Where prison becomes a freedom icon

For a long time, and upon every visit to Cape Town, I wanted to make it to Robben Island, but somehow the right opportunity didn’t present itself. By sheer chance, upon a recent visit, not only the weather helped us to cross the wavy sea to the island, it happened to be the day before Mandela’s 99th birthday, if he were still with us.
I must admit that it was not an easy trip, not because of the rough sea, long queues or the chilling wind blowing, but because such trips are always a reminder about some sad parts of human history, ones that leave your heart burning.

As we sailed
This tour is by far, one of the most popular tours of Cape Town, not only for tourist who travel from different parts of the world, but also the locals of South Africa. On our boat there were over 250 passengers, among them, were elderly African women who had travelled from different parts of South Africa to visit the Prison Island.

Again, by pure chance, the gentleman sitting next to us during the boat ride, was a South African police officer from Pretoria. He had brought his family with him, and said they were thrilled to be able to finally make it to the island. After this brief conversation, and even before we reach the island, I inhaled the fragrant breezes of freedom that these freedom fighters brought along. Here we were, only a few years after a long and painful struggle, the indigenous population are now also in charge.

First stop
The island itself was not very big, on board a bus it does not take more than 10 minutes to make a tour of the Island. The first stop was a block for solitary confinements, ones that prisoners could barely sleep in. it was mentioned that no one talked to these prisoners during their confinement, some went even for six years without being able to talk to anyone.

Second stop
The second stop was the stone quarry where Mandela and other prisoners were forced to crush stones, the young guide who was briefing us during this tour said that at the time, these stones were not used for anything, it was just a method of punishment for the prisoners, today however, they are used for different purposes around the island.

Third stop
The next and the most interesting stop was the prison block itself. Here, the tour took a very thrilling turn. Our tour guide this time, was himself a previous freedom fighter, who was imprisoned at the age of 18.
He took us back to the history of this place with all its painful details; however, the most fascinating part was that he spoke with such a calm demeanour, that one sensed that like Mandela, most of these previous prisoners, have reconciled with the ones who commit