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ThakurShab
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The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and
my people. All of us will spend many years, if not generations, recovering from
that profound hurt. But the decades of oppression and brutality had another,
unintended, effect, and that was that it produced the Oliver
Tambos, the Walter Sisulus, the Chief Luthulis, the Yusuf Dadoos, the Bram
Fischers, the Robert Sobukwes of our time - men of such extraordinary courage,
wisdom and generosity that their like may never be known again.
Perhaps it requires such depths of oppression to create such heights of
character. My country is rich in the minerals and gems that lie beneath its soil, but
I have always known that its greatest wealth is its people, finer and truer than the
purest diamonds. It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the
meaning of courage. Time and again, I have seen men and women risk and give
their lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without
breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. I learned
that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is
not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. No one is born
hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his
religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught
to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in
the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I
would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second,
but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame
that can be hidden.