Around the Planet

It was great to see Nelson Mandela in London at the end of June for his 90th birthday celebrations, with a concert in London’s Hyde Park, which raised funds for his AIDS/HIV charity, 46664. Some 50,000 people turned up to see performers such as Amy Winehouse and Queen.

In case you are wondering why Mr Mandela’s charity is named 46664, this was his prisoner number when he was on the infamous Robben Island. Being convicted at the Rivonia Trials in 1964, he became prisoner number 466/64, and spent 27 years behind bars for taking a stand against South Africa’s evil apartheid regime.

Here in the UK, as part of a celebration of Nelson Mandela’s birthday, a few weeks ago BBC4 did a special night of TV programmes about South Africa, and about the struggle. One of the programmes I managed to see was “Storyville - Sophiatown Surviving Apartheid”, followed by one about Robben Island, “Voices from the Island”.

“Sophiatown Surviving Apartheid” was a documentary, liberally sprinkled with some fine examples of South African jazz music, documenting the life of Sophiatown, a neighbourhood of Johannesburg, which became renowned for its multiculturalism in the midst of the worst years of the apartheid regime. Throughout the forties and fifties Sophiatown was home to musicians, artists, and writers, becoming a haven for integrationist politics. Sophiatown was the place where Nelson Mandela spent his formative years, and other former notable residents include Trevor Huddleston and Hugh Masekela. The documentary includes interviews with some of Sophiatown’s foremost residents, as well as archive footage. Sophiatown’s very presence aggravated the apartheid government, who could not bear to see this oasis of tolerance flowering in the midst of whites-only suburbs. And so in 1955 2,000 policemen forcibly removed the families of Sophiatown to Soweto. Sophiatown was then flattened, and a whites-only suburb named Triomf built in its place. The documentary shows tragic footage of the buildings of Sophiatown being torn down by bulldozers.

The name Sophiatown was officially restored in 2006. If you travel to Johannesburg, be sure to pay Sophiatown a visit, and see the fabulous murals which depict the life of the suburb in those days of survival.

Many of those who struggled against apartheid ended up as political prisoners on Robben Island, located in Table Bay, some seven kilometres off the coast of Capetown Bay. “Voices from the Island” is a thoughtful documentary, where Nelson Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners recall their incarceration on the infamous island. For three decades Robben Island housed not only political prisoners, but also regular convicts, a leper community, and the mentally ill. On the island, enduring deprivation, Nelson Mandela and his fellow political prisoners devised strategies for survival, and their lives became transformed as a new South Africa began to take shape.

Those who have served time at the prison on Robben Island refer to it simply as “the island”, and one former political prisoner related to me stories of his time there, and how he and his comrades survived. He told me how he and his fellow prisoners would volunteer for light maintenance work on the island. Once outside the prison, some of them would get the guards talking about anything, on any subject that wasn’t to do with politics, one popular topic being football. Once the guards were thus occupied, others would disappear, and go fishing to supplement the meagre Robben Island diet, while others would trawl through any garbage they could find for newspapers. Getting hold of newspapers was key - once paper was found, translations would be done as necessary, and the news passed around to all the prisoners.

Robben Island is now a musuem, so if you find yourself in Capetown, don’t forget to visit Robben Island Museum, and to remember those who fought for freedom.