End of apartheid


Cape Town, 22nd of August 2018 – On our first full day in Cape Town, we step onto the boat to visit Robben Island. The waters in front of Cape Town are treacherous and sometimes the trip to Robben Island gets cancelled because of bad weather or a wild sea. We are lucky; it is only cloudy and a bit nippy. We sail on the Madiba 1 and although the island seems to be within arm’s reach, it takes us about one hour to get there. Once there, we get onto a compulsory bus, taking us on a tour of the prison island. On the bus, a pretty, self-conscious woman wearing a headscarf and a rainbow coloured necklace, welcomes us in a loud and clear voice: “My name is Wwwwendy, and I will guide you through the island”. The headscarf or ‘Doek’ in Afrikaans used to be a sign of submission, as black workers had to wear it as part of a cleaning uniform. It can also be a religious, cultural or fashion statement. During our trip, we saw the most intricately folded and colourful doeks and they do look stylish. Wendy gives a brief overview of the way apartheid was conquered. She always speaks very respectful of ‘Doctor’ Nelson Mandela. Eighteen years he spent on Robben Island, having to fight for every small privilege: better food, better bedding, newspapers, a radio… During the forced labour in the quarry, the prisoners did not get sunglasses and badly damaged their eyes. Nelson Mandela ruined his tear glands and suffered from dry eyes ever after. In the last two years of his twenty-year sentence, the government moved him to Drakenstein and started the dialogues that would end apartheid. Inside the prison cells, we get a tour from Sipho Msomi, an ANC member, imprisoned in the eighties for five years. He shows us Madiba’s cell n°5. We look through the bars into a small, cold cell and imagine the prisoner, unyielding in his opinions and beliefs.

Cell n° 5 (FDC)

The quarry where Nelson Mandela did forced labour (FDC)


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