9.12.2017 Visit Robben Island – another “tourist thing”?
Another day of “waiting” for flying weather in Capetown. While the group from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who will fly with us to Novo and then on to Halley, went on safari, I decided to take a tour to Robben Island, the former prison island in Table Bay. Admittedly, apart from the fact that I had been interested in South African history and the anti-apartheid movement ever since my first visit to this country, one reason to go there was that I wanted to experience Capetown once more from the sea. Well, after 5 min the ship disappeared in a fog bank and Table Mountain was gone. (So much for “experiencing Capetown from the sea”).
Fog bank above the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean west of Capetown
We arrived with the boat at the island in the fog, which did not make it appear more cheerful. A flat, windswept, small island, surrounded by the chilly waters of the Benguela Current. I found it rather depressing, all the fences, watch towers and old prison buildings, the quarries, where the prisoners were forced to work. We also saw two old churches. After they had driven us around in a bus for a while, we were shown the cells of the high-security prison, where, among others, Nelson Mandela had served 18 years of his 27-year sentence.
Nelson Mandela
Our guide there was a former inmate, who told us about his personal experience. We were all seated on wooden benches in one of the big cells, in which forty or fifty prisoners had lived together. About 30 tourists, who listened carefully to the guy telling his story, the looks on their faces becoming more and more disturbed, no matter of which color the face was. When we were shown Nelson Mandela’s cell, I did not even feel like taking photos, it seemed somehow inappropriate. So, I must say, I was deeply impressed by this visit, it was clearly no touristic sightseeing for fun, and I can only hope that this beautiful country can overcome its difficulties in the not too far away future.
The last political prisoner was released in 1991. Robben Island is a museum now. The UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1999.
View to Table Mountain on the way home from Robben Island. Had to take the photo through a little hole close to the bottom since we were not allowed on deck and the windows were all wet with seaspray.
The less serious end of the story: I finally got the chance to use my admittedly restricted vocabulary of the Zulu language (saved in my brain 25 years ago) and thanked the guide in his mother tongue: Syabonga gakulu! He understood me perfectly and was appropriately impressed. And on the way home we did see Table Mountain from the boat again.
