hope I do Mr Lubbe justice. Today he spoke a little more about his own life. He had left us on a cliff-hanger on 11th as he described having to witness the black man he was trying to help from missing his train being pushed out of the moving train by two white South African police. He reminded us of witnessing his own mother being thrown to the floor for sitting on a whites only bench whilst waiting for emergency medical aid as she slipped into a diabetic coma. These two events are what led him further into political activism, further imprisonment and the most vile of all torture.He also spoke to us of how the late Steve Biko had visited and supported the squatter camp to which his family had been exiled in Durban, and taught Chris and his peers to write letters to world leaders, and of his own letter which he wrote to the Queen, but never received a reply.(see later). You might remember Steve Biko and Donald Wood in the film Cry Freedom starring Denzel Washington as Steve Biko. (Trailer)
He also illustrated how political will outside of South Africa was changing. Trevor Huddleston was working in SA and became vocal about human rights. He was banned from SA and on return to the UK turned to the Anti-Apartheid movement. This gained momentum and slogans began to appear in high profile places. Bands and musicians began to put on their albums "we do not support Apartheid", and slowly governments were influenced to withdraw trade and force the SA economy into jeopardy. We were also played the anthem "Free Nelson Mandela" to remind us of the times when a person buying a Free Nelson Mandela mug in the UK and taking it back to SA was sent to death row for bringing in "subversive material". He told us how vhs tapes of the Free Nelson Mandela music concert were banned and had to be smuggled into South Africa - again this was deemed to be "Subversive material". He recollected how just as the film was about to be shown, the venue was raided, he got caught and imprisoned. He described imprisonment and the inevitable torture of black political prisoners to make them talk, like being handcuffed and having his feet bound, and then being stood under a cold shower for a week, surviving only from the water from the shower, and becoming emaciated. Several times he thought he knew he was going to die. The guards would get bored and play Russian Roulette with him. One night after being forced to hold a gun to his own head, firing several blanks, knowing his chances were 0, the live bullet got jammed, and even though he had already suffered, he began to think his father's prayers for his safety were being answered, because he had survived. He recalls how he resolved not to become violent in his struggle, instead to take a peaceful approach.I hadn't realised that Elton John and Queen had played in Sun City when people like Peter Gabriel and Bob Geldoff were boycotting apartheid and being very vocal about the injustices. I wonder why they did this? I wonder how they feel about it now?
Apartheid had many extreme and violent supporters in high positions - Chris mentioned Eugene de Kock aka"Prime Evil", imprisoned for 20 years for his role in murders. I have, since this talk, been looking on the net for history of Apartheid and discovered the most extreme end is still in existence. It makes me feel very uncomfortable but in the interest of balance it is right to include the flip side of the Rainbow Nation, without wanting to give it much space. Footage and articles about Eugene TerreBlanche give this side of the story. One of the most disturbing clips of Terreblanche I watched was an old Louis Theroux programme which looks as though it may have been aborted after a few minutes
Apartheid covered many public places - beaches, benches, toilets, buses, hospitals, schools, colleges,workplaces.
Black people sitting down on whites-only beaches was illegal. Peaceful seated protests were often brought to an end by police helicopters landing near a sit in, and invariably violence. However, black people jogging on the beach wasn't illegal until the 1980's, a loophole which Chris showed was exploited as far as it could be, by daily jogs. Chris has a photo of Arhbishop Desmond Tutu jogging on the beach laughing and wearing a T-shirt with "Just Call me Arch" printed on the front. He referred to Arch as a mischief maker, something I have now heard several times.
At around the time when many white South Afrians were beginning to express anti-Apartheid sentiments, a group of White women in South Africa formed a Black Sash organisation and silently and non-violently protested against Apartheid, without arrests because they were white, in large numbers. We never heard about this. During Apartheid the newspapers were always censored, and access to outside or "dissident" news was blocked. Often whole articles or pages were blacked out.Nelson Mandela tracked Chris down at some point after his release, phoned him and invited him to meet with him. Chris thought it was a hoax, and hung up on him! It was real, he called back and Mandela offered him employment as a body guard, even though Chris confessed to not being able to use a gun. Mandela sent him to be trained with the SAS. By getting into contact with Nelson Mandela, Chris discovered his father had actually also been an activist whilst he (Chris) had been growing up. Chris's father had hidden Nelson Mandela from the police when he was on the run. Chris recollects how twitchy his father was after 9 at night when anyone came to the door, but had no idea what the reason was. His father told him that he didn't tell Chris he was hiding Mandela because he would have "blabbed" and got everyone sent to prison.
Three years later the country had its first democratic election and the ANC won with a landslide, some new voters queued for 3 days to cast their vote. Nelson Mandela became President on 10th May 1994.
One day early on in his government, Mandela gathered his team together and said he wanted to make FW de Klerk his deputy. This is the point where soul searching about the true meaning of reconciliation began. Chris then showed us a short extract of the film Invictus, and pointed out the character who was playing him, and how the film differed from reality. The scene in the film represented the moment in Chris's real life of a massive shift of attitude, the moment when the former white special branch who had inflicted torture, became the body guards of Nelson Mandela's team. It wasn't easy, but it happened. One of these men had actually tortured Chris, and he told us how he is now his friend, really genuinely his friend.
So in this part of his story Chris remembers the boy from the shack in Durban with no electricity or water now travelling the world with hero Nelson Mandela, advising him sometimes, meeting world leaders, including the Queen and the president of the USA. He related a very touching story of how the Queen brought the letter to him he had sent from South Africa under Biko's tutelage. It seems the Queen did reply but censorship of the mail in SA meant he never received her reply. The closing part of the talk showed famous quotes from Desmond Tutu about forgiveness leading to freedom, Truth and Reconciliation, the movement forward, Nelson Mandela's vision for a Rainbow Nation and the way he changed the association of the Springbok with white south Africa into a powerful message of reconciliation.
There is one more session about Truth and Reconciliation to come tomorrow.
Until tomorrow then, bye for now... xx
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