"I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself." - Nelson Mandela
If you ever go to Cape Town promise yourself one thing, please go to Robben Island. The history connected to this place, the things that happened here and what you will learn about the history of mankind, race relations and forgiveness are invaluable lessons for life. It was definitely the most emotional part of the trip, but we learned so much. If I only had a day in Cape Town this is how I would spend it. All I can say is I hope my account of our experience does the place, the history and our amazing, strong and kind hearted guide justice, but to really experience it you must go.
"Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future." - Nelson Mandela
If you ever go to Cape Town promise yourself one thing, please go to Robben Island. The history connected to this place, the things that happened here and what you will learn about the history of mankind, race relations and forgiveness are invaluable lessons for life. It was definitely the most emotional part of the trip, but we learned so much. If I only had a day in Cape Town this is how I would spend it. All I can say is I hope my account of our experience does the place, the history and our amazing, strong and kind hearted guide justice, but to really experience it you must go.
"Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future." - Nelson Mandela
After our walk to town and lazy breakfast we went to the museum and queued for the ferry.
Table Mountain fades out of view.
We set off across the ocean in a cloak of fog, but arrived to Robben Island in sunshine.
Robben Island coming into view.
There were quite a few tourist boats arriving at the same time and getting organised to get onto the tour was a bit like herding cats. We took a weirdly short (250 metre) bus ride to the gate we were to go through and met our guide. All the guides are former prisoners or former guards and really do speak from their own personal experiences, which is incredibly moving.
The tour side of things was very disorganised and our group shot up from about 20 to about 100, but somehow our guide took it all in his stride, winding his voice up from volume 2 to a booming 10 he ploughed on with his story.
He was one of the children involved in the Soweto Uprising in 1976, where children protesting against a change from English to Afrikaans as the language of education quickly escalated to an all out riot where around 400 people lost their lives. He had been friends and colleagues with Nelson Mandela and other key political figures and activists from this time. He told us of the beatings, punishments and discrimination he and other inmates received for the smallest of things. He showed us Mandela's cell and his own. We saw the area where the Namibian activists were kept (which I found really moving).
The Namibians and their struggle.
And finally in his cell he spoke from the heart about forgiveness and equality.
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." - Nelson Mandela
Mandela's cell
We all sat in his cell as he told us some of his experiences, the cell would have been packed with inmates, not just the four beds you see here, originally they had no beds or blankets and no heating or way to cool down - making the cells perilously hot or cold. This did improve in the later years.
"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity." - Nelson Mandela
Black people were penalised the most and were given the least rations. One of the reasons for this was also to cause a divide and tensions amongst prisoners of different backgrounds and ensure none of them bonded. However the prisoners did not let this get between them.
"I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man." - Nelson Mandela
This was another section of the cells on the island - away from the main prison. Here the guard dogs had better spaces than the prisoners.
"There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way." - Nelson Mandela
Robert Sobukwe was kept in this area, the initiator of an uprising. He refused to carry his pass book (an ID document that was illegal for black people not to carry). Sobukwe encouraged people to leave their passbooks at home and hand themselves into police stations across the nation - to illustrate how ridiculous this law was. Demonstrations got out of hand and sadly this led to the Sharpville massacre after which Sobukwe was arrested. After serving his sentence of three years he was no longer officially a prisoner, but interned in solitary confinement on Robben Island - sounds like a prison sentence to me!
After a thought provoking day a boat load of quiet and humbled people were delivered back to Cape Town.
"It always seems impossible until its done." - Nelson Mandela
A mothers poem.
Bear in mind that some of these things happened in our lifetime - to me these attitudes seem medieval, archaic and barbaric, but apartheid only ended in 1990. Our guide from Robben Island was in prison in these conditions in my lifetime- and that scares me.
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela
Table Mountain fades out of view.
We set off across the ocean in a cloak of fog, but arrived to Robben Island in sunshine.
Robben Island coming into view.
There were quite a few tourist boats arriving at the same time and getting organised to get onto the tour was a bit like herding cats. We took a weirdly short (250 metre) bus ride to the gate we were to go through and met our guide. All the guides are former prisoners or former guards and really do speak from their own personal experiences, which is incredibly moving.
The tour side of things was very disorganised and our group shot up from about 20 to about 100, but somehow our guide took it all in his stride, winding his voice up from volume 2 to a booming 10 he ploughed on with his story.
He was one of the children involved in the Soweto Uprising in 1976, where children protesting against a change from English to Afrikaans as the language of education quickly escalated to an all out riot where around 400 people lost their lives. He had been friends and colleagues with Nelson Mandela and other key political figures and activists from this time. He told us of the beatings, punishments and discrimination he and other inmates received for the smallest of things. He showed us Mandela's cell and his own. We saw the area where the Namibian activists were kept (which I found really moving).
The Namibians and their struggle.
And finally in his cell he spoke from the heart about forgiveness and equality.
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." - Nelson Mandela
Mandela's guards were changed regularly so that no one could bond and become close to him.
Our guide's cell.
We all sat in his cell as he told us some of his experiences, the cell would have been packed with inmates, not just the four beds you see here, originally they had no beds or blankets and no heating or way to cool down - making the cells perilously hot or cold. This did improve in the later years.
"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity." - Nelson Mandela
Black people were penalised the most and were given the least rations. One of the reasons for this was also to cause a divide and tensions amongst prisoners of different backgrounds and ensure none of them bonded. However the prisoners did not let this get between them.
"I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man." - Nelson Mandela
People of certain ethnicities were given less food than others.
Information of ID on prisoners.
Before we left this part of the tour we had the chance to ask questions. All the things you really want to ask are really hard and - given what this man has been through- you don't want to disrespect or upset him, it is also difficult to ask sensitive questions in a room of 100 people, really you just wanted to buy him a coffee and hear his story one to one. One thing we did want to know is if all the guard and prisoners were asked to be guides (yes) and if any of then said no. Many of them had, indeed, refused as the job would be too hard and they did not want to go back there, which was understandable.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela
Our guide told us how prisoners used to help to educate on another and spent much of the tour emphasising how we are all people, all races, cultures and colours = people, all the same. Before we left his cell he spoke extremely passionately about his time with Mandela and others and how important forgiveness and equality was. How thankful he was to anyone who had been involved in the sanctions against SA which pushed them to chance policies and how important it was for people not to hold grudges, but to learn from the past and move forward in love and forgiveness, together. He stated we were all sons and daughters of South Africa and the peace that could come form the past and asked us all to spread the message of equality and togetherness.
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela
I have never been so moved by someone. This man who stood in front of us with peace and love radiating out of him, with such a dark history, smiling, asking us all to take forward this message of peace - incredibly powerful and humbling.
With tears still on our cheeks we thanked our guide and moved on to the next sections of the tour - all excellent, but his part was what really stuck with me.
The limestone quarry where the inmates would chip stone all day, everyday.
They were allowed some shade in break times, but the cave they sheltered from the sun and ate lunch was also their toilet. Despite the prisoners being of different categories and backgrounds and the guards trying to pitch them against one another the prisoners agreed not one of them would go to the toilet here in this communal space to keep it more pleasant for all.
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela
When former prisoners returned to visit Robben Island on a political mission without forethought or discussion, led by Mandela, they picked up a stone each and laid a cairn to commemorate what had taken place in this quarry.
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." - Nelson Mandela
"There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way." - Nelson Mandela
Robert Sobukwe was kept in this area, the initiator of an uprising. He refused to carry his pass book (an ID document that was illegal for black people not to carry). Sobukwe encouraged people to leave their passbooks at home and hand themselves into police stations across the nation - to illustrate how ridiculous this law was. Demonstrations got out of hand and sadly this led to the Sharpville massacre after which Sobukwe was arrested. After serving his sentence of three years he was no longer officially a prisoner, but interned in solitary confinement on Robben Island - sounds like a prison sentence to me!
After a thought provoking day a boat load of quiet and humbled people were delivered back to Cape Town.
"It always seems impossible until its done." - Nelson Mandela
A few days later we went to the District Six museum. District Six was an area of Cape Town cleared of ethnic minorities in order to rebuild the land with new homes for white people. The land was largely cleared, but never moved fully into. Slowly the land is now being reclaimed and rebuilt upon, often by those who used to live their or their families.
Plan of District six.
Empty land of District Six.
Street signs from the area.
Tapestry of messages from previous residents.
Some of the signage from the time.
(literally translates to only whites)
Bear in mind that some of these things happened in our lifetime - to me these attitudes seem medieval, archaic and barbaric, but apartheid only ended in 1990. Our guide from Robben Island was in prison in these conditions in my lifetime- and that scares me.
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela
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