Robben Island

Today we made the 40 minute ferry crossing to Robben Island to witness the prison where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were incarcerated.

The main photo is of the limestone quarry where inmates worked 8 hours a day in all conditions, chipping the stone and moving it from one end of the quarry to the other; it was never used for anything. Many of them suffered damage to their lungs, skin and eyesight due to the dust; Mandela was left unable to cry due to the damage done to his tear ducts.

This quarry and the cave behind it where they sheltered during breaks is also the place where Mandela and his fellow prisoners secretly educated each other, sharing information and ideas that were to be the foundations of their vision for the future of their country.

The pile of stones was laid at a reunion after that vision had become reality: apparently Mandela spontaneously picked up a stone and dropped it at the entrance to the quarry and others silently followed suit. A simple pile of stones has become a symbol of rebuilding and hope.

Our guide to the prison buildings was a former inmate, arrested at a protest rally in his teens and imprisoned on the island for 5 years. Like many others he has stayed on to live permanently on the island alongside other former prisoners, warders and others who now work on the island. Part of the small settlement is in extras, seen from the ferry as we arrived. Someone asked him why he chose to stay rather than go back to the mainland. All he would say was "Circumstances."

The windy, cloudy and bleak weather matched the sense of decay and scrubby landscape of the island, although it is also a nature reserve, home to teeming birdlife, penguins, antelope and ostrich apparently.

From one end of the island is what must have been a tantalising view of Table Mountain, although not today as it was hidden by a shroud of cloud. The whole experience was both moving and sobering.