There is no denying that Robben Island is a magnificent tourist attraction because of its history of political prison life under the apartheid government.
Yet this is also not only a place for tourists, because South Africans also visit the area for an emotional connection with what happened in the past.
For school children, too, it is an enlightening adventure – but one that can leave you bitter.
From the time you step on to the ferry, you are confronted by the past.
The tour of Robben Island starts with video footage of the prison life while you wait to arrive on the island. You hear how it would take more than six months for families of those held on the Island to be granted permission to see them. And again you are told of how some political prisoners were not even allowed to be seen by their own parents or relatives.
For some, the stories are upsetting, heart-wrenching and painful to bear. But they remain a necessary pain if you want to know the truth behind South Africa’s Struggle for democracy.
Nelson Mandela endured a less than comfortable stay as a political prisoner for many years, and his story is better related by former political prisoners who paint a vivid picture of prison life here.
Yet it was the story of former Pan Africanist Congress founder Robert Sobukwe, who was locked up here for six years and not allowed to speak to anyone including the guards, that shook my emotions.
It was difficult for me to imagine how Sobukwe had survived for six years locked in a house where he could not speak to anyone including those guarding him.
Inside the tour bus, as our guide told how Sobukwe was made to wander in the tiny house alone for that long, there were gasps of shock and disgust at how cruel apartheid had been to him. It was an extremely emotional trip to this historic site for me.
But I was left frustrated – more by being denied the chance to get closer to Sobukwe’s house which I thought would have given me a better understanding of how it could have been for him.
Instead, we were told to take pictures from inside the bus as the Island is a World Heritage site and therefore people are not allowed to take anything from it, or to disturb it.
Then we were driven to the quarry where Mandela and other political prisoners were taken to dig up limestone under the scorching sun.
It was here, we were told, that Mandela’s eyesight was badly affected while he worked under the sun, battling the glare from the harsh white rock.
But here, too, no one was allowed to step out of the bus and perhaps experiment with the rocks that the likes of Mandela were made to carry in the heat.
It was a little disappointing to me as I found the balancing act – between trying to protect a heritage site and give tourists an experience – didn’t quite work, at least not for the benefit of visitors.
In between the orientation of the emotional story-telling by tour guides and sight-seeing in the prison cells (including Mandela’s), I found solace in the fact that this is a place that every South African should visit and gain knowledge of the country’s past. - Saturday Star