Rick Lyman：重訪曼德拉的練拳房
麥比託（Tumelo Mabitle）左右閃躲，一記記重拳揮向沙包。
“是。”這位20歲的青年回答。他知道索韋託（約翰內斯堡郊區的衞星城——觀察者網譯註）的這座健身房就是曼德拉1950年代練拳的地方。麥比託是個業餘拳擊手。他説，在曼德拉曾經呆過的房間練拳給予自己“很大信心”，雖然這位反對種族隔離制度的領袖沒能滿足他的願望。曼德拉於本週四去世。
“我希望他能來看看。”曼德拉去世前，麥比託對我這樣説。他剛剛高中畢業，找不到工作。麥比託説：“我想告訴他，需要更多就業機會，更多的房子供人居住，像這個健身房一樣，讓大家獲得自己的安身之地。”
南非索韋託，唐納森·奧蘭多社區中心健身房，曼德拉曾在這裏練習拳擊
曼德拉在這座健身房訓練的年代，這棟房子叫做唐納森·奧蘭多社區中心——以陸軍中校詹姆斯·唐納森（James Donaldson）命名，後者於1936年建立了南非首個黑人幫困私人基金。曼德拉説，他練拳是為了鍛鍊身體，投身解放運動之餘放鬆精神。如今，這個基金會又稱索韋託基督教青年會，坐落於塵土飛揚的拉斯比街（Rathebe），一邊是匹克賽弗肉店，另一邊是索韋託東區的奧蘭多警察局。警察局離曼德拉當時生活的地方不足1英里遠。
麥比託説，他夢想哪天能夠在健身房工作，或者在哪個運動隊當教練，但在南非，這種工作可不好找。
不遠處，33歲的姆邦瓦納（Siyabulela Mbongwana）正在幫朋友做肩膀拉伸運動。姆邦瓦納説，他來這兒是為了鍛鍊身體打發時間。他原先不知道這裏是曼德拉呆過的地方。
“你隨便逛逛索韋託的幾個曼德拉博物館，就能知道他的生平。”他説。他尋思，為何健身房裏沒有掛曼德拉的照片。
他沉吟片刻，繼續健身。“你知道有誰在招保鏢嗎？”他問，“我在找工作。”
22歲的姆巴薩（Musa Mbatha）告訴我，這座健身房去年翻修過。他是一位學工程的學生。他一週來好幾次健身房。四片電風扇葉子在天花板上慢悠悠地打轉，掛燈映射出室內飄揚的灰塵。嶄新的健身器材散發炫目的反光，而新鋪的橡膠地板則為長時間的鍛鍊提供了休憩的依靠。
房間角落的一對揚聲器傳來南非流行的打擊樂。“健身房內禁止吃東西。”牆上標語寫着。入口處，另一個標誌説明了健身房的包月價格——不足10美元。
姆巴薩説，這裏已經不是真正的拳擊房。現在大多數人來這兒只是為了健身。大家對於曼德拉曾在這裏練習拳擊都感到頗為自豪。
姆巴薩走出健身房，步入骯髒的後院，那裏堆着一排淘汰的健身器材，正午的陽光映照着斑斑鏽跡，墊子幾乎都被磨光了。
“這可能是曼德拉用過的舊器材。”姆巴薩説，“去年新的一批器材進來後，我們就把它們堆在這兒了。但願曼德拉能來看看我們這兒有多整潔。”
（本文原載於紐約時報網站2013年12月6日，原標題Where Mandela Once Boxed, a New Set of Struggles；觀察者網朱新偉/譯）
（翻頁請看英文原文）
Where Mandela Once Boxed, a New Set of Struggles
By RICK LYMAN
Published: December 6, 2013
Yes, said Mr. Mabitle, 20, he was aware that it was in this very Soweto gym that Nelson Mandela had once trained as a boxer in the 1950s.An amateur boxer himself, Mr. Mabitle said knowing that Mr. Mandela had worked out in the same room gave him “great confidence,” though he had also wished for something more from the anti-apartheid leader, who died on Thursday.
“I wish he could come here,” said Mr. Mabitle, an unemployed recent high school graduate, speaking before Mr. Mandela’s death.“And to tell him how we need more jobs and more housing for the people — and more places like this to keep the people occupied and give them something to do.”
When Mr. Mandela trained here — something he said he did to keep in shape and take his mind off the seemingly endless struggle for liberation — the building was known as the Donaldson Orlando Community Center, after Lt.Col.James Donaldson, who in 1936 established the first private trust for black social development in South Africa.Today, it is also known as the Soweto YMCA, stretching along dusty Rathebe Street from the Pick & Save Butchery to the police station in the Orlando East section of Soweto, about a mile from where Mr. Mandela lived at the time.
Mr. Mabitle said that he hoped, someday, to work in a health club or as a trainer for a sports team, but that such jobs were hard to come by in South Africa these days.
Not far away, Siyabulela Mbongwana, 33, was spotting a friend who was doing shoulder lifts.Mr. Mbongwana said he came to the gym to keep in shape and to fill his days.He said he had no idea when he started coming that Mr. Mandela had once trained here.
“You go to all these Mandela museums in Soweto and learn all about him,” he said, wondering why there was no photograph of Mr. Mandela at the gym at the time.
He paused before turning back to his training.“Do you know anyone who needs bouncers?” he asked. “I am looking for work.”
The gym was renovated last year, said Musa Mbatha, 22, an engineering student who said he visited a few times a week to keep in shape.Four swivel fans rested on shelves above the workout room, swirling the dusty air in the light from hanging lamps.The new equipment was gleaming, and a new rubber floor helped absorb the punishment of a long workout.
Pounding percussion — the house music that was wildly popular in South Africa — poured from a small pair of speakers in one corner.“No eating at the gym please,” read a sign on one wall.At the gym’s entrance, another sign explained the due date for the monthly fee — just under $10.
The truth is, Mr. Mbatha said, this is no longer a hard-core boxing gym.Mostly, it is used by those, like him, who simply wanted to keep in shape.But everyone is proud that when it was a boxing gym, Mr. Mandela was its most famous member.
Mr. Mbatha walked outside and into a dirt courtyard, where a line of old exercise equipment rusted in the midday sun, its padding frayed to almost nothing.
“This is the old equipment that Mandela would have used in his day,” Mr. Mbatha said.“We moved it out here when the new equipment arrived last year.I wish Mandela could come and see how nicely we are keeping the place.”