Fundisa: Robben Island and Some Other Thoughts

Study Abroad

I am staying with some college students from Marquette University. They are very collegy for me - up late, etc. I feel somewhat old around them:)

Bo-Kaap

The Bo-Kaap is a primarily Muslim area that is surviving in Cape Town. It's almost all alleyways and row houses - very cool area. I walked up there from downtown Cape Town a couple of days ago, went to a couple of halal markets. The houses and streets are pretty cool, here are some pics:

This is the main street - Wale St. - a big artery into the neighborhood. The green in the background are the foothills of Table Mountain.

This is an example of one of the smaller streets - notice how brightly painted the houses are.

Some cool Cape Town graffiti on Loop St.

Robben Island

This is one of the most important pieces of history I have seen so far. Robben Island is, most famously, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for the large majority of his time incarcerated. There were many political prisoners held here, including Walter Sisulu, Robert Sibukwe and others. The island is now a museum (a bit like Alcatraz, if it had housed Malcolm X and Martin Luther King at once instead of a bunch of murderers). You take a ferry there from downtown and then a bus trip around the island to see some of the sights. One of those is this house, which is where Mandela and Hilary Clinton dedicated the island when it first became a museum. It was something else before that - but for some reason I can't remember it now.

Robben Island was also used a lot during WWII, and this is one of the left over batteries from that.

One of the most interesting stops on the bus trip was at the Lime Quarry, where the prisoners (including Mandela) worked all day. The lime gets bright white in the sun, and the prisoners were not allowed any protective gear, so many went blind or had eye trouble when they left. Mandela has had to have operations on his eyes as well. The pile you see here was made by prisoners who returned after the prison was shut down to commemorate the struggle that happened here. Mandela placed the first stone.

Here are some of the limestone walls and a small hole that no one knows why it exists. The prisoners would hide from the sun in here on breaks. One thing that happened in this prison which was unique was the political education. So many of these people were political prisoners, and when they were put together they used the time to talk politics and teach each other. They had a slogan: each one, teach one. Because not everyone was educated, not everyone could participate in full on debate at first, but as they became more educated they would teach another, and so on. The lime quarry was jokingly referred to as the University of Robben Island.

There are penguins here too - here are some about to investigate our parked bus.

This is the block that housed the leaders of the movement. Mandela's window was the fourth from the left. Behind this picture was Mandela's garden, where he hid his writings during his time here. They were smuggled off the island and now they are what mostly make up A Long Walk to Freedom.

Here is Mandela's cell, unchanged. You are seeing most of it. Even by prison standards, it is extremely small.

The tour is run by a former political prisoner - which was really interesting. He had to rush a little bit since the boat was late, but it was amazing to hear his voice - like hearing a holocaust survivor or a veteran - you have no idea how much longer these guys will be around.

Not everyone lived in solitary confinement - the majority of prisoners lived in rooms like this. They were separated by race at mealtimes (there were no whites or women on the island), with each man getting an amount and type of food commensurate with his race. They also messed with meals to turn the prisoners against each other by giving someone more food than another. The prisoners figured this out, so they would each contribute their food to one massive pool and take an equal amount from there - with the exception of the sick or diabetic, those would get more. There was an amazing spirit of comradeship, and a collective distrust and rebellion against the guards. The tour guide told us in no uncertain words: we were not cooperative.