WIth the whole of South Africa (and presumably a fair portion of the world) celebrating the late Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday today, I thought I'd use him in a WI.
There were several strange deaths under the Apartheid regime in prison, which were often described as being from natural causes (although many, if not all, knew different) rather than police brutality and the like. But say Mandela dies of old age on Robben Island or he gets knocked off in a similar way to Chris Hani after being released? Would they make as much of him today? Or would he just be a mere footnote?
The reason I ask this, is because I feel that it's fine remembering the man today and all that he stood for, but it's become so commercialized and blown out of proportion, that I wonder if (had he still been alive) this is really what he would've wanted.
A poem about the odd deaths in the South African jails under the apartheid regime:
There were several strange deaths under the Apartheid regime in prison, which were often described as being from natural causes (although many, if not all, knew different) rather than police brutality and the like. But say Mandela dies of old age on Robben Island or he gets knocked off in a similar way to Chris Hani after being released? Would they make as much of him today? Or would he just be a mere footnote?
The reason I ask this, is because I feel that it's fine remembering the man today and all that he stood for, but it's become so commercialized and blown out of proportion, that I wonder if (had he still been alive) this is really what he would've wanted.
A poem about the odd deaths in the South African jails under the apartheid regime:
In Detention
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.