Robben Island
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
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22
23
Trip End
May 09, 2006
Robben Island,
South Africa
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The first half of the tour is a bus ride around Robben Island - which, surprisingly to me, was more than just a prison - I'd had images of Alcatraz. There's a village, a couple of churches, an airport, and a whole bunch of cute, furry animals running around, waiting to be turned into biltong.
The tour is full of black humour (pun intended) - including such gems as a picture of 6 white guys with a black guy, delivered with the comment "if you can't work out which is the prisoner, I'll be happy to help". Duh. Some of the "highlights" include the prison block built solely for Robert Mobukwe, imprisoned for "inciting" the Sharpeville Massacre; the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela (and many others) did make-work digging and almost went blind; and the dog cages, which are bigger and better ventilated than the cells in B Block, where the trouble makers - including Madiba - where imprisoned.
The second half of the tour is the real eye opener - a walk around the prison cells with a former political prisoner. In our case, a man named Dennis who was locked up for 8 years, at the age of 18, for "Sabotage". As you could imagine, he's full of opinions about Robben Island, the folks who imprisoned him, the old South Africa, and the new South Africa.
After that, it was the mandatory ushering past the souvenir opportunities (all crap) and back on to the ferry, for an (attempted) ascent of Table Mountain.
