Today was educational and sobering. We went to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were imprisoned. Our tour guide was a former prisoner himself. He was convicted of treason in 1984 and sentenced to 30 years at Robben Island. He served 5 1/2 years until they released everyone. He told us stories about how the prisoners smuggled things in from the mainland, mostly with the help of a few kind wardens, and how most of them had such long sentences that they didn't care about getting caught and punished with more time because 3 more years was just a "drop in the ocean". We saw Mandela's prison cell (pictured above), where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison and Mandela's hiding place for the manuscripts he wrote while in jail - now known as his book The Long Walk to Freedom. The manuscripts were smuggled out by sewing them into the shoes of a prisoner who was being released. This prisoner later became Mandela's Minister of Transport! The mission of this prison-turned-museum is clearly for educational purposes so people won't forget about what happened in South Africa.
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