After more than 25 years in prison, including time spent with Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada emerged to become a beloved political figure in post-apartheid South Africa.
On Sunday, he came to MSU to talk about his experiences as a political prisoner and to sign copies of his latest book, "Memoirs."
His first work, "Letters from Robben Island," was published by MSU Press in 1999.
Speaking about the almost total isolation in which the prisoners were kept, Kathrada shared the story of the night he and his fellow prisoners were informed of their imminent release in October 1989.
"That Saturday night, they came to our cell and said they had just received a fax from prison headquarters saying we were going to go free," Kathrada said. "Instead of the jubilation and dancing the end of 25 years of prison brings, the first question we asked was, 'What is a fax?'"
The white Afrikaner Nationalist party of South Africa introduced the policy of apartheid in 1948. The policy was one of racial segregation that created white-only areas of the country and disenfranchised the country's black population from voting or owning land.
Kathrada was a member of the African National Congress, which sought to end apartheid and open the country's government up to all races. He was arrested a total of 18 times for being an activist. The last time, in 1963, earned him a conviction of life in prison for high treason.
During that time in South Africa, there was a 90-day law in place that allowed the police to hold political prisoners for three months in isolation without charges or legal representation, Kathrada said.
"In 1963, under that law, about 100 people were tortured to death," Kathrada said.
Nomalanga Grootboom, an education administration doctoral student, came to the presentation to get a chance to speak with Kathrada, who was a hero during Grootboom's time as a South African high school student.
In 1978, MSU became the first major U.S. university to divest from stockholdings of corporations operating in South Africa under apartheid. Kathrada became the first person to receive an honorary doctorate degree in humanities from MSU via satellite during last December's commencement ceremony.
"I'm excited that MSU made this opportunity to meet with him," Grootboom said. "(The MSU students from South Africa) have so many questions for him about how to take our American education back to South Africa and work for the future of our country."
Grootboom was involved in activism as a student and was arrested in 1976. She said leaders such as Mandela and Kathrada inspired the students to resist the unequal education system under apartheid.
"We didn't consider the fact they might die in prison," Grootboom said. "We heard hopeful messages they would get out, and we would sing songs about them, carrying on their messages in song."
Bob Vassen, associate director of the MSU English Language Center, edited Kathrada's first book, a collection of letters Kathrada had donated to the university in 1996. Vassen grew up with Kathrada in Johannesburg, South Africa, and said because of apartheid, the segregated communities became very close knit.
He said during Kathrada's house arrest before he was sentenced to prison, Vassen would sneak into Kathrada's house despite the danger of being arrested himself.
"We would go over to his place and play Scrabble, or just chat," Vassen said. "We did that regardless that we could be caught. We just thought, 'We can't leave him alone like this.'"
