We recently visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was kept a political prisoner for 18 of the 27 years he was a prisoner.  The former prisoner who did our tour of the island, Itumeleng  Maklewa, was imprisoned alongside of Nelson Mandela and told of some of the conversations he and Mandela had had.

Our guide was put in the prison as a 19 year old and released after 6 years.  During that time, he was tortured and suffered for his part in the anti-apartheid movement.

Apartheid officially ended in 1994, and Robben Island was no longer used as a place to detain political prisoners.  Maklewa told of the time when the future of Robben Island was being determined.  Investors wanted to turn it into a tourist destination complete with hotels and casinos, but Mandela led the way in establishing it as a museum so that the story of the anti-apartheid struggle could be told to future generations.

Maklewa recounted the day he got a phone call, while unemployed and living in Johannesburg, asking if he would consider being one of the tour guides for what would become the Robben Island Museum.

At first, the idea of returning to the former prison was incomprehensible to him. How could he return to the place of so much suffering, pain and hell?  He sought out counseling and in that process realized that going back would be part of his own healing.

He moved his family down to Capetown and became one of the guides, retelling the story of Robben Island, and telling his own personal story to thousands of visitors.

What I found so powerful was when Maklewa shared his personal story of being able to forgive, go back, face the pain, and turn his own suffering into an opportunity to help educate and inform others.  At one point, with big tears in his eyes, he said “Telling our story has been my therapy.  It’s how I have been able to heal.”

As the tour was ending, I asked if I could get a picture with him, as it was such an honor to meet someone who had not only known Mandela, but had poured his life out on behalf of equality and justice.  It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life to be in the presence of someone who had suffered so much, and yet had forgiven so much.  There is a rare quality about such people, and it was as though I was standing in a sacred space as I stood next to him for the picture.

As I reflected later on why standing beside him for the picture felt like standing in sacred space, in a sacred moment, was perhaps because Itumeleng  Maklewa embodies the healing and restoration that God makes available to all of us through Jesus.  Jesus takes our hurt, pain and the injustices we experience, empowers us to forgive, and enables us to move on and even give back to the world out of that very experience.

Maklewa is living out a beautiful example of the healing and restoration that is possible to all of us.  I will never forget the gift of visiting Robben Island, of meeting Maklewa, and being one person away from Mandela himself.