Robben Island
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 19 Jan 2016 03:09
| No trip to Cape Town could be complete without visiting this island. It was here that Nelson Mandela, possibly the most statesmanlike person ever to live, was a political prisoner for 27 years. The whole island is now a museum, and the guides are former prisoners. Mandela’s story is almost incredible, and really uplifting (if you haven’t read ‘A long walk to freedom’ then you should, pronto). Amazingly the SA government has preserved the prison not as a monument to the brutally repressive apartheid regime (which would have been completely understandable), but rather as a tribute to the spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness that somehow emerged from this dreadful place. No time or space to do it justice, but here are a couple of pictures to give the idea: Mandela’s cell:  The appalling limestone quarry where inmates broke rocks by hand in dreadful conditions. The small pile of stones is a traditional African monument. During a reunion on the island Mandela spontaneously picked up a small stone and dropped it in remembrance of all this political prisoners who had died on the island. Everyone present followed suit:  |