Cape Town: 11th September 09

Today we took a boat trip out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandella was incarcerated for 18 of his 27 years in prison. The views of Table Mountain were amazing on the trip out to the island which lasted about half an hour. We were taken on a bus tour around the island before joining a guided tour of the prison by one of the ex inmates.

Robben Island was used by the South African government to house non white political prisoners during the apartied years. Although the different ethnic groups were housed together in communal cells they were divided by treatment, the black inmates were given different food to the Indian inmates, on the basis of the divide and rule theory.

Nelson Mandella, together with other senior political leaders were housed in single cells measuring about 6 feet by 4 (very small indeed), we were able to see the cell which Mandella occupied for 18 years during which he wrote the manuscript for his book ‘the long march to freedom’ – Paul is reading it at the moment . The tour was very moving, particularly the concept of reconciliation which was advocated by Mandella in order to move forward from the apartied era. The concept of reconciliation came from the same philosophy adopted by Martin Luther King and Ghandi. There were a couple of elderly black ladies in the prison with us – as we left they held hands and walked along in silence – it must have been very moving for them to see the prison and hear about all of the events that have shaped their lives.

On the way back to our hotel we met a very interesting taxi driver who at 70 years old regularly made the hike from the waterfront to the summit of table mountain, a six hour round trip. He has also written a semi autobiographical book about his experience growing up in South Africa as a descendent of the white colonists and his views on the current political situation in South Africa. He was very pessimistic about the future as a white South African and thinks the Government are about to introduce land reform legislation along similar lines to Zimbabwe, to the extent he is looking to emigrate. He told us the book is due to be published by the end of the year as long as his children don’t carry out their threat to sue the publishers, fearing ramifications threatening their own safety if the book is published.