Prisoner of Conscience: One man's remarkable journey from repression to freedom - Hardcover

Yeats, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846040019 ISBN 13: 9781846040016

Publisher: Rider & Co, 2005

Synopsis

Charles Yeats had a privileged upbringing as a White South African in the late 1970's and early 80's, and seemed destined to remain one of the social elite. However he felt increasingly uncomfortable with the Apartheid regime and moved to London to escape military service at home. Later he returned to face inevitable arrest as a conscientious objector. He was court martialled and sentenced to the now well-known Detention Barracks, where he refused to wear military uniform, and was put in solitary confinement five times. All this led to an unprecedented second court martial and a further year's incarceration in the notorious Pretoria Central Prison. During this period he was adopted by Amnesty International as one of their Prisoners of Conscience.

After his release (in February 83) he studied Theology at Oxford and today teaches at Durham University. He also advises corporations on their social, environmental and moral responsibilities.

'Prisoner of Conscience' is a fascinating slice of history from one man who lived it in the front line. But, much more than that, given his experiences in southern Africa as well as his contemporary concerns, the author also makes trenchant comments about Western imperialism, and the way the Church (the Anglican one in particular) is losing the opportunity to show us that love and friendship offer the only way forward to a lasting peace. 

About this title

About the Author

Born and brought up in Basutoland and South Africa during the Apartheid years, Charles Yeats now lives in Durham where he is a fellow in Business and Society at the University of Durham and also the Director of an organization called 'Durham Ethics'.  He lives in Durham with his wife and two children, and also in the Yorkshire Dales.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

FOREWORD BY DESMOND TUTU ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS

Charles tells me that he owns a salt and pepper set consisting of a four-inch model of the Afrikaner White supremacist Eugene Terreblanche and another of me, Desmond. Terreblanche is of course salt to my pepper! The existence of this twisted bit of anarchic art is highly amusing and it reminds me of how we used to laugh, and how we cried, at the stupidity of apartheid, with its impossible vision of a pure White state in Africa.

Charles' book reminded me of the laughter and the crying. It includes a very readable account of apartheid written from the perspective of a privileged White South African, whose Christian discipleship forced him to take an uncomfortable choice that led into a journey of self-discovery and a continuing search for truth and meaning in a world that defies anyone to hold consistently to their ideals.

The road he took is a fascinating one, and I hugely enjoyed how it starts with his tongue-in-cheek description of first encounters at Harrow School and how he cleverly weaves a love story into the narrative. England is also a good place to start the book because we tend to forget that the British have a particular responsibility for the suffering of my people. Not only did they practise apartheid throughout Africa long before the Afrikaner but also their empire mercilessly subjugated the whole of Southern Africa in the nineteenth century with the principal aim of exploiting its mineral wealth.

Charles' account of his trial is a touch too understated. It did, after all, involve not one but two Archbishops! Although I was not directly involved myself, I know that it helped raise the issue of conscientious objection to military service, which we Blacks did not regard as a matter of conscience at all, to a higher level. We greatly appreciated what he and his fellow conscientious objectors did because by saying that apartheid was indefensible and by enduring imprisonment for their beliefs they were saying that we mattered.

I was intrigued to discover from the book what happened to Charles after his release from prison, and how his interest and ongoing work in Business Ethics was sparked by the contribution Big Business made both to sustaining apartheid and then to ending it when apartheid no longer paid. I well remember how we attempted to challenge corporate power by the campaign for economic sanctions, and how the withdrawal of large foreign companies, such as Barclays, helped tip the balance of power away from the apartheid regime. It is good to know that Charles and others are continuing this engagement.

Charles' response to the 'war on terror' also helpfully reminded me of how all our lives are bounded by the reality of empire, with its ruthless control over strategic resources owned by other nations, and of how the beneficiaries of empire should not lose sight of this when judging whether a particular war is just. He wisely does not venture to offer solutions to the conflict in the Middle East but instead recalls how Nelson Mandela and his fellow African National Congress guerrillas were demonised and hunted down as terrorists, and how the conflict in South Africa looked equally intractable.

As a fellow pilgrim, I was also intrigued to read where Charles has ventured on his Christian journey. It is clear from his response to fundamentalist religion and to the schism threatened by the issue of homosexuality in the Anglican Church that he has moved a long way, while struggling to hold on to his roots. Not every one will agree with the positions he takes. However, I believe we all need to heed his call to love and friendship, because there is no other way forward.

PREFACE

The decision to write this book was taken after a visit to Ground Zero in New York and the still damaged Pentagon in Washington, DC on a project engaged with combating terrorist finance and money-laundering. I was prevented from continuing further down the eastern seaboard of the United States by a series of 'twisters' flattening everything in their path. To escape them, I bunkered down in the Shenandoah National Park, close to the Civil War battlefields. The television news carried the latest reports from the war in Iraq, which was already provoking fears of another Vietnam. Back home in Britain, a senior intelligence officer announced that a terrorist attack on London, possibly using a weapon of mass destruction, was 'inevitable'. With all this din of war about me, and with some time on my hands, it occurred to me that I had a story to tell about love and friendship.

I have also tried to tell the story of apartheid for a new generation that does not understand what the word means. While all know that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for twenty-seven years, many will express surprise when told that apartheid society was one where Black and White people were forced to live apart and were not permitted to attend the same schools. Lest we forget, I have written a short personalised account of this African holocaust, which I particularly hope will be read by young people exploring the evil of racialism. I also hope it will be read by the increasing number of visitors flocking to the sunny skies, beaches and game reserves of the new South Africa. It would be a pity were they to remain ignorant of the tragic human drama that took place.

Of my friends and supporters, to whom I owe this book, I have a particular debt of gratitude to Amnesty International, which adopted me as a Prisoner of Conscience when I was imprisoned for refusing to defend apartheid and mobilised its global network on my behalf. Sadly, the thousands of letters sent to me in prison were withheld until my release and the task of replying to each one then was too great. I hope this book will make up for my failure to write a personal thank you, and will be read as a tribute to all those who kept me from the killing fields of Southern Africa and helped me survive Detention Barracks and Pretoria Central Prison.

[...]

Charles Yeats

Edition details

• Publisher: Rider & Co
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846040019
• ISBN 13: 9781846040016
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192