Volume 33, Number 10 · June 12, 1986
Fire on the Road
By Ryszard Kapuscinski, Translated by Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand, Klara Glowczewski, William Brand
Introductory Note: Speaking in April at a rally in Soweto, Winnie Mandela was reported as saying, 'Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country.'[*] In South Africa 'necklaces' is the word used for tires filled with gasoline that are placed around the necks of collaborators and traitors to the cause of liberation, who are then doused with more gasoline and set on fire. Mrs. Mandela later said the press had distorted her speech and she repudiated the statement. But this kind of punishment and this kind of death have been practiced in South Africa for some time, to the horror of some and as a warning to others. Black policemen in flames in South Africa, like witches burning at the stake in Europe, and later, during World War II, Jews set on fire by Nazis in Warsaw and Bialystok, are victims of the same cruel myth, a belief deeply rooted among all fanatics, that fire is not only punishment but the only true purification—that all evil, if one wants to be really rid of it, has to be burned out in an absolutely literal sense.
Feature, 3194 words
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