James Laughlin describes visiting Nelson Mandela's prison cell, where Mandela could touch both walls when he stretched. Mandela spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them in that tiny cell, locked in from 4 PM to 5 AM daily.
18 years
27 years in prison
From 4:00 PM until 5:00 AM the next morning
When Mandela stretched out his hands and feet he would touch both ends of the prison cell.
I saw this human being, and I got to know this human being. And then I went into his prison cell, and, you know, he was a bit taller than me, and I'm 17 6, so he was, you know, a bit taller than me. But when he stretched out his hands and feet, he would touch both ends of the prison cell. How do you survive that? For 18 years? After 27 years in prison, for 18 years being locked up in that, at 4 o' clock in the afternoon, until 5 o' clock tomorrow morning, in that cold prison cell with some just cement, concrete everywhere, without. Without proper warmth. How do you survive that? And it made me angry, really, looking at that and realizing that, you know, I wondered, how do you remain, hopefully.
