Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela (prisoner number 46664) from Robben Island Prison, where he was held for 27 years under the apartheid system in South Africa.
In commemorating this day, read ‘Invictus’: a poem by English poet, William Ernest Henley, which was written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell while Madiba was incarcerated. According to Mandela, the poem helped him cope with the pain of injustice and imprisonment.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
©
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