journeyman Thank you for the response. You obviously know what you are talking about (I am not being sarcastic) but have views diametrically opposed to mine. That's fine - it makes life interesting.
I don't have time right now to reply properly to you, but will do so later. Meantime, here is something I wrote a few weeks ago on another thread, since you mentioned Nelson Mandela and Robben Eiland
I first went to Robben Eiland in 1975, when it was still a prison. The warders used to organise dances and we went across on a very puke inducing ferry, if I remember correctly from Quay Four, where there is now a lovely restaurant. It wasn't a pleasant occasion, but it gave me a different perspective on the place that I overlooked from my kitchen window, without giving it a thought in those days, as we learned that 'it's jus' a blerry prison where they locked up a few kaffirs'. There was of course no internet, the media in SA were very controlled, and most of us believed what we were fed, mainly because it suited us, living in that paradise, to do so.
As times moved on and resistance to the Nationalist regime in SA gathered momentum, and I was one of the privileged people who had access to the international press (thanks to my ex- who worked at the airport and used to get me the UK newspapers off the weekly direct LON-CPT flight on Sunday morning.) Sunday mornings used to consist of a bit of HR (that's not hand relief by the way) and then reading the papers while she was burning the toast and trying to cook breakfast.
I started to get a different view of things but, perhaps to my shame, never really questioned any of it. As I said in another posting, Nelson Mandela has been held up as a saint, a criminal, and a terrorist, and perhaps he was all three at different times in his life.
Roll on the years, change of government, not for the better for most people but that's another story, and perhaps 6 years ago I went to Robben Eiland, now no longer a prison, on the tourist ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the Clock Tower in the Harbour, with my family. Before boarding the ferry you are locked into a darkened room to watch a video about the prisoners and what happened in those days. A deeply moving and humbling experience. Of course it's just another view of history from the opposite perspective to what we learned. I, having grown up in SA, was far more moved by it than the overseas visitors.
We were then taken round, as you were, by an ex-political prisoner, and the absence of bitterness and rancour as he addressed us was noticeable.
All South Africans, of all races and poltical persuasions, should have the opportunity to visit Robben Eiland and to learn what went on there. I am not convinced that the change of government in SA has benefited the majority as it was meant to, nor am I an apologist for apartheid - it went on around me and I admit that I benefited from it, but I did not know enough about what it implied to either support or oppose it, and that of course was exactly what the government wanted. It was like the weather, it just happened and was beyond our control, a fact that we accepted.
Indeed, many of us white folk should hang our heads in shame, but so should many of the black leaders of South Africa, in fact of many countries in Africa, now.
This is from the Robben Eiland website :
Quote:
The entire six square kilometer island is now a UN World Heritage Site. A forlorn yet tranquil atmosphere permeates the place. One can almost hear audible sighs of relief from the island, once a haven for seals and ocean birds before sailing ships rounded the Cape. Sailors relentlessly plundered it for fresh seal meat and penguin eggs. Eventually it became a dumping ground for exiles and criminals. In the 17th century the Dutch were the first to banish their political troublemakers and Muslim leaders from the East Indies. Today there’s a beautiful shrine, called a kramat, built in honor of Tuan Guru. After his release this Muslim holy man went on to found Islam among Cape Town’s slaves.
Xhosa chiefs who rebelled against British rule were shipped to the island from the Eastern Cape. From the mid 1800’s criminals, prostitutes, outcasts, lepers and the mentally ill joined them. All were subjected too much cruelty and abuse.
And I end with a quote from Nelson Mandela :
Quote:
“Today when I look at Robben Island, I see it as a celebration of the struggle and a symbol of the finest qualities of the human spirit, rather than as a monument to the brutal tyranny and oppression of apartheid. It is true that Robben Island was once a place of darkness, but out of that darkness has come a wonderful brightness, a light so powerful that it could not be hidden behind prison walls…
It's a great shame that the current leaders of SA do not live up to the promises and the expectation of Nelson Mandela.