The long walk to freedom of Nelson Mandela was an incredibly strenuous one. He made it through with his clear vision of a free democratic South Africa and supportive people by his side. One of these people was his prison warder, Christo Brand.
Just beyond Hermanus, you will find the riverside town of Stanford, nestled next to the Kleinrivier mountains. It is here where Christo Brand’s life started, as the only white child on the Goedvertrouw farm, where his father was the foreman.
“One day, on the farm, I was disrespectful to an elderly African man. When my father gave me a hiding, he said to me, ‘The person can be black, but he is a human being just like us’,” says Brand, recalling how he was brought up to respect people – all people.
“The person can be black, but he is a human being just like us.”
When Brand turned 12, his father was diagnosed with pneumonia and they were forced to move to the city of Cape Town. “For the first time, I stayed in a suburb which was for white people only,” says Brand.
Brand in front of his house in Elsies River in Cape Town, where he and his wife stay. PHOTO: Alexander Brand
While staying in the city, his best friend was called up for military service a year before he finished high school. “That day when I sent him off at Cape Town station, he said to me that he didn’t want to join the military. He didn’t want to fight black people in the townships,” says Brand. During the apartheid era, the South African military was very present in the townships. “He also didn’t want to fight black people on the borders. He wanted to become a medical doctor,” adds Brand.
Six months later, Brand was sitting at the same friend’s funeral. He was killed by “so-called terrorists” on the Angolan border. “When I sat in the church, the priest said what a hero he was, protecting our country against the black enemy. To me, this gentleman was not a hero. He didn’t want to be there. And black people were not my enemy,” says Brand. At the time, he made the resolute decision not to join the military.
Brand and his wife, Estelle, at their home in Elsies River. PHOTO: Alexander Brand
After a conversation with an employee of the Department of Correctional Services, who visited Brand’s school, he signed up to become a prison warder instead and, after school, was sent to Kroonstad Prison.
“I was not interested until he mentioned the exemption from military service,” Brand says. At Kroonstad Prison, he worked weekends at the maximum-security prison, where he observed some horrific things. Because of this, he was happy to be transferred to Robben Island. “[At Robben Island] they told us we were going to meet the biggest criminals in the history of South Africa, but I [only] met elderly people,” says Brand.
“They told us we were going to meet the biggest criminals in the history of South Africa, but I [only] met elderly people.”
No man is an island
In 1978, at the age of 19, Brand started working in Section B of Robben Island Prison. This section was isolated from the rest of the prison and housed the leaders of the different political organisations, such as PAC, ANC and SWAPO.
“[The leaders] also worked in a separate place – we called the Limestone Quarry – where they were breaking lime rock, completely separate from the other prisoners,” he adds. This section is where Brand first met the then 60-year-old Nelson Mandela who would later become the first democratic president of South Africa.
At their first encounter, Brand escorted Mandela – with no knowledge of him or the rest of the Rivonians – from the prison to the visiting centre, he says. This was the first time the two had a conversation. Mandela wanted to know where Brand was from because he treated him with respect.
“‘You put the leg irons smoothly around my ankles. You lift the chains for me,’ Mandela said,” recalls Brand. He told Mandela that he was from a farm, where his father taught him to respect his elders. “His reaction was, immediately, ‘That is good, Mr Brand. You can give me advice on my prison garden’,” says Brand.
According to Brand, Mandela had a small piece of land, in the prison’s courtyard, where he planted some chillies, tomatoes and onions, to spice up the bad prison food.
On their walk, Mandela stressed the importance of education to Brand.
Brand recalls Mandela as saying that studying “is the future of our country. Through studies you can become the head of the prison; you can understand us as prisoners better.”
It was on Robben Island where the two formed a relationship that became so much more – a close friendship built on trust and mutual respect, according to Brand.
When Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor Prison, Brand accompanied him, and eventually worked as an administrative and logistics manager in the Constitutional Assembly, after he was freed.
“I worked on the drafting of the Constitution with [now president] Cyril Ramaphosa. And when the Constitution was adopted, Mandela offered me a job at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. But I didn’t want to move to Johannesburg,” says Brand. After Robben Island was declared a museum, Brand began working there. “I started in ticket sales and later became the supervisor of the curio shops,” says Brand.
An iMadiba art installation, or micro museum, “based on the exact dimensions of the Robben Island cell where the late president spent most of his 27 years in prison”, located on the Stellenbosch University Museum’s premises. PHOTO: Alexander Brand
In Madiba’s good books
After seven years of pressure from Mandela, Brand co-wrote Doing Life With Mandela – My Prisoner, My Friend with the help of Barbara Jones.
“[Christo] gave me a unique insight into Mandela’s humanity and the extraordinary bond they had formed. Christo was a joy to work with – honest and open, full of respect for Mandela’s sacrifices, and blessed with a gift for putting this huge story into simple, touching language,” says Jones.
The book Doing Life With Mandela – My Prisoner, My Friend which Brand co-wrote with Barbara Jones. PHOTO: Alexander Brand
Brand recalls the former president saying: “Mr Brand, we both come from the rural areas. […] In the city, I get into an organisation, you get into the prison service. We both landed in prison, you as a prison warder, myself as a prisoner, and a lot of things happened between us. […] I want a book about our relationship.”
According to Brand, Mandela always wanted to attend the book launch, but passed away shortly before it hit the shelves.
Three months after the funeral, the book launched in the United Kingdom (UK). Here, Brand ran into Zindzi Mandela. “She said, ‘Mr Brand, you can’t run away from me. My last promise to my dad was that if he can’t attend your book launch I must represent him. I am here on behalf of my father’,” says Brand.
Brand reading his book Doing Life With Mandela – My Prisoner, My Friend on his favourite couch in his living room. PHOTO: Alexander Brand
The final stretch
Brand says he always had a close relationship with the Mandela family, especially Winnie Mandela. In 1983, he received instructions that Mandela could start having contact visits. When Winnie came for their visit that morning, Brand asked her to wait in a different waiting room.
“[Winnie] was very upset, ‘Why must I wait inside the prison? I am not a prisoner,’ she said,” Brand recalls. She went through and was met by her husband. She ran to go hug him; they kissed each other and there were immediate tears. When Mandela saw Brand come through the door, he tried to push her away. Brand says he told Mandela to relax and informed him that his visits will be contact visits from thereon. “He was quite nervous the whole time during that visit, because it was his first contact visit with his wife, after more than 25 years,” says Brand.
The day of Mandela’s funeral was a very tough one for Brand. He promised himself he would touch the coffin to say goodbye to his friend.
“When I looked in the coffin, I thought to myself: For 27 and a half years this old man was in prison; for 14 years he slept on two mats and three blankets – treated like a dog. For 14 years he worked in the Limestone Quarry breaking lime rock, nearly losing his eyesight. After that, he worked on the rocks taking sea kelp out of the sea, slipping on the rocks and breaking his ankle and fracturing his knee. But he walked out of prison with reconciliation in his heart.”
In 2018, after 20 years at Robben Island, Brand retired to pursue his love for story-telling on a full-time basis.
*There is no relation between Christo Brand and the author.