Voices from the Island Arena


Voices from the Island

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A DOG BARKS

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This is Robben Island. This one is a blue hell.

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Prisoners are not allowed to sing. Prisoners are not allowed to whistle.

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Prisoners are not allowed to treat warders with disrespect.

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It was assault. It was insult. It was hounds set at you.

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With all those Afrikaaner, the warders, shouting,

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"You shall never get that freedom."

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They raided our cells at night.

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They stood me, told me to hold the wall.

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That was one incident,

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but personally I felt very bitter - angry.

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The spirit of solidarity with our cause

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was visible and we could cut it with a knife.

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This is what gave us the hope that one day we would return.

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The accused are Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,

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Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu,

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Dennis Theodore Goldberg,

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Govan Archibald Mbeki,

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Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada,

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Lionel Gabriel Bernstein,

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Raymond Mhlaba,

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Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni.

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They are charged on two counts of sabotage -

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one of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act

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and one of contravening the General Law Amendment Act.

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The verdict will be...

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accused number one is found guilty on all four counts,

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accused number two is found guilty on all four counts,

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accused number three is found guilty on all four counts...

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In June 1964, the main defendants in the Rivonia treason trial

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were flown to the new maximum security prison on Robben Island

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to serve life sentences alongside other South African political prisoners.

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Only intense international pressure had saved them from the death penalty.

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I felt relaxed when I got down in the plane

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in Robben Island.

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The atmosphere was quite different and I knew I had come to stay,

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I'm not passing, and therefore I was completely relaxed.

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The struggle for physical survival was not the issue.

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You had to struggle at all levels.

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It was a struggle for dignity even more than survival.

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Robben Island was not a death camp or a concentration camp of any kind.

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That was what made a lot of people survive whole.

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If we'd had to continue to struggle at that level, I don't think many people would've come out whole.

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What was important was the fact that the ideas for which we were sent to Robben Island would never die.

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And we were therefore able to go through

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some of the harshest experiences

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which a human being can have behind bars,

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especially a South African prison

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where the warders were drawn from a community

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which has always treated the blacks like pieces of rags.

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You are locked up in the cell.

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A single cell.

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You are allowed exercise - half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon.

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In the early years of our arrival,

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you had no bed - you were using a coir mat.

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You fold your blankets, you would sit on that,

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and yet there would come another warder

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who'd say, "You take those blankets out into the passage,"

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so that you'd be left sitting on...

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that coir mat.

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And if we recall...

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..that Robben Island

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is in the Atlantic Ocean -

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it's cold.

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And the winters can be terribly cold.

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Robben Island lies just 7km from the mainland at the southernmost tip of Africa

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in the bay which is dominated by modern-day Cape Town.

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Its recorded history dates back to the 15th century

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when it was visited by sailors passing the Cape of Good Hope

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on their way to and from India and the East.

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"In this bay, there is a small island

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"not inhabited, nor any good thing groweth.

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"In this island, there is an abundance of seals and penguins

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"in such number as is almost incredible.

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"The penguin is a strange creature.

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"Being a bird which has a strange and proud kind of going, thereof the bigness of a duck.

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"They have finny wings with which they swim a great pace, but cannot fly.

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"The eggs of these penguins was there in such abundance

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"so that we laden our boat with seals, penguins and eggs in two hours."

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Few visitors stayed long on the island as there was no fresh water

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and the rocky shoreline made landing extremely difficult.

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Surrounded by near freezing waters and treacherous currents, the island is a natural fortress.

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Like its US counterpart, Alcatraz, an ideal place of banishment

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for enemies of the state and other offenders.

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They wanted to deep freeze us

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so that we were forgotten by our people

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and the flame of liberation is obliterated.

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The fact that, for instance, we were in a complete state of siege

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to drive in the point you are not entitled to be in contact

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with the civilised world and that you were there to die.

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I remember one guy....er...er...

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who would...who would make the point expressly

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that you must pay the price.

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Prison is a place in which you must suffer.

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If we were to convert this place into a five-star hotel,

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then you'd be coming in here, you know,

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in your thousands.

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The first thing we had to do was get into Robben Island clothing.

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I was given long pants, jersey, shirt, jacket, shoes, socks.

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They were given the same clothing,

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except they were given short pants to wear right through the winter.

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and they were given no socks. As a special concession, they were given shoes

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because African prisoners, according to regulations, were only allowed sandals.

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The African prisoners were

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put on the F diet scale.

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And for us, there was no bread.

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We longed for bread.

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We longed for bread.

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And...

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..what struck us, what was strange to us...

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..was that the people who were denying us bread...

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..were very keen to tell us -

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almost daily...

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..that...

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they were religious...

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..and that they were Christians.

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And they prayed every day, probably twice daily...

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..and did that with their families too and their children,

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"Give us this day, our daily bread."

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And yet, to them...

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..we were not part of the "us"

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that should be given daily bread.

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"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord

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"and in the power of his might.

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"Put on the whole armour of God

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"that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

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"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood

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"but against principalities, against powers,

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"against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

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I actually lost hope at one time,

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hope of ever coming out alive in Robben Island.

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There was no reading material that was allowed for us to read

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except the Bible.

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And we were also not allowed to have contact with the other people.

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I was in isolation all this time.

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And I was not allowed to have discussions with any of my fellow prisoners

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outside P section where we were kept.

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A few days after our arrival, we were taken out for the first time,

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out of our cells to wait in the yard, the courtyard.

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Little knowing people from Britain would be arriving from London.

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I think they were representing the Daily Telegraph, a newspaper.

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When they got there, they found us...

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knitting jerseys, all jerseys,

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mending them, so to speak.

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And prison authorities said, "Well, this is the type of work we are giving them."

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Simple work,

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which did not need, you know, hard labour or something.

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They inspected the prison

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and took photos.

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That is how that picture was taken. It was taken whilst I was talking to Nelson.

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We were aware

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that they were allowed because they were right-wing

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and that it was going to be propaganda.

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The moment they left...

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..everything was taken away from us,

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and stones, big rocks were brought

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into our yard

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on wheelbarrows.

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And the instructions were,

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"You break this into small stones."

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That was the type of work we did at the beginning.

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We were then taken out to go and work in the land quarry.

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Political prisoners who had been lawyers, teachers or journalists in civilian life

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were made to dig lime in all weathers.

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They were punished if they complained of the cold in winter

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or the glare from the lime in summer which ruined many of their eyes.

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Some, like Sisulu and Mbeki, were already in their 50s

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and as they worked, they sang to keep up their morale.

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SINGING

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We would be wielding the pick up and up to music

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and down and down all in harmony.

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It reserved...

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it reserved our energy.

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And if...

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you found that there were workers who were working fast.

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As you walked past...

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..an expression like this would go.

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And you are not even stopping to address the workers.

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You say this is now in Kosa.

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HE SPEAKS IN KOSA

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"The white man's work never gets finished, comrades. On your knees."

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That's the expression.

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The labour of Africans and slaves had been used to construct white South Africa

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since its earliest days as a settlement of the Dutch East India Company,

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which used it to provision its fleets.

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In the 1650s, the first Dutch governor, Jan van Riebeek,

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fattened sheep on Robben Island and shipped lime and stone from it to the mainland

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to build houses and fortifications.

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Van Riebeek's fort became the centre of the Cape's first settlement

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and his men set about acquiring sheep and cattle

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by means of barter with the Hottentots,

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whose goodwill and quaint manners

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were at this time a source of pleasure to the new colonists.

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One version of the country's early history

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is provided by this propaganda film made before World War II,

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during which many Afrikaners were detained for their active support of Nazi Germany.

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These simple people would become his children.

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Under thoughtful guidance, they would develop into useful members of a new community.

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And the flag of his beloved Netherlands would be the guarantee of their protection.

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In the absence of a jail on the mainland,

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the Dutch also used Robben Island to house convicts and recalcitrant natives,

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whose names are recorded in the criminal records of the time.

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Throughout sentences of up to 40 years, they were forced to wear chains and leg irons

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and were often further punished with various forms of mutilation.

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Extreme cases were executed by being thrown into the ice-cold channel

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between the island and the mainland with rocks tied to their bodies.

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A significant number of these early prisoners were held for political offences.

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They had been shipped to the island from colonies in the East by their Calvinist masters

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for expounding the rival faith of Islam, which was prohibited by the Dutch.

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One of the most anxious concerns of many of us

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was whether our children would understand properly

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why we had chosen the path we had taken...or not.

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We knew what was being taught in the Bantu Education Schools

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er...sought to...

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..suffocate any interpretation of our history

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which would enhance this understanding.

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And the beginnings of the exercise to smuggle letters out to my daughter

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were inspired by some of these circumstances.

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"Dear child, the story of my arrest goes back to 1450.

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"That is a long time ago, not so?

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"In that year, our African forbears were the inhabitants of this country.

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"They owned all the land and went up and down without laws to restrict them.

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"They hunted wild game, ploughed and planted wherever they choose.

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"Among them were great hunters, chiefs and medicine men.

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"As in the other parts of the world,

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"these tribes went to war with each other too.

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"But certainly no-one tried to hold another in slavery or bondage of any kind.

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"They had their problems too, of course,

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"for they did not have the knowledge we have today.

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"People could not write, as I am able to write to you now."

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At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, South Africa became a colony of the British,

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who embarked on a series of campaigns against the neighbouring Kosa tribes.

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When the Kosa were defeated, the British shipped their greatest chiefs in chains to Robben Island,

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where, in 1868, they were visited in exile by the German traveller Gustav Fritsch.

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The chiefs lived in huts, built all in the same style,

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as they dwelt in in their homeland.

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These were like beehives, furnished over with reed grass.

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Of these men, four were convicts on the island.

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One, Siolo, was simply a prisoner,

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having given himself over in the British war.

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Mokwoma was the most infamous,

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as much known for his cunning as for his cruelty. That he must have been,

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having buried a prisoner in an ant heap, who thus ended his life suffering very much.

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For a little tobacco and one shilling per head,

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they were willing to give me their presence for some time to take their portraits.

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Not without some difficulty, as sitting still throughout seemed a problem.

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Many of the pictures left much to be desired,

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but at least they showed the features well enough for scientific use.

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One of the chiefs asked that I must please plead for his release.

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He wouldn't become healthy unless he was in the air of his fatherland.

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And with that, the tears rolled down his cheeks.

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Me, Makoma, wishes very much

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that government would sent his son and his child over to me on the island.

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His name is Matolo. When he left me he was a small boy, so I like to see him now.

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Makoma, Kaffir Chief.

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Me, Delima, I'm very sorry that government send me back to Robben Island.

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So government must please take me away from here.

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I'm not intend to fight any more, so I hope government will pity me.

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Delima, Kaffir Chief.

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We were quite conscious that our presence on Robben Island

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was actually traversing the steps which much senior fighters

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had already traversed. The best minds from amongst our people were chiefs,

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and very noble characters who would not bend

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and give away the dignity and the freedom of their people.

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And that inspired a lot of us.

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The great Kosa general, Makoma, died in poverty on the island

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and his story was forgotten for 100 years.

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But in 1978, he became the focus of a bizarre propaganda exercise

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when South Africa allowed the Siskei government to send a blind albino soothsayer to the island

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to identify and dig up his remains.

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The bones she found may not have been Makoma's,

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but the event was intended to shore up the legitimacy of this newly created puppet state.

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'On Saturday August the 6th 1978, a large crowd of mourners braved the Cape weather

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'to watch the first stage of Makoma's journey back to his homeland.

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'After the discovery of his ancestor's remains,

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'Chief Makoma asked the British government to arrange a state funeral.

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'After all, it was the British who arrested him in 1857

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'by whose hand he died.

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'The request for a battleship and a state funeral was turned down.

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'It was South Africa's Minister of Defence, Mr PW Botha, who made available a frigate,

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'men of the South African fleet, an element of the army to the Siskeians

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'thus underlining once more the understanding and goodwill existing

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'between the government and the leaders of the black states.'

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From the outset, prisoners on the island were isolated from the rest of society.

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Their only contact was with their families, most of whom lived hundreds of miles away.

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They had to apply for official permission to go to the island

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and were allowed only one visit every six months,

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which was restricted to just 30 minutes.

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The train took two nights and a third day.

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It arrived at Cape Town at seven.

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At half past 11, I started to walk,

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asking people the way to the harbour

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because I did not even know where the harbour is. I got my boat.

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I was escorted to where Andrew was waiting.

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It was a long passage

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with just the top. On the sides, there was nothing.

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And there was a fence and a passage and a fence.

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He was standing there. Outside I was standing. We were shouting

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at one another and there were other people, other prisoners and their family. It was such a lot of noise.

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In our discussions... Some discussions - I couldn't even hear what he says.

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I had been discussing some of these issues with my wife

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before we were arrested.

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But, my dear, we have got to prepare ourselves.

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One day, as people engaged in a struggle...

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..we know from the history of the other struggles that when people go to prison, they go for a long time.

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We have got to prepare ourselves for this.

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I didn't want to show him how much I was hurt.

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I wanted him to feel that I'm not so worried, although, really,

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I was very much hurt to see him, the way he was dressed and in that weather.

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-How was he dressed?

-With short trousers.

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It's not a khaki. I don't know. It looked like a canvas trouser.

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A jacket and sandals without socks. And it was cold.

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I was very much hurt to see him standing there.

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We were still very hurt and fed up about what happened to our husband.

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We went... The government separated a home, separate the two parents.

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People who love one another.

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Because we were still young

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when Andrew was arrested,

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I was still looking forward to the future with him.

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But it was torn apart by the government taking him to prison.

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PLAINTIVE GUITAR MUSIC

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I wrote this song on a plate, my own song.

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All other songs couldn't express how I felt at the time.

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You know, sometimes you get feelings, which...

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you can't write down, you can't express. And that's how I came to play that song.

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I don't know how people know what it's like for people to be in love

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and to be in a prison.

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You know, it's such a contradiction.

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I think it was more or less an expression of that contradiction of those feelings.

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But some of the music was lively. But one can say that some of them were quite sad.

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I was Head of the Censor Department.

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That was sort of the lifeline of a prisoner, put it that way.

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Everything goes through that office.

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Can you explain what the Censor's Office did?

0:28:060:28:08

Er...well the Censor Office duty was to read each and every letter

0:28:080:28:14

and...according to rules and regulations

0:28:140:28:20

to take out or censor letters, you know.

0:28:200:28:24

Things that were then not supposed to come to their attention

0:28:240:28:30

and also vice versa.

0:28:300:28:31

That was really what it was all about.

0:28:310:28:35

What sort of things?

0:28:350:28:37

Well, as I say I can't go into it right now,

0:28:370:28:40

but there are rules and regulations that stipulated

0:28:400:28:43

political things, things like that.

0:28:430:28:48

That first sieving of letters

0:28:480:28:50

was one letter in six months.

0:28:500:28:54

And even that letter,

0:28:550:28:58

it would pain you to look at the way it is stretched.

0:28:580:29:03

And finally, left with a few, few lines.

0:29:030:29:07

Only to say the children are well and all that.

0:29:070:29:11

You look forwards for the weekend to get a letter,

0:29:120:29:16

and then you get a letter of that type - very painful.

0:29:160:29:21

I was very, very much attached to my sister

0:29:220:29:26

and I was expecting a letter from her.

0:29:260:29:30

I was called into the office, then when I came in

0:29:310:29:36

the warden said, "Are you Kwedie Mkalipi?"

0:29:360:29:39

I said, "Yes".

0:29:390:29:41

He said, "Do you know Dowis Mkalipi?"

0:29:410:29:46

I said, "Yes, that's my sister."

0:29:460:29:48

He said, "Your sister?" I said, "Yes".

0:29:480:29:50

"She's dead. Go."

0:29:500:29:53

No... There was just something that day.

0:29:530:29:57

Made it impossible for me to believe

0:29:570:30:00

or even to think that I believe what I'm hearing.

0:30:000:30:04

So I then went on, I said, "Look, what do you mean?"

0:30:040:30:08

He said, "I've told you she's dead and what do you want from me then?

0:30:080:30:12

"You're wasting my time."

0:30:120:30:15

I said, "No, but how did she die?" He said, "Look, I'm not staying there,

0:30:150:30:19

"among the Kaffirs in Transkei.

0:30:190:30:22

"I'm telling you that these are the people that have been knowing about

0:30:220:30:26

"how your sister died. Get out of my office!"

0:30:260:30:29

And that type of insensitivity, it was one of the things that er...

0:30:290:30:34

for the first time, when I came into my cell,

0:30:340:30:38

I cried for the first time ever since I've been in prison.

0:30:380:30:43

Once imprisoned,

0:30:490:30:51

the prices that came to bear

0:30:510:30:53

were not prices that could have been anticipated really.

0:30:530:30:59

You found people who came on Robben Island, for instance,

0:30:590:31:03

maybe sentenced to incredibly long sentences.

0:31:030:31:06

I recall er...one er...

0:31:060:31:10

one of our people who came to Robben Island was sentenced to 20 years.

0:31:100:31:15

He was illiterate.

0:31:150:31:17

He came from the countryside of the Transkei.

0:31:170:31:21

And because of his illiteracy,

0:31:210:31:24

he did not understand what... He could not conceptualise 20 years.

0:31:240:31:28

And it took time.

0:31:280:31:31

When he began to learn, to read and write,

0:31:310:31:35

he calculated what a year means and so on.

0:31:350:31:39

And for the first time,

0:31:390:31:41

he realised just how long he had been sentenced to.

0:31:410:31:45

I know one who got 40 years.

0:31:450:31:49

He too, took some years

0:31:490:31:50

before he became alive to the reality of what he had to deal with

0:31:500:31:55

and he lost his mind.

0:31:550:31:57

The prison was one in a line of institutions

0:31:570:32:02

which had been set up on the island.

0:32:020:32:04

In the 1860s, it was used to house mental patients from the mainland

0:32:060:32:11

and the so called "chronic sick".

0:32:110:32:13

As in other Victorian asylums, conditions were harsh

0:32:130:32:17

and the inmates were expected to comply

0:32:170:32:20

with a suitably draconian regime.

0:32:200:32:23

Instead of being treated as sick,

0:32:230:32:26

they were regarded as outcasts who were a danger to the society.

0:32:260:32:29

They were soon joined by another group whose existence was thought offensive and even threatening.

0:32:350:32:41

When leprosy was discovered to be contagious,

0:32:420:32:46

those suffering from it were forced into quarantine on the island.

0:32:460:32:50

Even though their condition was rarely infectious

0:32:500:32:52

and many had been quite adequately cared for by their families in the past.

0:32:520:32:57

Despite their tragic deformities,

0:32:570:32:59

the lepers were perfectly normal.

0:32:590:33:02

They formed bands, organised picnics and kept animals on the island.

0:33:020:33:06

Nevertheless, they were treated as freaks whose very presence was a social embarrassment.

0:33:100:33:15

As victims of an incurable disease,

0:33:180:33:21

theirs was a life sentence.

0:33:210:33:23

They had to stay on the island till they died,

0:33:230:33:26

and despite protests from their families,

0:33:260:33:28

they were also buried there.

0:33:280:33:30

Robben Island in one sense has been the dustbin of South African history.

0:33:380:33:44

All the unwanted things and people have been dumped on Robben Island,

0:33:440:33:49

whether they were rebels against whatever system,

0:33:490:33:53

lepers, insane so-called, insane people, they were all dumped in this dirtbin, so to speak.

0:33:530:34:00

But it is a very peculiar dirtbin,

0:34:000:34:03

because in reality what happened there was that all this offal,

0:34:030:34:08

all this...these people, unwanted people,

0:34:080:34:13

in very many ways became symbols, became in that sense,

0:34:130:34:19

very undermining symbols for the system.

0:34:190:34:23

And we were very aware as prisoners on Robben Island,

0:34:230:34:26

we were very aware of the history.

0:34:260:34:28

By the 1890s, the number of lepers on the island had swelled to more than 400,

0:34:310:34:36

roughly the same number as would one day fill the maximum security prison.

0:34:360:34:41

At various times they rose up against their conditions

0:34:430:34:46

by taking over the wards and threatening the medical staff.

0:34:460:34:49

The leader of one such rebellion was a semi-educated man named Franz Jacobs.

0:34:490:34:54

Faced with the authorities' indifference to their plight,

0:34:540:34:57

he wrote a petition to Queen Victoria to plead on the lepers' behalf.

0:34:570:35:02

"Robben Island, 10th August, 1892.

0:35:060:35:10

"Our request and entreaty to the Queen of this Empire

0:35:100:35:14

"is let us poor sick ones have our freedom.

0:35:140:35:17

"We are imprisoned and shut up on Robben Island

0:35:170:35:21

"for it is prohibited to go away.

0:35:210:35:24

"We live as if we were dead. It is so dark here.

0:35:240:35:28

"We are taken from our homes,

0:35:280:35:30

"that is worse than slaves.

0:35:300:35:33

"There should be a time for coming out,

0:35:330:35:36

"but we might stay here for ever.

0:35:360:35:38

"What she does for the slaves, will our Queen do for us

0:35:380:35:43

"and free us from slavery?

0:35:430:35:44

"I know a man who died of a broken heart.

0:35:440:35:48

"He asked the doctor to let him go to see his people.

0:35:480:35:52

"The doctor would not let him go

0:35:520:35:54

"and it afflicted him that he died.

0:35:540:35:57

"It is hard to be here away from wife and children.

0:35:570:36:01

"For God says, what He has joined together should no man put asunder.

0:36:010:36:06

"Dear Reverend Queen, consider not this letter,

0:36:060:36:09

"my father and brother were too poor to have me properly taught,

0:36:090:36:13

"but what I write to our Reverend Queen is true."

0:36:130:36:16

"My address is FJA Jacobs,

0:36:170:36:21

Number Two Hospital, Robben Island."

0:36:210:36:24

There is no recorded response to Franz Jacobs' petition

0:36:260:36:30

and Robben Island remained a leper colony until 1930.

0:36:300:36:34

One did get off the island to go to see specialists in Cape Town.

0:36:380:36:44

And...this was one of the most humiliating experiences in jail.

0:36:490:36:55

You had leg irons strapped onto your legs.

0:36:580:37:02

And they...clamped on you handcuffs.

0:37:030:37:07

So you have both handcuffs and leg irons.

0:37:070:37:12

With handcuffs, handcuffed hands,

0:37:130:37:16

you had to hold up the leg irons.

0:37:160:37:21

And you get a sound from the chains like this - walla-lass, walla-lass.

0:37:260:37:31

And you can't walk normally if you have got leg irons on.

0:37:310:37:37

You walk, as it were, like the movements of a he-baboon.

0:37:370:37:43

Walking forward and the people all turn their eyes to you.

0:37:440:37:50

And when you go to a hospital like this,

0:37:590:38:04

then there would be thousands of people...

0:38:040:38:08

..in the outpatient department.

0:38:090:38:12

There would be a general buzz, like one experiences a beehive.

0:38:170:38:24

But the moment a prisoner appeared

0:38:240:38:28

all of a sudden people kept quiet and looked up.

0:38:280:38:33

And all those eyes...

0:38:350:38:39

thousands of them,

0:38:390:38:41

would be looking up at that one individual in leg irons.

0:38:410:38:48

Handcuffed.

0:38:480:38:51

And you'd feel, as it were, feel their eyes

0:38:510:38:56

as if they were penetrating through your whole being.

0:38:560:39:03

It was an experience.

0:39:050:39:08

An experience one doesn't like to recall.

0:39:100:39:16

But when it happened, it hurt, it hurt.

0:39:160:39:23

CAT MEOWS

0:39:240:39:27

A Kaffir is a dog.

0:39:290:39:34

And you are a prisoner and you are a dog and Mandela is a dog himself

0:39:340:39:40

because he's a prisoner. You can be educated, you can have 101 doctorates, but you're a Kaffir

0:39:400:39:47

and that means nothing to me and your number nothing.

0:39:470:39:51

HE SHOUTS ORDERS IN AFRIKAANS

0:39:510:39:54

I don't know if it would be correct to say they regarded us as animals.

0:40:000:40:06

Because they care a lot for animals.

0:40:060:40:09

See the way they care for their cats,

0:40:090:40:12

the way they care for their dogs.

0:40:120:40:15

Now, they wouldn't extend the same treatment to us.

0:40:150:40:21

In other words,

0:40:210:40:24

I'd rather say they regarded us as a deadly enemy,

0:40:240:40:31

their deadly enemy who had to be destroyed.

0:40:310:40:36

Human beings are human beings.

0:40:400:40:43

There are rises and ebbs of morale

0:40:430:40:49

and especially against the statements which were made

0:40:490:40:54

that a sentence of life means life

0:40:540:40:57

and that those people would die in prison.

0:40:570:41:02

And although always in high morale,

0:41:020:41:07

nevertheless there were moments of doubt.

0:41:070:41:11

Whether the expectations that we had that one day we'd return

0:41:110:41:17

would be fulfilled.

0:41:170:41:19

It's natural that there should have been such moments.

0:41:190:41:22

I can utter now that you ask me say, on this particular day

0:41:220:41:28

this was my mood.

0:41:280:41:31

But there were moments when one doubted whether that day would come.

0:41:310:41:37

RECORDING: The accused have told me and their counsellor told me

0:41:420:41:46

that the accused who all recognised leaders

0:41:460:41:49

of a non-European part of the population

0:41:490:41:53

have been motivated entirely by a desire to ameliorate these grievances.

0:41:530:42:01

I am by no means convinced of the motive of the accused

0:42:030:42:07

whether it is as altruistic as they wish the court to believe.

0:42:070:42:11

People who organise the devolution

0:42:110:42:14

usually plan to take over the government

0:42:140:42:19

and personal ambition cannot be excluded as a motive.

0:42:190:42:24

The function of this court, as is the function of the court in any country,

0:42:270:42:32

is to enforce law and order and to enforce the laws of the state.

0:42:320:42:37

The crime of which the accused have been convicted,

0:42:400:42:45

a crime of conspiracy, is in essence modified treason.

0:42:450:42:50

The state has decided not to charge the crime in this form.

0:42:520:42:57

Bearing this in mind and giving the matter very serious consideration,

0:42:570:43:04

I have decided not to impose the supreme penalty,

0:43:040:43:09

which in a case like this would usually be the proper penalty.

0:43:090:43:14

As consistent with my duty,

0:43:140:43:18

that is the only leniency which I can show.

0:43:180:43:24

The sentence in the case of all the accused

0:43:240:43:28

will be one of life imprisonment.

0:43:280:43:30

JANGLING KEYS

0:43:480:43:51

Many prisoners did not look at escape as a feasible project.

0:43:510:43:57

A mass escape from Robben Island getting to the mainland

0:43:570:44:01

necessarily meant immense loss of life, if not a complete destruction of the project.

0:44:010:44:07

But there were others, including myself,

0:44:070:44:13

who from the day of my arrest never gave up the idea of physically escaping from prison.

0:44:130:44:20

Escaping prison meant working at that project

0:44:200:44:25

with a great determination and steadfastness.

0:44:250:44:29

It was a question of accumulating the tools

0:44:290:44:33

and...instruments that you would need,

0:44:330:44:36

in little bits and pieces that would not necessarily connect and be useful as an end product.

0:44:360:44:43

You saw a piece of wire at work.

0:44:450:44:49

It has no meaning from the point of view of escape,

0:44:490:44:54

but to take a better example, you came across a piece of flat steel,

0:44:540:44:59

iron, wrought iron.

0:44:590:45:01

At that stage it makes no sense,

0:45:010:45:04

but provided you stored it, as it happened in my case,

0:45:040:45:10

years later it became the basis to make the master key to Robben Island.

0:45:100:45:15

Because without that steel, we couldn't have made it.

0:45:150:45:19

And it was only if your mind was occupied with the problem

0:45:190:45:23

that you could see and say to yourself,

0:45:230:45:27

"Let me pick up this blade and hide it away. It may be necessary."

0:45:270:45:32

We did it by simply taking... collecting some lard

0:45:320:45:36

and filing down that piece of iron

0:45:360:45:40

and inserting it into the keyhole and looking for each point at which it was meeting resistance.

0:45:400:45:46

And then filing through the resistance points,

0:45:460:45:49

we then had to ensure that it served as a master key.

0:45:490:45:52

It turned out that that master key could be used for all cells in our section

0:45:580:46:03

and we were then left with the question of the access gates.

0:46:030:46:07

Again, what we found was that our master key needed very slight adaptation

0:46:080:46:13

to serve the purpose of the external entrances to the prison.

0:46:130:46:17

It wasn't really for the purpose of escaping,

0:46:180:46:23

you see we were living in this section where there were 80 cells

0:46:230:46:27

of which we only occupied the one wing of about 30 cells.

0:46:270:46:31

So around the corner from us and in the other wing all the cells were open.

0:46:310:46:35

So we'd open one of those cells with our key and keep contraband.

0:46:350:46:40

That's what we used the key for.

0:46:400:46:43

I'd been used to working with criminal prisoners for a long time

0:46:470:46:51

and this was a total change about.

0:46:510:46:54

Criminal prisoners, you couldn't leave, for instance,

0:46:540:46:58

some money lying around or even a pen for that matter or a lighter

0:46:580:47:04

in your office, it would be gone.

0:47:040:47:06

Quicker than what you could look for it, it would be gone,

0:47:060:47:09

but not the story or the case with the political prisoners.

0:47:090:47:13

They'd probably bring it to you and give it back to you.

0:47:130:47:17

We never had in all the time there

0:47:170:47:19

one case where a member complained about anything being lifted from his office or whatever.

0:47:190:47:25

Not even a newspaper?

0:47:250:47:28

No, newspapers weren't allowed in a section, the prisoners won't allowed to use them.

0:47:280:47:33

If we were discovered with newspapers, the penalties were harsh.

0:47:350:47:40

You would, um... be sentenced to spare diet,

0:47:400:47:43

which means that every day you'll get mainly rice and water.

0:47:430:47:49

I've seen people come out of an 18-day spare diet

0:47:500:47:55

with the skin on their faces so taut,

0:47:550:47:59

you could actually see the shape of the skull

0:47:590:48:02

and it was very, very, very frightening.

0:48:020:48:05

On June the 16th 1976,

0:48:060:48:09

the first major revolt erupted in the townships after 15 people,

0:48:090:48:13

many of them schoolchildren, were shot dead in Soweto.

0:48:130:48:17

The result was a full-scale uprising.

0:48:170:48:20

Whenever there were big events outside,

0:48:230:48:26

they used to react.

0:48:260:48:28

And we immediately guessed that something was happening outside

0:48:280:48:32

which would be favourable to us.

0:48:320:48:34

There was one particular period when they acted quite normally,

0:48:340:48:40

as if nothing had happened, and that was the Soweto Uprising.

0:48:400:48:44

Um...we heard some snippets of garbled information

0:48:440:48:49

which was grossly exaggerated and distorted.

0:48:490:48:52

They were so successful in keeping the news away from us that time...

0:48:520:48:56

..that there was literally a news drought...

0:48:580:49:02

..and we first came to hear of the Soweto Uprising in August of 1976,

0:49:040:49:09

which was two months after it had happened.

0:49:090:49:13

The Soweto Uprising set off a new wave of resistance,

0:49:130:49:17

both inside and outside South Africa.

0:49:170:49:20

Military and civilian installations were sabotaged,

0:49:200:49:23

international trade sanctions were imposed

0:49:230:49:26

and unrest in the townships reached almost revolutionary proportions.

0:49:260:49:30

In an effort to smother this growing opposition,

0:49:300:49:33

arrests were stepped up

0:49:330:49:35

and a new generation of prisoners arrived at the maximum security prison on the island.

0:49:350:49:40

I knew a lot about Robben Island before I went there

0:49:470:49:51

because that's where we knew that our heroes were kept.

0:49:510:49:54

We knew that Comrade Mandela was there, Comrade Sisulu, so...

0:49:560:50:02

we really equated Robben Island with freedom.

0:50:020:50:07

If you ask me about dialectical materialism,

0:50:110:50:14

ask me what did I read about that.

0:50:140:50:16

If you ask me about Karl Marx,

0:50:160:50:18

I didn't learn that in a college or somewhere.

0:50:180:50:21

If you ask me about the actual development of society,

0:50:210:50:25

and all those things, about Hegel and all that,

0:50:250:50:28

I'm telling you it was on the island.

0:50:280:50:30

By taking all of us onto the island and putting us together,

0:50:310:50:35

they brought together potential politicians,

0:50:350:50:39

from all parts of the country.

0:50:390:50:41

People who otherwise would not have had an opportunity

0:50:420:50:46

to sit and exchange views,

0:50:460:50:48

and therefore develop a...you know, a single, national perspective.

0:50:480:50:54

One of the things that we discovered there,

0:50:540:50:57

and which enriched our own lives,

0:50:570:51:00

was the calibre of the men who were on the island.

0:51:000:51:04

It was fantastic.

0:51:040:51:07

Um...men with whom you could sit down

0:51:070:51:10

and at the end of the conversation, you feel that you've been enriched.

0:51:100:51:15

Your horizons have been widened

0:51:160:51:19

and your roots in your own country have been deepened.

0:51:190:51:23

The new prisoners were housed in general cells,

0:51:260:51:28

separated from the isolation section in which their leaders were kept.

0:51:280:51:32

There was strict security against communication between the sections.

0:51:330:51:39

And one of the first things we set out to break was this.

0:51:410:51:47

It took us time to do that.

0:51:480:51:50

But when we made the breakthrough...

0:51:510:51:55

it was joy!

0:51:550:51:57

It was joy because we could now get across the walls...

0:51:570:52:03

..and communicate with our comrades...

0:52:040:52:07

..in manners and in ways

0:52:080:52:12

which were not visible to the authorities.

0:52:120:52:15

But those things happened right under their noses.

0:52:170:52:21

And, of course, we felt happy.

0:52:210:52:24

We were succeeding...

0:52:240:52:26

..while they were there.

0:52:270:52:29

There's nothing like success. It makes one feel so nice.

0:52:290:52:35

There were various methods we used to communicate.

0:52:380:52:42

One method was...

0:52:440:52:46

..we used the kitchen...

0:52:470:52:50

and the kitchen was a nerve centre -

0:52:500:52:52

one of those few nerve centres in jail.

0:52:520:52:55

The prisoners who worked in the kitchen operated a clandestine postal service

0:53:020:53:07

Messages from one section to another were wrapped in plastic

0:53:070:53:11

and hidden inside pots in which food was distributed to the prison.

0:53:110:53:15

I worked in the kitchen and I was a cook

0:53:210:53:24

and, um...at that point in time,

0:53:240:53:26

Mandela's section - B Section - was effectively the leader's section.

0:53:260:53:31

Now, from the kitchen,

0:53:310:53:33

the guys take food,

0:53:330:53:36

you know, in big pots, into this section.

0:53:360:53:40

So I was, um...

0:53:400:53:42

put into this pot. You can imagine - I'm this small!

0:53:420:53:45

So I was put in this one big pot

0:53:450:53:48

and, after that, carried...

0:53:480:53:50

into, you know, there are trolleys,

0:53:500:53:52

very big trolleys from the kitchen into there - that section.

0:53:520:53:56

I think it was all plain.

0:53:560:53:58

Because, when I was there,

0:53:580:54:00

I heard this voice, "Now I'm ready."

0:54:000:54:03

Then I was to come out.

0:54:030:54:05

And, coming out of the pot, I was in Mandela's room.

0:54:050:54:08

I had to sit down with our now President Nelson Mandela and brief him about what was happening.

0:54:080:54:14

But I must mention this. What came out clearly to me,

0:54:140:54:18

is that the people there had, um...

0:54:180:54:20

a different idea of what was happening outside.

0:54:200:54:24

To them, at that time,

0:54:240:54:27

they were saying, "The point has come where we'll be freed."

0:54:270:54:32

You know, and they were thinking of it as early as tomorrow,

0:54:320:54:35

you know, next month, next week, next year.

0:54:350:54:39

They just heard that there was a revolution outside

0:54:390:54:43

and some of them had high expectations that now, oh, Lord,

0:54:430:54:46

this revolution is about to release us out of this prison.

0:54:460:54:50

Mandela himself spent a further 14 years in prison.

0:54:530:54:56

A political prisoner, before he goes to jail,

0:54:560:55:02

he says to himself,

0:55:020:55:04

"I am not going to allow myself to go under."

0:55:040:55:10

There were those who came to jail illiterate

0:55:100:55:13

and we taught them at the quarry, at the places of work to read and write.

0:55:130:55:19

Firstly, there were no papers.

0:55:200:55:23

And we used the site.

0:55:230:55:26

The quarry where we worked, for instance,

0:55:270:55:30

in our section, was a lime quarry.

0:55:300:55:32

And there you just levelled the lime and wrote there...

0:55:330:55:37

..until those students were able to read and write from that.

0:55:390:55:44

BIRDS CALL OVERHEAD

0:55:440:55:47

When I went to prison,

0:55:480:55:51

I hadn't studied for 22-23 years.

0:55:510:55:54

And I am greatly indebted to my fellow prisoners

0:55:540:55:59

who assisted me so unselfishly.

0:55:590:56:03

They enabled me to get two degrees -

0:56:030:56:07

a BA and a BCOM.

0:56:070:56:09

The prison authorities always liked people to believe

0:56:180:56:23

that they encouraged prisoners to study.

0:56:230:56:26

But my experience with them

0:56:260:56:28

was that they didn't like to see us progressing academically.

0:56:280:56:33

Even if you had finished your work,

0:56:340:56:37

you were not allowed to study during the day.

0:56:370:56:40

Should they find you studying during the day,

0:56:400:56:43

your privileges would be withdrawn.

0:56:430:56:46

We used to study during the day but to do so, we'd have to hide.

0:56:480:56:52

For instance, I remember myself and my study partners used to study in the toilet during the day

0:56:520:56:59

and other comrades would be watching for us.

0:56:590:57:02

If the warder came, they would tip us that he was coming

0:57:020:57:06

and then we'd fold our books.

0:57:060:57:08

There was a raging debate right from the beginning.

0:57:130:57:16

Some said, "Let's treat these people as human beings.

0:57:160:57:20

"It has happened on odd occasions

0:57:200:57:22

"that people who've been prisoners are released

0:57:220:57:25

"and they've become heads of governments.

0:57:250:57:28

"And they're very important people.

0:57:280:57:31

"Let us prepare for that day.

0:57:310:57:34

"And, um...let us give them newspapers,

0:57:340:57:36

"let us allow them radios."

0:57:360:57:38

But there were others who said, "Look, we must not take that risk.

0:57:380:57:43

"What we must do is to get these people to understand

0:57:430:57:49

"that opposing white supremacy... is a disaster for them."

0:57:490:57:56

Our treatment was intended to make them never again to resist the white supremacy.

0:57:580:58:06

CHILDREN SING IN AFRIKAANS

0:58:080:58:10

The white warders and their families formed a close-knit Afrikaner community on the island,

0:58:450:58:51

many of whom had lived there for more than a generation.

0:58:510:58:54

If you hear the name ANC or PAC or Umkhonto We Sizwe

0:59:060:59:10

you know that it's a communist, um...

0:59:110:59:15

and that's your enemy. That's how you've grown up.

0:59:150:59:19

Anything, even Nelson Mandela,

0:59:190:59:22

if you hear that name you...

0:59:220:59:24

your hair is risen,

0:59:240:59:27

if that is the correct word. That is the enemy.

0:59:270:59:30

That is a communist.

0:59:300:59:32

That is the people trying to take over our country.

0:59:320:59:35

It was a cultural shock for them

0:59:360:59:38

to enter Robben Island and find a Catholic saying,

0:59:380:59:41

"I want to see my priest."

0:59:410:59:43

It was a shock to find us speaking Afrikaans because they thought we only spoke Russian or Cuban.

0:59:430:59:48

It was a shock for them to find that they're dealing with highly educated and highly intellectual people.

0:59:480:59:54

Eventually, those stereotypes fell.

0:59:540:59:58

We broke walls between ourselves and them

0:59:581:00:01

and were able...

1:00:011:00:03

to find common ground and, of course, friendships were built.

1:00:031:00:07

Strong ones.

1:00:071:00:08

There is a built-in limit to which I would say Afrikaners would generally always go.

1:00:081:00:16

And that is their own sufferings,

1:00:161:00:18

their own struggles against British Imperialism, did play a role.

1:00:181:00:23

I mean, the fact that some of their libratory heroes -

1:00:231:00:27

General De Wet, many of them, Boers and so on -

1:00:271:00:30

that these people suffered in jail, if not as long as we did,

1:00:301:00:33

nonetheless for a cause.

1:00:331:00:35

I think that those things made them realise there is a definite limit.

1:00:351:00:40

I don't think some evil genius in Pretoria thought it out, so to speak.

1:00:471:00:51

It was a systemically determined relationship,

1:00:511:00:54

um...that was something that was cruel not just to us,

1:00:541:00:59

but particularly to the warders

1:00:591:01:01

because what it meant was that their innermost, um...

1:01:011:01:06

the innermost components of their own identity

1:01:061:01:09

were being challenged in day-to-day practice.

1:01:091:01:11

They saw, daily, that we were scholars,

1:01:111:01:14

that we were organised people, we were disciplined people,

1:01:141:01:17

we were articulate people and so on. They saw that daily.

1:01:171:01:21

And, no matter what they may have thought or said initially,

1:01:211:01:24

those things obviously undermined

1:01:241:01:26

and eroded eventually all the images they had in their heads about us and made them vulnerable.

1:01:261:01:31

Of course, when I went, um...to Robben Island...

1:01:341:01:36

..in those days, you know, you were told these people are terrorists.

1:01:381:01:43

You know, it was... fed to you every day in the media,

1:01:431:01:48

the radio, whatever, you know?

1:01:481:01:51

And that is what you thought, that you'd find a lot of monsters there.

1:01:521:01:56

And, when I got there, you know, I sort of kept my distance...

1:01:571:02:02

in the beginning.

1:02:021:02:04

An ordinary warder can be more important

1:02:041:02:08

than the Commissioner Of Prisons and even the Minister Of Justice

1:02:081:02:14

because if you went to the Commissioner Of Prisons,

1:02:141:02:17

or the Minister, and you said,

1:02:171:02:19

"Sir, it's very cold. I want four blankets."

1:02:191:02:23

He is going to look at the regulations and say,

1:02:231:02:25

"No, the regulations say you can have only three blankets.

1:02:251:02:29

"Four blankets! I can't. It's a violation of the regulations.

1:02:291:02:33

"And if I give you four blankets, I'll have to give others four."

1:02:331:02:37

But if you go to your warder in your section,

1:02:371:02:41

and you say, "Look, I want an extra blanket."

1:02:411:02:44

If you treat him with respect...

1:02:441:02:48

..he'll just go to the, um...store room

1:02:491:02:53

give you an extra blanket and that's the end of it.

1:02:531:02:56

You know, since he's been out, he's phoned me on a few occasions

1:02:561:03:01

and, um...he calls me James and I call him Mr Mandela.

1:03:011:03:04

-<

-Doesn't it feel weird you were the warder and he the prisoner?

1:03:041:03:10

Not really. I think we understood each other too well, so...

1:03:121:03:16

it wasn't weird, you know.

1:03:161:03:18

He had no animosity towards me and I had none towards him.

1:03:181:03:23

The relationship was very, very good.

1:03:231:03:26

I would... We would sit and talk for hours.

1:03:261:03:29

He never tried to convert me to his politics

1:03:311:03:34

but, you know, about general things. News, you know, what's happening.

1:03:341:03:39

So there was a very good relationship between the two of us.

1:03:391:03:42

There still is today.

1:03:421:03:45

-<

-How would you describe him as a person?

1:03:451:03:48

Um...Mr Mandela?

1:03:481:03:51

Since I've met him...

1:03:511:03:53

..till now...

1:03:541:03:56

he was a perfect gentleman.

1:03:561:03:58

That's all I can say about him.

1:03:581:04:01

He was one of the most refined, um...warders.

1:04:011:04:06

Well informed and, um...courteous with everybody...

1:04:071:04:14

soft spoken...

1:04:141:04:16

very good observations.

1:04:161:04:18

I developed a lot of respect for him.

1:04:181:04:22

The leadership, they were in a certain section on the island.

1:04:221:04:27

And I used to go there.

1:04:271:04:29

If I had trouble with one of the group where he was,

1:04:301:04:35

you know, any kind of trouble,

1:04:351:04:38

I would actually go to him and tell him, "Look, this has happened."

1:04:381:04:42

Then he would talk to this person.

1:04:421:04:46

In the early 1980s the prisoners,

1:04:471:04:49

aware of growing international pressure on the authorities,

1:04:491:04:53

fought to improve conditions inside the prison.

1:04:531:04:57

They did so at considerable personal risk.

1:04:571:04:59

In 1981, we mounted a hunger strike.

1:05:001:05:03

It was not long after the Irish hunger strikes

1:05:031:05:06

in which Bobby Sands and others died.

1:05:061:05:09

Of course, the hunger strike is a two-edged sword.

1:05:101:05:13

You come out of it and many people have got ulcers.

1:05:131:05:17

Once you have a case of ulcers, you have ulcers forever.

1:05:191:05:23

You don't heal those sores.

1:05:231:05:25

We had, over the years, complained about and demanded the right of access to our children.

1:05:261:05:32

The prison authority's argument was that we were prisoners,

1:05:321:05:36

we were terrorists

1:05:361:05:38

and that the fact of our children seeing us

1:05:381:05:41

would impact very badly on their minds.

1:05:411:05:44

Our constant argument...

1:05:441:05:47

was that, um...

1:05:471:05:48

whilst it is true that white society saw us as terrorists,

1:05:481:05:53

within our communities...

1:05:531:05:56

we were...we were heroes.

1:05:561:05:59

People suffered. There's no doubt about that.

1:06:011:06:04

Probably, for all of us,

1:06:061:06:08

the greatest deprivation was not the sexual one -

1:06:081:06:12

the separation from women for example -

1:06:121:06:15

not that so much but the separation from children.

1:06:151:06:18

The fact that I never saw a child for ten years,

1:06:181:06:22

was something which even now boggles my mind.

1:06:221:06:25

CHILDREN SHOUT AND PLAY

1:06:251:06:28

One day we were working in the quarry.

1:06:291:06:32

While we were digging, we heard a few noises of some children,

1:06:321:06:37

just on the other side of the bush.

1:06:371:06:40

It was spontaneous for us. We all turned as if automatons

1:06:411:06:46

and looked in the direction where the noise came from

1:06:461:06:49

because we were deprived so much of even the voice of a child,

1:06:491:06:53

never mind seeing a child.

1:06:531:06:55

So we had to look into that

1:06:551:06:57

but then the warders saw that we were looking in that direction,

1:06:571:07:01

so they ran, of course, naturally, to chase these children away,

1:07:011:07:05

so that we should not see them, we should not talk to them.

1:07:051:07:09

The 1981 hunger strikes succeeded in changing prison regulations

1:07:091:07:13

about access to their children

1:07:131:07:15

and gradually, through a combination of their own and external efforts,

1:07:151:07:20

further privileges were won

1:07:201:07:21

which allowed prisoners to lead a more human existence.

1:07:211:07:25

Robben Island is a small place.

1:07:331:07:35

The prison on Robben Island is also a small building.

1:07:351:07:42

To survive, the mind must have time and must read,

1:07:421:07:46

must do all sorts of things,

1:07:461:07:47

and of course must keep physically fit also.

1:07:471:07:51

Because if you are sitting in one place - my cell was 2m x 2m -

1:07:511:07:54

to be stuck there for 13 years is a long time,

1:07:541:07:57

so you need to go out and play sports.

1:07:571:07:59

We would do anything to play all types of sports on Robben Island -

1:07:591:08:04

we even tried golf.

1:08:041:08:05

They refused because the balls would fall into the ocean

1:08:051:08:08

and if they did and you are asked to go there you may not come back.

1:08:081:08:11

MEN YELL, WHISTLE BLOWS

1:08:111:08:15

My nickname "Terror" comes from being a striker.

1:08:171:08:20

So one on the things I took to jail with me was my footballing skills.

1:08:201:08:26

Many people tend to think that I am called Terror because I was a terrorist.

1:08:271:08:32

But, no, I was a terror, I think, more for the goalkeepers of the opposition,

1:08:321:08:40

and that's really where the nickname comes from.

1:08:401:08:43

BALL BEING HIT BY A RACQUET

1:08:441:08:47

What was your sport on the island?

1:08:531:08:56

I played tennis... and I played volleyball.

1:08:561:09:00

I probably played other games...

1:09:001:09:03

-What is this game where you throw a ring?

-< Quoits.

1:09:031:09:06

-Eh?

-< Quoits?

1:09:061:09:08

-Deck quoits?

-No, I don't know that.

1:09:081:09:10

Um, there is a ring, a rubber ring which you throw over the net...

1:09:101:09:15

What do you call it? Ladies, you should know.

1:09:151:09:19

Um, I'll remember the name, now,

1:09:191:09:22

and of course we had indoor games as well,

1:09:221:09:26

chess, drafts, dominoes, you know,

1:09:261:09:32

and one of the other games where you had some rich...?

1:09:321:09:38

Scrabble was played.

1:09:391:09:43

But there's another game which is also very popular...

1:09:431:09:47

-< Monopoly?

-Monopoly, yes. Mm.

1:09:481:09:53

Kind of quoits, the other, what do you call...kind of quoits, yes.

1:09:531:09:57

I played those. Mm.

1:09:571:09:59

It's a funny idea, a lot of left-wing politicians playing Monopoly...

1:09:591:10:04

-on Robben Island.

-Yes, quite, yes! Yes, that's true.

1:10:041:10:08

< Understanding capitalism! HE LAUGHS

1:10:081:10:11

Right through the period of Christmas,

1:10:111:10:15

the competition of singing.

1:10:151:10:17

We were placed in our particular group,

1:10:181:10:24

in a position whereby windows could be used, you can open windows,

1:10:241:10:30

it was not a typical prison.

1:10:301:10:32

We were able to sing and make competition.

1:10:321:10:36

We would stand at these windows, Raymond and I,

1:10:371:10:42

or someone, reciting a poem...

1:10:421:10:46

..and amazingly the acoustics there were so good

1:10:471:10:52

that the voice travelled right down the passage.

1:10:521:10:55

What did you do?

1:10:551:10:57

Well, I used to sing, as well as others used to sing...

1:10:581:11:03

..a variety of songs.

1:11:041:11:08

There used to be some who'd sing Blue River,

1:11:081:11:14

and others who'd sing Be Mine,

1:11:141:11:21

and so on and so on.

1:11:211:11:23

There was such a good range of music that came through those rooms.

1:11:231:11:30

# Under the starlit skies

1:11:301:11:34

# Be mine

1:11:341:11:38

# When the night falls into a lullaby

1:11:381:11:44

# My arms will embrace you

1:11:441:11:50

# With love divine

1:11:501:11:55

# And now

1:11:551:11:59

# Is the time to whisper that you'll be mine

1:11:591:12:05

# Come into my heart

1:12:051:12:09

# And stay for ever

1:12:091:12:15

# Tell me, tell me that you'll be mine... #

1:12:151:12:18

There were guys who went to ballroom dancing before they came to prison,

1:12:181:12:23

so they taught some of us who have never been introduced to the art.

1:12:231:12:29

So we would do these things in the cells.

1:12:291:12:33

Competitions for an outstanding pair.

1:12:331:12:38

A club would attract the attention of the warders,

1:12:381:12:42

that an entertainment is going on in the cell,

1:12:421:12:46

which was supposed not to be the case,

1:12:461:12:48

because the cell was supposed to be a place of gloom, of brooding and anxiety and all that kind of thing.

1:12:481:12:55

But we brightened up the cell, you know, and engaged in this kind of activity,

1:12:551:12:59

so for an outstanding performance,

1:12:591:13:01

the chap would say, "Give them a brush."

1:13:011:13:05

A brush would be like this,

1:13:051:13:06

not a clap, like this, because a clap would attract their attention,

1:13:061:13:10

so a brush, "Give them a brush."

1:13:101:13:13

We started then also to stage some plays.

1:13:161:13:20

There is a book called Waiting For Godot.

1:13:201:13:26

That book was written by Samuel Beckett.

1:13:261:13:30

And it was a book that, after reading it,

1:13:301:13:33

then, a group of us then began then to stage a play on it.

1:13:331:13:39

And after that there was a discussion about it -

1:13:391:13:43

is this real?

1:13:431:13:45

What did the tramp stand for?

1:13:471:13:49

What was the message of the author?

1:13:491:13:53

Some people said that, you know,

1:13:531:13:56

the tramp tried to show us that we can go on hoping against hope.

1:13:561:14:03

Others said then that, no, that is discouraging,

1:14:031:14:05

because it is something then that is just like Christianity,

1:14:051:14:09

that is keeping you down and saying, you get heaven above if you sacrifice everything down here on Earth.

1:14:091:14:16

We knew no tyrant is there for all time,

1:14:191:14:24

and that in the long run,

1:14:241:14:27

however well-armed the tyrant was,

1:14:271:14:31

the will of the people would overcome the tyrant's forces,

1:14:311:14:38

that we knew.

1:14:381:14:40

And the people...

1:14:401:14:43

..the people that struggle for freedom...

1:14:451:14:49

..the people that struggle for liberation from oppression,

1:14:511:14:55

and worse oppression that is accompanied by racism, as in the case of South Africa.

1:14:551:15:03

An organisation that leads such people...

1:15:041:15:09

..the nationalists didn't learn this lesson.

1:15:101:15:13

Probably they haven't learned it even today

1:15:131:15:17

that such an organisation can't be destroyed.

1:15:171:15:23

Faced with the prospect of economic collapse,

1:15:231:15:26

the South African Government decided in the late-1980s

1:15:261:15:29

to prepare for a negotiated transition to majority rule.

1:15:291:15:33

As part of this opening-up process,

1:15:331:15:35

several of the original Rivonia group were released from their life sentences,

1:15:351:15:40

in October 1989.

1:15:401:15:42

The very first day I did not believe whether it's Andrew.

1:15:461:15:52

I was not sure whether to touch Andrew, or whether to do what.

1:15:521:15:59

But anyway, when days went on,

1:15:591:16:03

I did not even wish to leave him alone for a few minutes.

1:16:031:16:09

I wanted to be with him... every five minutes.

1:16:091:16:16

Even when he had to come to the office,

1:16:161:16:20

that thing came back to say, "Oh, I'm alone again"!

1:16:201:16:25

Every now and then I come across something that is new to me.

1:16:251:16:31

Um, the first thing I came across when I came out was this, um...cordless telephone,

1:16:311:16:37

at my house,

1:16:371:16:39

and I'd never heard of or seen one before.

1:16:391:16:42

But the most simple thing was the Gillette razor.

1:16:421:16:45

I was used to those blades of the old type and I'd never seen this,

1:16:451:16:50

and I just couldn't insert a Gillette into...a blade into a razor.

1:16:501:16:55

But there were so many little things that were new to me.

1:16:551:17:00

The only thing which is still a problem between my wife and I is lights.

1:17:021:17:07

I think I got used to lights and I like light anyway,

1:17:071:17:12

I don't like darkness.

1:17:121:17:14

So my wife takes the opposite view.

1:17:141:17:18

She switches off the light, I switch on,

1:17:181:17:23

and that is like the prison and the warder.

1:17:231:17:27

In prison, I'm not sure whether it was there... In some cases, they put on the light.

1:17:271:17:34

You switch off.

1:17:341:17:36

Nelson Mandela chose to remain in prison,

1:17:381:17:42

until the government conceded to the terms on which negotiations would be conducted.

1:17:421:17:47

As the most famous political prisoner in the world,

1:17:471:17:50

he became the focus of intense journalistic and political interest.

1:17:501:17:55

More and more people wanted to come and see him.

1:17:551:17:58

Some of them have curiosity,

1:17:581:18:02

many of them tried to climb on the bandwagon, I don't know,

1:18:021:18:06

it was so bad that I actually went to him.

1:18:061:18:11

The people I knew, you know, that were really visitors,

1:18:111:18:14

I issued permits for.

1:18:141:18:17

But the people I did not know who they were,

1:18:171:18:20

I went to him.

1:18:201:18:22

"This person has applied to see you. Do you want to see them, yes or no?"

1:18:221:18:27

And he would tell me yes or no, and that is the answer I would give.

1:18:271:18:32

So I was very much a buffer between the outside world and him,

1:18:321:18:40

and between him and the outside world.

1:18:401:18:44

From prison Mandela wielded more authority than his fellow politicians who were free.

1:18:441:18:50

Despite repeated offers of deals from the government,

1:18:501:18:53

he refused to agree to his release until he felt his demands had been met.

1:18:531:18:58

When you first met him did you think he would play such a leading role one day?

1:18:581:19:04

To tell you the truth, I had no idea. No idea.

1:19:041:19:10

It was only later, I would say from 1985, 1986, I started realising...

1:19:101:19:18

..what is happening because I was also, you know...

1:19:191:19:24

..interested in both sides, let me put it that way.

1:19:261:19:29

I think he started realising, you know, that this is going somewhere,

1:19:291:19:34

really going somewhere.

1:19:341:19:37

I mean, you know, maybe being the future President,

1:19:371:19:43

I mean, not only through my work...

1:19:431:19:46

..but, um, you know, I'm an avid reader,

1:19:471:19:53

and two and two, you can put two and two together,

1:19:531:19:57

and so on, that they had to... Change had to come,

1:19:571:20:02

you know, to majority rule.

1:20:021:20:05

And it is, I mean, there.

1:20:051:20:07

SIRENS WAIL

1:20:071:20:10

Mr Nelson Mandela,

1:20:121:20:15

a free man, taking his first steps into a new South Africa.

1:20:151:20:21

Mandela's release after 27 years opened the way for negotiations with the government,

1:20:211:20:28

and the release of all remaining political prisoners.

1:20:281:20:32

TRANSLATION OF VOICES SINGING:

1:20:401:20:44

Robben Island still functions as a prison for common-law criminals.

1:22:421:22:47

Many of the present warders worked on the island when the political prisoners were held there.

1:22:471:22:53

When I came to the island, people told me, this is like a BIG island,

1:22:531:22:58

with very very vicious guys - you can't even speak with them,

1:22:581:23:02

and when you got here, a few months past,

1:23:021:23:07

I saw, this is people as well.

1:23:071:23:10

OK, the crimes might be different, but still they're people.

1:23:101:23:13

Did you think then that they were going to be very important politicians

1:23:131:23:18

when they left the island?

1:23:181:23:20

Oh yes. I mean, the type of high- profile prisoner that they were,

1:23:201:23:27

it was obvious often that they would be in a position in a political party,

1:23:271:23:34

that they would have some say, even at that stage.

1:23:341:23:37

What do you think about that?

1:23:371:23:40

Well, we have to accept, I mean, the country has to change.

1:23:401:23:45

What do you think about the days you spent with them?

1:23:451:23:49

I try to recall their names.

1:23:491:23:52

And still, when I seem them,

1:23:551:23:58

that's his name, he was in that section.

1:23:581:24:02

Walter Sisulu and Andrew Mlangeni were both kept in the prison's isolation section.

1:24:031:24:09

On this return visit to show the island to their wives,

1:24:091:24:14

the only rules they must follow are those which apply to ordinary tourists.

1:24:141:24:21

But the prison itself is still out of bounds.

1:24:211:24:26

"The following rules are applicable to all visitors to Robben Island."

1:24:261:24:32

"Conversations with prisoners will not be allowed.

1:24:321:24:36

"No parcels or articles of any kind are to be handed to

1:24:361:24:42

"or received from prisoners.

1:24:421:24:45

"Your visit will be on your own risk,

1:24:451:24:49

"the management of Robben Island do not accept any responsibility

1:24:491:24:54

"for damage incurred or injuries sustained.

1:24:541:24:59

"Flora and flora and marine life may not be disturbed in any way."

1:24:591:25:04

Ooh, Lord, they are spoiling this quarry now.

1:25:041:25:09

They are proud to destroy the history of this place here.

1:25:091:25:14

-Where we are standing, people like Mhlaba used to work here.

-Yes.

1:25:141:25:18

This is history, why are they making a dumping place?

1:25:181:25:22

-They did everything here...

-Yes. Education...

-..Politics, everything here.

1:25:221:25:29

Academic studies, everything here.

1:25:291:25:31

-Singing was not allowed in the first place.

-Oh...

1:25:311:25:36

All prisoners, it's a tradition they sing,

1:25:361:25:39

-in order to get, you know, energy.

-Mmm...of the people.

1:25:391:25:46

But, with us, no singing.

1:25:461:25:49

Although Walter can't sing he loves listening to other people sing.

1:25:491:25:53

-Oh, he is a good singer, you don't know him...

-He used to sing.

1:25:531:25:57

He is, he still is.

1:25:571:26:00

THEY SING

1:26:001:26:03

-How about the warders?

-Where were they deployed?

1:26:111:26:15

There, along those lines...there.

1:26:151:26:19

'We bore no ill will, no bitterness to those people who were so cruel to us.

1:26:191:26:27

'We felt possibly we could, even in a small way, rehabilitate them.'

1:26:271:26:33

When I was released from prison, I was subjected to banning orders.

1:26:351:26:40

And when I went to court after transgressing my banning orders,

1:26:401:26:44

one of the security policemen who had tortured me in detention,

1:26:441:26:48

offered me his hand, and I took his hand and I said hello.

1:26:481:26:53

I've seen a lot of the prisoners that I met on the island,

1:26:531:26:59

and realising they might possibly will be the leaders of the next government,

1:26:591:27:05

um...it's a funny feeling,

1:27:051:27:08

because one didn't really think of that when you worked on the island,

1:27:081:27:13

although you knew it was a possibility.

1:27:131:27:15

One never ever thought of them eventually being your boss.

1:27:151:27:18

One is grateful,

1:27:181:27:21

um, although it was a tragedy that you had the opportunity to lead another life,

1:27:211:27:28

and to be able to stand back from you and your work and to look at it from a distance,

1:27:281:27:35

and to be able to evaluate your work and the mistakes that you made.

1:27:351:27:40

It offered us that opportunity.

1:27:401:27:42

And do you think that's benefited you?

1:27:421:27:45

Oh, naturally. It benefited not only me, but others as well.

1:27:451:27:49

I'm supposed to be a very angry man,

1:27:491:27:52

and, um...but I think, as a Christian,

1:27:521:27:56

I understand and...I hope they will realise what they've done to me.

1:27:561:28:03

I was not an isolated case, but I still needed to be a young person,

1:28:031:28:08

still needed to be a boyfriend to a girlfriend,

1:28:081:28:12

still needed to...play around.

1:28:121:28:16

So I'll say prison really took all they days of my youth.

1:28:181:28:23

Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2005

1:29:051:29:09

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1:29:091:29:14

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