Roben Island Trip - 27 August 2006

Helderberg College Staff Entertainment Committee organised a trip to the Roben Island, and we went with our families. It was my first time to be in a boat for 13 km, and initially it was scary for me given that the waves kept on swinging and beating against the boat.Roben Island brought back the memories of the 1970s and 1980s, where South Africa was still under the dark cloud of separate development and racial descrimination. I saw Mandela's prison cell, together with other political prisoners' cells.

I was comforted by the reconciliatory spirit of those who served long prison sentences - many of whom are now serving as historians and tour guides for the Roben Island Museum. Their attitude is that everyone was a victim of racial laws, including those who initiated and perpetrated them. It is good to know that those who are currently running the government of South Africa have a spirit of reconciliatory and forgiveness. What a day.