Invictus

Wednesday--The Album from "Invictus"
While I saw the movie Invictuse over a year ago, I remember distinctly being upset with how little they actually covered about the Apartheid state of government. Granted, it was supposed to be a movie about rugby, but the actions of the characters in the movie don't convey the amount of racism that was present during the 90's (or even today, 15 years later). But today was a special day because we got to see the Mecca for the political opposition of Apartheid: Robben Island. Robben Island (Seal Island in Dutch) is an island off the coast of Cape Town which served as a place where the Dutch East India Company could board and trade with the city. It was later used as a place to put lepers and mentally ill people. During the Apartheid state, however, it was used as an island for political prisoners (mostly people from the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress). After a 20 minute ferry ride, we got off and got onto a bus. We toured around and saw the lepers' graveyards, the church where the lepers worshipped (the last remaining building from the leper colonies) and the very prison where the leader of the Pan African Congress (PAC) was held. He was detained indefinitely and not allowed to speak for the first 4 years on the ilsand. His cell wwas smaller than the cells the guards used to keep their guard dogs. We then went to the Robben Island Prison, the very prison Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years. Mandela and the other prisoners (some political, some convicts) worked in a limestone quary mining limestone for the island's roads 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. Many of the prisoners are still living on the island today and work in the museam. Our prison guide was an ANC member who tried to bomb an intelligence agency. The bomb went off and 52 people received minor injuries. Nobody died. If they had, he would have been sentenced to death. Instead, he was sent to live out the rest of his days on the island. While on the island, he endured all sorts of unspeakable tortures from the prison guards, which I will not say on this blog. But he was tortured until he could no longer distinguish pain. Also, whenever they would try to have visitors come, the visitors were interrogated months before they actually set foot on Robben island. Our guide's father was actually shot 8 times by secret police the day before he came to visit him. He lived, but was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Not all guards were cruel. He said that some had pity on them and helped them smuggle things in, like birthday cake. One even smuggled one of Mandela's children to Mandela so he could give him/her a hug (I'm not sure which child was smuggled in). The only problem is that they rotated the guards every 2 years and brought in fresh new ones. Our guide made some interesting comments about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee though (for those of you who don't know about it, look it up on Wikipedia. I wish every country would do this). He said that his torturers were allowed to be absolved of their crimes to him and his father, and are now successful businessmen. I never expected to hear any negative thing about TRC. I didn't even think about how it might have been insufficient. It reminds me about the parable of the Vinyard in the Bible. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. But how do you measure fair, and how do you grapple with justice?

If you've got answers, let me know!

The rest of the day, we walked around Cape Town and saw the craft markets. Its just like when my family and I came to the Cape and I love it! Tonight, we're having Econ class, going to dinner, and then to see a play! Talk to you soon!

Love,
Hill