Robben Island

This blog is a little late, but its hard to kept day by day updates on our travel schedule, so here is my belated post about the trip to Robben Island. I find it hard to transcribe all of my thoughts, especially when in a new country with so many profound experiences, so I am going to focus on one aspect of the tour.

Despite being in such a beautiful place, Robben Island and the cells on the island are barren. Unlike the rest of South Africa, the cells are void of color, and its difficult to see the ocean over the dry tree line. From most of the cells it is even difficult to see the sun. What is so amazing is that despite the barren nature on the island, some of the political prisoners remained vibrant a, giving individuals. They were resilient and believed in cause bigger than themselves. One example of this is a story that we were told about the lime quarry.

The lime quarry was where some of the prisoners worked during the day. Long days were spent in the hot sand under direct sunlight. To go tithe restroom the prisoners needed to ask for permission. Although the conditions were hard, prisoners found a way to educate themselves. They wrote lessons in the sand as they worked. Many of the political prisoners were teachers, doctors, and men of high educational attainment and wished to share that with their comrades. One man entered the prison with an education certificate for 8th grade and he left with two colleges degrees.

Furthermore, the prisoners do not only share their skills amongst each other. They taught their wardens too. However, as higher officials heard of this they rotated wardens and even removed wardens from the island that they thought were sympathetic to the prisoners. Yet this did not stop the process of learning.

It's amazing how humans can cultivate the human spirit amongst the conditions of a prison. No man is an island, put if you put a man on an island, he will find a way to connect.

And to top it all off, we had a tour guide that was a former political prisoner there and he said to us, " it's all about introspection....check yourself."

In solidarity,
Crys