Former prisoner recalls Mandela

A South African anti-apartheid leader who spent 15 years imprisoned with Nelson Mandela spoke at UNC on Monday to a diverse crowd about South Africa's discriminatory history and bright future.

Eddie Daniels shared a cell block with Mandela during the political crusader's term of imprisonment. Daniels himself was imprisoned for his association with groups that strived to eliminate apartheid, including the Liberal Party of South Africa and the African Resistance Movement.

On Monday, he spoke freely about his memories and experiences.

"I asked how much time I had, because I tend to get carried away when I speak," he said as he began his talk in a light-hearted manner. "Which, I suppose, is why I was carried away in the first place."

During his speech, Daniels compared apartheid in South Africa to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

"In South Africa, we too had a holocaust that lasted over centuries," he said. "Blacks have been humiliated and oppressed for centuries. ... It is a part of our social fabric."

Daniels served time for his political activities on Robben Island, a famous prison known best for Mandela, its most celebrated inmate. He said that there, black activists were detained by the government.

Both men served their time alongside murderers and robbers as part of the country's lowest rung of prisoners.

Daniels said he lived through dismal conditions during this time. At first, he said, the soup prison officials served him smelled so nauseating that he wasn't able to eat it, but after a few days he asked for more so he could survive.

Daniels developed a fighting, survivalist mentality, he said, thanks to Mandela.

"This man," he said, "is possibly the greatest man in human history."

He remembered a time when Mandela started a sculpture by placing a stone on the ground. Slowly, other activists added to the structure by adding rocks of different sizes, shapes and colors.

The speaker said the sculpture was representative of a struggle that included "rich people, poor people, people of different colors, different religions, different educations."

Daniels also spoke admirably about the speech Mandela made after his release from prison before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters.

"His whole life was destroyed, as was his wife's and children's, and here he stood, saying, 'Let us embrace each other and work toward a common goal.'"

Daniels stressed the difference between discrimination and apartheid: Discrimination has always been present, but apartheid is based on the color of skin.

"We may have seen the end of apartheid and imprisonment, which is something I never thought I'd see or survive through," Daniels said. "But the honor is not ours. It is a victory of our ancestors."

Dee Gamble, a clinical professor in the School of Social Work, traveled to South Africa this summer as part of a tour group led by Daniels. She said the activist represented the hopeful spirit of the South African people she encountered.

"The most amazing thing about South Africans like him is their compassion for their enemies, their willingness to embrace people who persecuted them," she said. "And that is so wonderful."

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.