Robben Island: Human Nature and What Apartheid Really Is

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Mandela is obvious in South Africa. Or at least, Cape Town. I remember him as the first thing I noticed in Cape Town airport.

It was almost jarring, for the tone was very reverent. He was no more simply a man, but now an icon. It immediately brought home to me that South Africa is, in a way, actually a young country. Probably, my parents’ generation had similarly elevated our founding fathers.

A new country needed to, you know. If it was a new incarnation that chose a break from its past. To assert a choice to go a different way than it was headed, and commit, to emerge out of the chaos of conflict and dissent. The milestone has to be sacred, and its icon, all but a prophet.

I felt that resonance. I, too, had just committed to break from where I was headed, not long before going to South Africa (which I jokingly call my ‘unemployed trip’). You see, I had just walked away from a professional corporate career and – so far – have gone a totally different way.

A lifelong tendency to do contrary things

Perhaps that energy bled into the trip, because I did quite a few things ‘wrong’. I started by finally going to Expo City, but I paid only a budget price for an expensive hotel because it was summer and the wrong time. Although I came to South Africa to learn about apartheid, I ended up doing Robben Island last.

It wasn’t by choice. I had simply not anticipated how quickly the tickets would sell out. Fortunately, I was doing this trip as slow travel, and had a second try after returning from Namakwaland in the Northern Cape.

Meanwhile, I went on a flower tour in Namakwaland and did many of the paths backwards, and found different angles to the landscapes. I skipped Langebaan and Stellenbosch, which were actually recommended to me, and that led me to later discover the incredible story of Simon’s Town.

But I did find myself eventually in the V&A Waterfront, waiting for my ferry to Robben Island¹.

Victoria & Albert Waterfront

The Victoria & Albert Waterfront is the gentrified part of Cape Town harbour. Locally, the name “V&A Waterfront” normally seems to refer to the mall along one side. However, this is not the side with the pier for the Robben Island ferry².

The Dock Road curves around Two Oceans Aquarium and a marina before turning in again to the opposite side. Past two museums and an art gallery, is the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island.

The museum inside Nelson Mandela Gateway

I booked my ticket online, directly on the Robben Island Museum website. I was early, so I got myself a quick coffee before going inside the ticket building.

Or rather, I thought it was a ticket building, but actually it was also a museum. Fortunately, I came in early enough to browse the chronology of the apartheid struggle in the departure hall.

Maybe I was already sad that day. But as I read the history of Robben island and Mandela, I found myself weeping. Perhaps it was the relentless pressure of apartheid oppression, perhaps it was the persistent struggle that came in response. Perhaps it was the offhand details of petty spite and cruelty, or maybe the shock of realising Namibia was not independent either until South African apartheid was over.

Or maybe it was merely the realisation that my country was free, that at the time I was fretting about trivialities like getting a walkman, when they were still in such bitter struggle, and even natives had no rights to own and travel through their own homelands as they please.

I found the standard tour booked on the Robben Island Museum website quite adequate. However, in case you might be looking for a tour with extra services or that includes more, these are also available.

Departing for Robben Island

Crossing the gangway to board the ferry reminded me how much I liked the sea. As a bonus, there was a seal basking at the jetty too. Apparently this is a normal sight here.

Before long, we were at Robben Island. The bus before me filled up before my turn to board, so I was directed to the next bus. Which turned out to be just perfect for a contrary traveller like me.

The guide for my bus was a man about my age, or perhaps younger. The first thing that struck me was that he was the spitting image of Trevor Noah. I fleetingly wondered if he gets that a lot.

Though he didn’t seem like a sad person, his eyes carried it. And his voice, when he introduced himself, had a weight and sharpness (and a hint of a Scottish accent under the South African), and I wondered if it was a heavy thing, to give this tour as a job, and do it justice every time. Indeed, he quipped that he was ‘stuck with this face’, assuring us that he was really friendlier than his RBF let on.

Then he told us something that confirmed to me that I was on the right bus. He told us that we were going to do the tour route backwards. For he would tell us the story of apartheid and Mandela, in a way that may be a little more controversial than the standard narrative.

And it’s the why of this story. Because the insights he gave me were too valuable to be forgotten. After all, not everyone can go to Robben Island. And not everyone who does would get him as their tour guide.

Apartheid relied not on our differences, but on what we had in common

Craig opened with the observation that apartheid was but one form of discrimination, that has existed in varying forms. For differences could be found anywhere you look; not just based on race, but also culture, religion – or even what side of the water you were born. But he concluded with the controversial opinion that in fact, apartheid did not rely on the differences that exist between us, but on what we had in common: the weaknesses of human nature.

You see, if people in power were to oppress others equally, eventually the oppressed group would find common cause and resist together. But if you were to break them up into sub-categories, and treat them slightly differently on a sliding scale, the arbitrary category distinctions now become a class system. And human nature responds by fighting one another, more than they fight the system itself.

He gave an example of prisoners arriving to Robben Island. Though imprisoned together, the prisoners were clothed and fed according to race categories, even though there was no need for the distinction. However, psychologically, the difference creates resentment between prisoners of different categories, and thus disunity.

The three weapons of apartheid

But merely having apartheid categories isn’t enough. There is still the chance of a single event outside your control, that leads everyone to realise their common enemy. So apartheid needed to become not just the law, but embedded in the very character and norms of the society. They needed to change the way people thought.

And to do that, he continued, they used three weapons: the education system, the media, and the mind of the child. The third was crucial, for if you could change the thinking of a single generation, you would change the norms of the whole society.

“Stand at the top of Table Mountain on a clear day and look down,” he invited. “You can literally see the living areas of the different categories.” There would be physical barriers between them. Not a coincidence. Subtle, like a sports field or industrial area, or train tracks.

These barriers wouldn’t obstruct the movement of adults. But it will prevent a generation of children from crossing between neighbourhoods.

With no direct interaction, the only things that they will know about other groups are what they are taught. Then it becomes easier to use the education system to re-program them, reinforced by state-controlled media, radio and newspapers³.

By the time the child becomes an adult, they would have been accustomed to assume things about others based on the colour of their skin. They would no longer listen to learn, but to confirm what they already believe about them. They will then become parents in turn, and teach their children the same – for they wouldn’t know any different.

“You don’t realise the abnormality of what you do,” he concluded. “And the scary thing is, that takes generations to undo.”

Robben Island & the hidden blessing

As the bus continued on to the viewing point⁴, Craig’s lecture shifted to Robben Island itself.

Robben Island was everything it was said to be: a political prison, and a place of torture – both physical and psychological. But it was also a double-edged sword for the apartheid government. It was, paradoxically, a uniting point in South African history.

Given its UNESCO Site justification, you might think that Robben Island was specifically created by the apartheid government for, well, apartheid reasons. But the island was not part of their original plans. In 1960, the Sharpeville massacre killed nearly a hundred peaceful protesters gathered outside the police station⁵. The incident was captured by a British photojournalist, and spread internationally⁶.

Forced to salvage its reputation, apartheid South Africa opened a prison on Robben Island. They told the world that it was a prison for VIP convicts. Robert Sobukwe became Robben Island’s first political prisoner in modern times^a. Out of sight, out of mind⁷.

And in that unplanned decision, following a single event outside their control, was the seed of apartheid’s undoing⁸.

Over the years, political leadership from around the country – different racial categories, cultures, religions, languages – were banished to Robben Island. Together.

“There’s one thing that can bind people against their circumstances. I would really like to say it was love,” said our guide, “but in the absence of love, it is the act of survival. People will do things to survive that they would not do under normal circumstance. Such as communicate, share resources, and get to know people whom they saw as adversaries in the outside world.”⁹

Now, I’m somewhat of an idealist. But I admit I feel better to have such pragmatism underwrite it.

The quarry of Robben Island

Back on the bus, we headed to the lime quarry, where the prisoners had laboured¹⁰.

The quarrying, said our guide, was not the point. Rather, the purpose was to tire the prisoners out. An exhausted population is easier to manage.

“But,” he reminded, “we do not get the Nelson Mandela we know today, without Robben Island.” It was where he became the leader that South Africa would come to need. And not just him either, for it would be a mistake to think that the South Africa of 1994 was the product of one man.

You see, South Africa was close to civil war in 1994. There were armed wings on both political sides, and bloodshed leading up to its first democratic elections¹¹. Yet, whatever its issues today, 30 years later there isn’t a trace of it left¹².

One man does not have the power to do that. But 32 – coming from different walks of life – do, by calling for calm in their respective communities.

Crucially, had these same people only met each other in the comfortable halls of parliament, it would have already been too late. “But luckily for this nation,” he said, “they met in this quarry you see on the left hand side.”

Their labour together awakened the human nature to co-operate for survival. Sharing a common fate, they said things they wouldn’t have said outside. And over the years, 32 people’s personalities, concepts, and ideas began mingling together.

“In many ways, South Africa’s birthplace was in that quarry.”

The solitary prisoner who was public enemy #1

Not far from the quarry was a fenced-off compound. A set of buildings lay inside. This was where Robert Sobukwe spent his six years on Robben Island, as the man on the island who wasn’t allowed to be heard.

Not like, “you must not communicate”; but like, housed completely separately with almost no contact with anyone. On top of that, it was illegal to publish anything he said. The risk of his words being heard was seen as so high, that he did not even labour in the quarry like the other political prisoners. Not even Mandela was considered by the apartheid government to be so dangerous.

For it was Robert Sobukwe’s idea to protest against the pass laws through civil disobedience⁵, which ended with the Sharpeville massacre. It was his speech that mobilised black workers across the country.

In fact, his actual court sentence was not imprisonment on Robben Island. He had already served his three years in another prison. But the Minister of Justice considered him too dangerous to release^b. So they came up with a law empowering him to use his discretion to extend the sentence annually. The law came to be known as the ‘Sobukwe Clause’, because it was only ever used on Sobukwe alone.

It was the need to completely isolate this man that forced the apartheid government to relocate him to Robben Island. He remained isolated, even as other prisoners arrived. And when he finally left the island, he still remained under house arrest, and the same publishing ban, to the end of his days¹³.

The prison cells of Robben Island

We left Craig, and the bus, at the main prison facility. This was where the apartheid political prisoners (except Sobukwe) were held. Today, it is the Robben Island Museum.

We met another tour guide at the prison complex. Sipho was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a former prisoner. He had served a 5-year sentence in 1984.

Sipho took us through the prison sections. The reception area, where they processed the arriving prisoners and issued them their race-categorised prison clothes. The prison cell buildings, where they lived.

Today, the rooms and hallways have placards giving snapshots and testimonies from prisoners and guards alike.

The key revolutionary leaders were in the solitary cells of B section. Mandela’s cell was the 4th one down. I wonder how he managed to write his autobiography – the one that had to be smuggled out.

The youth leaders convicted after the Soweto uprising were in the single cells of A section. And there were also larger, dormitory-style communal cells – each housing 30-40 prisoners.

We had ample time to browse the exhibits. Among them, the ones that stuck out to me were about the prisoners’ persistence to demand their humanity, such as the right to play sport.

And also, how the arrival of a new generation of activists brought change. While the OG revolutionaries overcame the inequalities of their clothing and meals to nonetheless bond with those who received more, the youth simply refused to be classified differently. Many who could receive more, refused to receive more than their fellow man.

The thinking of a generation was escaping apartheid’s careful control.

In another decade, it was over.

Reflections from Robben Island

In retrospect, it was for the best that I ended up doing Robben Island last. Robben Island was an emotional UNESCO site to visit. I don’t mean just sad, nor was it all because of the anti-apartheid struggle, who was considered enemy of the state and why, nor the awareness that it is by no means the only time such things happen and are still happening elsewhere in the world.

And maybe that was because I was better prepared to understand its significance, having visited other sites beforehand that gave depth of context.

Or perhaps it was how I began the tour. For in the departure hall of the Nelson Mandela Gateway, I watched the parents in the queue, who thought it was important to take their children on such a tour. Doing their part, to raise a next generation who can make a better world – and it moved me.

But certainly, it was also Craig, who went beyond describing the famous prisoners and the details of what imprisonment on Robben Island entailed, to tell its story in a way that is timeless and relevant to us all.

His last words to us was to reiterate that apartheid’s division tactics work because of our human nature, and that they’re attractive to people who want power and control. Thus, it isn’t just a South Africa story – not the first and not going to be the last.

A sobering reminder, that such a specific set of circumstances had happened to make Mandela et al. into the leaders South Africa needed at the exact time it needed them. And that these relied on human nature too – not necessarily grand, nor even particularly noble.

And his hope, that South Africa’s reconciliation becomes an example that it is not too late, even for them – and therefore not too late for others too.

Epilogue: Robben Island is more than a prison

Robben Island is famous for being a prison for political opponents. But this is not all it is. For starters, the island used to have residents. In fact, it has residents today.

After the Cape came under British rule, the island was no longer used as a prison for native leaders rebelling against colonial power. For the next few decades, it became a leper colony and quarantine station.

Robben island also has a colony of African penguins, and is an important breeding area for the species.

Recommended reading:

The Robben Island gift shop is very good and has a lot of cool souvenirs. Among them are two biographies: Mandela’s, and Sobukwe’s, which I’ve also linked below. For the benefit of fellow Malaysians, I’ve also linked a Malay translation of Mandela’s autobiography.

Sobukwe’s biography, written by his lifelong journalist friend, is compelling reading. Aside from the wealth of incidental information of the era – a side benefit of it being written by a journalist – the book sketched a portrait of Sobukwe through his influences, choices, and communications. But beyond that, I thought it was incidentally also – unironically – a book that demonstrated the power of friendship.

I’ll get back with my views on Long Walk to Freedom once I find a copy in the library. But I do know that Mandela spent a longer time on Robben Island than Sobukwe, though he was not as isolated. Like Sobukwe, he was sent to Robben Island around the same time, and also feared more as a possible communist rather than as an African freedom fighter¹⁴. The apartheid government, backed by Cold War allies like the UK and the US¹⁵, kept him in prison into the 1980s despite international pressure. The latter only removed him from its terror watch list in 2008 when he was already 90 and retired.

Footnotes:

^a The kramat of Robben Island

The apartheid government’s political opponents were not the first political prisoners banished to Robben Island. Two centuries earlier, the Dutch East India Company was exiling political prisoners from their colonies in Southeast Asia to the Cape Colony. These anti-colonial leaders were imprisoned in the very same Robben Island.

In fact, there is a shrine on Robben Island marking the resting place of two of them, who had died in imprisonment. The placard at the kramat notes it as being dedicated to a prince of Madura, Pangerau Chakra Denigrat. However, this could be a typo. The Javanese princely title is Pangeran. But he seemed to have also gone by Syed Abdurrahman.

An imam called Haji Materam (presumably from the Mataram kingdom of Lombok) was also buried there.

^b The “Sobukwe Clause” and its curious justification

I had assumed that the Sobukwe Clause merely extended Sobukwe’s original conviction, which was for incitement. But I finished reading his biography before writing this article, and learned otherwise.

You see, the Minister of Justice could not extend the original punishment, because not even the apartheid parliament would agree to amending the law for just one person. Interestingly, the justification he used, which was consistently approved by the lawmakers, was that releasing Sobukwe would be ‘beneficial to communism’.

Now, Sobukwe was not a communist. He was, in fact, anti-communist – mainly because his politics was native African national empowerment, whereas the communists were primarily ideological and he felt they did not value native precedence⁷.

However, the labour class of South Africa was black. The anti-pass laws protest he called was effectively also a worker’s strike.

Therefore, maybe the Sobukwe Clause is more correctly the act of the capitalist aspect of South Africa, rather than its apartheid one. The Cold War may have cast a larger shadow over apartheid than we usually thinkⁱⁱⁱ.

After all, South Africa was also engaged in conflict across southern Africa at the time. While these wars were overtly against independence revolutionaries, at another level it was also a proxy conflict against the Soviets who assisted them. And you know, coincidentally apartheid ended right after the Warsaw Pact dissolved, which makes me wonder which countries had needed the apartheid government to stay in charge, and then no longer did.

• ⁱⁱⁱ Gould, C. and Folb, P., edited by Berold, R. (2002, November). Project Coast : Apartheid’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme. United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research & Centre for Conflict Resolution. UNIDIR/2002/12.

Carbon offset information to Cape Town, South Africa

A return flight between Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town via Dubai produces carbon emissions of approximately 5,987 lbs CO2e. It costs about $48 to offset this. 

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Robben Island was one of the more compelling tours I’ve taken. Have you visited? What were your insights?