The Hindu Business Line : The dark years

From the jiving at the international jazz festival, the big music event of the year held in Cape Town, South Africa, it is a completely different change in scene to set off for Robben Island, where the South African leader Nelson Mandela was incarcera ted for long and tortuous years (1964-1989). South African Tourism, which has brought in international and local journalists into Cape Town to cover the jazz festival, charters a speed boat to take us for the 45-minute ride from Cape Town’s picturesque beachfront to the island.

A few journalists head for the bar — so what’s different, you might well ask — and are politely offered soft drinks by the bar tender, with apologies: “No beer or wine; that is reserved for the return trip.” A good enough policy, as visiting in an inebriated state the former high security prison where hardened criminals and political prisoners such as Mandela were bundled together would be sacrilege indeed.

The tour at the pier begins with a walk around the Robben Island museum. In 1964, after the police raids at the underground headquarters at Rivonia, Mandela and seven other African National Congress leaders were arrested, sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Robben Island to accommodate the increasing number of political prisoners that South Africa was generating following the apartheid policy officially introduced in 1961.

New buildings were constructed to accommodate the increasing numbers and prisoners described the conditions as appalling in areas such as food and clothing, forced labour in the notorious sand quarries and severe punishment for the slightest of offences.

Through official policy, all warders were white and all prisoners black. Women and white prisoners were sent to jail in Pretoria.

The facts

Rasheeda Bhagat

The cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

Until 1975 political prisoners were not housed separately from the criminals. Prisoners were eventually also allowed to start informal education classes but after a lot of fuss.

In 1966 hunger strikes began to protest against the inhuman treatment meted out to prisoners and reports of such treatment were smuggled out of the prison to the international media.

Ultimately in 1968, the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross intervened, and 1971 is still remembered for the brutal attack where prisoners were stripped and searched for their hunger strike.

The grim facts follow; it was only in 1973 that prisoners were allowed to wash with hot water for the first time and in 1978 prisoners were allowed to listen to newscasts relayed over the intercom.

In 1986 Mandela wrote to the State president Botha to start the negotiation process; in 1988 massive international pressure was exerted on the South African government for his and other political prisoners’ release on the occasion of Mandela’s 70th birthday.

On July 17 the same year, Archbishop Desmond Tutu organised the Nelson Mandela freedom rally and he was released the next year.

Under mounting international pressure, other political prisoners were released subsequently. In 1997 Robben Island was declared a national museum and in 1999 a world heritage site.

Apartheid years

This prison forms an important component in the history of South Africa’s apartheid years, and it’s a chilling experience to land at the Island, be transported to the prison and walk through its gate and down the narrow corridors. Mandela’s small cell has been preserved as it was when he was released, with the two blankets folded in a particular way so that they serve as a low stool for the prisoner to sit on, and his mug kept by the side.

As we are given a tour of the prison by Mincedisi, who was himself kept in the prison from 1977 to 1982 as political prisoner, the dark years gone by come alive. In the back courtyard there are huge pictures of a young Mandela, and the guide points to the shrubs where the South African leader used to hide the memoirs of his prison years.

You are also driven to the limestone quarry where the prisoners had to put in hard labour.

“The funny part was that while the criminals were given lighter work, the political prisoners had to put in much more hard labour as they were the ones who were branded ‘dangerous’,” said Mincedisi.

He also showed us the cave which the prisoners discovered in the region and in the “1960s this was used by the prisoners during lunch break to not only take their food but also become literate. There were no books and the classes were conducted secretly; the letters had to be written on the sand, memorised and then erased.”

Later of course the policy was changed to grant permission for those prisoners who wanted to study. “The officers began to use education as a leverage to control prisoners, as there was no guarantee that your application to study would be approved. If on checking your file they discovered you were a troublesome prisoner — which meant that you stood up for your rights — you did not get permission to study. Even after permission was granted, there was no guarantee you’d be allowed to write your exams. If they discovered that you had changed your attitude and become ‘troublesome’ they would withdraw the permission,” said Mincedisi.

Pause and think

As we headed back to the pier for the journey back, one mused on how different people in different generations and different regions of the world had to struggle so hard for that we take for granted today… the right to education, the right to free speech, employment without discrimination, etc.

Exposure to all this in the land where Gandhiji had to face so much discrimination makes you pause and think… about the colonisation of India and how for a couple of centuries under the British rule Indians were treated as less than human.

Was it a mere coincidence that as we returned to Cape Town from the Island, the high tide had set in and the waters had become extremely choppy, to match the turmoil of thoughts and emotions within?

As the stomach churned from the combination of internal turmoil and the rough sea tossing our little vessel, one politely declined a helping from the numerous bottles of wine that were uncorked and guzzled by many occupants of the boat.

Well, journalism does harden people and makes them develop a thick skin, and it’s more than the love for freebies. Call it scepticism, cynicism or an ability to view life in its various facets without wearing a mask. A lot of this was captured in this comment made by Yolanda, a seasoned Nigerian journalist “with a lot of good old Indian blood inside me”.

Cheerfully helping to bring out bottles of still and bubbly wine, barely managing to retain her balance while she downed glasses as the boat was tossed in all directions by the vicious mood of the sea, she asked the bartender to remove the conatiner with a simple message: ‘Tips here’. “Oh, for God’s sake, remove this; there are journalists in here today and trust me, they don’t believe in tipping!”

Fact file

South African Airways operates a direct flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg (about 9 hours). Frequent connections are available from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

Robben Island is a 45-minute ride by a motorised boat from Cape Town's waterfront.

Currency: South African Rand (ZAR) 1 Rand = Rs 5.12; and it is best to buy your estimated requirement of ZAR directly from India rather than buy dollars and convert them into ZAR, as the conversion rates and high commissions can deplete your money considerably.

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