Robben Island

Think Alcatraz meets politics. Robben Island (Robben means “seal,” named by the colonists who arrived and found seals all over the island) was initially a leper colony before becoming a prison. It was used as a political prison for people like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Ahmed Kathara (among MANY others) during Apartheid. The inmates were completely isolated from the outside, save for letter and news stories which were culled by the guards of anything that might be political. It is joked that inmates were able to read SOME of the sports page after the censorship.

We left from the V&A Waterfront, which is touristy, yet stunning. The 9AM departure was a little early for my taste, until I was able to watch the sunrise. The Sun needed a little bit of help but South African ingenuity provided a crane to give it a little boost.



As we sat on the ferry, awaiting our very bumpy ride, we looked up and thought twice about sitting on the top deck. We managed to outrace the storm clouds, but also appreciated the beauty of these dark clouds cresting the cliffs right behind us.


You can look very closely, and see through the haze, Table Mountain.


A bus took a group around the Island with a tour guide describing to us the areas we passed. This is the famous lime pit where Mandela and other political prisoners were forced to mine for 14 years. If you read his book you find that the work was hard and they were pushed initially, but it got to the point where they just arrived and chatted amongst each other without doing much work. No one off the Island would have noticed because the lime was only used on the roads of the Island, which is 4KM long and 2KM wide. You can only have so many roads.


The actual prison tour was led by a former inmate. That was an education in itself. His language was striking, referring to his comrades, the education involved in joining the ANC’s military wing, and the community found in the prison. Even in jail the blacks were treated worse than the Indians and “others” (there were no whites on Robben Island), as displayed by the menu and the uniforms: blacks wore shorts and short sleeved shirts, Indians wore slacks and long sleeved shirts (year round); blacks received less meat, sugar and bread.


The tour ended with a walk by the cell Nelson Mandela spent most of his three decades of imprisonment in. Some people found it moving. Having read his book, it didn’t seem like he let the cell imprison him. From this space he learned law by correspondence, he wrote letters to his family, he composed messages for outsiders, he built relationships with his prison guards, and he led his fellow prisoners. The space is a sign of Apartheid, but not of Mandela.