How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
With each book that they fed me, I felt a part of my soul growing and opening up to commune with my ancestors. I immersed myself in African history and imagined what it was like in ancient Kemet (which had been renamed Egypt by the Greeks). I thought about the pyramids, which have stood the test of time, and wondered how they had been engineered. I thought about Timbuktu and how that society had created a vast trove of knowledge that was the envy of the world. In the short time I was at Standish, I learned more about African history than I had ever learned during all of my years in school. (14.35)
Knowing that people like him made real contributions to society is a big part of what eventually helps Shaka want to give back to society too. Is part of having a just society showing how everyone can and does contribute to it?
Quote #5
At Standish, we brothers from different organizations had kept to ourselves, but back at the Reformatory, I began reaching out to other crews because I felt that it was important to find common ground with the fifteen hundred young men who were sharing our space. We held different philosophical and theological views, but we had all come from the same hopeless backgrounds, and we were all caught in the gears of the same heartless machine.(14.56)
It seems important that Shaka isn't just waiting for someone else to make the system better. Even as a prisoner, someone who has relatively little societal power, Shaka knows he can make a difference by connecting with others and trying to help them craft a better overall situation.
Quote #6
I had acknowledged my guilt years before, but there was a difference between that and accepting responsibility for my actions. My son's words made me take that final step on my road to redemption. (19.61)
Shaka definitely cares about the justice of systems, and he also deeply values individual responsibility. It's partly a moving letter from his own son that helps him take full responsibility for his own actions and his individual part to play in making a more just world.