Title: Doing life with Mandela
Description: Christo Brand was a South African farm boy, born into the Afrikaans culture which had created apartheid to persecute black people and claim superiority for whites. Nelson Mandela, also raised in a rural village, was the black son of a tribal chief. He trained as a lawyer to take up the fight against apartheid on behalf of a whole nation. Their opposing worlds collided when Christo, a raw recruit from the country's prison service, was sent to Robben Island to guard the notoriously dangerous terrorists there. Mandela was their undisputed leader. The two of them, a boy of 18 and a long-suffering freedom fighter then aged 60, could well have become bitter enemies. Instead, they formed an extraordinary friendship through small human kindnesses.
Subjects: Political prisoners, Biography, Prison wardens, Politics and government, Race relations, Prisonniers politiques, Biographies, Gardiens de prison, Politique et gouvernement, Relations raciales, African National Congress
Places: South Africa, Afrique du Sud
People: Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), Christo Brand