Madiba's 91st Birthday

Today, we had the amazing experience of receiving a private tour of Robben Island. Robben Island is where Nelson Mandella (also lovingly known as Madiba) spent 18 years as a political prisoner in the 1970s-80s. Vanessa Mitchell, Director of Adult Education for the Robben Island museum, met us at the ferry and toured us around for our 2.5 hours at the former prison, thanks to a connection made through Anne's folklore colleagues in Michigan. It's a physically beautiful site, despite its terrible history. We saw lots of African penguins while there as well as the prson buildings, a few shipwrecks on the shore, and the limestone quarry where the most feared prisoners, like Mandella, did hard labor. This is the quarry (background) with a pile of stones in the foreground. During a reunion there of political prisoners in 1997, after it had closed as a prison, Mandella took a stone and laid it at the entry to the quarry. All the others did too. The pile is a symbol of "never again." Tomorrow, 18/7/09, is Mandella's 91st birthday. There are a lot of celebrations planned, including a call by Madiba for each person to do 67 minutes of community service (he has been fighting for freedom for 67 years).