Summary

The short story “Amnesty” by Nadine Gordimer begins with the narrator telling the story of how her future husband was released from prison. Her husband left the village eight years earlier to work for a construction company. In the first two years, the man visited the narrator from time to time and asked her father for her hand in marriage. At that time, he also joined a union and became one of the leaders who spoke about workers’ rights and black people’s rights. In the third year, the man was arrested and lost contact with the narrator until she heard about his trial. 

The narrator is allowed to visit the man in jail and gives birth to their daughter, whom he names Inkululeko. The man is sentenced to six years in prison and moved to Robben Island. The na...