Today we went to another prison. After about three months of being free, we got forced back into the confinement of being a prisoner. Luckily, our time as prisoners was very short, for we were on a tour. What is interesting is that the tours are given by political prisoners that used to live in the Robben Island National Maximum Security Prison. That is the prison on Robben Island that is in the middle of Table Bay.

In WWII, the island was used for large guns that could shoot 50 kilometers at ships, and in sinking all enemy ships, protected the city of Cape Town and the surrounding suburbs. After that, part of it was used as a Maximum Security Prison for anit-apartheid black and colored men. The women, white, and colored people were kept on the mainland, at least 8 kilometers away. Nelson Mandela was kept in the prison, and he has been a president of South Africa since his release.

We first arrived on the island by boat, and then were quickly herded to several buses, which we promptly had to get in to, and then went off for a tour around the island. When we finished with the ride, we went inside the prison and met our guide, who spoke loudly. We first went into a large-ish cell that housed sixty people. Then we moved on and saw the courtyard, where the likes of Nelson Mandela turned big rocks into little rocks, and finally we got to see the cell where Nelson Mandela  was kept.

That’s all for now, Folks!