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
5 - Prisoner Politics and Organization on Robben Island
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
Now what does it mean when we refer to Robben Island as a site of struggle? I think quite simply that there were three main areas of contestation on Robben Island. The first one was the attempt on our part to survive physically, intellectually and politically. Survival is the first leit motif. The second was the whole issue of education, culture and recreation; and the third was what I would call planning or preparation for the future. Perhaps one should even go beyond that and talk about nation building and the preparation for life in a post-apartheid liberated South Africa.
Resistance to ensure one's survival and create as meaningful a life as possible were ends in themselves and preconditions for continuing and strengthening antiapartheid politics. How Robben Islanders maintained and developed antiapartheid politics in prison is the concern of this and the following chapter. Imprisoning political activists was intended not only to silence and intimidate individual political actors but also to completely extinguish their political movements and organizations, most of which were already banned. Therefore, resistance meant keeping the liberation movements alive in prison with a view to furthering their work both on Robben Island and upon the release of prisoners.
Perhaps paradoxically, the survival and growth of individual organizations required at least a minimum level of cooperation between and among rival organizations. Both inter- and intraorganizational life assumed a social order structured in accordance with particular norms and institutional arrangements.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance to Apartheid , pp. 81 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003