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
8 - Political Imprisonment and the State
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
A lot of initiatives and new ideas in the history in my experience of the past fifteen years in this country, would … originate from civil servants, yes. There are a lot of absolutely intellectually brilliant people in civil service. Don't be influenced by what you see, when you're buying stamps or have to pay your electricity bill. There are a lot of brilliant, brilliant people in civil service … In my experience, the civil servants have played an absolutely fundamental role in this whole process [of political change] in the last ten years to fifteen years.
The government thought it could kill off dissent by exiling political opponents to Robben Island; instead, it merely succeeded in consolidating the opposition. But perhaps Pretoria gained, perversely, in the end, for generations of young hotheads got a sobering political education at what was known as “the University of Robben Island.” Those who entered the prison hating whites – probably a majority – emerged hating the system which whites had built, but not the race itself.
From the 1960s to May 1991, prisoner resistance, backed by support and pressure from those outside the prison, succeeded in winning improvements in prison conditions. This chapter identifies the pressures upon the state emanating from Robben Island and supporters of political prisoners as well as the state's responses to those threats and influences, including the state's reactions to political organization on and from Robben Island.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance to Apartheid , pp. 193 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003