46664

Photo credit: life

Can you imagine what it would be like to spend 27 years in prison? To have to labour in a quarry, to be inadequately dressed, to sleep on a thin straw matt on the stone floor, or to be confined, year after year, in a very tiny cell? Only an indomitable will, an «unbowed head» and an «unconquerable soul» could resist and then, when finally freed, be ready to serve his people and help to build the rainbow nation.

Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964 and sent to Robben Island maximum security prison. He was the 466th prisoner to arrive that year. According to the prison's administration's scheme, the prisoners were numbered following the sequence number of the prisoner (466 in his case), with the last two digits of the year (64). Thus, his prisoner number was 46664. Mandela was held on Robben Island until April 1982 when he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. In December 1988 he was moved to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl and held there until his release on February 11th 1990. The twentieth anniversary of his release from prison was celebrated some days ago.

Mandela's prisoner number continues to be used as a reverential title for him, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation uses 46664.com as its website address.

If you want to learn more about Nelson Mandela, you might like to visit his page at the ANC website or his foundation.