Nkosinathi Fihla interviewed by David Wiley May 12, 2006 Cape Town, South Africa.
"[The prison guard] passed through his JC [junior certificate] [and] his matriculation, and then he was promoted as a result. He thanked us for what we had done." [2:18]
Nkosinathi Fihla describes how the prisoners taught one of the warders [guards], who previously had forced them to produce a certain quota of stones from the quarry.
Nkosinathi (Ben) Fihla was born in 1932 and lived in New Brighton, an African township of Port Elizabeth. Port Elizabeth was a stronghold of the African National Congress, and Fihla became active with the organization, joining the ANC Youth League, which was banned in 1960. After that, he helped organized the armed struggle underground in the Eastern Cape while he taught cricket and traveled to ballroom dancing competitions in his public life. Fihla is now a member of Parliament.
