What will happen when we are released? What is the first thing I will do?

I am sure this it a topic that consumes most prisoners, in any jail, anywhere in the world. The yearning for freedom is very strong in almost all animals, human beings included. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, when I say most nights, on Robben Island, this was a recurring theme. I even knew what I wanted my first day out: I would go and look for my puppy love, Papai, and ask her to cook me the best meat stew she had ever cooked in her life.

Then one evening just as I was getting ready for bed, S’dumo (a prisoner turned prison reception spokesman) walked in and announced:

‘Mamelani, Ziboshwa. Heyi wena!’ (Listen, prisoners. Hey you, Gabriel Magomola!)

He continued calling out other names, but I could hardly hear those names; my ears ringing with that first name he’d called out – my name. I knew what that meant: my moment of departure from Robben Island had arrived.

That night, I and the others whose names S’dumo had read out, were all huddled together in a special cell in preparation for the draft to Victor Verster Prison the following morning.

My time had come. This was towards the end of 1967, nearly a year and a half before my release. We were asked to pack our belongings as we were to be transferred to another prison on the mainland.

But, of course, my departure was not something totally unexpected. I was one of the last, from the original West Rand group still on the island, as many others had already left. Also, I only had one year left to serve. But strange enough, this event, this moment that I had thought of so often, spoken about most nights, dreamed of every waking hour of the day and every night – now, that it had come, I suddenly felt it had come rather abruptly.

Therefore, somewhat confused, the following morning, we went to reception to be processed for what we all considered the final lap of a nightmare journey. Then swiftly, we were taken back to the cells to collect our personal possession. Me … possessions?