Robben Island

We visited Robben Island during our brief stop in Cape Town. It's about 7 miles offshore and the view back to Cape Town is impressive (Picture 1). Robben Island is best known as the prison where political prisoners were kept during Apartheid. Its best known prisoner, of course, was Nelson Mandela, who was on Robben Island for a little less than 20 years of his 27 years in prison. 

The entry gate (Picture 2) seems at odds with its role as a prison, but we learned that over  time it has served as a leper colony, an English prison during colonial times and an Allied outpost in WWII. But it's best known as the prison for various categories of non-whites who tried to make change happen during Apartheid.

All guides of the tours of the prison are past political prisoners. Our guide (Picture 3) was a prisoner in the 1980s. He was a member of the Underground, which encouraged non-whites to not carry their required identity cards and protest the government using peaceful means. He befriended another non-white and invited him to join the underground. Unfortunately, this "friend" was a member of the secret police. Our guide was arrested and told to sign a confession. He refused. They tied him in a bag and threw him in the river. They immediately pulled him out and told him to sign the confession or the next time he would stay in the water. He signed and spent most of the 80s on Robben Island.

Picture 4 shows one of the cell blocks. Picture 5 shows the most famous cell--the one Nelson Mandela occupied. For 8 hours a day, the prisoners worked in the limestone quarry. The limestone was never used for anything. One day the prisoners would cut and move limestone to point a. The next day they would move the limestone to point b. They could not talk and guards had permission to shoot to kill anyone causing a problem. Prisoners were fed based on their classification: colored, bantu, etc. You received the same food, but the amount differed. 

The tour is sobering, especially since your guide was there. Every 2 years the ex-prisoners are invited to return. They assemble at the limestone quarry and each adds a stone to an ever-growing cairn. The first year they assembled there were 1200. The next assembly will be the first since the passing of Nelson Mandela. Like our WWII veterans, the number of ex-prisoners continues to decline.

The final picture was taken 12/29 in Franschhoek, South Africa.  This statue was completed for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and placed at the gates of the prison where he was incarcerated last.