A Free Mind
Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island
Published on 5. August 2005
Book
136 pages
978-1-77009-124-5 (ISBN)
Description
This inspirational collection brings together poetry, novels, songs, and letters that motivated Ahmed Kathrada during his 26 years of imprisonment in Apartheid-era South Africa. Despite the draconian censorship practices and heavily restricted access to the written word at the maximum security prison, Kathrada found strength, hope, and escape in the works of writers such as Bertold Brecht, Mahatma Gandhi, Emily Bronte, and Karl Marx.
Reviews / Votes
"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"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Johannesburg
South Africa
Publishing group
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 190 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77009-124-5 (9781770091245)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sahm Venter is a writer, an editor, and a freelance journalist based in Johannesburg who has worked for both South African and international media since 1981.
Content
Foreword by Laloo 'Isu' Chiba; Preface; Part One:; Life Means Life (1964 to 1970); Part Two:; A New Dispensation (1971 to 1975); Part Three:; A Wind of Change (1976 to 1981); Part Four:; Freedom is Coming (1982 to 1989).