Robben Island

Day 44 - Thursday July 8th, Cape Town

Today we went to Robben Island, the prison off the coast where political prisoners were held during the apartheid era. We took a 30 minute ferry out there and then had about an hour bus tour around the island. We saw all the main non-prison sights at that point, including the church and cemetery from when the island served as a leper colony as well as the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela worked. Our bus tour guide, Kent, was quite the colorful character and we enjoyed his narration.

After the bus tour, we got a tour of the prison from a former prisoner. I realized that he hadn't even been born when Mandela was first imprisoned, which did more than anything to underscore the absurd amount of time Mandela was in prison an highlight how long Mama arduous the struggle against apartheid was. We saw the larger communal cells (including the cell of our guide), the courtyard where they played games and where Mandela buried the manuscript of his autobiography which I'm currently reading, and the building with single cells used for those considered to be dangerous among the leadership. There we saw the cell where Mandela spent 18 of his 30 years in prison.

It was a very interesting experience especially to be led around by a former prisoner. Our guide had left South Africa to get military training in Angola to resist the apartheid regime and was arrested when he returned to the country. He was imprisoned and tortured for 6 months in Johannesburg before being tried and sentenced to seven years (I think...) on Robben Island.

The ferry was delayed coming back, so we didn't have time to do much else before returning to the hostel. We did make a quick walk up to see the stadium, but weren't allowed to get very close, so didn't see that much.