Robben’s Island…

After leaving the slavery museum we hopped a cab over to the waterfront and the Nelson Mandela Breakway to catch a ferry and tour of Robben Island. We were on the 1:00 tour and never bothered to stop for breakfast or lunch earlier in the day, which turned out to be a good thing. The turbulence on the ferry was horrible. Now some of you may know that I have a tendency to get seasick, (hence the tragic end to our dolphin watching cruise last year.) Even with a completely empty stomach I felt unsettled when we docked on the island. We each loaded into minibuses to travel the island for the first part of the tour. In general, visitors are not allowed to roam freely on Robben Island. Though it is no longer a prison, it is now a national historic site and for the sake of preservation you experience the island from the bus windows until you get to the maximum-security prison. Robben Island has had three lives, the first was as a leper colony & insane asylum, the second as an army base during the Second World War, and the third was as a maximum-security prison. When the island was a leper colony they isolated the men and women for fear that they would reproduce leper children, historically though there were at least 40 children that were born on the island, healthy, despite the separation tactics. Those children were taken back to the main cape to live. During the world war the island was emptied of patients and the huge cannons, which line the island, were built.

One of the first political prisoners, Robert Sobukwa, was a founding member of the African National Congress (ANC), but split and created one of the largest national protests in the early 60’s. After spending three years in prison for organizing the protest, he was released, only to be rearrested and taken to Robben Island. There he was kept in solitary confinement

Can you guess which one is the political prisoner? for over a decade with no interaction from the outside world. He was not allowed to speak to the guards and was not allowed any visitors until after he fell both physically and mentally ill. They created a law called “The Sobukwa Clause” which basically stated they could arrest you without just cause, sentence you indefinitely, and amend your sentence at will. It is said that when Nelson Mandela and the other founding members of the ANC were arrested and brought to Robben Island they passed by his cabin and that he through the window scooped up a hand full of dirt and let it fall through his fingers to ground, which means “we are the sons of the earth so fight until the last grain of dirt is ours again.”

This is a segment a small segment of the circle of lime that the political prisoners carved out and hauled away during the 18 years of hard labor. There were four armed guards on the upper rim of land and two guards that stayed level with the prisoners. If the prisoners moved towards the line of grass they would be shot dead. Shoot to Kill was the standard mandate the prison. As the pit grew deeper they plowed through layers of lime with hand tools, often on the hottest or rainiest days of the week. There were psychological games played where prisoners were order to move the lime they had just dug from point A to B then from point B to C, and then back to point A.

This cave was a focal point in the lime region. It was the only place the prisoners were allowed to go freely. The opening of the cave was once 7 meters wide, but as they mined the land the opening closed in. The cave was the only place the prisoners we allowed to use the bathroom; it was also the place where they ate their meals. The cave was a place where the educated prisoners taught the uneducated prisoners and is widely believed by black South Africans to be the place the term “each one teach one” originated. The Leaders of the ANC also met to discuss the issues of apartheid and oppression and our tour guide calls it the “first meeting place of the New African Parliament.”

The lime caused significant health problems for the prisoners. Today Mandela and his contemporaries suffer from sever lung problems and have damaged retinas. Mandela has endured several surgeries to try to clear his tear ducts, because he was left unable to produce tears upon his release. The surgeries have left his eyes incredibly sensitive to light, which is why people are asked not to use the flash on their cameras when they are photographed with him.

In 1995 there was a reunion of all of the political prisoners held in any prison during the time of apartheid on Robben Island. While gathered at Lime site, Nelson Mandela broke away from the rest of the group, grabbed a large rock and placed in the ground at the front of the site. Soon all of the other former political prisoners joined him in adding different color stones to the pile. The stone pile that still stands marks the place where prisoners first started digging. The various colored stones are a reflection of South Africa’s Rainbow Nation, as the prisoners ranged in ethnicity, but all fought for the cause of freedom and equality.

Robben Island was the site of at least twelve shipwrecks, and there were no successful escapes from Robben Island during the time it housed political prisoners. There was a small population of normal criminals held at Robben Island during the beginning of the ANC leaders stay. Originally, the political prisoners were allowed to associate with general population, but that was ended because of the “unsavory influence Nelson Mandela and others were having on the general criminal class.”

Billy Naire was our guide at the maximum-security prison. He is one of 9 ex-political prisoners that lives on the island and gives guided tours of their lives on Robben Island. He was arrested for Sabotage and was released in early 1991. In the prison there was a different standard of care given to the colored political prisoners over the black political prisoners, including long pants, shoes, and larger portions of food. The colored prisoners were also allowed to have portions of bread; while it was determined that bread was not part of the blacks natural diet and thereby shouldn’t be given as food. This is despite evidence that Maze / corn (which was considered to be a staple of the black diet) is not an indigenous food in South Africa and has been linked to the Portuguese immigrants. Throughout the years the most effective tool prisoners had was the hunger strike. There were several over the course of 20 years, which led to more equitable terms for both black and colored prisoners.

For many years this was the only bedding that the prisoners had. Beneath the upper layer of a carpet type material is a one-inch think straw mat. By the time Billy Nair came to the prison they had replaced these mats with very thin mattresses on bunk beds.

Billy Naire displays a blown up copy of his identification card. He was imprisoned for Sabotage. He was in the general political prisoner population, which meant 16 men in cell, but they did have certain liberties that Mandela and others in solitary confinement did not. He was the ANC captain in his cell, which meant he was responsible for gathering items from the general population to pass off to the Cell Block B (solitary confinement). The maximum-security section of the prison is undergoing preservation efforts, so we were unable to see Nelson Mandela’s cell in the solitary confinement wing of the prison. The renovations are supposed to be complete by the end of August, so those of you headed to SA after that will have an opportunity to check it out. They did tape out the 2 x2 cell in the wing if the prison we were able to visit. The room included the bed roll, a desk, and an iron pot for a toilet.

This structure was built over the graves of Muslims who died in prison on Robben Island.

There are 45,000 penguins that live on Robben Island. Marcus decided to get up close and personal with one of them.

Hana at the wall of the pier on Robben Island

Marcus at the exit of the gates after the Long Walk to Freedom

As we were leaving Robben Island someone spotted a rainbow…

A fitting end of the day, don’t you think?