Business Day Good.jpg Naidoo suffered horror with equanimity Bryan Rostron, Business Day, Johannesburg, 28 June 2016 For our passage to Robben Island to scatter the ashes of a former political prisoner, the ferry was called Jester. At first, under a grey sky with clusters of grey seals lolling on the sluggish grey swells of Table Bay, "Jester" seemed grotesquely inappropriate for such a pilgrimage. But by the time we docked at the island, having been thinking of the man whose memory we were about to honour, the name seemed strangely appropriate. Indres Naidoo, despite 10 years as a prisoner on that unforgiving island, remained resolutely positive and astonishingly cheerful. As the small group of friends and relatives who made the crossing that day recalled, Indres was forever teasing and joking. So, despite the sombre occasion, we were soon laughing at our memories of prisoner 885/63, who, despite having also been tortured, appeared to harbour no bitterness at all. Reminders of our gruesome past, however, linger everywhere. Disembarking from the Jester, the ferry next to us was the Susan Kruger, named after the wife of the notorious justice minister Jimmy Kruger. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to shake off the ghosts of our long history of injustice, symbolised by Robben Island itself. Indres Naidoo.jpg Indres had his official funeral last January. Six months later, this intimate ceremony was his wish. While still in exile after serving his sentence and following an assassination attempt, Indres told Gabi, his wife and steadfast comrade of many years: "Promise that if you survive me, and even if it should take years before our country is free, please take my ashes to the island." At this unseemly time, when many beneficiaries of apartheid remain smug and some former liberation fighters cynically cash in, it is important to recall those like Indres who sought neither power nor riches in return for their sacrifice. He is not alone. The first time I went to the island was 26 years ago. The other visitors were all black, including frail and elderly mothers. As we queued to board the ferry, a white warder blocked me from boarding, probably because I was the only white person to be visiting a political prisoner. But an hour later, a call came from the prisons department: get to the departure dock fast! A supply boat was waiting and it was only as it nosed against the jetty at the island that the reason became apparent: all the other visitors had sat down on the wharf and refused to move till I was allowed to make mine too. That is the spirit in which Indres Naidoo was nurtured. His grandfather was an associate of Mahatma Gandhi in his early passive resistance campaigns here. "My grandfather was imprisoned many times, as were both my parents, two sisters and two brothers, not to mention uncles and aunts," Indres once told me. "Gandhi recorded that at the turn of the 20th century, there were 25 Naidoo family members in jail." This legacy possibly explains how a man can survive racial bigotry and barbarity with such equanimity. We scattered Indres's ashes in his old cell, then at the stone quarry, where he laboured for many years, and finally nearby at the wild ocean's edge with surf breaking over kelp-strewn rocks. Suddenly, the sun broke through. Across the bay, a scene both grim and beautiful, we could see Cape Town and Table Mountain. At that moment, I thought of a summer's evening some years ago at his flat high above Cape Town with three of SA's other long-serving political prisoners. In the early hours, they started swapping jail yarns and laughing their heads off. I went onto Indres' balcony with its magnificent view over the lit-up city. Out in the dark of the bay, just visible, were lights from Robben Island, and I remember thinking: "Yes, to have lived to experience this...." Indres Naidoo 1936-2016 From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2016/06/28/naidoo-suffered-horror-with-equan imity __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13719 (20160628) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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