Click Here for my Photos of Robben Island
For those not familiar with it, Robben Island was home to nearly 200 political prisoners, including former president Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned there for 27 years. In 1994 – just three years after the last of the prisoners was released (including my tour guide) -- Mandela called a prisoner reunion to help determine the future of Robben Island. Although the majority of the public seemed to want to develop the land it into a casino, the only acceptable choice, the former prisoners said, was to memorialize it.
The mission of Robben Island is not to exhibit the obvious horror of Robben Island, our prison-guide told us, but rather to serve as a testament of the human spirit…
Said Ahmed Kathrada, prisoner 468/64, who was imprisoned for 26 years:
“While we will not forget the brutality of apartheid, we will not want Robben Island to be a monument of our hardship and suffering. We would want it to be a triumph of the human spirit against the forces of evil. A triumph of wisdom and largeness of spirit against small minds and pettiness; a triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness; a triumph of the new South Africa over the old.”
Robben Island accomplishes mission by bringing together not just the physical structures and museum-quality exhibit but, most importantly, by employing eleven guides – all of whom are former political prisoners – to lead the tours. It is remarkable to hear the word “we” to describe an experience rather than “they.”
We learned of the ingenuity the prisoners used to communicate with each other. In one case, they used to put messages inside tennis balls and hit them over the fence into the next yard. “The guards used to claim we were the worst tennis players they had ever seen,” said Yamoula, our guide. Always trying to cause infighting within the prison ranks, the guards typically gave one protest group more food than another. The prisoners refused to give in. They took their food back to the cafeteria and carefully doled out equal portions for each person.
When public pressure rose to release Mandela, the government finally gave in. But Mandela said that unless everyone was freed, he would not go. It took some time, but eventually he got his guarantee. My guide, Yamoula, was among the final 120 prisoners who comprised the last group to leave the Island.
Since 1995, Yamoula has been leading tours of the Island. Each day, he spends eight hours sharing his stories. Those who go on the tours are horrified by what this gentle man once accused of terrorism has to say, but this is not what he wants. “I just want people to understand how we worked together to fight the we experienced at brutality of Robben Island,” he says. “I want them to understand that it does not work to fight violence with violence, but instead with dignity and courage.” Dignity seems to be a word we hear a lot throughout the people of South Africa.
I’m not sure how much longer these guides will work. Yamoula doesn’t seem to be as bothered by the emotional toll the tour takes as he is the physical toll. He says his feet get tired walking the site eight hours a day, but he’s going to do it for as long as he can. Yamoula lives makes his home there on Robben Island, next door to a former warden who now works in the “curio shop.” I ask if he has any desire to get off the island. “One day,” he says.
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