West Africa Cruise: Cape Town and Robbens Island (12.10.24)

Our ship docked in Cape Town, South Africa, our final port, on December 10, 2024.  The cruise officially ended the next day, so we took a sightseeing tour around the city of Cape Town, visited notorious Robbens Island in the afternoon, and spent one more night on board.

Our tour guide was a genial fourth generation South African whose ancestors were Dutch/German colonists.  He spoke both English and Afrikaans, the language of the original Dutch settlers of South Africa, whom the English conquered, along with the native Africans.  The sons of our guide had both moved to London for better jobs, but our guide couldn't imagine himself in cold, crowded England.

Our tour bus stopped at vantage points around the city for beautiful views.  We could see famous Table Mountain in the distance.

We drove to the top of Signal Hill, where hang gliders readied their equipment.

It must be a thrill to leap off a cliff and sail into space.  Luckily, it is a thrill I can resist!

We could see a ship (ours?) far below, and Robbens Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, in the distance.

In the afternoon, we took the ferry to Robbens Island.  There were other famous South African prisoners, besides Nelson Mandela, who were imprisoned there.

Our guide was surprised we had never heard of Sobukwe, one of the main instigators of the resistance against apartheid.

The museum in the house where Sobukwe was imprisoned had been turned into a small museum, documenting the prisoners of Robbens Island, "Outcast Isle".

We could see the mainland of South Africa, through the fence.

We visited the maximum security area of the prison, where Nelson Mandela was kept for many years.

Our guide at the prison had been a prisoner on Robbens Island himself.  When we asked what he did to be imprisoned, he said he "rearranged the architecture" of Johannesburg. In other words, "I threw bombs."  Our guide was imprisoned in 1974, for three or four years.  He described how hard it had been to find work, after he was released from prison, when apartheid was still the law in South Africa.  He was followed by undercover policemen and former friends were afraid to get close to him, as were potential employers.

We saw the courtyard outside Nelson Mandela's cell and the place where he grew his "subversive garden", both nurturing vegetables and burying the manuscript of his biography, "Long Walk to Freedom."

We saw the barred window of Mandela's cell, which looked out on the courtyard.

We also peeked into the interior of his small, austere cell.

This photo of our guide had special significance for me.  It showed an African man, now free to tell his story and show visitors around the place where he had been imprisoned.  Those visitors, also free, include both the white woman on the right and the African man peering in the doorway.