Celebrating Mandela Day with Christo Brand
“Nelson Mandela’s birthday is July 18th,” states Christo Brand. Without missing a beat, he adds, “He would have been 106 years old this year.” This intimate knowledge of a Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and the first President of the Republic of South Africa grew from years of Christo Brand being Nelson Mandala’s prison guard, then, over time, his friend.
At 19, Christo Brand met Mandela on South Africa’s Robben Island Prison in 1978. How he got there is as fascinating as the close relationship Christo would develop over the years of Mandela’s imprisonment. Christo, like Mandela, was from rural South Africa. “I grew up on a Farm where I was the only White child, playing with African children,” Christo matter-of-factly states. “My Father was just a Foreman. We was very poor. Yeah, we weren’t even allowed to go to the rich Farmer’s house. One day I was disrespectful to an elderly African man on the Farm. And my Father gave me a hiding and said to me, ‘A person can be black, but a human being like us. We must respect each other as human beings.’ My Father was quite a Christian. He always said, ‘In front of God, we are all the same colors.’ That is how I grew up on the Farm.”
But, Christo’s life was about to take a drastic change. He offers, “When I was the age of twelve, nearly 13, my Father developed pneumonia. The rich Farmer chased us off the Farm. We moved to the city. And then we land up in the city. In that city, I didn’t have anymore Black friends, or Coloured friends to play with. I made new friends. I go to a new school.”
“In that school, one of my friends was called up for Miliary Service. At those years, it was compulsory for all South Africa White males, in South Africa, to join the military for two years. If you don’t join the military, they will take you to a military prison for five years. My friend was sent for military training. After his training, six months later, he was sent to the borders. He was killed by so-called ‘terrorists’.”
“And, that day, when we were sitting in that Church, the Priest was saying ‘What a hero that gentleman was protecting our country. How he protected the country against the Black enemy.’ For me, sitting in that Church, I said to myself, ‘My friend was not a hero. The Black is not my enemy.’ I made the decision I would look for something alternative, not to join the military.”
Growing up on the Farm, Christo says, “I didn’t know about Apartheid, which happened in the city. I knew an area called ‘Free State’ was only White. I didn’t understand that at the time. I would only start to understand that in later years.”
Christo chose a difficult path with his decision not to join the military. Mandatory military service was part of his culture and upbringing. “When we were at school, we belonged to 'militêre kadet'. On Fridays, you go with a military uniform to school. Fridays, after 2:00 o’clock, we do military training in school. Even shooting training. All White children. Not Black or Coloured. It was all in the White schools.”
Once he left school, he says of mandatory military service, “It was compulsory when you left school. All White males in South Africa, not Blacks or Coloureds. Only White males was forced to go for two years military training. But, I didn’t want to join the military. Military was also patrolling the in the Townships [segregated areas for non-Whites]. And, it was also killing Black people. The military was like that. The same for the training, you go to the borders, you work in the Townships. When you come from there, you are sworn in a document that you cannot talk about what happened during that time.”
Christo continues, “A lot of people come back from their military training, not all well in their heads. Some of them have psychological problems and things like that. Because they see how people died in front of them. You know, but they’re not allowed to talk about the situations. They must keep secret. People in the cities don’t know what was happening during the military time. It was secret. Only when the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ comes out, many, many years later. That is when some of these things come forward, what happened during that time.”
“Because people was uninformed about what really happened in South Africa. Television came in 1976. And that was controlled by the government. First one hour a day, later 3 hours a day of television. The newspapers was controlled by the government. The people in the cities only read and see things which the government want them to recognize and see, not what really happened in the country. You know, that was how segregation was working.”
The alternatives to military service were the police force, harbor police, or the prison departments. Christo says, “I wasn’t interested in anything like that. Then, a gentleman visited our school looking for prison guards. I was not interested in that ‘til they mentioned exemption from military service. Then I think, ‘I’ll have a conversation with this guy’. That is how I became a prison guard."
Once on Robben Island, a teenage Christo started work. Of his early years, he states, “When I start work on the island, I see these names ‘Nelson Mandela’, ‘Walter Sisulu’, I never talked to them. Just greet them. Lock them up. Things like that. But, when I started working in the Census Office after three months of me working on the island, that is a time when we count Birthday Cards that year in July, we counted 55,103 Birthday Cards for Nelson Mandela. They were from all over the world. That is what made me realize this man must be very special.”
“But, what happened also I take him for a visit. I put him in leg irons to walk him to the Visiting Center. When I lock him there, I was instructed to fetch the visitors from the boat. So then I fetch the African ladies from the boat. And because the visitors were Black, Coloured, or Indian, they was not allowed to sit inside the boat. They always sat on the top deck, outside in the rain, the bad weather, and the rough sea conditions. Many times visitors came to the island soaked wet with the waves broke over the side of the boat.”
“Then, that morning, when I fetched the ladies, I walked them to the Visiting Center, after we locked the prisoners there. Then I see one lady take off her raincoat. Then she take off a big blanket. Then she take off a small blanket, with a backpack. When she take that off, it was a baby infant. And, prisoners must not be allowed to see children. You know, we were supposed to cancel your visit. She was not supposed to show Mandela the grandchild AT ALL.”
“But, after the visit, I called her and said to her, ‘Your husband wants to give you another message. You must go back into the visiting room.’ I asked if I ‘could hold the baby, I never held an African child.’ She pushed into my arms. She tried to bribe me with some money to show him the child. My answer was, ‘NO!’ But, when she was in the cubicle, I locked her in. I moved to the side of Mandela. After Mandela passed his message, the window closed. When Mandela seen me in the passage with a baby, tears comes out of his eyes. He walked to me and take the baby out of my arms. He become more emotional when he kissed the child’s face on the cheek. That minute, Winnie Mandela knocked on the door. She’s locked in on the other side. I take the baby back from him and wipe the tears from the baby’s cheeks. Go to the side and apologized for locking her in. She was still begging me to show him the baby. The answer was ‘NO!’ And, you know, that secret was between me and Mandela for nearly 20 years. Until he became the President of our country. Last year that baby passed away. She was very sick with Cancer. She passed away in November.”
And so began a lifelong friendship between Nelson Mandela and Christo Brand. At the insistence of Mandela, finally Christo co-authored the book, Doing Life with Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend, now in its second edition. At first, Christo was reluctant to write the book. Christo was afraid he’d end up in prison for all the illegal things he did for Mandela during his time in prison. Mandela promised to support him and back him up.
Manela pressured Christo for six years. Finally, Mandela sent Barbara Jones from the UK to Christo in South Africa to co-author the book. While Mandela died before the publication, at the UK book launch, Zindzi Mandela came. She told Christo, "Mr. Brand, you can't run away from me. My last promise to my Dad was if he can’t attend your book launch, I must represent him.” And, so the deep friendship between prisoner and guard extended beyond life itself.
In addition to giving Group and Private Tours of Robben Island, in Cape Town, South Africa, Christo, also speaks at “Mandela, The Official Exhibition”, which is currently touring the United States.
Information can be found at mandelaexhibition.com and www.christobrand.co.za.
Christo’s book may be purchased from Blue Ear Books, which has a Veterans’ Books Initiative. Blue Ear Books “has a strong interest in developing and publishing books by American military veterans.” Their “mission is to assist veterans in their journeys to becoming published authors. Through the Initiative, they “strive to provide a platform for honest accounts of personal experience that we hope will help bridge the gap in understanding and empathy between veterans and the civilian public.” blueearbooks.com
Photographs used with permission of Christo Brand, Tiffany Wright, and Eric Wright.
