June
22
2010
By Dan Achber
Robben Island’s infamy is synonymous with recent South African history. As a result, as a museum and tourist attraction it is deservedly very popular. This popularity means that the regular tour can get a bit busy and impersonal.
The way to really see it and get a deeper understanding of the place is to visit on a private tour with someone like Lionel Davis, a friend of ours from Cape Town. To try and give you some idea of what you’re in for, here is the brief version of Lionel’s story—told in his own words:
"As a young man growing up in District 6, an impoverished working–class ghetto in the heart of Cape Town, I had developed a mistrust of everything “white”. What fuelled this anti-white attitude in me was that as a teenager I had been punished by an apartheid court for allegedly assaulting a white person.
As a result of this and other similar experiences, I became politically involved and joined a political organization, the National Liberation Front. One of the most fundamental lessons I learned there was not to judge people because they were white, but to look at who your oppressors are and to direct your energy at them. One’s rulers might be white today but tomorrow they could be black.
Because of my political involvement, I was charged with “Conspiracy to Commit Acts of Sabotage” and sentenced to seven years in prison on Robben Island in 1964. I was released in 1971.
On Robben Island, I was fortunate to meet activists like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other Rivonia trialists (belonging to the ANC), Johnson Mlambo, Clarence Makwetu, Kwedi Mkalipi (members of the Pan Africanist Congress) amongst many others.
Regardless of our irreconcilable political positions, we learned to work together, share our food, play together and educate ourselves with the help of fellow political inmates. We learned to act in concert in our fight to retain our dignity, which prison authorities tried to undermine. We thus learned to live in harmony.
This was crucial for our sanity. We transformed the harshness of jail life through education, sport and unity in action. The lessons we learned in jail prepared us for the future. Without his experiences on Robben Island, I doubt that Nelson Mandela would have become the international icon he is today. Many of those incarcerated on Robben Island became better South Africans and a few, like Mandela, became better human beings."
Dan Achber plans all kinds of trips in Africa, and can connect you with Lionel Davis for your own private tour. Get in touch with him, and have a look at our trip planning website to find out more about how we work.