Robben Island

While we were in Cape Town, we visited Robben Island. Robben Island was a jail where Nelson Mandela went after he got incarcerated for 27 years trying to fight against the apartheid. We were guided through the prison and around the Island by one of the many prisoners who was kept there. He stayed there for 5 years. He took us to the limestone wall where they had to break up the limestone and bring it to one side of the quarry to another. All the long days working at the limestone wall,started to blind Mandela because of the light that reflected off the limestone as he was working. We continued into the jail and saw his cell were he stayed. Different jail cells were open that had the stories of some of the prisoners who stayed there the same time as Nelson Mandela. Each cell would have something special belonging to the prisoner in a box. I loved hearing about all the stories and reading what it was like to be on Robben Island. The Africans were treated worse than the colored or Indian people. The Africans couldn't have syrup or jam and they got half of the serving portions that the colored and Indians got. One of the guards told Nelson Mandela that he would never walk out of that jail alive, so when that time came for him to leave and he was in the car about to go out the gates, he stopped the car and walked out the gates a free man. Alive.