Thousands of penguins on the rocky shores of Robben Island let the visitor for a moment forget that the island is a symbol of all the horrors of apartheid and as renowned as Alcatraz in the bay of San Francisco.
Tourists can take a ferry from Cape Town to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela and the elite of the anti-apartheid struggle were incarcerated.
Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC), spent a total of 18 of his 27 years in prison on the island, in a cell just wide enough for a mat on the cold cement floor. Cell number five is no different than all the other cells.
The guided tour on Robben Island takes about two and a half hours and also makes a stop at the lime pit where Mandela and his comrades were forced to cut stone, harming their eyesight in the bright sunlight and the fine dust.
The horror of what man does unto man leaves the visitor speechless but Robben Island at the same time does not have the aura of a sombre God-forsaken place like similar memorial sites. It is not just because of the penguins that seem to have taken over control of the island.
The history of Robben Island had a happy end. The apartheid regime was swept aside and the former prisoners triumphed over their persecutors. Some of the former detainees work as tourist guides on the island and others moved on to high positions in government.
Nelson Mandela not only served as the first president of a democratic South Africa but is also meanwhile respected as a voice of authority in the country transcending race and religion, comparable perhaps only to Mahatma Gandhi If you want to find out where this biography began, it is necessary to take a drive out of Cape Town and the common tourist sites along the Garden Route.
It takes a three-day car trip from Cape Town past East London in the Eastern Cape province to the impressive, rolling hilly landscape of the Transkei — the birthplace of Nelson Mandela.
The N2 route in the Transkei is regarded by locals as a no-go dangerous area. The Transkei was an ”independent homeland” between 1976 and 1994 — an apartheid bantustan and even today still almost exclusively inhabited by members of the Xhosa people.
Our landlady in Cape Town warned us never to stop along the road, not even for an accident. Some travel brochures have the same advice. There are also other visible dangers like cows and goats or pedestrians strolling on the road. The worst potholes have been filled by roadworkers but roads in the Transkei are both a traffic artery and living space.
Our landlady had warned us not to pick up any hitchhikers — ”not even women because these are sometimes men dressed up like women”.
Then we come across a motorist stranded next to an ancient Toyoto and waving an empty fuel canister. He looks trustworthy and we throw all caution to the wind, taking him along to the next petrol station.
The man is very happy. ”Nobody wants to stop. Everybody is suspicious in South Africa,” he says.
A short distance from Umtata, the capital of Transkei, to the left of the N2 is the village of Qunu with the signboard Nelson-Mandela- Museum. With its collection of colourful houses and round huts it is no different from the many other villages in the grassland area to the left and right of the road.
Mandela came to Qunu as a two-year-old from the village of Mvezo, some 30km away, after the white authorities withdrew the chieftainship from his father because of obstinancy.
Mandela recalled in his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, that he spent some of his happiest boyhood days in Qunu despite the modest living conditions.
Qunu and the village of Mvezo are extensions of the museum in Umtata. Both villages offer several authentic sites for Mandela fans. There are the foundations of his house of bith, the family graveyard, the church in which he was baptised and what remains of the secondary school where he got the name Nelson.
At present a centre is being built in Qunu that will serve as a meeting place for youth all over the world wanting to follow Mandela’s example. There is also an exhibition featuring artefacts from Xhosa culture.
Mandela occasionaly can be seen in Qunu. On the edge of the village he built a home for his retirement. At Christmas time he can be seen giving a party for children.
One of the buildings was built according to the plans of the house in the Victor Verster prison, northeast of Cape Town, where he was transferred to in 1988. Mandela loved the floor plan of the house which was a real luxury and not only compared to Robben Island.
Mandela had for his own comfort several bedrooms, a fitness room and a swimming pool. The house, near Paarl, can also be visited.
The sleepy town of Qunu will hardly draw the tourist masses but the museum in Umtata is frequented by many visitors. There, the many gifts Mandela received from foreign leaders can be seen. The main part of the museum is devoted to Mandela’s life including photographs and quotes from his autobiography.
In the east, in Port Elizabeth, a businessman is planning the construction of a gigantic Mandela statue, larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Around the statue will be a park with the Big Five — the elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros. The project is named Madiba Bay, after Mandela’s clan name. The Port Elizabeth region, the fifth largest city in the country, has renamed itself Nelson Mandela Bay.
A travel guide describes Port Elizabeth as certainly not the high point of a South African tour. The planners in the city want to change all that with the help of ”Mandela magic”. – Sapa-DPA