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Content
A listing of transcripts of the dialogue and narrative of this section.
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Structure
The list provides the transcript, info about the text, and links to references contained in the text.
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Special Report
Transcripts for Section 5 of Episode 73
| Time | Summary | | | 38:55 | The terrible truth is that there are a large number of secret graves still to be dug up by the Truth Commission. Last week we reported on the notorious new C Max Prison in Pretoria. Tonight we want to tell you about another notorious prison, but this story has a happy ending. | Full Transcript | | 39:13 | Robben Island, once Africa’s Alcatraz, lies like a jewel in Table Bay just 11 kilometres off Cape Town. For some 400 years the island has been a place of hardship, brutality and exile. | Full Transcript | | 39:38 | It’s been a place of banishment for many years, under the Dutch rule, under the British rule and of course under the Nats. What really made it known throughout the world is when it became a political prison from 1961 to 1991. | Full Transcript | | 40:00 | After Nelson Mandela’s release and after the last political prisoners left Robben Island in 1991 there were many questions about the Island’s future. After much debate is has now been declared a National Monument and Museum. More than 250 people now make this trip across Table Bay every day to visit the museum. | Full Transcript | | 40:30 | This is a place that is known throughout the world for the triumph of the human spirit. It’s out of this place where freedom fighters were going to be crushed. The prison people tell them that in five years time people would have forgotten your names and out of this came Mandela and the ideas that today underpin one of the most democratic constitutions in the world. And what is special about Robben Island is that we can come to this place where these things happened here and talk about our heritage in a unified way. Children from different backgrounds and different schools are coming here, talking together, sleeping over; playing music together. That’s fantastic. That’s how we’re going forward and shows also the value of heritage in redefining a South African identity as well. | Full Transcript | | 41:18 | Are there soldiers there? // No, no more soldiers. They were prison guards, prison warders, but they all left at the end of last year when the prison closed and now it’s just a museum. | Full Transcript | | 41:27 | This is no ordinary museum; there are no paintings or sculptures on display on large impressive walls. The island itself, everything you see and hear and touch and smell is part of the living, breathing Robben Island Museum. | Full Transcript | | 41:45 | On behalf of the Robben Island Museum we wish to welcome you to the island. We trust that your tour will not only be an informative one but also a stimulating and a thought-provoking experience… // Most visitors to the Island want to see the famous B section of the prison and catch a glimpse of Nelson Mandela’s cell. They are shown around by former prison warders and political prisoners who now work here as tour guides. | Full Transcript | | 42:13 | I’m telling them about the prison, that it was built by political prisoners who were here, and the stones we used to get from the quarry and that it was very very tough that time, because warders were very very vicious. | Full Transcript | | 42:30 | Another major point of interest is the lime quarry where prisoners, such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, once worked with picks and shovels. Visitors also walk the village streets where the prison warders and their families once lived. The bus tour along this notoriously dangerous coastline highlights the island’s natural beauty; glimpses of other areas of the island’s history previously denied not only to its captives, but to the country. | Full Transcript | | 43:07 | When Kathrada decided that Robben Island should be developed as a National Monument, a National Museum, it set in motion its redevelopment as a cultural and conversation showcase for South Africa’s democracy. When our Museums and Monuments preserve the whole of our diverse heritage, when they are inviting to the public and interact with the changes all round them then they will strengthen our attachment to human rights, mutual respect and democracy and help prevent these ever again being violated. | Full Transcript |
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