Robben Island

Bonjour,

One of the most moving things we did in Cape Town was visit Robben Island, a UNESCO world heritage site just off the mainland. The longtime, early prison (starting in the 17th century), former leper colony (mid-19th through early 20th century), and later military training and defense center (1939-1945), the island is most famous as the prison that housed Nelson Mandela for 18 years (before he was transferred to a facility on the mainland), as well as other leaders of the anti-apartheid movement.

What is amazing about this place is that they took what otherwise would be a sad, terrible place and turned it into a place of hope. It didn't feel horrible there. It felt inspiring, a testament to the powers of reconciliation.

Tours of the prison are given by former political prisoners. You also get a bus tour to see other sites like the leper graveyard, island school and mine where all political prisoners worked in the hot sun (badly damaging their eyes). The pile of rocks at the mining site was made by former political prisoners, including Mandela.

Once in the prison building, you start in one of the two community rooms used by most prisoners (who had open windows, even in winter, with no blankets). One hundred prisoners squeezed into this room.

The discrimination against black Africans continued into prison life. Among other things, it affected the clothes they were given (unlike whites, they were allowed only short pants and t-shirts, no socks or shoes, even for the chilly wintertime), as well as their food rations. The second photo below was taken during a visit by the international Red Cross in the late 1960s. For the visit, prisoners, like Mandela (on left), were given clothes.

High-profile, influential political prisoners, like Mandela (or "Mandiba" as he is fondly called there), were usually kept separate from the rest of the population -- including violent offenders -- because they were too inspiring and converted even hardened criminals.

Mandela worked, studied and wrote throughout his imprisonment in his tiny cell (second photo below), and hid the draft of his book, The Long Walk to Freedom, in this garden he created (first photo below). The prison authorities found his manuscript and destroyed it, not realizing he had given a second copy to another prisoner just released.

While Nelson Mandela was released from the mainland prison in 1990, the last of the political prisoners were not released from Robben Island until 1991.

This is what they saw as they headed into the Capetown Harbor (at least before they saw their families and friends).

In 1993, Mandela and then-South African president, F.W. de Klerk, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, Nelson Mandela was elected president.

After the Robben Island prison had been turned into a living museum, Mandela spoke:

“Today when I look at Robben Island, I see it as a celebration of the struggle and a symbol of the finest qualities of the human spirit, rather than as a monument to the brutal tyranny and oppression of apartheid. It is true that Robben Island was once a place of darkness, but out of that darkness has come a wonderful brightness, a light so powerful that it could not be hidden behind prison walls… '

Quite a man.

A bientot,

Kim