Robben Island a powerful symbol

Robben Island a powerful symbol

By Frank Jomo, Malawi

New York/Toronto/October 9, 2008/3mnewswire.org/WACC/-- Participants at the WACC Congress took the trip of a lifetime 8 October to the heart of South Africa’s freedom Robben Island.

In the warmth of the afternoon sun after a morning of cold breezes, participants lined up at the Mandela Gateway to board the ferry for the island. Beaming with anticipation of what was in store, participants wandered out of the freedom of the ferry to the gates of the prison that was Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years.

Dennis Smith, former President WACC-Latin America said the prison represents the horror of what power can do between those with a tight grip on it and those excluded from it.

“But it also shows us the strength of the human soul to survive even where there is little hope and finally to forgive and forget,” he said. “The history of this prison teaches us that human beings can forgive those that might have been extremely cruel to them.”

A journalist from Canada, Rebekah Chevalier, said she was struck by the way the prisoners were able to communicate to each other using tennis balls, among many other extraordinary means.

“This speaks of the power of the human spirit to keep going and find a way despite all the odds to overcome hardships,” she said.

The experience of the tour was enhanced by the fact that almost all the tour guides at the prison are ex-prisoners. How do they manage to work in a place that brought so much misery to them? Does it bring them hallucinations at night?

“No,” said Kgotso Dede Ntsoelengoe, one of the tour guides, who was imprisoned in 1984 and could have served time until November of 2009 but he was released with the rest of the political prisoners in 1991. “I find my stay here as a lesson that no matter how much anger one might have on those that oppressed him or her, there is a chance for forgiveness and that you can live together as one.”

Robben Island wasn’t only a notorious prison. Between 1845 and 1931 it was a place where lepers and the critically ill were quarantined and it became a military camp from 1939 to 1959. It became a prison in 1960 up until 1991.

From a dumping place of lepers to a notorious prison, Robben Island has always had dark side. But no longer. Now it is a haven of peace as the oppressor and the oppressed are working together to give peace and freedom a chance.

No wonder one of the ferries that takes people there is named “Sikhululekile’”– whose literal meaning is “We are free now.”

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