Robben Island - The Fallen Paradise

The place of incarceration of Nelson Mandela, father of South Africa, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and hides a million painful stories in its rocky heart.

- Christine Nayagam

When I first reached Robben Island, after an hour-long ferry ride from Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, I was mesmerised by the beauty of the landscapes; the view from here was just so pristine, and the sea was embracing the sky creating different shades of blue. The breeze was quite cold in April as it coincides with onset of the winter in South Africa. I then, turned my eyes towards the land and noticed that the soil and vegetation were quite dry. There were plenty of rocks surrounding the island. But what caught my eye was a giant wall covered by barbed wires... “Freedom cannot be manacled!” I read on the wall before I suddenly understood the pain of the innocent people, who had been imprisoned here, kept in captivity in a beautiful island with only a window with a view of the deep blue sea as their only escape.

The silence around, that contrasted sharply with the vivid and colourful city of Cape Town, made my heart heavier. But then came this tall, old, black man, his eyes red and his head clean shaven. He introduced himself as our tour guide and a former political prisoner, who had been sentenced and imprisoned on the island. Leaving us dumbstruck, and before we had time to ask him a question, he took us through the prison and began explaining how the prisoners used to live here.

‘’This is the Island! Here you will die!’’

I did not really know more about Robben Island than that it was where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during his fight against the Apartheid regime. He served 18 of his 27 years in prison here.

“We were met by a group of burly white wardens shouting [in Afrikaans]: ‘Dis die Eiland! Hier gaan julle vrek!’ (This is the Island! Here you will die!)”, Mandela wrote in his autobiography, 'Long Walk to Freedom'.