SA Day #3: Robben Island

This morning Becks and I were up bright and early to catch the 9am ferry to Robben Island, a prison off of the V&A Harbor in Cape Town. For the fist two centuries after Dias first rounded the Cape of Storms in 1488, Robben Island was used to feed the sailors on passing ships. It was also used as a postbox for their letters and occasionally as a prison for miscreant sailors. During the period of Dutch rule at the Cape (1652 - 1806), the Island continued to be used as a pantry, but also became increasingly important as a prison, mainly for Cape criminals, black and white and political prisoners from the East Indies. It was during this period that the commercial exploitation of the Island's natural resources began. Limestone and shells were used for lime burning and stone and slate were collected for buildings.

In 1806, the island was used as a prison, under the British Government. Prisoners were made up of those awaiting banishment, dangerous Cape criminals and political prisoners from the frontiers of the growing colony. Then, in 1846, the prison on Robben Island was closed. The prisoners were sent to do hard labour in mainland convict stations. They were especially used in roadbuilding. In the old prison buildings the colonial government set up a hospital. It housed chronically sick patients, lunatics and lepers. All but the lepers did hard labour. The men collected rocks to build a new jetty; the women sewed for the government. Robben Island acted mainly as a hospital in the nineteenth century. It had become quite thriving communities, with its own newspaper, the Robben Island Times. The island had also a couple of teachers, priests, medical staff and storekeepers.

Then, in 1961 (until 1991), the island once more became a maximum-security prison, housing political prisoners considered most threatening to the stability of the apartheid government. The most famous of these was arguably Nelson Mandela, the first black president of SA, who was incarcerated on the island from 1964-1982. During his years in prison, Mandela's reputation grew steadily and he became accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement. The pictures included are of his cell. It's incredible to think that such a globally influential man was kept in a space no larger most NYC walk-in closets for over 27 years. While Robben Island has been characterized as 'South Africa's Alcatraz' and an impregnable place of banishment for those opposing the status quo, I think it also it has also can symbolize the great spirit of resistance against colonialism, injustice, and oppression.

I left the island with a deeper appreciation and understanding of the meaning of freedom--politically and socially--and also with a greater respect and admiration for those who have not had that freedom that I was born into and have subsequently had to fight for it. It is places like Robben Island that open our perspectives to broader meanings of simple concepts like freedom that perhaps many of us take for granted...