When Brand met Madiba
Christo Brand was not one of Madiba's fellow prisoners. Christo Brand was his jailer. Listen to the interview with former jailer of Nelson Mandela of how the two men from different worlds forged an unlikely but enduring friendship.
Brand, the young white Afrikaans warden, started to work on Robben Island in 1978 when he was 19. Nelson Mandela, the black political struggle leader known as Prisoner 46664 was 60.
Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island.
Today The Complimentary Breakfast spoke to Christo about how this unlikely friendship with Mandela came to be during the years the anti-apartheid icon was imprisoned on Robben Island.
Listen to the full interview here:
Christo Brand's Diary From Robben Island
When Brand met Madiba
The missing presence at Robben Island
About Doing Life With Mandela - My Prisoner, My Friend
“I was 19 years old when I came face to face with Nelson Mandela. He was 60. Until that day I had never heard of him, or his African National Congress. I was his prison warder on Robben Island and he changed my life forever.”
The two of them – one a young white warder, the other serving a life sentence – should have become bitter enemies. Instead they formed an extraordinary friendship through small acts of human kindness. Brand, a gentle young man who valued ordinary decency and courtesy, struck a chord with the wise and resilient freedom fighter.
This bond of trust endured between the two men long after Mandela was freed.
"I say to Mandela that we must bury you on Robben Island.
Then he just laughed.
He said 'Why? For tourist attraction?'
He said 'You should have made money. But I think I must go to Qunu.'
That was him making a joke."