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Albie Sachs
Constitutional Court of South Africa
Albie Sachs: I thought back to that darkness when I'd been blown up, and I didn't know what was happening, and total darkness. And I knew something terrible was happening, and I thought I was being kidnapped to be taken to prison in South Africa. And voices talking, and my body being pulled, and I shouted in English and in Portuguese, but not too loudly. I'm conscious even then that I'm a lawyer in a public place. We mustn't make a noise. "Leave me, leave me. I'd rather die." Then I'd faint and I feel terrible pain in the car. I thought at least they could have decent springs in the car if they're gonna kidnap me. And then total darkness, total silence and a voice says, "Albie, this is Ivo Garrido. You're in the Maputo Central Hospital. Your arm is in " and he used the Portuguese word lamentável, " it's in lamentable condition. You have to face the future with courage." And into the darkness I said, "What happened?" and a woman's voice said, "It was a car bomb," and I collapsed into darkness again, but with a sense of euphoria. I'd survived. For, I don't know how many decades, every single day in the freedom struggle, wondering, "If they come for me today, if they come for me tonight, if they come for me tomorrow morning, will I be brave? Will I survive?" They'd come for me and I'd got through. I'd got through. I just felt fantastic. Then darkness, quiet, nothing.
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