Read Time: 4 minutes
BLACK Consciousness Movement founder and AZAPO leader Strinivasa Strini Moodley relating the radicalism of BC militants on Robben Island in this interview extract with John Carlin:
CARLIN: On the island, do you recall any particularly vivid encounter when you actually had a proper exchange with Mandela?
MOODLEY: Well, shortly after we arrived on Robben Island, we spent about six weeks in the punishment section. Then they moved us to D-section, which was made up primarily of all of those who came in 1976, 90% of whom were youth from the Black Consciousness movement. The prison authorities insisted on us going out to work on the quarry. When we got there, we looked at the conditions and we said to them, “We cannot work here. These conditions are not healthy. Secondly, you don’t have any medical facilities here; you are forcing us to use dangerous instruments like picks and shovels, and anyone could get accidentally hurt. So as far as we are concerned, you are putting us in an unlawful position by making us work under these conditions, because prison regulations state clearly that if you give a prisoner work, you must make sure that the environment is safe, that there is access to a first aid kit, and all of those kinds of things.”
So we refused to work. Upon which the prison authorities saw fit to unleash their dogs on us. Of course, we weren’t going to take that lying down, and we picked up those picks and shovels and we beat off the dogs. Subsequently, we were taken back to the section, and then nine of us were pointed out by the prison warders, and we were taken and put back into punishment and subsequently charged.
You must remember, we had spent two years awaiting trial, so we knew the prison regulations backwards, and we used every clause in the prison regulations to be able to defeat the warders. And as a result, we won our case; we were found not guilty. So when we were released from there, they couldn’t put us back into punishment, and because they saw us as the leaders of the group in D-section, they then thought the best thing would be to disperse us, and so that was how I came to B-section, to stay with Nelson Mandela.
In fact, my cell was diagonally opposite Nelson Mandela’s cell. So that on arrival, with his usual graciousness and aplomb, he greeted us, offered us a cup of tea, and said we should make ourselves at home, that we are going to have a lot of time together and we can exchange ideas. We could tell them what was happening on the outside; give them a first hand account. So every morning he would wake me up, through his window … I had a kind of nickname on Robben Island. I was called “Connection.” So he would say, “Connection, wake up, the warders are coming. Don’t oversleep. You’ve got to stand up now. Don’t let them catch you in bed.” He was like that.
So with me, my initial thought was that this is fast developing into a father-son relationship, and it immediately reminded me of my own relationship with my father. The one thing that struck me is that I hoped I was not going to end up in the same conflicted relationship that I had with my father over political issues. The first time it struck me that Nelson spoke a lot like my father, was when he asked me why is it that we were so opposed to the homelands and the Bantustans. From that point on, I can remember, our debates became more and more detailed, with him and I taking positions that became quite distant from each other.
At the second level, was a whole question of how you dealt with the prison authorities. From our point of view, these little warders here, by our analysis, were those young pimply white boys who were afraid to go to the army or the police. The safest outlet for them was the prison, because in prison, the person you are dealing with is unarmed, and you can lock the person up and deal with the person in any way you see fit. The one thing we knew was that 90% of all these warders were cowards. So when it came to issues, we refused to obey their orders. We refused to treat them as though they deserved to be treated as human beings. We said you are less than human, because anyone who does this job, has no respect for humanity. Particularly, in the case of Robben Island. So ours was an aggressive attitude towards the warders. Whereas, with Nelson it was far more conciliatory.
When we arrived on Robben Island, 95% of the prisoners were sleeping on a mat and given four blankets. No pajamas. No underwear. And prison outfits–pair of shorts, pair of longs, a short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt, a jacket and a jersey. That was all. And a pair of prison shoes. That’s when we thought now a new war begins. We have got to change the conditions here. Ours was, obviously, an aggressive approach. We entered upon hunger strikes. We refused to work. We refused to be locked up. We did all those kinds of things, which was very different from the way in which Nelson Mandela was doing it. So from the point of view of political philosophy, and from the point of view of strategies to deal with the prison authorities, we dealt with them very separately, very differently. That is how my initial kind of belief that I’m coming to meet a real revolutionary, each day I found this is not a revolutionary. He is more the reformer, from my point of view.
After I was taken to B-section … this young 17-year-old came to open up the doors and said, “Good morning,” and I never greeted. I felt I had no obligation to greet prison warders. But he opened Nelson’s door, and said, “Good morning, Nelson,” and I freaked. I went straight to Nelson and I said, “But how can you allow this little white boy here to call you Nelson? He must either call you Mr. Mandela, or Sir. You can’t allow him to call you Nelson. He’s a little kid.” And he said, “Oh, come on my boy, don’t worry about that. These are little things. We’re in prison now. We’ve got to take them in our stride.” I just thought no, that’s something I would not be able to deal with that kind of thing, because this is my leader. I can’t have some little white boy calling him Nelson
[Strini Moodley, 1945-2006]