LINGA MOONSAMY

Bodyguard

I remember a young girl, of about seven or eight years old, from the neighbourhood where Madiba lived, came to his house and insisted on seeing him. We stopped her at the gate but he got wind of it and said, “Allow her in, chaps.”

She walked straight up to him, sitting in his favourite cane chair in the garden reading the newspaper. He put the newspaper down and she stood next to him and she looked at him and said, “How old are you?” No greeting, no nothing. And he said, “Well, I’m very old. I don’t remember my age.”

And you could see this strange look in her eyes. She then said, “You were in jail? For how long?” And he said, “Well, I can’t remember, it was a long time ago.”

She looked at him and then she said, “You know you’re a very stupid old man. You don’t know how old you are, and you don’t know how long you were in jail. Can you count?”

He just laughed and gave her a huge hug and said, “You’re welcome anytime to see me.”