Robben Island

Robben’s Island was another ‘must see.’ It was once the prison where Nelson Mandela and many other anti-apartheid activists were jailed. Now, it has become a national monument to which tourists and school children pay homage.

After a 45-minute boat ride from Cape Town, we debarked on the island and turned right towards the main gate. When I first saw the forbidding entrance gates to the prison, they were emblazoned with a slogan that momentarily reminded me of the gates of Auchwitz. I worried that the curators of the Island would portray the political incarceration there in a similar light. As bad as apartheid was, it cannot match the 12 million souls exterminated in the Holocaust. Fortunately, the curators chose instead to emphasize the Island’s role in the struggle for majority rule in South Africa. While they mentioned the hardships and cruelty inflicted upon inmates, the focus was squarely on how the island served as an incubator for anti-apartheid thought and action.


Physically, the island is a small, flat rocky piece of land about 7½ miles from Cape Town. There are few tall trees, and very little shelter from the winds that come across Table Bay. From the southern and eastern sides of the island, Cape Town is easily visible as symbol of freedom that was just out of reach of the prisoners. There is also a large cell block complex, a quarry, and pleasant accomodation for the wardens, guards, and their families.


The Island began to be used for political prisoners in the 1960s, when nonwhites reacted against the newly instated apartheid laws. Prior to its use for political prisoners, it was a regular prison for criminals. When Mandela arrived in 1962, he shared space with the criminals, who were urged by wardens to abuse the political inmates.

Our tour guide – who had been a political prisoner on the island himself – drove us to a a large quarry used for hard labor. In the quarry was a small cave that had been used as a toilet. Unbeknownst to most of the guards, inmates also used that cave as a makeshift classroom. They taught each other everything from basic literacy to revolutionary tactics and philosophy. Our guide told us that a few illiterate guards even learned to read from the inmates!

South African authorities used a variety of techniques to try to break inmates’ spirits. Just being housed on the island, with the freedom of Cape Town in view, must have been demoralizing. In the early years, inmates were only allowed one visit and one letter per year. The authorities also tried to divide and conquer, by giving different privileges to different racial classifications. Asians and ‘coloureds’ got slightly more food than blacks, for example.


Some inmates, like Mandela, were placed in single cells. On the tour we saw his cell, which had blankets for sleeping, a table for writing, and a bucket for a toilet. It was small, but my first room in NYC was actually smaller. The cells would have been quite cold in winter as there was no heat and temperatures could plunge below freezing. Our guide told us that inmates were issued four blankets when they arrived, and normally they slept on two and under two. But when it got really cold, they had to decide whether to wrap up and sleep without padding, or whether to have a softer but colder bed.


Other inmates were housed in dormitory units. In the dorms, inmates were graded by different letters, according to how compliant they had been. ‘D’ inmates were allowed the fewest letters and visits, and received no extra rations. ‘C’ inmates received some extra rations, ‘B’ prisoners, received even more, etc. Each prisoner started as a ‘D,’ but with good behavior he could move up the ladder. The intention was to reward good behavior, but also to set the inmates against each other by creating a hierarchy that wily prisoners could exploit. However, the activists found a solution. The men in each dorm decided that all the extra rations were to be shared equally. In this way, as in many other small examples, Robben’s Island served as an incubator for the revolutionary unity.

Ultimately, seeing Robben Island was interesting in an intellectual way. Fortunately – both for me and for all of South Africa – it didn't pack the emotional punch of that prison it first reminded me of. But the island does serve as a continuing symbol of the cruelty of apartheid, of the inmates’ inspiring response to their captivity, and as a light of hope for South Africa’s future.