Marist College's Africa Experience: Walking Tour, Table Mountain, and Robben Island

On Friday morning, May 23, 2008, our group started with a walking tour of Cape Town’s city center and the central business district. One area, which we thought was very interesting, was our walk through the Company Gardens on Government Avenue. On the tour we learned that the Company Gardens are of significant value to South Africa’s history and culture. It is an area that has served many purposes overtime; namely, it has served as a place to memorialize individuals who have played a large role in the development of South Africa. Surrounding the Community Gardens were two high schools, several government buildings, Cape Town University Art Display Center, a public research Library, and an Anglican church. Inside the church, we learned that on display was the first-ever made AIDS quilt. Each square was made for individuals affected by AIDS and it tells the personal story of each person, in hopes of providing inspiration, optimism, and a message “to not give up” on the battle to combat the AIDS/HIV virus. This quilt sparked a movement, which gained international recognition and started a national tour of a similar AIDS quilt that travels throughout the United States. Marist College, just over two years ago become a site for the quilt’s tour and hosted the quilt in the college’s Rotunda for a week. This innovative project was heart felt by our group, but it became even more significant when Professor Toni Sylvester (our tour guide) informed the group that he and a colleague had created the quilt in the church, and had helped to spur a global movement that recognized an issue that affects the world.

Next we traveled up, by gondola, to Tabletop Mountain to view the city of Cape Town from the highest vantage point. The panoramic view was simply breathtaking; there are no other words to describe the experience. The misty clouds hovered just below us giving the experience a very serene feeling. We also met a creature named ‘Dassie’ which was similar to a groundhog atop the mountain along with various birds and saw some distinct vegetation. We got to experience firsthand the beauty and natural and diverse landscape in South Africa. This is something we look forward to exploring further as our adventure continues!

Last, at the end of the afternoon we took a boat to Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in captivity. When we arrived at the prison we were given a tour by a wonderful man who was imprisoned on the island during the same time as Mandela. We could see and almost felt the same feelings our tour guide must have experienced as he told his stories about the time he spent on the island. The tour guide’s reliving of his experiences on Robben Island made our tour intimate and was a very moving part of our day. The guide spoke of the tough living conditions and the social inequalities that persisted on the island. He spoke of the presence of the apartheid system that classified even prisoners based on the color of their skin. Staying in accordance with the South Africa apartheid policies, in prison coloureds, blacks, and Indians were differentiated and necessities such as food portions and access to health care were imbalanced with blacks being lowest on the totem pole. The apartheid persisted in prisoners to create tensions between the various groups, causing one group to dislike the other because of the unfair treatment and amenities that were provided. This was also a way to stop the groups from uniting, learning and speaking about their political ideas for reform. Despite all of their best efforts, our tour guide told us that the political leaders in captivity still found ways to come together and talk about their ideas, developing concepts such as reconciliation that was later used as the foundation for the movement that ended Apartheid. The first hand account made us all feel so much stronger about our purpose for coming to Africa, and have left us in awe at the courage of those who began the healing of a torn country.