{"id":45906,"date":"2015-08-09T14:11:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T14:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=45906"},"modified":"2015-08-09T14:11:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T14:11:37","slug":"sunday-surprise-2-the-robben-island-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=45906","title":{"rendered":"Sunday surprise 2: the Robben Island Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — believing great scripture and great poetry have much in common ]
\n.<\/p>\n

In what must be the most glorious mix-up of scriptures ever, this volume of Shakespeare<\/strong>‘s works:<\/p>\n

\"Shakespeare<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

was smuggled into the prison on Robben Island, S Africa, where Nelson Mandela<\/strong> and others were incarcerated, by Mandela’s fellow-prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam<\/strong>, who invited other prisoners to sign it next to the passages that meant the most to them.<\/p>\n

\"Shakespeare-Robben-Island-008\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mandela’s signature is next to the passage in Julius Caesar<\/strong>, Act II scene ii, beginning:<\/p>\n

Cowards die many times before their deaths
\nThe valiant never taste of death but once.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Featuring Krishna <\/strong>with his beguiling flute on its spine, the book has become known as the Robben Island Bible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Consider:<\/strong> this book inspired the man who brought an end to apartheid. How important would you say literature can be in the development of leaders of moral stature?<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Image sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
  • Jonathan Bate<\/strong>, Ten books that changed the world<\/a>\n
  • Mark Brown,<\/strong> British Museum Shakespeare exhibition to include prized Robben Island copy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [ by Charles Cameron — believing great scripture and great poetry have much in common ] . In what must be the most glorious mix-up of scriptures ever, this volume of Shakespeare‘s works: was smuggled into the prison on Robben Island, S Africa, where Nelson Mandela and others were incarcerated, by Mandela’s fellow-prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1053,526,627,652,938,1095,946,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apartheid","category-charles-cameron","category-doublequotes","category-literature","category-mandela","category-shakespeare","category-sunday-surprise","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45906"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45921,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906\/revisions\/45921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}