麦比托（Tumelo Mabitle）左右闪躲，一记记重拳挥向沙包。

“是。”这位20岁的青年回答。他知道索韦托（约翰内斯堡郊区的卫星城——观察者网译注）的这座健身房就是曼德拉1950年代练拳的地方。麦比托是个业余拳击手。他说，在曼德拉曾经呆过的房间练拳给予自己“很大信心”，虽然这位反对种族隔离制度的领袖没能满足他的愿望。曼德拉于本周四去世。

“我希望他能来看看。”曼德拉去世前，麦比托对我这样说。他刚刚高中毕业，找不到工作。麦比托说：“我想告诉他，需要更多就业机会，更多的房子供人居住，像这个健身房一样，让大家获得自己的安身之地。”

南非索韦托，唐纳森·奥兰多社区中心健身房，曼德拉曾在这里练习拳击

曼德拉在这座健身房训练的年代，这栋房子叫做唐纳森·奥兰多社区中心——以陆军中校詹姆斯·唐纳森（James Donaldson）命名，后者于1936年建立了南非首个黑人帮困私人基金。曼德拉说，他练拳是为了锻炼身体，投身解放运动之余放松精神。如今，这个基金会又称索韦托基督教青年会，坐落于尘土飞扬的拉斯比街（Rathebe），一边是匹克赛弗肉店，另一边是索韦托东区的奥兰多警察局。警察局离曼德拉当时生活的地方不足1英里远。

麦比托说，他梦想哪天能够在健身房工作，或者在哪个运动队当教练，但在南非，这种工作可不好找。

不远处，33岁的姆邦瓦纳（Siyabulela Mbongwana）正在帮朋友做肩膀拉伸运动。姆邦瓦纳说，他来这儿是为了锻炼身体打发时间。他原先不知道这里是曼德拉呆过的地方。

“你随便逛逛索韦托的几个曼德拉博物馆，就能知道他的生平。”他说。他寻思，为何健身房里没有挂曼德拉的照片。

他沉吟片刻，继续健身。“你知道有谁在招保镖吗？”他问，“我在找工作。”

22岁的姆巴萨（Musa Mbatha）告诉我，这座健身房去年翻修过。他是一位学工程的学生。他一周来好几次健身房。四片电风扇叶子在天花板上慢悠悠地打转，挂灯映射出室内飘扬的灰尘。崭新的健身器材散发炫目的反光，而新铺的橡胶地板则为长时间的锻炼提供了休憩的依靠。

房间角落的一对扬声器传来南非流行的打击乐。“健身房内禁止吃东西。”墙上标语写着。入口处，另一个标志说明了健身房的包月价格——不足10美元。

姆巴萨说，这里已经不是真正的拳击房。现在大多数人来这儿只是为了健身。大家对于曼德拉曾在这里练习拳击都感到颇为自豪。

姆巴萨走出健身房，步入肮脏的后院，那里堆着一排淘汰的健身器材，正午的阳光映照着斑斑锈迹，垫子几乎都被磨光了。

“这可能是曼德拉用过的旧器材。”姆巴萨说，“去年新的一批器材进来后，我们就把它们堆在这儿了。但愿曼德拉能来看看我们这儿有多整洁。”

（本文原载于纽约时报网站2013年12月6日，原标题Where Mandela Once Boxed, a New Set of Struggles；观察者网朱新伟/译）

（翻页请看英文原文）

 

 

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.”