Day 9 - Cape Town

Our tour of Robben Island, a place of imprisonment for over 400 years, was led by two former political prisoners, one of whom was the tour guide for Senator Obama two years ago. As our guides shared the history of political repression and struggle in South Africa and their own stories, we were reminded of the power of the human spirit to overcome all efforts to suppress it. Our ferry ride across the harbor was very different from the ones that brought inmates to the island for indefinite periods of incarceration - in solitary confinement like Robert Sobukwe or crushing rocks in the limestone quarry like Nelson Mandela. And our hunger and thirst as we left the island was only a small taste of the suffering of those confined there for years.