{"id":11009,"date":"2011-06-07T13:38:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T18:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/365saturdays.org\/blog\/?p=11009"},"modified":"2011-06-08T19:10:23","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T00:10:23","slug":"robben-island-prison-for-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/365saturdays.org\/blog\/?p=11009","title":{"rendered":"Robben Island – Prison for Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An iron door sealed us in.\u00a0 We were locked into a large empty cement room.\u00a0 A thin, spectacled black man stepped forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are here for a short visit, but I was locked in this prison for nine years.\u00a0 I was sent here by the white South African government because I had joined the military wing of the African National Congress.\u00a0 We lived by a strict schedule.\u00a0 Lights on at 7am, doors unlocked at 9am, go out for work in the limestone quarries.\u00a0 Lunch at noon.\u00a0 Back to the quarries until 4pm, then shower up and dinner.\u00a0 In the evenings, we would gather in small groups for political discussions.\u00a0 At night, sleep on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our guide was an ex-prisoner, stepping forward from history to lead tours of his own prison.\u00a0 He was the ideal person to educate the public about Robbens Island, the South African version of Alcatraz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had taken a brisk 30-minute boat ride to reach the island.\u00a0 It was a pretty day and we did not mind the spray and swells under bright blue skies.\u00a0 The boat chugged forward steadily under diesel power.\u00a0 As the city of Capetown slowly dwindled behind us, so did any possible prayer of swimming home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once there, a bus ride around the island showed that the prisoners were generally locked into cement buildings with iron bars surrounded by barbed wire.\u00a0 No exit.\u00a0 No escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cMail was censored.\u00a0 Prisoners were separated by group based on race.\u00a0 Political prisoners were kept apart from common law prisoners.\u00a0 They put us political leaders into solitary confinement.\u00a0 At first we had 23 hours of solitary per day, with 30 minutes to exercise in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.\u00a0 In the 70s we were allowed to work.\u00a0 Most of us worked in the limestone quarries.\u00a0 Nearly all the leaders of the black national groups were sent here, including Nelson Mandela, the Muslim branch of the ANC, the non-Muslim branch of the ANC, and the PAC.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the bus tour we stopped to see the special separate building where they held Robert Sobukwe for nearly his entire adult life.\u00a0 Sobukwe was the intellectual leader of the Pan-African movement or PAC.\u00a0 He had joined the ANC and then broke off to form the more aggressive group to actively start a revolt against the white South African government.\u00a0 He was jailed for three years.\u00a0 Just before his release day, the government passed a special Robert Sobukwe law (!) and determined that because of his dangerous ideas, he should be held in isolation on Robbens Island for the rest of his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The walls of Sobukwe\u2019s old cell are now exhibits that show the letters he shared with his wife.\u00a0 A few are romantic, but most are filled with struggle.\u00a0 A repeated attempt to get new shoes.\u00a0 Searching for ways to pay bills.\u00a0 Desperation for help from abroad.\u00a0 Seeking new books.\u00a0 He could not communicate with any of the other political leaders on the island except by cryptic hand signal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a brief investigation, the loneliness had chased all of us back onto the bus.\u00a0 Then we entered the main prison area and met the ex-prisoner who was in front of us now.<\/p>\n

We asked him whether the gathering of all the different political leaders into one main prison had actually changed the course of South African history?\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 First, because we were all together, the different groups started to negotiate with each other very early.\u00a0 Mandela started negotiating even back in the 1980s.\u00a0 Even though the prisoners were separated, we found ways to keep talking.\u00a0 And second, I can tell you this.\u00a0 If it had not been for Mandela, it would have turned out differently.\u00a0 A lot of people were going to die.\u201d\u00a0 He looked us right in the eyes.\u00a0 \u201cA lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

We struggled to digest this.\u00a0 The political change in South Africa had taken decades to occur, but in the end it was a peaceful exchange of power.\u00a0 The new government was democratic and restored order fairly soon.\u00a0 Change in government often produces a power vacuum and years of chaos as factions fight \u2013 such as when the Chinese had overthrown their emperor or as we see today in the aftermath of the Arab spring. \u00a0Perhaps by bottling up the faction leaders together, the white South African government had unintentionally done some good for the country.\u00a0 And Nelson Mandela had clearly made a huge personal difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We filed past the cell where he had stayed for so many years (the picture above is of Mandela’s cell).\u00a0 It was barely large enough to lie down \u2013 perhaps 6\u2019 by 8\u2019.\u00a0 There was a small window with no view.\u00a0 He had 4 blankets and a thin mat and slept on cement that must have been bone cold in winter.\u00a0 No plumbing – a bucket in one corner was his bathroom.\u00a0 No furniture was allowed until the late 1970s and then only a metal bed, bookshelf and lamp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What kind of heart could long endure here?<\/p>\n

We stopped at the limestone quarries.\u00a0 Over the course of decades, the political prisoners had carved nearly a football field of space here out of the side of a mountain.\u00a0 Each day the sun had blinded them and the dust had filled their eyes and mouths.\u00a0 Many lost a portion of their vision.\u00a0 Those who would not work were punished.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a pointless task as little of the stone was ever used.<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela and a thousand other political prisoners returned to visit Robben Island in 1995.\u00a0 They spilled off the boat and wandered down the streets.\u00a0 They gazed at fences, walls, bars.<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela went to the quarries, to the farthest corner.<\/p>\n

He leaned down to lift up a stone bigger than his fist.\u00a0 As all the other ex-prisoners watched, he walked slowly back across the quarry.\u00a0 He leaned down again, and placed the stone exactly at the center where the digging had first started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One by one, the other prisoners found their stones and did the same, building a mound that is still there today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We stared at it the pile of stones.\u00a0 We saw a painful memory, a farewell, and a testament to resilience and faith.\u00a0 The prisoners had left the best part of their lives behind in this quarry.\u00a0 But not in vain.<\/p>\n

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