Robbens Island

Nelson Mandela lived in this cell, B block, cell 5, for almost 20 years before being moved to another prison in Cape Town where he stayed for several more years before being released in the early 90s.

We went to Robbens Island and it was the most emotional part of our trip so far.

You take a half hour boat ride out into the harbor to the Island which has sparse vegetation and must be cold as hell in the winter.

The view of Cape Town is great, but its hard to look at it and not think of what this view looked like to the prisoners who lived on this island for years without hope of getting off.

 

South Africa is a wonderful country and its frankly hard to reconcile the niceness of the people with the pain and suffering that went on here so recently.  It's also a reminder that many countries still practice the hate and segregation that South Africa has moved away from.

Comments

[Helmar]

Robben Island's vegetation is so sparse because of its exposure to the elements. Winter in Cape Town is usually more pleasant than any northern hemisphere summer, unless the cold fronts from the North West hammer it, and with it Robben (no 's') Island.

One thing that made imprisonment on Robben Island so brutal (apart from the abuse by the low-life prison guards) was the bright light in the limestone quarry, where they spent endless time chipping rocks. That really stuffed up the prisoners' eyes, and Nelson Mandela is no exception.

Oh, he actually spent his last years at Victor Verster Prison outside Paarl, where he stayed in a 'house' rather than a prison cell. He was visited regularly, even (secretly) taken out and shown around town.

South Africa may have moved away from racial seggregation, but it has replaced a system of religious and political oppression with one of economic oppression. IOW, it has sold out to capitalism, a system far more evil, insidious and oppressive than apartheid. The weird thing, however, is that they are now all praying at the altar of demockeracy - uhmmm... democracy... willingly handing over their life to mindless consumption and even more mindless entertainment.

During apartheid years, South Africa didn't have a (US-led) fast food problem; it didn't have a drug problem; it didn't have a pornography and child abuse problem; it didn't have a rape problem; it didn't have a violence crime problem; it didn't have a mindless entertainment problem; it didn't have a plethora of casinos, nor was TV wide-spread - in fact it had far less problems than it now has under democracy.

The only problem that it did have was that some half-brained "blankes" (whites) thought the "bantus" (blacks) were inferior, which - coming from a European perspective - is even understandable. And because of that they introduced plenty of brain-dead legislation, which then resulted in the excesses of the apartheid system, and led to the "struggle" that at least offically ended in 1994.

Is South Africa better off now? Clearly not. The same old forces that ruled the old economy are still at play - see banking and telecomms sector. It's just that now you have a few black faces feeding on the carcasses, but the average person in the street is far less protected and consequently far more exposed and vulnerable to the greedy and uncaring capitalists, of which South Africa has far too many.

Weird but befitting example: there were almost no cases of hemorrhoids in the black population. But after the arrival of KFC, McDonalds and other junk food chains, the occurance of it skyrocketed. Same with the effect of processed foods on their teeth, etc etc.

South Africa could have been paradise if 60+ years ago those who were here and those who arrived here from the North had come together and joined forces rather than opposing each other. But instead, the gold and diamond barons exploited the country and its people. Nowadays, the same sad and sorry game is at play, but now with 40m sheeple - most of them blinded, manipulated and indoctrinated, and clueless as to how they are being done in. But I guess it's not different in the US or anywhere else in the world. It's just that in 1994 South Africa had a chance to really create something new - something that links the values of the black cultures with the positive aspects of the white cultures. It didn't. And this is why most people here today live in fear, are paranoid, enslaved by the banks, surrounded by armed patrols and razor (barbed) wire, and followed every step by security cameras. This is why wherever you park your car, some car attendant (usually from Congo) is jumping in your face, begging for a few crumbs to support his measly existence (which still seems to be far better than up-continent in his home country!) Well, Hail democracy! Hail capitalism! What a farce - if you bother to think about it! All about money, all about consumption, all about the suppression of the masses, all about self-enrichment. Amazing, eh?

"Why do you then still live there?", I hear you ask. Because I try not to participate in their game/system - I try to tune into a different frequency, and consequently my enjoyment factor tends to be higher - at least I make myself believe so. :)