Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 28th of August, 2004

- ROBBEN ISLAND SILENCES THE VISITOR

- THE CRUEL PRISON ISLAND REVEALS THE METHODS OF SUBMISSION

- Maximum security prison says the sign and leads a way to the gray building in a prison island in front of the Cape Town in South-Africa. The burning sun turns into a coolness when you step into the room, covered with concrete plates. The guide, a former prisoner starts when people finally are quiet: Here in Robben Island we didn't have a name, only a number. Here in the F-block, which has about hundred square meters of space, some 100 to 150 prison spent their time, lying next to each others in the double beds. 

- Our guide was arrested in 1984 for plotting against the government, which meant the white people. The man who was eighteen at the time, was sentenced in 1985 for fifteen years in the prison. He served five years of his sentence in Robben Island, until he was exempted but not liberated. The liberation comes when you can forgive says the guide and let's us understand that he has forgiven the sentence which had no foundation and all of the things that happened during the fifteen years. However bitterness does try to surface, when he tells us that he spent all the years in the jail, when he could have studied. The prison island held a normal criminals and the people jailed due to a political reasons, people who were against the apartheid, mostly a members from the ANC. Robben Island was the prison in the South-African prison system, where the iron fist and brutality were at the most worst that one could find. There wasn't even a one black prison guard and no white prisoners wrote the ex-president Nelson Mandela in his memoirs. He spent from his 27 years in prison, eighteen in Robben Island. 

- The visitors are stunned by the cramped and cruel cell which once belonged to Nelson Mandela. When I slept on the floor, my feets would touch the wall and my head would scratch some concrete from the other wall. The prisoners also suffered from coldness, as they were only given three worn-out blankets. The bed was made from straws. Visiting the island reveals some new methods of humiliating and punishing people. For example when a prisoner asked for a new toothbrush, it could take a year before he received it. Gaan aan, go go, the guards used to yell to the prisoners working with their picks, spades and wheelbarrows in the quarry. After a hard day in the quarry, the prisoners could only wash themselves with a cold sea water. The prisoners used to sing, so that the water wouldn't feel so cold. 

- The prisoners were divided into a different castes, A, B, C and D-castes. The political prisoners were below everyone else and it took years to reach the C-caste. D-prisoner could only receive one letter every six months, when C-prisoner could receive two letters. D-prisoner could also meet one visitor every six months. According to Mandela it was inhumane: "Keeping in touch with your family is a basic human right and it shouldn't be regulated".

- The only thing that kept the prisoners sane, was studying. That was also made very difficult with many different restrictions. At first there wasn't any chairs or tables where to study. Politics and a military history were among the subjects, which were completely forbidden. The cell block which was illuminated around the clock, did however in the evenings resemble more of a study hall than a prison, members Mandela. Many of the prisoners were highly educated, lawyers, professors, teachers. At first they secretly teach their fellow prisoners, who couldn't read of write. The most difficult task was to keep a track, what was going on. The political prisoners received newspapers from other prisoners or by stealing.

INFORMATION CORNER

- The last prisoners from Robben Island which is located of the coast of Cape Town, were released in 1991. Six years later the prison was opened to the public.

- Robben Island is among the most popular places where people visit in South Africa. Some 300 000 visit the place every year. The prison island is in the World Heritage list.

- The island has also contained an isolation hospital. The mental patients and cholera cases populated the island during the years 1846 to 1931. 1 500 people died from cholera in the island. The barren cemetery is a reminder from those people.