8 Free Mandela

Chapter 8 Free Mandela The years at Robben Island never broke Nelson's spirit. He never stopped believing that South Africa could change. He exercised each morning and read every evening. He studied law through the mail. He learned Afrikaner history and language. The darkest time for him in prison was when he was forbidden to study. This lasted four years. But Nelson was determined, and he passed his intermediate law exams when he was forty-five years old. There was one joyful thing about prison life: friendship. Prisoners were forbidden to talk, but they found ways. They whispered as they worked in the quarries and passed secret notes hidden in the dirty dishes. They even organized work slowdowns and went on hunger strikes. Mandela might be in prison, but he was still a tree shaker!

在罗本岛的岁月从未击垮纳尔逊的精神。 他从未停止相信南非可以改变。 他每天早上锻炼，每天晚上读书。 他通过邮寄学习法律。 他学习了阿非利卡人的历史和语言。 他在监狱里最黑暗的时期是他被禁止学习的时候。 这种情况持续了四年。但纳尔逊很坚定，他在45岁时通过了中级法律考试。 监狱生活有一件快乐的事：友谊。 囚犯被禁止说话，但他们找到了办法。 他们在采石场工作时低声耳语，传递藏在脏盘子里的秘密纸条。 他们甚至组织了停工和绝食抗议。 曼德拉可能在监狱里，但他仍然是一个摇树者！

Of all his friends in prison, Walter Sisulu was the person he relied on the most. Sisulu was Nelson's sounding board. He discussed all his ideas for

在狱中的所有朋友中，沃尔特·西苏鲁是他最依赖的人。 西苏鲁是纳尔逊的参谋。 他讨论了他所有的想法

achieving black equality with him. Mandela once said, "We walked side by side through the valley of death, nursing each other's bruises, holding each other up when our steps faltered." Mandela also wrote a five-hundred-page autobiography on smuggled paper. He buried the pages, wrapped in plastic and hidden in cocoa containers, all over the prison courtyard. He encouraged other prisoners to study and learn, too. And although Nelson was a leader, younger prisoners were amazed at his humility.

实现黑人与他的平等。 曼德拉曾说：“我们肩并肩走过死亡之谷，彼此抚摩伤痕，步履蹒跚时相互扶持。” 曼德拉还用走私的纸张写了一本500页的自传。 他把这些纸页用塑料包裹起来，藏在可可容器里，在监狱的院子里到处都是。 他鼓励其他囚犯也学习和学习。 虽然纳尔逊是一位领袖，但年轻的囚犯对他的谦逊感到惊讶。

Prison life was very difficult for Nelson. When illness prevented him from working in the quarry he was locked in a wet, cold, solitary cell apart from his friends. All he was given to eat was rice and water. Meanwhile, Oliver Tambo was still traveling around the world telling everyone about Mandela and the fight against apartheid. He met with civil rights groups and government leaders. He set up international chapters of the ANC. World leaders who recognized him as the face of the new South Africa began to call for Mandela's release. Tambo also organized revolutionary fighters from training camps in nearby Tanzania and Zambia. He moved the fighters to Angola, on the border of a province controlled by South Africa. This sent a message to the white government of South Africa: The ANC was willing to go to war.

监狱生活对纳尔逊来说非常艰难。 当疾病使他不能在采石场工作时，他被锁在一个潮湿、寒冷的单人牢房里，与朋友们隔离开。 他只能吃米饭和水。 与此同时，奥利弗·坦博仍在周游世界，向所有人讲述曼德拉和反对种族隔离的斗争。 他会见了民权组织和政府领导人。 他建立了非洲人国民大会的国际分会。 世界各国领导人认为曼德拉是新南非的代表，他们开始呼吁释放曼德拉。 坦博还从附近的坦桑尼亚和赞比亚的训练营组织革命战士。 他将武装分子转移到安哥拉，那里与南非控制的一个省接壤。 这向南非白人政府传递了一个信息：非国大愿意参战。

In 1976 the minister of prisoners offered to reduce Mandela's sentence if he would support the government's latest project, the Homeland System. They hoped to use Mandela's influence to support their own agenda. Mandela said no. The government

1976年，监狱部长提出，如果曼德拉支持政府的最新项目——国土系统，就可以减刑。 他们希望利用曼德拉的影响力来支持他们自己的议程。 曼德拉拒绝了。政府

tried to tempt him with better deals if he abandoned his friends. Again, Mandela said no. Mandela was fifty-eight when the government passed a law declaring that all schools had to teach difficult subjects like math and science in the Afrikaans language. Most black children couldn't even understand Afrikaans, and had come to think of it as the language of their oppressors. So how did they have a chance of learning anything? Once again, the government was finding ways to further deny black students a decent education. THE HOMELAND SYSTEM IN 1970 THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT DIVIDED SOUTH AFRICA INTO SEPARATE STATES BY RACE. UNDER THE NEW ARRANGEMENT, CALLED THE HOMELAND SYSTEM, BLACK PEOPLE WOULD NO LONGER BE CITIZENS OF SOUTH AFRICA. THEY WOULD COME INTO SOUTH AFRICA ON TEMPORARY WORK PERMITS TO DO THEIR JOBS. BLACK PEOPLE WHO REFUSED TO LIVE IN THE HOMELAND ASSIGNED TO THEM—PLACES THEY HAD OFTEN NEVER EVEN BEEN TO BEFORE—WERE MOVED AGAINST THEIR WILL. BUT THESE "INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES" WOULD NEVER BE OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED BY THE REST OF THE WORLD.

试图用更好的交易诱惑他，如果他抛弃他的朋友。 曼德拉再次拒绝了。曼德拉58岁时，政府通过了一项法律，宣布所有学校都必须用南非荷兰语教授数学和科学等高难度科目。 大多数黑人孩子甚至听不懂南非荷兰语，并且认为这是压迫者的语言。 那么他们怎么有机会学到东西呢？ 政府又一次想方设法进一步剥夺黑人学生接受体面教育的权利。 1970年，南非政府将南非按种族划分为独立的州。 根据这项被称为“祖国制度”的新安排，黑人将不再是南非的公民。 他们将持临时工作许可来南非工作。 那些拒绝住在分配给他们的家园的黑人——他们以前甚至从来没有去过的地方——被强行迁移。 但这些“独立国家”永远不会得到世界其他国家的正式承认。