English Original
The Warders and Me — Nelson Mandela
In any prisoner’s life is not the minister of justice, not the commissioner of prisons, not even the head of prison, but the warder in one’s section. If you are cold and want an extra blanket, you might petition the minister of justice, but you will get no response. If you go to the commissioner of prisons, he will say, “Sorry, it is against regulations.” The head of prison will say, “If I give you an extra blanket, I must give one to everyone.” But if you approach the warder in your corridor, and you are on good terms with him, he will simply go to the stockroom and fetch a blanket.
I always tried to be decent to the warders in my section; hostility was self-defeating. There was no point in having a permanent enemy among the warders. It was ANC policy to try to educate all people, even our enemies: we believed that all men, even prison service warders, were capable of change, and we did our utmost to try to sway them.
In general we treated the warders as they treated us. If a man was considerate, we were considerate in return. Not all of our warders were ogres. We noticed right from the start that there were some among them who believed in fairness. Yet, being friendly with warders was not an easy proposition, for they generally found the idea of being courteous to a black man abhorrent. Because it was useful to have warders who were well disposed toward us, I often asked certain men to make overtures to selected warders. No one liked to take on such a job.
We had one warder at the quarry who seemed particularly hostile to us. This was troublesome, for at the quarry we would hold discussions among ourselves, and a warder who did not permit us to talk was a great hindrance. I asked a certain comrade to befriend this fellow so that he would not interrupt our talks. The warder was quite crude, but he soon began to relax a bit around this one prisoner. One day, the warder asked this comrade for his jacket so that he could lay it on the grass and sit on it. Even though I knew it went against the comrade’s grain, I nodded to him to do it.
A few days later, we were having our lunch under the shed when this warder wandered over. The warder had an extra sandwich, and he threw it on the grass near us and said, “Here.” That was his way of showing friendship.
This presented us with a dilemma. On the one hand, he was treating us as animals to whom he could toss a bit of slop, and I felt it would undermine our dignity to take the sandwich. On the other hand, we were hungry, and to reject the gesture altogether would humiliate the warder we were trying to befriend. I could see that the comrade who had befriended the warder wanted the sandwich, and I nodded for him to take it.
The strategy worked, for this warder became less wary around us. He even began to ask questions about the ANC. By definition, if a man worked for the prison service he was probably brainwashed by the government’s propaganda. He would have believed that we were terrorists and Communists who wanted to drive the white man into the sea. But as we quietly explained to him our nonracialism, our desire for equal rights, and our plans for the redistribution of wealth, he scratched his head and said, “It makes more bloody sense than the Nats.”
Having sympathetic warders facilitated one of our most vital tasks on Robben Island: communication. We regarded it as our duty to stay in touch with our men in F and G, which was where the general prisoners were kept. As politicians, we were just as intent on fortifying our organization in prison as we had been outside. Communication was essential if we were to coordinate our protests and complaints. Because of the greater numbers of prisoners coming and going in the general section, the men in F and G tended to have more recent information about not only what was happening in the movement, but about our friends and families…
中文翻译
我与狱吏 — 纳尔逊·曼德拉
在每个囚犯的牢狱生活中，真正重要的并非司法部长、监狱总长、甚至是监狱长，而是各牢房的狱吏。如果你觉得冷并想多要条毯子，可能会向司法部长申请，但不会有回应。去找监狱总长，他会说：“抱歉，这不符合规定。”监狱长会说：“我要是多给你一条，就得多给每个人一条。”但如果你去找走廊里的狱吏，而且你跟他关系不错，他就会直接去库房拿一条给你。
我始终力图对我所在牢房的狱吏保持和气；抱有敌意是自找没趣。在狱吏中树敌毫无意义。非洲人国民大会（非国大）的政策是教育所有人，甚至是我们的敌人：我们相信所有人，即使是狱吏，也能改变，我们竭尽全力去影响他们。
总的来说，我们以狱吏对待我们的方式对待他们。若有人体谅我们，我们也以体谅回报。并非所有狱吏都是恶魔。从一开始我们就发现，他们中有些人信奉公平。然而，与狱吏交好并非易事，因为他们普遍认为对黑人表示礼貌是令人厌恶的。既然有对我们友善的狱吏是有益的，我常请人去接近选定的狱吏。没人喜欢做这种事。
在采石场有一名狱吏似乎对我们特别有敌意。这很麻烦，因为我们在采石场要讨论，不准我们交谈的狱吏是个大障碍。我请一位同志去和这家伙交朋友，以免他打断我们谈话。这个狱吏很粗鲁，但他很快开始对这位囚犯放松了一些。一天，狱吏向这位同志要他的夹克，铺在草地上坐。尽管我知道这违背了同志的意愿，我还是点头让他照办。
几天后，我们在棚下吃午饭时，这个狱吏走了过来。他多了一个三明治，扔在我们附近的草地上说：“给。”这是他表达友谊的方式。
这让我们陷入两难。一方面，他像对待动物一样扔给我们一点残羹，我觉得接受三明治有损尊严。另一方面，我们很饿，完全拒绝又会羞辱我们正试图结交的狱吏。我看得出那位结交了狱吏的同志想要三明治，便点头让他接受。
策略奏效了，这个狱吏对我们不再那么警惕。他甚至开始询问关于非国大的问题。通常，在监狱工作的人可能被政府宣传洗脑了。他会认为我们是想把白人赶下海的恐怖分子和共产党。但当我们平静地向他解释我们的非种族主义、对平等的渴望以及财富再分配计划时，他挠挠头说：“这比国民党那套有道理多了。”
获得狱吏的同情促进了我们在罗本岛的一项关键任务：沟通。我们认为与关押普通囚犯的F区和G区的同志保持联系是我们的责任。作为政治家，我们在狱中和在外面一样，致力于巩固组织。要协调抗议和申诉，沟通至关重要。由于普通区进出的囚犯更多，F区和G区的人往往能获得关于运动进展以及我们朋友和家人情况的最新信息……