So yesterday began quite depressingly. Well depressingly because of what we saw on our trip to Robben Island. Again, Robben Island is an island in the Atlantic Ocean about a 30 minute ferry ride off the shore of Cape Town. Its isolation, similar to that of Alcatraz, made it a convenient location for one of the most brutal prisons on earth. They housed all sorts of criminals here including political prisoners, one of which was Nelson Mandela who served 18 of his 27 years in prison there.
During our visit to Robben Island we were shown around the prison by an ex political prisoner who served 7 years from 1983, a year after Mandela was released. He was imprisoned because he was involved with Guerilla Military Units from the ANC (African National Congress) during Apartheid. He was tortured endlessly and only once they put him on the electric chair did he finally speak.
Their rooms were smaller than the kennels that the guards dogs spent the nights in, no beds, only a small mat on the floor in which to sleep on, their showers cold, their toilets were buckets and all they did was dig for limestone with their bare hands. Most of the time there was no purpose for the limestone, simply moving it from point A to point B until it was needed to renovate roads or prison blocks. These poor conditions led to the prisoners protesting via a hunger strike. Eventually the government had to give in to their requests such as hot water, and beds. One of the greatest rewards from the hunger strike though was football.
Football and sports was one of their demands. Football was an extremely popular game amongst the Blacks in South Africa and many of the prisoners had played professionally. They were able to form an organized league in the prison and there were several teams that participated in this league. The prisoners had their lawyers organize each team to have their own kits, football boots etc. The prisoners even made their own trophy which was extremely coveted by the teams. He laughed and said there were many times when the referee would side with one teams over the other and the game would be halted when one of the upset players would kick the ball off the island. He described their football experience with such passion because it offered family members of the prisoners to attend these football matches on Robben Island. His story was extremely moving. Football was a method of Unity for the prisoners and it gave them something to look forward to every week despite all the struggles they faced in prison.
In cell block ‘B’ where they kept all the ‘leaders’ of the political prisoners, such as Mandela. They were limited to games like volleyball and tennis because they had greater access to a smaller court within their cell block. They also wanted to isolate these individuals and ensure a lack of communication to the rest of the prison. Apparently Mandela was quite a decent Tennis Player. He said that they use to cut a slit into the tennis ball and insert a note into it. They would then hit the ball over the wall into another cell block and communicate that way. Creative Stuff!
At the end of the tour the ex political prisoner that showed us around noticed my mate’s ‘USA’ Jacket. He said “You got robbed” referring to the referee’s decision to disallow Edu’s potential winning goal against Slovenia. It was at that point when it really hit home the magnitude of what he went through during his time on Robben Island and that in fact he was the one who truly got robbed 7 years of his life to fight for freedom.
Nelson Mandela
Me and the ex political prisoner from Robben Island