“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another”. - Nelson Mandela
We decided to visit Robben Island today. Our day began with a 30 minute ferry ride from the Cape Town Waterfront to the island. Robben Island was the site of the maximum security political prison during Apartheid. Anyone who posed a threat to the white supremacist government was arrested and sent to Robben Island. Many of these people were arrested during anti-apartheid protests or were convicted of conspiring against the government. Others, such as Robert Sobukwe, were banished simply because he was a threat. In 1963, the Minister of Police described Sobukwe as “a man of magnetic personality, great organizing ability and a divine sense of mission.” This was the reason given for the enactment of a law that detained Sobukwe and banished him to Robben Island. He was not housed in the actual prison as they claimed he was not a “prisoner”. Sobukwe was isolated in a small house that was within a fenced and barbed wire compound, surrounded by guards, patrol dogs and search lights that panned across the yard. He was not allowed to communicate with any of the other prisoners, his mail was censored (or not delivered at all) and family visits were limited. This is how he spent 6 years of his life . . . but not imprisoned?? . . . Our tour began with a visit to Sobukwe’s house.
After the bus tour we were led on a guided tour of the prison by a fellow who had been a political prisoner there. In 1991 all of the political prisoners were released and in 1996 the prison was officially closed. Robben Island is most famous for being the place where Nelson Mandela spent the majority of his sentence for Conspiracy and speaking out against apartheid. We were shown Mandela’s cell and were told about the harsh conditions within the prison. Torture of the prisoners was common place, punishment was given out freely and the guide told us that if the guards singled a person out for punishment they were taken away and usually were not seen again. The prisoners were forced to work in the limestone quarries and many of them suffered vision damage due to the sun glaring off the limestone. To this day, Nelson Mandela can not tolerate flash photography as it hurts his eyes. There was further segregation between the prisoners depending on whether they were black or coloured, blacks (or “Bantus” as they were called) being considered the bottom of the totem pole. This influenced every aspect of prison life, including meals as there were different provisions depending on race. 
To say the very least, our visit to Robben Island was a very sobering one! We returned to the mainland with heavy hearts having been shown first hand the struggle that had been endured for so many years by so many South Africans.
That evening we decided to have an authentic African dinner. Claude, at the Pezulu Lodge, had recommended that we eat at Mama Africa. We had seen the restaurant while we were on the Hop-on Hop-off bus and directed the taxi driver to drop us there. We made a reservation and then wandered through the shops up and down Long Street until the restaurant opened. It was a great dinner! We ordered the wild platter which was a sample of different kinds of wild meats; crocodile, springbok, ostrich, kudu and a venison sausage. We both decided that the crocodile was too tough however we liked the ostrich, springbok, kudu and sausage in that order. After dinner we enjoyed some live music before hailing a taxi and heading back to the Wilton Manor for the night.
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