Robben Island

The gateway to Robben Island

Wednesday morning I got up and went for a 5 mile run in Somerset West. I have been trained by the media to be nervous about being on my own anywhere here, so there was a tiny bit of trepidation about doing the run, but I had a great time of it, as the scenery was fantastic and the locals I encountered were nothing if not friendly.

After the run, the group headed into Cape Town to putter around before our boat trip to Robben Island. At noon Wednesday here in South Africa, everyone in the country was supposed to blow their vuvuzelas (those plastic horns that make a really loud droning noise) in support of "Bafana Bafana" (or "The Boys," the nickname of South Africa's soccer team). There was some minor partying going on around the Waterfront, and we got a chance to see some of the South African fans and also some French fans here ahead of their game with Uruguay on Friday. Fun times. We even encountered some English fans in a pub, who greeted us "Yanks" with their customary rhyming slang term for Americans: "Septic Tanks." All in good fun, as we had a good laugh with the English fans and assured them that they've got their work cut out for them to take 3 points from the USA on Saturday.

South African fans blowing their vuvuzelas

So after a day's wait, we finally made the trip to Robben Island, the site of 18 years of Nelson Mandela's 27 year prison sentence which he served during South Africa's Apartheid regime. The ferry ride from Cape Town Waterfront takes about 35-40 minutes, and it makes the possibility of escape seem very remote (only three have ever escaped in 350 years).

We had a very engaging guide on the bus that led us around the Island. He was a young South African man who identified himself as "colored" in the context of the Apartheid government. He went on to explain the systematic creation of racial divisions created by the philosophy of Apartheid. This was done to ensure that the racial classes that were being oppressed would have slightly different fortunes to each other, and thus would not unite for the (slightly) more privileged classes' fear of losing what little scraps they were being given by the Apartheid government. It was definitely an education for me, and when I return home, I'll have to do more research on Apartheid.

The last part of the tour was guided by a former political prisoner, a man named Ngando who served seven years in the prison from 1984-1991. He told us about life on Robben Island, the awful diet the inmates were given, the squalid living conditions they endured, and some of the torture they were subjected to. All in all an eye-opening experience, and it actually gives me hope to see a man like this who can within a very short space of time see many (definitely not all) of the injustices of his country corrected. As our other guide said earlier, though, South Africa is just recently recovering from a long-standing, deep psychological and physical wound on its culture and citizens, and it will take a very long time before it is healed.

Ngando and I at Robben Island Prison