One cannot come to South Africa without the issue of apartheid coming up. As reported in our last blog posting, a very powerful speaker spoke to us last night about the history of South Africa with particular attention given to apartheid, its beginnings and how it ended. Twenty five years after apartheid was abolished the country still struggles with racism. We have discovered that racism here is much more complex then what we face in America. It began when white European men came to South Africa in the 1600's and very soon began fathering mixed raced children with the local women. As the Europeans began to gather more economic power they imported Asians and Indians (from the country of India not Native Americans) to provide trained labor. As South Africa became more affluent, impoverished blacks from central Africa migrated in hopes of improving their lot in life. South Africa ended up with a four tiered society. In order of their status were the whites, coloured (these are mixed race peopland the term is not a perjorative here), the Asians and Indians and finally the blacks. In 1948 whites were a decided minority in the country but still passed a number of laws the institutionalized racism, the beginning of apartheid. These apartheid laws were directed specifically at blacks. During the ensuing years the White government arrested and imprisoned many of the black leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. Late in the 20th century the rest of the world was finally recognizing the horror of apartheid, putting in place many economic sanctions. The result was that the economy of South Africa was in danger of total collapse. The effects of these economic sanctions played as much a part in the final ending of apartheid as did the recognition of the horrific social injustice perpetrated on the blacks. The first democratic elections in 1994 marked the end of apartheid.
We spent most of the morning on Robben Island, the home of the prison that housed the polical prisoners. Robben Island is located over 7 miles from Cape Town in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the location of a Leper colony from the mid 19th century until 1931. The first political prisoners were brought to the island to build what became a maximum security prison. Approaching the entrance to the prison it appears an attractive building, camouflaging the horrors inside. While building the prison with primative tools and minining a nearby limestone quarry, these men faced unspeakable physical torture. The mental torture these men faced was equilly as bad. They were allowed only one letter and one visit from a family member every 6 months. The letters were heavily censored to the point some men received a letter that contained only the greeting and the closing. Wives or other family members had to apply for permission to come to the island to visit their loved one.
The government imposed the same apartheid laws in the prison in an attempt to further torture the prisoners. The imprisoned leaders of the movement worked hard to keep all of the prisoners unified as one against the prison wardens. They come up with ingenious ways to communicate with prisoners throughout the prison as well as communicate with the outside world. The prisoner leaders also placed great value on education and worked hard to improve the education level of many of the prisoners. We were told these prisoners showed incredible dignity in the face of the atrocities that they endured.
Our tour guide was a black African who had been convicted of sabotage when he was 16 years old and spent 6 years on Robben Island. It was sobering to listen to this man talk of his experiences. The last stop on the prison tour was the cell that Nelson Mandela occupied. It was a tiny almost square cell with no bed. He slept on a mat with 3 blankets; one as the bottom sheet, one as an actual blanket to cover himself and one as his pillow. There was no sink or toilet. A plastic pail sat in the corner of the cell that he used to relieve himself. There was a small stool against one wall on which sat a metal plate and cup and fork. That was all there was in Mandela's cell.
The dock where our boat returned from Robben Island was next to the Victoria and Alfred Riverside Shopping Center. We had an hour and a half of free time here. After a quick lunch we visited several galleries of contempory African art. We saw many interesting pieces but nothing that we absolutely had to have. We also window shopped outside many high end clothing and jewelry stories.
Our last excursion of the day was to have been a cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain, so named because it has a very flat top. As we rode our ferry back to Cape Town from Robben Island, Table Mountain provided a dramatic backdrop for the city of Cape Town. This excursion was canceled due to high winds. While the views from atop the mountain would have been spectacular, we were both drained from our morning visit to Robben Island and did not mind at all coming back to the hotel and collapsing. This also gave us extra time to do our packing as we leave for the airport tomorrow morning at 5:00 for our flight to Victoria Falls. We will visit Victoria Falls tomorrow afternoon. Saturday we will spend all day on safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. Monday afternoon we board the Rovos Railroad train for our three day journey to Johannesburg. There is wifi on the train but it is said to be rather spotty. Interpret that to mean we don't know when we will next blog
The top three pictures are from the prison including Nelson Mandela's cell. the bottom picture is Table Mountain.
Thanks for reading.
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1 comment:
Very in depth recap, thank you as I love the history. I take it this is a trip through the University?
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