0:00:20 > 0:00:22A DOG BARKS
0:00:35 > 0:00:39This is Robben Island. This one is a blue hell.
0:00:43 > 0:00:49Prisoners are not allowed to sing. Prisoners are not allowed to whistle.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Prisoners are not allowed to treat warders with disrespect.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59It was assault. It was insult. It was hounds set at you.
0:00:59 > 0:01:05With all those Afrikaaner, the warders, shouting,
0:01:05 > 0:01:09"You shall never get that freedom."
0:01:13 > 0:01:17They raided our cells at night.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22They stood me, told me to hold the wall.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25That was one incident,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29but personally I felt very bitter - angry.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36The spirit of solidarity with our cause
0:01:36 > 0:01:40was visible and we could cut it with a knife.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46This is what gave us the hope that one day we would return.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58The accused are Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Dennis Theodore Goldberg,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Govan Archibald Mbeki,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Lionel Gabriel Bernstein,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Raymond Mhlaba,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18They are charged on two counts of sabotage -
0:02:18 > 0:02:21one of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and one of contravening the General Law Amendment Act.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29The verdict will be...
0:02:29 > 0:02:34accused number one is found guilty on all four counts,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39accused number two is found guilty on all four counts,
0:02:39 > 0:02:45accused number three is found guilty on all four counts...
0:02:46 > 0:02:51In June 1964, the main defendants in the Rivonia treason trial
0:02:51 > 0:02:54were flown to the new maximum security prison on Robben Island
0:02:54 > 0:02:59to serve life sentences alongside other South African political prisoners.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04Only intense international pressure had saved them from the death penalty.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10I felt relaxed when I got down in the plane
0:03:10 > 0:03:13in Robben Island.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19The atmosphere was quite different and I knew I had come to stay,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23I'm not passing, and therefore I was completely relaxed.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27The struggle for physical survival was not the issue.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30You had to struggle at all levels.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34It was a struggle for dignity even more than survival.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40Robben Island was not a death camp or a concentration camp of any kind.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43That was what made a lot of people survive whole.
0:03:43 > 0:03:50If we'd had to continue to struggle at that level, I don't think many people would've come out whole.
0:03:52 > 0:03:59What was important was the fact that the ideas for which we were sent to Robben Island would never die.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06And we were therefore able to go through
0:04:06 > 0:04:08some of the harshest experiences
0:04:08 > 0:04:15which a human being can have behind bars,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19especially a South African prison
0:04:19 > 0:04:23where the warders were drawn from a community
0:04:23 > 0:04:29which has always treated the blacks like pieces of rags.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41You are locked up in the cell.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43A single cell.
0:04:45 > 0:04:52You are allowed exercise - half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55In the early years of our arrival,
0:04:55 > 0:05:00you had no bed - you were using a coir mat.
0:05:01 > 0:05:07You fold your blankets, you would sit on that,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09and yet there would come another warder
0:05:09 > 0:05:16who'd say, "You take those blankets out into the passage,"
0:05:16 > 0:05:19so that you'd be left sitting on...
0:05:19 > 0:05:22that coir mat.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24And if we recall...
0:05:25 > 0:05:27..that Robben Island
0:05:27 > 0:05:30is in the Atlantic Ocean -
0:05:30 > 0:05:33it's cold.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38And the winters can be terribly cold.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51Robben Island lies just 7km from the mainland at the southernmost tip of Africa
0:05:51 > 0:05:54in the bay which is dominated by modern-day Cape Town.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Its recorded history dates back to the 15th century
0:05:58 > 0:06:01when it was visited by sailors passing the Cape of Good Hope
0:06:01 > 0:06:04on their way to and from India and the East.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09"In this bay, there is a small island
0:06:09 > 0:06:12"not inhabited, nor any good thing groweth.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16"In this island, there is an abundance of seals and penguins
0:06:16 > 0:06:19"in such number as is almost incredible.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22"The penguin is a strange creature.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27"Being a bird which has a strange and proud kind of going, thereof the bigness of a duck.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32"They have finny wings with which they swim a great pace, but cannot fly.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36"The eggs of these penguins was there in such abundance
0:06:36 > 0:06:41"so that we laden our boat with seals, penguins and eggs in two hours."
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Few visitors stayed long on the island as there was no fresh water
0:06:56 > 0:07:00and the rocky shoreline made landing extremely difficult.
0:07:01 > 0:07:07Surrounded by near freezing waters and treacherous currents, the island is a natural fortress.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Like its US counterpart, Alcatraz, an ideal place of banishment
0:07:11 > 0:07:14for enemies of the state and other offenders.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18They wanted to deep freeze us
0:07:18 > 0:07:21so that we were forgotten by our people
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and the flame of liberation is obliterated.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29The fact that, for instance, we were in a complete state of siege
0:07:29 > 0:07:33to drive in the point you are not entitled to be in contact
0:07:33 > 0:07:38with the civilised world and that you were there to die.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41I remember one guy....er...er...
0:07:41 > 0:07:47who would...who would make the point expressly
0:07:47 > 0:07:50that you must pay the price.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54Prison is a place in which you must suffer.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01If we were to convert this place into a five-star hotel,
0:08:01 > 0:08:06then you'd be coming in here, you know,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09in your thousands.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16The first thing we had to do was get into Robben Island clothing.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22I was given long pants, jersey, shirt, jacket, shoes, socks.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25They were given the same clothing,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30except they were given short pants to wear right through the winter.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36and they were given no socks. As a special concession, they were given shoes
0:08:36 > 0:08:42because African prisoners, according to regulations, were only allowed sandals.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48The African prisoners were
0:08:48 > 0:08:52put on the F diet scale.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57And for us, there was no bread.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01We longed for bread.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05We longed for bread.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10And...
0:09:13 > 0:09:16..what struck us, what was strange to us...
0:09:18 > 0:09:22..was that the people who were denying us bread...
0:09:23 > 0:09:26..were very keen to tell us -
0:09:26 > 0:09:28almost daily...
0:09:29 > 0:09:32..that...
0:09:32 > 0:09:34they were religious...
0:09:36 > 0:09:38..and that they were Christians.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45And they prayed every day, probably twice daily...
0:09:46 > 0:09:51..and did that with their families too and their children,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53"Give us this day, our daily bread."
0:09:54 > 0:09:56And yet, to them...
0:09:58 > 0:10:01..we were not part of the "us"
0:10:01 > 0:10:04that should be given daily bread.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
0:10:11 > 0:10:13"and in the power of his might.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17"Put on the whole armour of God
0:10:17 > 0:10:22"that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood
0:10:25 > 0:10:29"but against principalities, against powers,
0:10:29 > 0:10:36"against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
0:10:39 > 0:10:41I actually lost hope at one time,
0:10:41 > 0:10:46hope of ever coming out alive in Robben Island.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52There was no reading material that was allowed for us to read
0:10:52 > 0:10:54except the Bible.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59And we were also not allowed to have contact with the other people.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01I was in isolation all this time.
0:11:01 > 0:11:08And I was not allowed to have discussions with any of my fellow prisoners
0:11:08 > 0:11:11outside P section where we were kept.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19A few days after our arrival, we were taken out for the first time,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24out of our cells to wait in the yard, the courtyard.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Little knowing people from Britain would be arriving from London.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36I think they were representing the Daily Telegraph, a newspaper.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43When they got there, they found us...
0:11:43 > 0:11:46knitting jerseys, all jerseys,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48mending them, so to speak.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56And prison authorities said, "Well, this is the type of work we are giving them."
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Simple work,
0:12:00 > 0:12:06which did not need, you know, hard labour or something.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11They inspected the prison
0:12:11 > 0:12:13and took photos.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21That is how that picture was taken. It was taken whilst I was talking to Nelson.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24We were aware
0:12:24 > 0:12:29that they were allowed because they were right-wing
0:12:29 > 0:12:32and that it was going to be propaganda.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36The moment they left...
0:12:38 > 0:12:41..everything was taken away from us,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46and stones, big rocks were brought
0:12:46 > 0:12:48into our yard
0:12:48 > 0:12:51on wheelbarrows.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53And the instructions were,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57"You break this into small stones."
0:12:59 > 0:13:02That was the type of work we did at the beginning.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07We were then taken out to go and work in the land quarry.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17Political prisoners who had been lawyers, teachers or journalists in civilian life
0:13:17 > 0:13:20were made to dig lime in all weathers.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23They were punished if they complained of the cold in winter
0:13:23 > 0:13:26or the glare from the lime in summer which ruined many of their eyes.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Some, like Sisulu and Mbeki, were already in their 50s
0:13:32 > 0:13:35and as they worked, they sang to keep up their morale.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37SINGING
0:13:40 > 0:13:46We would be wielding the pick up and up to music
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and down and down all in harmony.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53It reserved...
0:13:53 > 0:13:56it reserved our energy.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58And if...
0:13:58 > 0:14:03you found that there were workers who were working fast.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07As you walked past...
0:14:10 > 0:14:13..an expression like this would go.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19And you are not even stopping to address the workers.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24You say this is now in Kosa.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29HE SPEAKS IN KOSA
0:14:33 > 0:14:39"The white man's work never gets finished, comrades. On your knees."
0:14:39 > 0:14:42That's the expression.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50The labour of Africans and slaves had been used to construct white South Africa
0:14:50 > 0:14:54since its earliest days as a settlement of the Dutch East India Company,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57which used it to provision its fleets.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01In the 1650s, the first Dutch governor, Jan van Riebeek,
0:15:01 > 0:15:06fattened sheep on Robben Island and shipped lime and stone from it to the mainland
0:15:06 > 0:15:09to build houses and fortifications.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14Van Riebeek's fort became the centre of the Cape's first settlement
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and his men set about acquiring sheep and cattle
0:15:17 > 0:15:21by means of barter with the Hottentots,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24whose goodwill and quaint manners
0:15:24 > 0:15:28were at this time a source of pleasure to the new colonists.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30One version of the country's early history
0:15:30 > 0:15:34is provided by this propaganda film made before World War II,
0:15:34 > 0:15:40during which many Afrikaners were detained for their active support of Nazi Germany.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44These simple people would become his children.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49Under thoughtful guidance, they would develop into useful members of a new community.
0:15:49 > 0:15:55And the flag of his beloved Netherlands would be the guarantee of their protection.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10In the absence of a jail on the mainland,
0:16:10 > 0:16:15the Dutch also used Robben Island to house convicts and recalcitrant natives,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19whose names are recorded in the criminal records of the time.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28Throughout sentences of up to 40 years, they were forced to wear chains and leg irons
0:16:28 > 0:16:33and were often further punished with various forms of mutilation.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Extreme cases were executed by being thrown into the ice-cold channel
0:16:37 > 0:16:41between the island and the mainland with rocks tied to their bodies.
0:16:41 > 0:16:47A significant number of these early prisoners were held for political offences.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53They had been shipped to the island from colonies in the East by their Calvinist masters
0:16:53 > 0:16:58for expounding the rival faith of Islam, which was prohibited by the Dutch.
0:17:05 > 0:17:11One of the most anxious concerns of many of us
0:17:11 > 0:17:15was whether our children would understand properly
0:17:15 > 0:17:21why we had chosen the path we had taken...or not.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26We knew what was being taught in the Bantu Education Schools
0:17:26 > 0:17:28er...sought to...
0:17:30 > 0:17:35..suffocate any interpretation of our history
0:17:35 > 0:17:39which would enhance this understanding.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44And the beginnings of the exercise to smuggle letters out to my daughter
0:17:44 > 0:17:48were inspired by some of these circumstances.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53"Dear child, the story of my arrest goes back to 1450.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57"That is a long time ago, not so?
0:17:57 > 0:18:02"In that year, our African forbears were the inhabitants of this country.
0:18:02 > 0:18:08"They owned all the land and went up and down without laws to restrict them.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13"They hunted wild game, ploughed and planted wherever they choose.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18"Among them were great hunters, chiefs and medicine men.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23"As in the other parts of the world,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26"these tribes went to war with each other too.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32"But certainly no-one tried to hold another in slavery or bondage of any kind.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35"They had their problems too, of course,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39"for they did not have the knowledge we have today.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45"People could not write, as I am able to write to you now."
0:18:58 > 0:19:03At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, South Africa became a colony of the British,
0:19:03 > 0:19:08who embarked on a series of campaigns against the neighbouring Kosa tribes.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14When the Kosa were defeated, the British shipped their greatest chiefs in chains to Robben Island,
0:19:14 > 0:19:19where, in 1868, they were visited in exile by the German traveller Gustav Fritsch.
0:19:19 > 0:19:25The chiefs lived in huts, built all in the same style,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27as they dwelt in in their homeland.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31These were like beehives, furnished over with reed grass.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Of these men, four were convicts on the island.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38One, Siolo, was simply a prisoner,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42having given himself over in the British war.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Mokwoma was the most infamous,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50as much known for his cunning as for his cruelty. That he must have been,
0:19:50 > 0:19:56having buried a prisoner in an ant heap, who thus ended his life suffering very much.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01For a little tobacco and one shilling per head,
0:20:01 > 0:20:07they were willing to give me their presence for some time to take their portraits.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Not without some difficulty, as sitting still throughout seemed a problem.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Many of the pictures left much to be desired,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21but at least they showed the features well enough for scientific use.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37One of the chiefs asked that I must please plead for his release.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42He wouldn't become healthy unless he was in the air of his fatherland.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46And with that, the tears rolled down his cheeks.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Me, Makoma, wishes very much
0:20:52 > 0:20:59that government would sent his son and his child over to me on the island.
0:20:59 > 0:21:06His name is Matolo. When he left me he was a small boy, so I like to see him now.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Makoma, Kaffir Chief.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14Me, Delima, I'm very sorry that government send me back to Robben Island.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18So government must please take me away from here.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23I'm not intend to fight any more, so I hope government will pity me.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Delima, Kaffir Chief.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30We were quite conscious that our presence on Robben Island
0:21:30 > 0:21:36was actually traversing the steps which much senior fighters
0:21:36 > 0:21:42had already traversed. The best minds from amongst our people were chiefs,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46and very noble characters who would not bend
0:21:46 > 0:21:50and give away the dignity and the freedom of their people.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And that inspired a lot of us.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03The great Kosa general, Makoma, died in poverty on the island
0:22:03 > 0:22:05and his story was forgotten for 100 years.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10But in 1978, he became the focus of a bizarre propaganda exercise
0:22:10 > 0:22:16when South Africa allowed the Siskei government to send a blind albino soothsayer to the island
0:22:16 > 0:22:18to identify and dig up his remains.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21The bones she found may not have been Makoma's,
0:22:21 > 0:22:28but the event was intended to shore up the legitimacy of this newly created puppet state.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33'On Saturday August the 6th 1978, a large crowd of mourners braved the Cape weather
0:22:33 > 0:22:37'to watch the first stage of Makoma's journey back to his homeland.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40'After the discovery of his ancestor's remains,
0:22:40 > 0:22:46'Chief Makoma asked the British government to arrange a state funeral.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50'After all, it was the British who arrested him in 1857
0:22:50 > 0:22:51'by whose hand he died.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55'The request for a battleship and a state funeral was turned down.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00'It was South Africa's Minister of Defence, Mr PW Botha, who made available a frigate,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04'men of the South African fleet, an element of the army to the Siskeians
0:23:04 > 0:23:08'thus underlining once more the understanding and goodwill existing
0:23:08 > 0:23:11'between the government and the leaders of the black states.'
0:23:11 > 0:23:15From the outset, prisoners on the island were isolated from the rest of society.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21Their only contact was with their families, most of whom lived hundreds of miles away.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25They had to apply for official permission to go to the island
0:23:25 > 0:23:28and were allowed only one visit every six months,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31which was restricted to just 30 minutes.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36The train took two nights and a third day.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40It arrived at Cape Town at seven.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44At half past 11, I started to walk,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48asking people the way to the harbour
0:23:48 > 0:23:55because I did not even know where the harbour is. I got my boat.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01I was escorted to where Andrew was waiting.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04It was a long passage
0:24:04 > 0:24:08with just the top. On the sides, there was nothing.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13And there was a fence and a passage and a fence.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18He was standing there. Outside I was standing. We were shouting
0:24:18 > 0:24:25at one another and there were other people, other prisoners and their family. It was such a lot of noise.
0:24:25 > 0:24:32In our discussions... Some discussions - I couldn't even hear what he says.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36I had been discussing some of these issues with my wife
0:24:36 > 0:24:37before we were arrested.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42But, my dear, we have got to prepare ourselves.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46One day, as people engaged in a struggle...
0:24:47 > 0:24:53..we know from the history of the other struggles that when people go to prison, they go for a long time.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56We have got to prepare ourselves for this.
0:24:56 > 0:25:02I didn't want to show him how much I was hurt.
0:25:02 > 0:25:09I wanted him to feel that I'm not so worried, although, really,
0:25:09 > 0:25:17I was very much hurt to see him, the way he was dressed and in that weather.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22- How was he dressed? - With short trousers.
0:25:23 > 0:25:29It's not a khaki. I don't know. It looked like a canvas trouser.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35A jacket and sandals without socks. And it was cold.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41I was very much hurt to see him standing there.
0:25:42 > 0:25:48We were still very hurt and fed up about what happened to our husband.
0:25:48 > 0:25:56We went... The government separated a home, separate the two parents.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59People who love one another.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Because we were still young
0:26:02 > 0:26:04when Andrew was arrested,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08I was still looking forward to the future with him.
0:26:08 > 0:26:14But it was torn apart by the government taking him to prison.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18PLAINTIVE GUITAR MUSIC
0:26:57 > 0:27:01I wrote this song on a plate, my own song.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05All other songs couldn't express how I felt at the time.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09You know, sometimes you get feelings, which...
0:27:09 > 0:27:16you can't write down, you can't express. And that's how I came to play that song.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29I don't know how people know what it's like for people to be in love
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and to be in a prison.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33You know, it's such a contradiction.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37I think it was more or less an expression of that contradiction of those feelings.
0:27:37 > 0:27:44But some of the music was lively. But one can say that some of them were quite sad.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55I was Head of the Censor Department.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00That was sort of the lifeline of a prisoner, put it that way.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03Everything goes through that office.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Can you explain what the Censor's Office did?
0:28:08 > 0:28:14Er...well the Censor Office duty was to read each and every letter
0:28:14 > 0:28:20and...according to rules and regulations
0:28:20 > 0:28:24to take out or censor letters, you know.
0:28:24 > 0:28:30Things that were then not supposed to come to their attention
0:28:30 > 0:28:31and also vice versa.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35That was really what it was all about.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37What sort of things?
0:28:37 > 0:28:40Well, as I say I can't go into it right now,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43but there are rules and regulations that stipulated
0:28:43 > 0:28:48political things, things like that.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50That first sieving of letters
0:28:50 > 0:28:54was one letter in six months.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58And even that letter,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03it would pain you to look at the way it is stretched.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07And finally, left with a few, few lines.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Only to say the children are well and all that.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16You look forwards for the weekend to get a letter,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21and then you get a letter of that type - very painful.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26I was very, very much attached to my sister
0:29:26 > 0:29:30and I was expecting a letter from her.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36I was called into the office, then when I came in
0:29:36 > 0:29:39the warden said, "Are you Kwedie Mkalipi?"
0:29:39 > 0:29:41I said, "Yes".
0:29:41 > 0:29:46He said, "Do you know Dowis Mkalipi?"
0:29:46 > 0:29:48I said, "Yes, that's my sister."
0:29:48 > 0:29:50He said, "Your sister?" I said, "Yes".
0:29:50 > 0:29:53"She's dead. Go."
0:29:53 > 0:29:57No... There was just something that day.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00Made it impossible for me to believe
0:30:00 > 0:30:04or even to think that I believe what I'm hearing.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08So I then went on, I said, "Look, what do you mean?"
0:30:08 > 0:30:12He said, "I've told you she's dead and what do you want from me then?
0:30:12 > 0:30:15"You're wasting my time."
0:30:15 > 0:30:19I said, "No, but how did she die?" He said, "Look, I'm not staying there,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22"among the Kaffirs in Transkei.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26"I'm telling you that these are the people that have been knowing about
0:30:26 > 0:30:29"how your sister died. Get out of my office!"
0:30:29 > 0:30:34And that type of insensitivity, it was one of the things that er...
0:30:34 > 0:30:38for the first time, when I came into my cell,
0:30:38 > 0:30:43I cried for the first time ever since I've been in prison.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51Once imprisoned,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53the prices that came to bear
0:30:53 > 0:30:59were not prices that could have been anticipated really.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03You found people who came on Robben Island, for instance,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06maybe sentenced to incredibly long sentences.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10I recall er...one er...
0:31:10 > 0:31:15one of our people who came to Robben Island was sentenced to 20 years.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17He was illiterate.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21He came from the countryside of the Transkei.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24And because of his illiteracy,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28he did not understand what... He could not conceptualise 20 years.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31And it took time.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35When he began to learn, to read and write,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39he calculated what a year means and so on.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41And for the first time,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45he realised just how long he had been sentenced to.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49I know one who got 40 years.
0:31:49 > 0:31:50He too, took some years
0:31:50 > 0:31:55before he became alive to the reality of what he had to deal with
0:31:55 > 0:31:57and he lost his mind.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02The prison was one in a line of institutions
0:32:02 > 0:32:04which had been set up on the island.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11In the 1860s, it was used to house mental patients from the mainland
0:32:11 > 0:32:13and the so called "chronic sick".
0:32:13 > 0:32:17As in other Victorian asylums, conditions were harsh
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and the inmates were expected to comply
0:32:20 > 0:32:23with a suitably draconian regime.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Instead of being treated as sick,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29they were regarded as outcasts who were a danger to the society.
0:32:35 > 0:32:41They were soon joined by another group whose existence was thought offensive and even threatening.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46When leprosy was discovered to be contagious,
0:32:46 > 0:32:50those suffering from it were forced into quarantine on the island.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Even though their condition was rarely infectious
0:32:52 > 0:32:57and many had been quite adequately cared for by their families in the past.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Despite their tragic deformities,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02the lepers were perfectly normal.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06They formed bands, organised picnics and kept animals on the island.
0:33:10 > 0:33:15Nevertheless, they were treated as freaks whose very presence was a social embarrassment.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21As victims of an incurable disease,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23theirs was a life sentence.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26They had to stay on the island till they died,
0:33:26 > 0:33:28and despite protests from their families,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30they were also buried there.
0:33:38 > 0:33:44Robben Island in one sense has been the dustbin of South African history.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49All the unwanted things and people have been dumped on Robben Island,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53whether they were rebels against whatever system,
0:33:53 > 0:34:00lepers, insane so-called, insane people, they were all dumped in this dirtbin, so to speak.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03But it is a very peculiar dirtbin,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08because in reality what happened there was that all this offal,
0:34:08 > 0:34:13all this...these people, unwanted people,
0:34:13 > 0:34:19in very many ways became symbols, became in that sense,
0:34:19 > 0:34:23very undermining symbols for the system.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26And we were very aware as prisoners on Robben Island,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28we were very aware of the history.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36By the 1890s, the number of lepers on the island had swelled to more than 400,
0:34:36 > 0:34:41roughly the same number as would one day fill the maximum security prison.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46At various times they rose up against their conditions
0:34:46 > 0:34:49by taking over the wards and threatening the medical staff.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54The leader of one such rebellion was a semi-educated man named Franz Jacobs.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Faced with the authorities' indifference to their plight,
0:34:57 > 0:35:02he wrote a petition to Queen Victoria to plead on the lepers' behalf.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10"Robben Island, 10th August, 1892.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14"Our request and entreaty to the Queen of this Empire
0:35:14 > 0:35:17"is let us poor sick ones have our freedom.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21"We are imprisoned and shut up on Robben Island
0:35:21 > 0:35:24"for it is prohibited to go away.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28"We live as if we were dead. It is so dark here.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30"We are taken from our homes,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33"that is worse than slaves.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36"There should be a time for coming out,
0:35:36 > 0:35:38"but we might stay here for ever.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43"What she does for the slaves, will our Queen do for us
0:35:43 > 0:35:44"and free us from slavery?
0:35:44 > 0:35:48"I know a man who died of a broken heart.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52"He asked the doctor to let him go to see his people.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54"The doctor would not let him go
0:35:54 > 0:35:57"and it afflicted him that he died.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01"It is hard to be here away from wife and children.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06"For God says, what He has joined together should no man put asunder.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"Dear Reverend Queen, consider not this letter,
0:36:09 > 0:36:13"my father and brother were too poor to have me properly taught,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16"but what I write to our Reverend Queen is true."
0:36:17 > 0:36:21"My address is FJA Jacobs,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Number Two Hospital, Robben Island."
0:36:26 > 0:36:30There is no recorded response to Franz Jacobs' petition
0:36:30 > 0:36:34and Robben Island remained a leper colony until 1930.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44One did get off the island to go to see specialists in Cape Town.
0:36:49 > 0:36:55And...this was one of the most humiliating experiences in jail.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02You had leg irons strapped onto your legs.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07And they...clamped on you handcuffs.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12So you have both handcuffs and leg irons.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16With handcuffs, handcuffed hands,
0:37:16 > 0:37:21you had to hold up the leg irons.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31And you get a sound from the chains like this - walla-lass, walla-lass.
0:37:31 > 0:37:37And you can't walk normally if you have got leg irons on.
0:37:37 > 0:37:43You walk, as it were, like the movements of a he-baboon.
0:37:44 > 0:37:50Walking forward and the people all turn their eyes to you.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04And when you go to a hospital like this,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08then there would be thousands of people...
0:38:09 > 0:38:12..in the outpatient department.
0:38:17 > 0:38:24There would be a general buzz, like one experiences a beehive.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28But the moment a prisoner appeared
0:38:28 > 0:38:33all of a sudden people kept quiet and looked up.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39And all those eyes...
0:38:39 > 0:38:41thousands of them,
0:38:41 > 0:38:48would be looking up at that one individual in leg irons.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Handcuffed.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56And you'd feel, as it were, feel their eyes
0:38:56 > 0:39:03as if they were penetrating through your whole being.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08It was an experience.
0:39:10 > 0:39:16An experience one doesn't like to recall.
0:39:16 > 0:39:23But when it happened, it hurt, it hurt.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27CAT MEOWS
0:39:29 > 0:39:34A Kaffir is a dog.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40And you are a prisoner and you are a dog and Mandela is a dog himself
0:39:40 > 0:39:47because he's a prisoner. You can be educated, you can have 101 doctorates, but you're a Kaffir
0:39:47 > 0:39:51and that means nothing to me and your number nothing.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54HE SHOUTS ORDERS IN AFRIKAANS
0:40:00 > 0:40:06I don't know if it would be correct to say they regarded us as animals.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Because they care a lot for animals.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12See the way they care for their cats,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15the way they care for their dogs.
0:40:15 > 0:40:21Now, they wouldn't extend the same treatment to us.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24In other words,
0:40:24 > 0:40:31I'd rather say they regarded us as a deadly enemy,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36their deadly enemy who had to be destroyed.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43Human beings are human beings.
0:40:43 > 0:40:49There are rises and ebbs of morale
0:40:49 > 0:40:54and especially against the statements which were made
0:40:54 > 0:40:57that a sentence of life means life
0:40:57 > 0:41:02and that those people would die in prison.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07And although always in high morale,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11nevertheless there were moments of doubt.
0:41:11 > 0:41:17Whether the expectations that we had that one day we'd return
0:41:17 > 0:41:19would be fulfilled.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22It's natural that there should have been such moments.
0:41:22 > 0:41:28I can utter now that you ask me say, on this particular day
0:41:28 > 0:41:31this was my mood.
0:41:31 > 0:41:37But there were moments when one doubted whether that day would come.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46RECORDING: The accused have told me and their counsellor told me
0:41:46 > 0:41:49that the accused who all recognised leaders
0:41:49 > 0:41:53of a non-European part of the population
0:41:53 > 0:42:01have been motivated entirely by a desire to ameliorate these grievances.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07I am by no means convinced of the motive of the accused
0:42:07 > 0:42:11whether it is as altruistic as they wish the court to believe.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14People who organise the devolution
0:42:14 > 0:42:19usually plan to take over the government
0:42:19 > 0:42:24and personal ambition cannot be excluded as a motive.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32The function of this court, as is the function of the court in any country,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37is to enforce law and order and to enforce the laws of the state.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45The crime of which the accused have been convicted,
0:42:45 > 0:42:50a crime of conspiracy, is in essence modified treason.
0:42:52 > 0:42:57The state has decided not to charge the crime in this form.
0:42:57 > 0:43:04Bearing this in mind and giving the matter very serious consideration,
0:43:04 > 0:43:09I have decided not to impose the supreme penalty,
0:43:09 > 0:43:14which in a case like this would usually be the proper penalty.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18As consistent with my duty,
0:43:18 > 0:43:24that is the only leniency which I can show.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28The sentence in the case of all the accused
0:43:28 > 0:43:30will be one of life imprisonment.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51JANGLING KEYS
0:43:51 > 0:43:57Many prisoners did not look at escape as a feasible project.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01A mass escape from Robben Island getting to the mainland
0:44:01 > 0:44:07necessarily meant immense loss of life, if not a complete destruction of the project.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13But there were others, including myself,
0:44:13 > 0:44:20who from the day of my arrest never gave up the idea of physically escaping from prison.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Escaping prison meant working at that project
0:44:25 > 0:44:29with a great determination and steadfastness.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33It was a question of accumulating the tools
0:44:33 > 0:44:36and...instruments that you would need,
0:44:36 > 0:44:43in little bits and pieces that would not necessarily connect and be useful as an end product.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49You saw a piece of wire at work.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54It has no meaning from the point of view of escape,
0:44:54 > 0:44:59but to take a better example, you came across a piece of flat steel,
0:44:59 > 0:45:01iron, wrought iron.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04At that stage it makes no sense,
0:45:04 > 0:45:10but provided you stored it, as it happened in my case,
0:45:10 > 0:45:15years later it became the basis to make the master key to Robben Island.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19Because without that steel, we couldn't have made it.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23And it was only if your mind was occupied with the problem
0:45:23 > 0:45:27that you could see and say to yourself,
0:45:27 > 0:45:32"Let me pick up this blade and hide it away. It may be necessary."
0:45:32 > 0:45:36We did it by simply taking... collecting some lard
0:45:36 > 0:45:40and filing down that piece of iron
0:45:40 > 0:45:46and inserting it into the keyhole and looking for each point at which it was meeting resistance.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49And then filing through the resistance points,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52we then had to ensure that it served as a master key.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03It turned out that that master key could be used for all cells in our section
0:46:03 > 0:46:07and we were then left with the question of the access gates.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13Again, what we found was that our master key needed very slight adaptation
0:46:13 > 0:46:17to serve the purpose of the external entrances to the prison.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23It wasn't really for the purpose of escaping,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27you see we were living in this section where there were 80 cells
0:46:27 > 0:46:31of which we only occupied the one wing of about 30 cells.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35So around the corner from us and in the other wing all the cells were open.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40So we'd open one of those cells with our key and keep contraband.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43That's what we used the key for.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51I'd been used to working with criminal prisoners for a long time
0:46:51 > 0:46:54and this was a total change about.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Criminal prisoners, you couldn't leave, for instance,
0:46:58 > 0:47:04some money lying around or even a pen for that matter or a lighter
0:47:04 > 0:47:06in your office, it would be gone.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Quicker than what you could look for it, it would be gone,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13but not the story or the case with the political prisoners.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17They'd probably bring it to you and give it back to you.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19We never had in all the time there
0:47:19 > 0:47:25one case where a member complained about anything being lifted from his office or whatever.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Not even a newspaper?
0:47:28 > 0:47:33No, newspapers weren't allowed in a section, the prisoners won't allowed to use them.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40If we were discovered with newspapers, the penalties were harsh.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43You would, um... be sentenced to spare diet,
0:47:43 > 0:47:49which means that every day you'll get mainly rice and water.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55I've seen people come out of an 18-day spare diet
0:47:55 > 0:47:59with the skin on their faces so taut,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02you could actually see the shape of the skull
0:48:02 > 0:48:05and it was very, very, very frightening.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09On June the 16th 1976,
0:48:09 > 0:48:13the first major revolt erupted in the townships after 15 people,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17many of them schoolchildren, were shot dead in Soweto.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20The result was a full-scale uprising.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Whenever there were big events outside,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28they used to react.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32And we immediately guessed that something was happening outside
0:48:32 > 0:48:34which would be favourable to us.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40There was one particular period when they acted quite normally,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44as if nothing had happened, and that was the Soweto Uprising.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49Um...we heard some snippets of garbled information
0:48:49 > 0:48:52which was grossly exaggerated and distorted.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56They were so successful in keeping the news away from us that time...
0:48:58 > 0:49:02..that there was literally a news drought...
0:49:04 > 0:49:09..and we first came to hear of the Soweto Uprising in August of 1976,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13which was two months after it had happened.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17The Soweto Uprising set off a new wave of resistance,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20both inside and outside South Africa.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Military and civilian installations were sabotaged,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26international trade sanctions were imposed
0:49:26 > 0:49:30and unrest in the townships reached almost revolutionary proportions.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33In an effort to smother this growing opposition,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35arrests were stepped up
0:49:35 > 0:49:40and a new generation of prisoners arrived at the maximum security prison on the island.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51I knew a lot about Robben Island before I went there
0:49:51 > 0:49:54because that's where we knew that our heroes were kept.
0:49:56 > 0:50:02We knew that Comrade Mandela was there, Comrade Sisulu, so...
0:50:02 > 0:50:07we really equated Robben Island with freedom.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14If you ask me about dialectical materialism,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16ask me what did I read about that.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18If you ask me about Karl Marx,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I didn't learn that in a college or somewhere.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25If you ask me about the actual development of society,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28and all those things, about Hegel and all that,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30I'm telling you it was on the island.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35By taking all of us onto the island and putting us together,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39they brought together potential politicians,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41from all parts of the country.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46People who otherwise would not have had an opportunity
0:50:46 > 0:50:48to sit and exchange views,
0:50:48 > 0:50:54and therefore develop a...you know, a single, national perspective.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57One of the things that we discovered there,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00and which enriched our own lives,
0:51:00 > 0:51:04was the calibre of the men who were on the island.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07It was fantastic.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Um...men with whom you could sit down
0:51:10 > 0:51:15and at the end of the conversation, you feel that you've been enriched.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Your horizons have been widened
0:51:19 > 0:51:23and your roots in your own country have been deepened.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28The new prisoners were housed in general cells,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32separated from the isolation section in which their leaders were kept.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39There was strict security against communication between the sections.
0:51:41 > 0:51:47And one of the first things we set out to break was this.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50It took us time to do that.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55But when we made the breakthrough...
0:51:55 > 0:51:57it was joy!
0:51:57 > 0:52:03It was joy because we could now get across the walls...
0:52:04 > 0:52:07..and communicate with our comrades...
0:52:08 > 0:52:12..in manners and in ways
0:52:12 > 0:52:15which were not visible to the authorities.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21But those things happened right under their noses.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And, of course, we felt happy.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26We were succeeding...
0:52:27 > 0:52:29..while they were there.
0:52:29 > 0:52:35There's nothing like success. It makes one feel so nice.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42There were various methods we used to communicate.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46One method was...
0:52:47 > 0:52:50..we used the kitchen...
0:52:50 > 0:52:52and the kitchen was a nerve centre -
0:52:52 > 0:52:55one of those few nerve centres in jail.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07The prisoners who worked in the kitchen operated a clandestine postal service
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Messages from one section to another were wrapped in plastic
0:53:11 > 0:53:15and hidden inside pots in which food was distributed to the prison.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24I worked in the kitchen and I was a cook
0:53:24 > 0:53:26and, um...at that point in time,
0:53:26 > 0:53:31Mandela's section - B Section - was effectively the leader's section.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33Now, from the kitchen,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36the guys take food,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40you know, in big pots, into this section.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42So I was, um...
0:53:42 > 0:53:45put into this pot. You can imagine - I'm this small!
0:53:45 > 0:53:48So I was put in this one big pot
0:53:48 > 0:53:50and, after that, carried...
0:53:50 > 0:53:52into, you know, there are trolleys,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56very big trolleys from the kitchen into there - that section.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58I think it was all plain.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Because, when I was there,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03I heard this voice, "Now I'm ready."
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Then I was to come out.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08And, coming out of the pot, I was in Mandela's room.
0:54:08 > 0:54:14I had to sit down with our now President Nelson Mandela and brief him about what was happening.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18But I must mention this. What came out clearly to me,
0:54:18 > 0:54:20is that the people there had, um...
0:54:20 > 0:54:24a different idea of what was happening outside.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27To them, at that time,
0:54:27 > 0:54:32they were saying, "The point has come where we'll be freed."
0:54:32 > 0:54:35You know, and they were thinking of it as early as tomorrow,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39you know, next month, next week, next year.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43They just heard that there was a revolution outside
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and some of them had high expectations that now, oh, Lord,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50this revolution is about to release us out of this prison.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Mandela himself spent a further 14 years in prison.
0:54:56 > 0:55:02A political prisoner, before he goes to jail,
0:55:02 > 0:55:04he says to himself,
0:55:04 > 0:55:10"I am not going to allow myself to go under."
0:55:10 > 0:55:13There were those who came to jail illiterate
0:55:13 > 0:55:19and we taught them at the quarry, at the places of work to read and write.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Firstly, there were no papers.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26And we used the site.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30The quarry where we worked, for instance,
0:55:30 > 0:55:32in our section, was a lime quarry.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37And there you just levelled the lime and wrote there...
0:55:39 > 0:55:44..until those students were able to read and write from that.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47BIRDS CALL OVERHEAD
0:55:48 > 0:55:51When I went to prison,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54I hadn't studied for 22-23 years.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59And I am greatly indebted to my fellow prisoners
0:55:59 > 0:56:03who assisted me so unselfishly.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07They enabled me to get two degrees -
0:56:07 > 0:56:09a BA and a BCOM.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23The prison authorities always liked people to believe
0:56:23 > 0:56:26that they encouraged prisoners to study.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28But my experience with them
0:56:28 > 0:56:33was that they didn't like to see us progressing academically.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Even if you had finished your work,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40you were not allowed to study during the day.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Should they find you studying during the day,
0:56:43 > 0:56:46your privileges would be withdrawn.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52We used to study during the day but to do so, we'd have to hide.
0:56:52 > 0:56:59For instance, I remember myself and my study partners used to study in the toilet during the day
0:56:59 > 0:57:02and other comrades would be watching for us.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06If the warder came, they would tip us that he was coming
0:57:06 > 0:57:08and then we'd fold our books.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16There was a raging debate right from the beginning.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Some said, "Let's treat these people as human beings.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22"It has happened on odd occasions
0:57:22 > 0:57:25"that people who've been prisoners are released
0:57:25 > 0:57:28"and they've become heads of governments.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31"And they're very important people.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34"Let us prepare for that day.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36"And, um...let us give them newspapers,
0:57:36 > 0:57:38"let us allow them radios."
0:57:38 > 0:57:43But there were others who said, "Look, we must not take that risk.
0:57:43 > 0:57:49"What we must do is to get these people to understand
0:57:49 > 0:57:56"that opposing white supremacy... is a disaster for them."
0:57:58 > 0:58:06Our treatment was intended to make them never again to resist the white supremacy.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10CHILDREN SING IN AFRIKAANS
0:58:45 > 0:58:51The white warders and their families formed a close-knit Afrikaner community on the island,
0:58:51 > 0:58:54many of whom had lived there for more than a generation.
0:59:06 > 0:59:10If you hear the name ANC or PAC or Umkhonto We Sizwe
0:59:11 > 0:59:15you know that it's a communist, um...
0:59:15 > 0:59:19and that's your enemy. That's how you've grown up.
0:59:19 > 0:59:22Anything, even Nelson Mandela,
0:59:22 > 0:59:24if you hear that name you...
0:59:24 > 0:59:27your hair is risen,
0:59:27 > 0:59:30if that is the correct word. That is the enemy.
0:59:30 > 0:59:32That is a communist.
0:59:32 > 0:59:35That is the people trying to take over our country.
0:59:36 > 0:59:38It was a cultural shock for them
0:59:38 > 0:59:41to enter Robben Island and find a Catholic saying,
0:59:41 > 0:59:43"I want to see my priest."
0:59:43 > 0:59:48It was a shock to find us speaking Afrikaans because they thought we only spoke Russian or Cuban.
0:59:48 > 0:59:54It was a shock for them to find that they're dealing with highly educated and highly intellectual people.
0:59:54 > 0:59:58Eventually, those stereotypes fell.
0:59:58 > 1:00:01We broke walls between ourselves and them
1:00:01 > 1:00:03and were able...
1:00:03 > 1:00:07to find common ground and, of course, friendships were built.
1:00:07 > 1:00:08Strong ones.
1:00:08 > 1:00:16There is a built-in limit to which I would say Afrikaners would generally always go.
1:00:16 > 1:00:18And that is their own sufferings,
1:00:18 > 1:00:23their own struggles against British Imperialism, did play a role.
1:00:23 > 1:00:27I mean, the fact that some of their libratory heroes -
1:00:27 > 1:00:30General De Wet, many of them, Boers and so on -
1:00:30 > 1:00:33that these people suffered in jail, if not as long as we did,
1:00:33 > 1:00:35nonetheless for a cause.
1:00:35 > 1:00:40I think that those things made them realise there is a definite limit.
1:00:47 > 1:00:51I don't think some evil genius in Pretoria thought it out, so to speak.
1:00:51 > 1:00:54It was a systemically determined relationship,
1:00:54 > 1:00:59um...that was something that was cruel not just to us,
1:00:59 > 1:01:01but particularly to the warders
1:01:01 > 1:01:06because what it meant was that their innermost, um...
1:01:06 > 1:01:09the innermost components of their own identity
1:01:09 > 1:01:11were being challenged in day-to-day practice.
1:01:11 > 1:01:14They saw, daily, that we were scholars,
1:01:14 > 1:01:17that we were organised people, we were disciplined people,
1:01:17 > 1:01:21we were articulate people and so on. They saw that daily.
1:01:21 > 1:01:24And, no matter what they may have thought or said initially,
1:01:24 > 1:01:26those things obviously undermined
1:01:26 > 1:01:31and eroded eventually all the images they had in their heads about us and made them vulnerable.
1:01:34 > 1:01:36Of course, when I went, um...to Robben Island...
1:01:38 > 1:01:43..in those days, you know, you were told these people are terrorists.
1:01:43 > 1:01:48You know, it was... fed to you every day in the media,
1:01:48 > 1:01:51the radio, whatever, you know?
1:01:52 > 1:01:56And that is what you thought, that you'd find a lot of monsters there.
1:01:57 > 1:02:02And, when I got there, you know, I sort of kept my distance...
1:02:02 > 1:02:04in the beginning.
1:02:04 > 1:02:08An ordinary warder can be more important
1:02:08 > 1:02:14than the Commissioner Of Prisons and even the Minister Of Justice
1:02:14 > 1:02:17because if you went to the Commissioner Of Prisons,
1:02:17 > 1:02:19or the Minister, and you said,
1:02:19 > 1:02:23"Sir, it's very cold. I want four blankets."
1:02:23 > 1:02:25He is going to look at the regulations and say,
1:02:25 > 1:02:29"No, the regulations say you can have only three blankets.
1:02:29 > 1:02:33"Four blankets! I can't. It's a violation of the regulations.
1:02:33 > 1:02:37"And if I give you four blankets, I'll have to give others four."
1:02:37 > 1:02:41But if you go to your warder in your section,
1:02:41 > 1:02:44and you say, "Look, I want an extra blanket."
1:02:44 > 1:02:48If you treat him with respect...
1:02:49 > 1:02:53..he'll just go to the, um...store room
1:02:53 > 1:02:56give you an extra blanket and that's the end of it.
1:02:56 > 1:03:01You know, since he's been out, he's phoned me on a few occasions
1:03:01 > 1:03:04and, um...he calls me James and I call him Mr Mandela.
1:03:04 > 1:03:10- <- Doesn't it feel weird you were the warder and he the prisoner?
1:03:12 > 1:03:16Not really. I think we understood each other too well, so...
1:03:16 > 1:03:18it wasn't weird, you know.
1:03:18 > 1:03:23He had no animosity towards me and I had none towards him.
1:03:23 > 1:03:26The relationship was very, very good.
1:03:26 > 1:03:29I would... We would sit and talk for hours.
1:03:31 > 1:03:34He never tried to convert me to his politics
1:03:34 > 1:03:39but, you know, about general things. News, you know, what's happening.
1:03:39 > 1:03:42So there was a very good relationship between the two of us.
1:03:42 > 1:03:45There still is today.
1:03:45 > 1:03:48- <- How would you describe him as a person?
1:03:48 > 1:03:51Um...Mr Mandela?
1:03:51 > 1:03:53Since I've met him...
1:03:54 > 1:03:56..till now...
1:03:56 > 1:03:58he was a perfect gentleman.
1:03:58 > 1:04:01That's all I can say about him.
1:04:01 > 1:04:06He was one of the most refined, um...warders.
1:04:07 > 1:04:14Well informed and, um...courteous with everybody...
1:04:14 > 1:04:16soft spoken...
1:04:16 > 1:04:18very good observations.
1:04:18 > 1:04:22I developed a lot of respect for him.
1:04:22 > 1:04:27The leadership, they were in a certain section on the island.
1:04:27 > 1:04:29And I used to go there.
1:04:30 > 1:04:35If I had trouble with one of the group where he was,
1:04:35 > 1:04:38you know, any kind of trouble,
1:04:38 > 1:04:42I would actually go to him and tell him, "Look, this has happened."
1:04:42 > 1:04:46Then he would talk to this person.
1:04:47 > 1:04:49In the early 1980s the prisoners,
1:04:49 > 1:04:53aware of growing international pressure on the authorities,
1:04:53 > 1:04:57fought to improve conditions inside the prison.
1:04:57 > 1:04:59They did so at considerable personal risk.
1:05:00 > 1:05:03In 1981, we mounted a hunger strike.
1:05:03 > 1:05:06It was not long after the Irish hunger strikes
1:05:06 > 1:05:09in which Bobby Sands and others died.
1:05:10 > 1:05:13Of course, the hunger strike is a two-edged sword.
1:05:13 > 1:05:17You come out of it and many people have got ulcers.
1:05:19 > 1:05:23Once you have a case of ulcers, you have ulcers forever.
1:05:23 > 1:05:25You don't heal those sores.
1:05:26 > 1:05:32We had, over the years, complained about and demanded the right of access to our children.
1:05:32 > 1:05:36The prison authority's argument was that we were prisoners,
1:05:36 > 1:05:38we were terrorists
1:05:38 > 1:05:41and that the fact of our children seeing us
1:05:41 > 1:05:44would impact very badly on their minds.
1:05:44 > 1:05:47Our constant argument...
1:05:47 > 1:05:48was that, um...
1:05:48 > 1:05:53whilst it is true that white society saw us as terrorists,
1:05:53 > 1:05:56within our communities...
1:05:56 > 1:05:59we were...we were heroes.
1:06:01 > 1:06:04People suffered. There's no doubt about that.
1:06:06 > 1:06:08Probably, for all of us,
1:06:08 > 1:06:12the greatest deprivation was not the sexual one -
1:06:12 > 1:06:15the separation from women for example -
1:06:15 > 1:06:18not that so much but the separation from children.
1:06:18 > 1:06:22The fact that I never saw a child for ten years,
1:06:22 > 1:06:25was something which even now boggles my mind.
1:06:25 > 1:06:28CHILDREN SHOUT AND PLAY
1:06:29 > 1:06:32One day we were working in the quarry.
1:06:32 > 1:06:37While we were digging, we heard a few noises of some children,
1:06:37 > 1:06:40just on the other side of the bush.
1:06:41 > 1:06:46It was spontaneous for us. We all turned as if automatons
1:06:46 > 1:06:49and looked in the direction where the noise came from
1:06:49 > 1:06:53because we were deprived so much of even the voice of a child,
1:06:53 > 1:06:55never mind seeing a child.
1:06:55 > 1:06:57So we had to look into that
1:06:57 > 1:07:01but then the warders saw that we were looking in that direction,
1:07:01 > 1:07:05so they ran, of course, naturally, to chase these children away,
1:07:05 > 1:07:09so that we should not see them, we should not talk to them.
1:07:09 > 1:07:13The 1981 hunger strikes succeeded in changing prison regulations
1:07:13 > 1:07:15about access to their children
1:07:15 > 1:07:20and gradually, through a combination of their own and external efforts,
1:07:20 > 1:07:21further privileges were won
1:07:21 > 1:07:25which allowed prisoners to lead a more human existence.
1:07:33 > 1:07:35Robben Island is a small place.
1:07:35 > 1:07:42The prison on Robben Island is also a small building.
1:07:42 > 1:07:46To survive, the mind must have time and must read,
1:07:46 > 1:07:47must do all sorts of things,
1:07:47 > 1:07:51and of course must keep physically fit also.
1:07:51 > 1:07:54Because if you are sitting in one place - my cell was 2m x 2m -
1:07:54 > 1:07:57to be stuck there for 13 years is a long time,
1:07:57 > 1:07:59so you need to go out and play sports.
1:07:59 > 1:08:04We would do anything to play all types of sports on Robben Island -
1:08:04 > 1:08:05we even tried golf.
1:08:05 > 1:08:08They refused because the balls would fall into the ocean
1:08:08 > 1:08:11and if they did and you are asked to go there you may not come back.
1:08:11 > 1:08:15MEN YELL, WHISTLE BLOWS
1:08:17 > 1:08:20My nickname "Terror" comes from being a striker.
1:08:20 > 1:08:26So one on the things I took to jail with me was my footballing skills.
1:08:27 > 1:08:32Many people tend to think that I am called Terror because I was a terrorist.
1:08:32 > 1:08:40But, no, I was a terror, I think, more for the goalkeepers of the opposition,
1:08:40 > 1:08:43and that's really where the nickname comes from.
1:08:44 > 1:08:47BALL BEING HIT BY A RACQUET
1:08:53 > 1:08:56What was your sport on the island?
1:08:56 > 1:09:00I played tennis... and I played volleyball.
1:09:00 > 1:09:03I probably played other games...
1:09:03 > 1:09:06- What is this game where you throw a ring? - < Quoits.
1:09:06 > 1:09:08- Eh? - < Quoits?
1:09:08 > 1:09:10- Deck quoits?- No, I don't know that.
1:09:10 > 1:09:15Um, there is a ring, a rubber ring which you throw over the net...
1:09:15 > 1:09:19What do you call it? Ladies, you should know.
1:09:19 > 1:09:22Um, I'll remember the name, now,
1:09:22 > 1:09:26and of course we had indoor games as well,
1:09:26 > 1:09:32chess, drafts, dominoes, you know,
1:09:32 > 1:09:38and one of the other games where you had some rich...?
1:09:39 > 1:09:43Scrabble was played.
1:09:43 > 1:09:47But there's another game which is also very popular...
1:09:48 > 1:09:53- < Monopoly? - Monopoly, yes. Mm.
1:09:53 > 1:09:57Kind of quoits, the other, what do you call...kind of quoits, yes.
1:09:57 > 1:09:59I played those. Mm.
1:09:59 > 1:10:04It's a funny idea, a lot of left-wing politicians playing Monopoly...
1:10:04 > 1:10:08- on Robben Island.- Yes, quite, yes! Yes, that's true.
1:10:08 > 1:10:11< Understanding capitalism! HE LAUGHS
1:10:11 > 1:10:15Right through the period of Christmas,
1:10:15 > 1:10:17the competition of singing.
1:10:18 > 1:10:24We were placed in our particular group,
1:10:24 > 1:10:30in a position whereby windows could be used, you can open windows,
1:10:30 > 1:10:32it was not a typical prison.
1:10:32 > 1:10:36We were able to sing and make competition.
1:10:37 > 1:10:42We would stand at these windows, Raymond and I,
1:10:42 > 1:10:46or someone, reciting a poem...
1:10:47 > 1:10:52..and amazingly the acoustics there were so good
1:10:52 > 1:10:55that the voice travelled right down the passage.
1:10:55 > 1:10:57What did you do?
1:10:58 > 1:11:03Well, I used to sing, as well as others used to sing...
1:11:04 > 1:11:08..a variety of songs.
1:11:08 > 1:11:14There used to be some who'd sing Blue River,
1:11:14 > 1:11:21and others who'd sing Be Mine,
1:11:21 > 1:11:23and so on and so on.
1:11:23 > 1:11:30There was such a good range of music that came through those rooms.
1:11:30 > 1:11:34# Under the starlit skies
1:11:34 > 1:11:38# Be mine
1:11:38 > 1:11:44# When the night falls into a lullaby
1:11:44 > 1:11:50# My arms will embrace you
1:11:50 > 1:11:55# With love divine
1:11:55 > 1:11:59# And now
1:11:59 > 1:12:05# Is the time to whisper that you'll be mine
1:12:05 > 1:12:09# Come into my heart
1:12:09 > 1:12:15# And stay for ever
1:12:15 > 1:12:18# Tell me, tell me that you'll be mine... #
1:12:18 > 1:12:23There were guys who went to ballroom dancing before they came to prison,
1:12:23 > 1:12:29so they taught some of us who have never been introduced to the art.
1:12:29 > 1:12:33So we would do these things in the cells.
1:12:33 > 1:12:38Competitions for an outstanding pair.
1:12:38 > 1:12:42A club would attract the attention of the warders,
1:12:42 > 1:12:46that an entertainment is going on in the cell,
1:12:46 > 1:12:48which was supposed not to be the case,
1:12:48 > 1:12:55because the cell was supposed to be a place of gloom, of brooding and anxiety and all that kind of thing.
1:12:55 > 1:12:59But we brightened up the cell, you know, and engaged in this kind of activity,
1:12:59 > 1:13:01so for an outstanding performance,
1:13:01 > 1:13:05the chap would say, "Give them a brush."
1:13:05 > 1:13:06A brush would be like this,
1:13:06 > 1:13:10not a clap, like this, because a clap would attract their attention,
1:13:10 > 1:13:13so a brush, "Give them a brush."
1:13:16 > 1:13:20We started then also to stage some plays.
1:13:20 > 1:13:26There is a book called Waiting For Godot.
1:13:26 > 1:13:30That book was written by Samuel Beckett.
1:13:30 > 1:13:33And it was a book that, after reading it,
1:13:33 > 1:13:39then, a group of us then began then to stage a play on it.
1:13:39 > 1:13:43And after that there was a discussion about it -
1:13:43 > 1:13:45is this real?
1:13:47 > 1:13:49What did the tramp stand for?
1:13:49 > 1:13:53What was the message of the author?
1:13:53 > 1:13:56Some people said that, you know,
1:13:56 > 1:14:03the tramp tried to show us that we can go on hoping against hope.
1:14:03 > 1:14:05Others said then that, no, that is discouraging,
1:14:05 > 1:14:09because it is something then that is just like Christianity,
1:14:09 > 1:14:16that is keeping you down and saying, you get heaven above if you sacrifice everything down here on Earth.
1:14:19 > 1:14:24We knew no tyrant is there for all time,
1:14:24 > 1:14:27and that in the long run,
1:14:27 > 1:14:31however well-armed the tyrant was,
1:14:31 > 1:14:38the will of the people would overcome the tyrant's forces,
1:14:38 > 1:14:40that we knew.
1:14:40 > 1:14:43And the people...
1:14:45 > 1:14:49..the people that struggle for freedom...
1:14:51 > 1:14:55..the people that struggle for liberation from oppression,
1:14:55 > 1:15:03and worse oppression that is accompanied by racism, as in the case of South Africa.
1:15:04 > 1:15:09An organisation that leads such people...
1:15:10 > 1:15:13..the nationalists didn't learn this lesson.
1:15:13 > 1:15:17Probably they haven't learned it even today
1:15:17 > 1:15:23that such an organisation can't be destroyed.
1:15:23 > 1:15:26Faced with the prospect of economic collapse,
1:15:26 > 1:15:29the South African Government decided in the late-1980s
1:15:29 > 1:15:33to prepare for a negotiated transition to majority rule.
1:15:33 > 1:15:35As part of this opening-up process,
1:15:35 > 1:15:40several of the original Rivonia group were released from their life sentences,
1:15:40 > 1:15:42in October 1989.
1:15:46 > 1:15:52The very first day I did not believe whether it's Andrew.
1:15:52 > 1:15:59I was not sure whether to touch Andrew, or whether to do what.
1:15:59 > 1:16:03But anyway, when days went on,
1:16:03 > 1:16:09I did not even wish to leave him alone for a few minutes.
1:16:09 > 1:16:16I wanted to be with him... every five minutes.
1:16:16 > 1:16:20Even when he had to come to the office,
1:16:20 > 1:16:25that thing came back to say, "Oh, I'm alone again"!
1:16:25 > 1:16:31Every now and then I come across something that is new to me.
1:16:31 > 1:16:37Um, the first thing I came across when I came out was this, um...cordless telephone,
1:16:37 > 1:16:39at my house,
1:16:39 > 1:16:42and I'd never heard of or seen one before.
1:16:42 > 1:16:45But the most simple thing was the Gillette razor.
1:16:45 > 1:16:50I was used to those blades of the old type and I'd never seen this,
1:16:50 > 1:16:55and I just couldn't insert a Gillette into...a blade into a razor.
1:16:55 > 1:17:00But there were so many little things that were new to me.
1:17:02 > 1:17:07The only thing which is still a problem between my wife and I is lights.
1:17:07 > 1:17:12I think I got used to lights and I like light anyway,
1:17:12 > 1:17:14I don't like darkness.
1:17:14 > 1:17:18So my wife takes the opposite view.
1:17:18 > 1:17:23She switches off the light, I switch on,
1:17:23 > 1:17:27and that is like the prison and the warder.
1:17:27 > 1:17:34In prison, I'm not sure whether it was there... In some cases, they put on the light.
1:17:34 > 1:17:36You switch off.
1:17:38 > 1:17:42Nelson Mandela chose to remain in prison,
1:17:42 > 1:17:47until the government conceded to the terms on which negotiations would be conducted.
1:17:47 > 1:17:50As the most famous political prisoner in the world,
1:17:50 > 1:17:55he became the focus of intense journalistic and political interest.
1:17:55 > 1:17:58More and more people wanted to come and see him.
1:17:58 > 1:18:02Some of them have curiosity,
1:18:02 > 1:18:06many of them tried to climb on the bandwagon, I don't know,
1:18:06 > 1:18:11it was so bad that I actually went to him.
1:18:11 > 1:18:14The people I knew, you know, that were really visitors,
1:18:14 > 1:18:17I issued permits for.
1:18:17 > 1:18:20But the people I did not know who they were,
1:18:20 > 1:18:22I went to him.
1:18:22 > 1:18:27"This person has applied to see you. Do you want to see them, yes or no?"
1:18:27 > 1:18:32And he would tell me yes or no, and that is the answer I would give.
1:18:32 > 1:18:40So I was very much a buffer between the outside world and him,
1:18:40 > 1:18:44and between him and the outside world.
1:18:44 > 1:18:50From prison Mandela wielded more authority than his fellow politicians who were free.
1:18:50 > 1:18:53Despite repeated offers of deals from the government,
1:18:53 > 1:18:58he refused to agree to his release until he felt his demands had been met.
1:18:58 > 1:19:04When you first met him did you think he would play such a leading role one day?
1:19:04 > 1:19:10To tell you the truth, I had no idea. No idea.
1:19:10 > 1:19:18It was only later, I would say from 1985, 1986, I started realising...
1:19:19 > 1:19:24..what is happening because I was also, you know...
1:19:26 > 1:19:29..interested in both sides, let me put it that way.
1:19:29 > 1:19:34I think he started realising, you know, that this is going somewhere,
1:19:34 > 1:19:37really going somewhere.
1:19:37 > 1:19:43I mean, you know, maybe being the future President,
1:19:43 > 1:19:46I mean, not only through my work...
1:19:47 > 1:19:53..but, um, you know, I'm an avid reader,
1:19:53 > 1:19:57and two and two, you can put two and two together,
1:19:57 > 1:20:02and so on, that they had to... Change had to come,
1:20:02 > 1:20:05you know, to majority rule.
1:20:05 > 1:20:07And it is, I mean, there.
1:20:07 > 1:20:10SIRENS WAIL
1:20:12 > 1:20:15Mr Nelson Mandela,
1:20:15 > 1:20:21a free man, taking his first steps into a new South Africa.
1:20:21 > 1:20:28Mandela's release after 27 years opened the way for negotiations with the government,
1:20:28 > 1:20:32and the release of all remaining political prisoners.
1:20:40 > 1:20:44TRANSLATION OF VOICES SINGING:
1:22:42 > 1:22:47Robben Island still functions as a prison for common-law criminals.
1:22:47 > 1:22:53Many of the present warders worked on the island when the political prisoners were held there.
1:22:53 > 1:22:58When I came to the island, people told me, this is like a BIG island,
1:22:58 > 1:23:02with very very vicious guys - you can't even speak with them,
1:23:02 > 1:23:07and when you got here, a few months past,
1:23:07 > 1:23:10I saw, this is people as well.
1:23:10 > 1:23:13OK, the crimes might be different, but still they're people.
1:23:13 > 1:23:18Did you think then that they were going to be very important politicians
1:23:18 > 1:23:20when they left the island?
1:23:20 > 1:23:27Oh yes. I mean, the type of high- profile prisoner that they were,
1:23:27 > 1:23:34it was obvious often that they would be in a position in a political party,
1:23:34 > 1:23:37that they would have some say, even at that stage.
1:23:37 > 1:23:40What do you think about that?
1:23:40 > 1:23:45Well, we have to accept, I mean, the country has to change.
1:23:45 > 1:23:49What do you think about the days you spent with them?
1:23:49 > 1:23:52I try to recall their names.
1:23:55 > 1:23:58And still, when I seem them,
1:23:58 > 1:24:02that's his name, he was in that section.
1:24:03 > 1:24:09Walter Sisulu and Andrew Mlangeni were both kept in the prison's isolation section.
1:24:09 > 1:24:14On this return visit to show the island to their wives,
1:24:14 > 1:24:21the only rules they must follow are those which apply to ordinary tourists.
1:24:21 > 1:24:26But the prison itself is still out of bounds.
1:24:26 > 1:24:32"The following rules are applicable to all visitors to Robben Island."
1:24:32 > 1:24:36"Conversations with prisoners will not be allowed.
1:24:36 > 1:24:42"No parcels or articles of any kind are to be handed to
1:24:42 > 1:24:45"or received from prisoners.
1:24:45 > 1:24:49"Your visit will be on your own risk,
1:24:49 > 1:24:54"the management of Robben Island do not accept any responsibility
1:24:54 > 1:24:59"for damage incurred or injuries sustained.
1:24:59 > 1:25:04"Flora and flora and marine life may not be disturbed in any way."
1:25:04 > 1:25:09Ooh, Lord, they are spoiling this quarry now.
1:25:09 > 1:25:14They are proud to destroy the history of this place here.
1:25:14 > 1:25:18- Where we are standing, people like Mhlaba used to work here.- Yes.
1:25:18 > 1:25:22This is history, why are they making a dumping place?
1:25:22 > 1:25:29- They did everything here...- Yes. Education...- ..Politics, everything here.
1:25:29 > 1:25:31Academic studies, everything here.
1:25:31 > 1:25:36- Singing was not allowed in the first place.- Oh...
1:25:36 > 1:25:39All prisoners, it's a tradition they sing,
1:25:39 > 1:25:46- in order to get, you know, energy. - Mmm...of the people.
1:25:46 > 1:25:49But, with us, no singing.
1:25:49 > 1:25:53Although Walter can't sing he loves listening to other people sing.
1:25:53 > 1:25:57- Oh, he is a good singer, you don't know him...- He used to sing.
1:25:57 > 1:26:00He is, he still is.
1:26:00 > 1:26:03THEY SING
1:26:11 > 1:26:15- How about the warders? - Where were they deployed?
1:26:15 > 1:26:19There, along those lines...there.
1:26:19 > 1:26:27'We bore no ill will, no bitterness to those people who were so cruel to us.
1:26:27 > 1:26:33'We felt possibly we could, even in a small way, rehabilitate them.'
1:26:35 > 1:26:40When I was released from prison, I was subjected to banning orders.
1:26:40 > 1:26:44And when I went to court after transgressing my banning orders,
1:26:44 > 1:26:48one of the security policemen who had tortured me in detention,
1:26:48 > 1:26:53offered me his hand, and I took his hand and I said hello.
1:26:53 > 1:26:59I've seen a lot of the prisoners that I met on the island,
1:26:59 > 1:27:05and realising they might possibly will be the leaders of the next government,
1:27:05 > 1:27:08um...it's a funny feeling,
1:27:08 > 1:27:13because one didn't really think of that when you worked on the island,
1:27:13 > 1:27:15although you knew it was a possibility.
1:27:15 > 1:27:18One never ever thought of them eventually being your boss.
1:27:18 > 1:27:21One is grateful,
1:27:21 > 1:27:28um, although it was a tragedy that you had the opportunity to lead another life,
1:27:28 > 1:27:35and to be able to stand back from you and your work and to look at it from a distance,
1:27:35 > 1:27:40and to be able to evaluate your work and the mistakes that you made.
1:27:40 > 1:27:42It offered us that opportunity.
1:27:42 > 1:27:45And do you think that's benefited you?
1:27:45 > 1:27:49Oh, naturally. It benefited not only me, but others as well.
1:27:49 > 1:27:52I'm supposed to be a very angry man,
1:27:52 > 1:27:56and, um...but I think, as a Christian,
1:27:56 > 1:28:03I understand and...I hope they will realise what they've done to me.
1:28:03 > 1:28:08I was not an isolated case, but I still needed to be a young person,
1:28:08 > 1:28:12still needed to be a boyfriend to a girlfriend,
1:28:12 > 1:28:16still needed to...play around.
1:28:18 > 1:28:23So I'll say prison really took all they days of my youth.
1:29:05 > 1:29:09Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2005
1:29:09 > 1:29:14E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk