Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Foreword by Ahmed M. Kathrada
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Prison as a Source of Politics
- 2 Politics and Prison: A Background
- 3 Resistance For Survival
- 4 Resistance Beyond Survival
- 5 Prisoner Politics and Organization on Robben Island
- 6 Debates and Disagreements
- 7 Influencing South African Politics
- 8 Political Imprisonment and the State
- 9 Theorizing Islander Resistance
- 10 Beyond Robben Island: Comparisons and Conclusion
- Appendix I Diagrams of Robben Island Prison
- Appendix II Methodological Notes on Oral and Archival Sources
- Appendix III Capsule Biographies of Interview Respondents
- Select Bibliography
- Index
4 - Resistance Beyond Survival
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Foreword by Ahmed M. Kathrada
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Prison as a Source of Politics
- 2 Politics and Prison: A Background
- 3 Resistance For Survival
- 4 Resistance Beyond Survival
- 5 Prisoner Politics and Organization on Robben Island
- 6 Debates and Disagreements
- 7 Influencing South African Politics
- 8 Political Imprisonment and the State
- 9 Theorizing Islander Resistance
- 10 Beyond Robben Island: Comparisons and Conclusion
- Appendix I Diagrams of Robben Island Prison
- Appendix II Methodological Notes on Oral and Archival Sources
- Appendix III Capsule Biographies of Interview Respondents
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
[T]he cream of the struggle of South Africa was – is from political prisoners from Robben Island…. [The Island] changed my way of life…. I've grown politically, I've grown in all spheres…. It gives you time to listen to this person…. It gives you patience for that person, and that thing is very rare…. In all spheres. Even we were able to study even the warders. Their behaviour, we were able to study them. It's like when Pavlov put a dog there for conditioning you know? You know, we were out of that situation.
Once survival became more secure, prisoners had to sustain themselves mentally and culturally, as a community of prisoners and as political organizations. Crucial to resisting the state's attempt to destroy them mentally, the Islanders began and extended their cultural, academic, and sporting efforts.
Before our enemy had been physical cruelty, now it was boredom, isolation, the psychological decay of an endlessly unproductive and confined existence; so the [mini-Olympic] Games were an important way of getting ourselves mobilized, using our inner resources to smash the routine and monotonous futility of prison life.
This chapter examines the role of education, culture, and sport as vital instances of resistance. These forms of resistance accept, at least temporarily, the inevitability of incarceration, whereas planning and executing escape attempts are forms of resistance that seek to transcend imprisonment. The viability and implications of escape are therefore also examined.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance to Apartheid , pp. 61 - 80Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003