Robben Island (Tuesday, Sept 9, 2014)





More on my Cape Town trip...

 



This was Angie’s and my final full day in Cape Town. We decided to do some shopping in the morning and then go to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years.

We headed down toward the Waterfront and found a little area teeming with vendors selling African souvenirs. Angie had the foresight to do most of her Christmas shopping in Africa, so she had a little list of people for whom she needed to purchase gifts.

Market in Cape Town.

We had purchased our tickets for Robben Island online. Our boat time was 1:00 PM. After passing through the metal detectors, we boarded our boat. It took 45 minutes to get to Robben Island, but there were beautiful views of Cape Town and Table Mountain. We also saw dolphins, seals, and whales!

 

Table Mountain/Cape Town. Notice there are no clouds around the mountain at 1pm (compare with later photo).

Dock at Robben Island.

 

Upon arrival, we went on a bus tour around the island. The island is not very big—8 miles in circumference. We saw the leper graveyard (prior to being used as a prison, lepers were banished to the island), the leper church, and the limestone quarry where the political prisoners (such as Mandela) were forced to do hard labor on a daily basis, mining the limestone.

 

Leper Graveyard on Robben Island.

Limestone quarry where the prisoners where required to do hard labor on a daily basis. The hole in the limestone was where they could eat lunch. The guard tower can be seen in the background.

 

Pile of stones placed by ex-political prisoners during a reunion on the island on the 5th anniversary of Mandela's release from prison. (Stones placed in 1995).

From shore of Robben Island looking toward Cape Town. You can see why not many people attempted escape from the island!



 

 

Afterwards, we went on a tour of the prison, lead by a former prisoner. Our guide had served ten years for a political crime. He told us of the prison conditions. The prisoners were divided into “Couloreds (Asians, Indians, etc)” and “Africans”. There were no white prisoners housed on Robben Island. Everything in the prison was done according to race. For example, Couloreds received more food than the Africans. They also got a bit of sugar with breakfast and bread with dinner (when the Africans received none). In addition, the Africans had to wear shorts and were not given socks, while the Couloreds were allowed to wear long pants and socks. It was really eye-opening. We saw Nelson Mandela’s tiny cell and the bush in the courtyard where he hid the initial draft of his book “The Long Walk to Freedom”, which I am currently reading.

 

Our tour guide, a former political prisoner at Robben Island.
 

Diets for Couloreds (left side) and Africans (right side).

Prison

Garden/courtyard. Mandela hid a copy of his autobiography (initial (and partial) draft of The Long Walk to Freedom) in the corner of the courtyard. It was later discovered by the authorities, but a copy of it had already been smuggled out by another prisoner.

Mandela (left) and his friend Walter Sisulu. This is the only photo ever taken of Mandela while he was imprisoned on Robben Island.

Mandela's cell on Robben Island. He slept on the thin mats (pictured).

 

The final prisoners being released from Robben Island.

 

We headed back to land around 4PM, and the waters were definitely choppy by this point. Angie and I stomached it, but just barely!

 

Table mountain (L side of photo) and Robben Island (R side of photo).

The "tablecloth" (clouds) moving in over Table Mountain.

Whale jumping off the coast of Cape Town!

That evening we had a sushi appetizer at the local mall, and then headed back to our B & B so we could walk to The Codfather one more time for dinner!

All in all a great day. We had heard many mixed reviews about the Robben Island tour, mostly people said it wasn’t that great. However, we both felt it important from a historical point of view to tour the prison.