“To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.

NELSON MANDELA

This Black Garden Epistle comes to you from Robben Island in South Africa. It starts with this paved and shrubby patch of land where the guide describes the trees planted by Europeans as takers of fresh water.

I am on the notorious island where people were held as prisoners over more than 350 years as offenders, lepers, and political dissidents. Its most famous one, Nelson Mandela, became the first democratically-elected president of this beautiful country four years after his release.

My guide, a political prisoner himself for 16 years, describes the ingenious ways that they communicated with other activists despite the severe consequences. We will find a way.

This visit is haunting, somber, and oh so quiet. We are rapt in anticipation of what he’ll share next. Everywhere is gray, barn-white, and faint blue.

And then we enter the yard where prisoners sat on the ground spaced apart to avoid communication. Here, we learn how President Mandela wrote passages of his book, Long Walk to Freedom, under and near a grapevine. With the help of other prisoners, he’d hide the passages and as a group, they’d all protect the scraps of paper to be stitched together years later. A We find a way.

“This courtyard did not exist when we arrived here. We created it. This court was for tennis, volley ball and tennikoit. The garden had grapes, peaches, vegetables and flowers. It was planted by Elias Motswaledi.”

Wilton Mkwayi

We find a way.