B I B L I O N - A C H R I S T I A N B OO K M AG A Z I N E
coercion which political prisoners
were subject to bore enormous
cruelty.
After being initially sentenced to
prison for five years, charged with
leaving the country without a pass-
port and for rallying strikes, Nelson
Mandela was accused of sabotaging
the South-African regime and
condemned to life imprisonment.
Together with other six convicted
colleagues, he was sent to the in-
famous maximum-security prison
of Robben Island, located near the
coast of Cape Town.
As political prisoners they were
attributed level “D,” the lowest rank
with the least privileges in the prison
system. Only one visit was allowed
every six months, and they could
only write and receive one letter in
that period of time. All mail was
checked at Robben Island Censor’s
Office, prohibiting any description of
confinement conditions or references
to other inmates, and for a long time
letters could only be exchanged with
their closest family members.
Mandela included in every letter
he sent to his wife, Winnie, words of
encouragement to push through the
long years of distance between the
two, as she struggled to care for their
five children’s education and survival.
In one of those occasions, he recom-
mended her the rea ding of two books
by American psychologist Norman
Vincent Peale – The Power of Positive
Thinking and The Results of Positive
Thinking. Despite not agreeing with
the metaphysical aspects of Peale’s
arguments, Mandela considered his
view on physical and psychological
problems valuable, which would help
Winnie to overcome her frail health
condition.
The authorities’ lack of hu-
manity towards Mandela became
quite blatant when, in July 1969,
his oldest son Thembi died in a car
accident. The letters to his ex-wife
and Thembi’s mother, as well as to
the prison lieutenant, accurately
express the pain he lived as he was
denied the chance to be present at the
funeral and say goodbye to his son
one last time. Years later, in a long
letter directed to the highest office of
the South-African prison system, he
described these continuous abuses of
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