Short description
A selection of several quotations, which veteran Anti-Apartheid campaigner Ahmed Kathrada recorded in private notebooks which he kept secretly during his imprisonment - covering 18 years on Robben Island, and seven years in Pollsmoor Prison.
Long description
This book is a selection of quotations from hundreds upon hundreds, which veteran Anti-Apartheid campaigner Ahmed Kathrada recorded in private notebooks which he kept secretly during his imprisonment - which covered 18 years on Robben Island, and seven years in Pollsmoor Prison. While the keeping of such notebooks was not officially allowed, over the years Kathy collected and recorded quotations which had captured his imagination. In the process, he filled seven volumes - six while on Robben Island between 1965 and 1982; and the last volume when he was held at Pollsmoor Prison from October 1982 and until his release in October 1989.
Review
No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a cold be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. - John Donne, Meditation XVII (Victor Hugo makes a donkey meditate and apostrophize thus:) My brother, man if you would know the truth, We both are by the same dull walls shut in; The gate is massive and the dungeon strong. But you look through the keyhole at beyond, And call this knowledge; yet have not at hand The key wherein to turn the fatal lock. Ideas grow quickly when watered by the blood of martyrs. - Guiseppe Mazzini
Table of contents