Robben Island and Discussion on Race Relations

Today, on this rainy African winter day, we sailed to Robben Island, an island off the coast of South Africa. Robben Island has served many different historical purposes. During the apartheid era, it served as a prison for political prisoners, housing dignitaries such as Eddie Daniels and Nelson Mandela. All of the tour guides that staff Robben Island were ex-prisoners, which gave the tour more of a personal effect. We are some of the last few visitors that will get that chance. The tour guides will eventually become too old to give us a personal tour of the place where they’ve spent so much of their time. The bus tour of the Island included visiting different areas on the Island which was utilized throughout history for different purposes, including as a military base, and for vegetation and animal life. The island is home to feral cats, rabbits, many species of birds and even penguins! While touring the prison, we learned of the crowded, cold, and harsh conditions that the prisoners lived in. Our tour guide showed us where Nelson Mandela had a fruit garden, under which he stored the manuscript for his autobiography- A Long Walk to Freedom. Our guide shared that he was in the prison because he blew up a building in Johannesburg, although no one was hurt he was still imprisoned by the apartheid government for his political activities. He also described his experience with being tortured. We all learned a lot during this tour and enjoyed hearing the guard’s personal experiences.

After we arrived back on the mainland, we traveled to The University of Cape Town (UCT) for lunch and a lecture by Claire Kelly, professor of Sociology specializing in intercultural and diversity studies. A bulk of the group had mixed feelings about her views, although she was very informative. Professor Kelly is a white South African who said some pretty controversial remarks regarding white privilege and disparities that exist in South Africa. It was interesting to hear the various opinions of Professor Kelly and our fellow students. Things that were discussed included street children, crime, education system, township life, motivation, race relations/post-apartheid, and the diverse languages of the nation. On the topic of street children, Professor Kelly mentioned that she is so use to seeing homeless children begging for money that she has developed a thicker skin to this unfortunate scene. Although we didn’t learn concrete facts, a lot of questions were raised that we can think about throughout our trip. It’s important to learn from indigenous South Africans rather than textbooks because they are experiencing the developing nation’s problems and successes.

Tomorrow we begin our community service, which will give us whole other viewpoints to learn and discuss.