Why was Mandela in prison?

 Before we went inside her house, 'me Tsita showed me her chickens. “I'm more of a farmer than a teacher,” she said. The structure was all tin, roof and walls. I stuck my head inside and the chickens made the sound of a nuclear attack siren, and the air was thick, like you were breathing miniscule feathers. The chickens were five in a cage the length of my forearm. I imagined that arrangement making some people in the developed world indignant. 'Me Tsita said the total number of egg-laying hens she owned was 4,000 something.

When I exited the chicken house I saw Katleho, 'me Tsita's grandson. He wore a grin like he'd last seen me only yesterday. But it had been years, and Katleho had been a lot smaller. He was 10 years old now.

'Me Tsita lived in a suburb of Maseru called Khubetsoana, but sometimes she had brought Katleho and his younger brother to school in Tsoeneng for a visit.

The boys' mother, Lineo, and 'me Tsita's other children, Leloko and Tlotliso, who were both university students on break for the winter, all gathered in the house around the television. It's monitor was burnt, with a purple periphery and a yellow center. But it showed the soccer action just fine. A World Cup warm-up match between Portugal and Mozambique was on, which we watched as we ate the meal Lineo had prepared. Rice, potato salad, veggies and chicken. They asked me about the rumor that Obama would fly over to attend a USA match if the team made it to the quarterfinals. Everyone else in the room had heard the same thing. Was it true?

The conversation was held in a 50/50 mixture of English and Sesotho, typical of urban, educated Basotho. The topic was mostly the World Cup. And the leader was, oddly, the 10 year-old Katleho. He rattled off ages of star players. (Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba is 32.) He taught us where stadiums were located. (Peter Mokaba Stadium is in Polokwane.) He gave us bits of history. (Kimberley is where diamonds were discovered and Johannesburg is where gold was discovered.)

“Do you know everything or almost everything?” I asked him.

“Almost everything,” Katleho said.

'Me Tsita then asked what FIFA stands for. Katleho said, “FIFA is … FIFA is ...”

“It's French,” I said. “It stands for Federation Internationale de Football Association or something like that.”

But Katleho didn't trust me. “I will find out,” he said. “I will know it by tomorrow.”

It was then announced on television that Nelson Mandela will attend the opening ceremonies and first World Cup match on Friday between South Africa and Mexico. A clip was shown of Mandela with white hair, walking slowly with a hunched back. “How old is he?” I asked. Katleho said 92. “Eight more years and he's 100.”

“Maybe he would be able to walk better if he hadn't been beaten in prison,” said 'me Tsita.

“Why was Mandela in prison?” asked Katleho.

“Apartheid,” said 'me Tsita.

“What is apartheid?” asked Katleho. There was a pause in the room as the adults looked at each other.

Katleho was born in 1999, the year Mandela stepped down as president of the new South Africa. Katleho lives in Lesotho, so he might be excused for not having even heard of apartheid, except that he attends Ladybrand Primary School, just over the border in the Free State of South Africa. In fact, the English he speaks has a distinct South African accent.

'Me Tsita began to tackle his question. “It was when the darks and the lights, the Boers, Terre Blanche. It was ...” Katleho was paying attention, but somebody asked about the killing of Terre Blanche, an old white South African racist who was recently murdered, and the discussion got forever sidetracked. And Katleho may still not know what apartheid is.