“He was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, a tiny village of cows, corn and mud huts in the rolling hills of the Transkei, a former British protectorate in the south.”
NY Times Obituary for Nelson Mandela
“What else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter From Birmingham (1963)
The former leper colony Robben Island is located in Cape Town, South Africa and covers only two square miles on this great big planet. But I’m into unlikely places—and the people from there— that help nudge the world.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was an extraordinary man in the truest sense. Extra-ordinary. A troublemaker and an agent fighting for justice and human dignity. And like all extraordinary people from Martin Luther King Jr to Martin Luther, the reformers always have trail of supporters and haters. But the trails they leave behind are more important than even their own remarkable lives.
Mandela died this week and while he never wrote a screenplay (that I know of) while imprisoned 18 years on Robben Island for fighting apartheid, his thoughts and writings that were formed there in a 8-foot by 7-foot concrete cell that had a bucket for a toilet. Ideals that eventually led him to becoming to the first Black President of South Africa.
“The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being.”
Nelson Mandela
Mandela is the center of several documentaries and a couple of feature films including the recently released Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. (Screenplay by William Nicholson based on Mandela’s autobiography.)
In 2006 I went to Cape Town, South Africa as cameraman on a documentary. I was looking forward to seeing South Africa up close. My work in production over the years has given me many wonderful opportunities to see both great beauty and human hardship. But I was not prepared for seeing the shanty town—miles and miles of poverty with plywood, metal and cardboard homes— we drove by soon after we left the airport. Cape Town I was told at that time was one of the murder capitals of the world and Johannesburg, South Africa ranked near the top in kidnappings and carjackings. I’m not sure what crime statistics are in South Africa these days but did find a 2010 report that titled Why South Africa is so violent and what should we be doing about it? so I’m guessing there are still many problems there.
“Life is still not good. It has changed for some people, not for others. Some people still have no jobs. People are hungry.”
Siphiwe Mthembu, Mpumalanga
BBC New Online, South Africa: Life Today
Real, meaningful, and lasting change takes time—and a lot of it. Driven through parts of the deep south recently? There are still a few issues there. But go back and read Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail and know that in the last 40 years there has been positive change in the south and the entire United States. I don’t know that King changed the world—but he certainly helped nudge it in the right direction.
“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.”
Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love)
Above quote spoken by character Henry in The Real Thing: A Play
Children of future generations will speak of Mandela and read his words long after he’s dead, because he too nudged the world a little.
A funeral will be held for Mandela in his birth village Mvezo on December 15, 2013.
Related Post:
Martin Luther King Jr. & Screenwriting (Tip #7)
Martin Luther King Jr. Special
Related links:
Robben Island Museum
Photos of Mandela’s prison at Time magazine
Nelson Mandela Foundation