Two years ago, I visited Cape Town, South Africa. While there, I made sure to take a tour of Robben Island. This is where Rolihlahla “Nelson” Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years following his armed rebellion against the oppressive white nationalist British government.
I decided to write about this tour now as an intentional juxtaposition to the coup attempt by white supremacists at the United States Capitol building last week. I felt covering this experience is particularly timely in the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the historic second impeachment of Trump is underway, and the inauguration of Biden is next week.
I never wrote about this experience but I find myself thinking about Mandela and this tour often, especially since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. I find myself thinking about racism and its history both at home and abroad. Read on to learn all about my experience touring Robben Island and to hear my reflections on current events.
What Led To Mandela’s Imprisonment
Born Rolihlahla Mandela in Mvezo, South Africa, Mandela was given his English name “Nelson” from a white school teacher as a young boy. His African name Rolihlahla means “troublemaker” and trouble he would make!
As an adult, Mandela led the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC formed a committed response to ending apartheid—institutionalized racial segregation that privileged the white minority in South Africa from the 1940s to the early 1990s.
The ANC initially protested following the civil disobedience principles of Mahatma Gandhi. The government labeled protesters anarchists and communists. Eventually, the government made apartheid laws stricter and permitted martial law including the detainment of protesters on the grounds of “public safety.”
An excerpt on forced removals during apartheid (Photo taken on my visit to Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa)
Police fired on demonstrators killing many at different points throughout the early 1950s. Mandela soon vocalized his belief that violence was necessary to fight a violent government and establish a democratic and free society.
In 1961, Mandela co-founded the armed wing of the ANC known as uMkhonto we Sizwe or “Spear of the Nation.” Later, in defense of their actions, he famously stated,
We are fighting for democracy—majority rule—the right of the Africans to rule Africa. We are fighting for a South Africa in which there will be peace and harmony and equal rights for all people. We are not racialists, as the white oppressors are. The African National Congress has a message of freedom for all who live in our country.
In 1962, Mandela was captured by police and was eventually found guilty of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government. At 44 years old, he was sentenced to life in prison. Mandela was in prison for a total of 27 years, 18 of which were spent on Robben Island.
Getting to Robben Island
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Robben Island is a must see piece of South African history. I knew I couldn’t miss it when I visited Cape Town in 2018.
Robben Island is located in Table Bay to the North of Cape Town. I took a cab down to the Waterfront and made my way to The Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island. This is where I bought my ticket (about $27 USD at the time) and lined up to board the ferry.
Ferries depart three times a day (9am, 11am, and 3pm). I chose the 9am tour because the entire experience takes 3.5 hours and I wanted ample cushion time for my flight home that evening.
The ferry ride is about 30 minutes long and offers gorgeous views of the mainland, including Signal Hill and Table Mountain.
I was lucky that the seas were calm on this day. They can be rough and, if bad enough, tours will get cancelled as a result.
Robben is Dutch for “seal” and I saw why. Approaching the island, there were many fur seals playing in the water. And on the ride back there was one right on the dock when we got off the ferry!
The Prison Tour
Our first stop was the main event—the prison. The best part about the tour of Robben Island is that a former inmate serves as your guide. So you can be sure to get first-hand information about what this place was like during apartheid.
My tourguide was Itumeleng Makwela—a prisoner from 1983-1990. Mandela left in 1982 before Makwela’s arrival but they did meet later on. Makwela was very informative about Mandela’s experience and had a lot to share about his own experience.
Makwela was convicted of high treason for his political activities against the apartheid government. Makwela had many stories about his experiences of torture, work in the kitchens, hunger strikes to improve conditions, and more.
Seated in the room where prisoners were initially processed, Makwela showed our tour group an example of one of the daily prison menus. In true apartheid fashion, less rations were given to prisoners with darker skin (“Bantus”) than those with lighter skin.
Prisoners were moved often from cell to cell but we were shown one cell where Mandela spent some of his 18 years. The cell includes only a bucket, small table, thin mat and some coarse blankets.
Mandela’s cell
Mandela’s cell
Cell corridor
Propaganda photos were used at the time to show the outside world that conditions were “good” inside the prison. These photos were posed for and did not show the truly inhumane conditions prisoners actually experienced.
Propaganda photo used to show humane treatment of prisoners
Makwela discussed many of the ways in which he and the other prisoners were resilient against the terrible conditions. For example, one way they managed to keep hope alive was through stealthy communication with each other. They wrote notes, stuffed them in tennis balls, and threw them out of their cell windows to each other. The resilience they had reminded me of the resilience I read about among prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp.
Today, Makwela lives on the island with his family and regards his tour guide work as therapeutic. I am so grateful to Makwela for sharing his life and stories. First-hand accounts of injustice must be told from the mouths of those who experienced them or else be forgotten.
The Island Bus Tour
The tour finished with a 1-hour bus tour which takes you around the island to different points of interest. A different guide shared about the island including its historic use as a military base and a leper colony.
Like Makwela’s family, many people live on the island. We passed by homes, a school, and a church on the tour.
The guide also described their ongoing conservation efforts. The reason we were on the bus most of the time instead of on foot was to help preserve parts of the island.
We stopped at the limestone quarry where Mandela and other prisoners were put to work. Prisoners used the cave as a toilet and to find some privacy from the guards. That cave was where they shared information, educated each other, and more. Some say the beginnings of the South African Constitution were written there.
The guide explained the pile of rocks there. In Zulu culture, people leave stones at the place of a person’s death much like how Jewish people leave stones on top of graves. Each time Mandela had a reunion of the political prisoners on Robben Island or anytime others visited, they left stones behind for those who were never released from the prison and died on Robben Island.
One of our last stops was near the water opposite a light house. This was mostly a photo opportunity for views of the Cape Town coast.
I imagined how any glimpse of this view—of mainland Africa—must have been filled with such mixed feelings of sorrow and longing among Robben Island prisoners. Their home taken from them, their people oppressed, and now they were trapped, caught by the enemy and unable to continue their fight for justice.
Reflections On White Supremacy In The USA
Frederik Willem de Klerk was the last head of state of white minority rule in South Africa. He ended apartheid, introduced universal suffrage, and released many ANC prisoners, including Mandela in 1990.
Mandela submitting a ballot in the first non-racial democratic election that won him the presidency in 1994 (Photo taken on my visit to Freedom Park)
It took a white man in power and decades of resistance from the ANC and others to finally put an end to apartheid. I wonder if we might see this paralleled in the USA in coming years? If we are going to see this, then white people have a choice to make.
This moment we are in right now in the USA—the coup attempt last week at our nation’s Capitol Building—is what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would call “a white backlash.” What we saw was a direct response to Barack Obama’s presidency, the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, and what they perceive as the minoritizing of white identity in the USA.
Those white supremacist’s violent attack on the Capitol was a visual representation of white power and an attempt to cling to it.
But remember, apartheid happened when white people in South Africa made up only about 20% of the population. They were a minority group. They were a white minority group who seized enough power through the oppression of the majority African people more and more over time.
White people have power in this country by default of bringing Black people over here as slaves.
Slave auction sign and wood carving (Photo taken at my visit to Freedom Park)
Map of the slave trade (Photo taken at my visit to Freedom Park)
Map showing slave trade pathways around Robben Island (Photo taken at my visit to Freedom Park)
When white power is the default it doesn’t just slip away because a democrat (who is a white, cisgender, straight man) wins a free and fair election.
White power doesn’t just slip away because of a few BLM protests, no matter how “violent” or “riotous” they are. As Mandela proved—even violence as a tactic to defeat a violent government is ineffective when you’re Black—he went to prison with hundreds of other ANC members as a result!
White supremacists keep choosing to cling to power that they are no more deserving of than anybody else.
Meanwhile, the choice is easy for me because it’s a moral choice. I choose to be on the right side of history. I choose to stand side by side with my Black siblings as did many white people with the ANC in South Africa. I choose to educate against racism, use my position of power and privilege to tear down racist systems wherever I can, and condemn white supremacy.
In a 1990 interview, Mandela said “The struggle against racial oppression is worldwide.“ So, what about you? What will you choose to do, my white readers?
