The tour of the prison was phenomenal! We had an ex-prisoner showing us around, which I must admit felt a little strange. It was weird to have someone explaining to us how things were...who actually experienced them while he was imprisoned there.The sad part was that he was only doing the tour because he was unemployed and needed the money - I'm sure it would be very hard to run tours around a place where you had been treated so poorly for 6 years. And for those of you worrying about the safety of having an ex-prisoner employed to run the tours - don't worry! Most "criminals" incarcerated there were political troublemakers. Our guide was found guilty of treason while trying to improve human rights in Africa. Pictured above is a shot of one of the cell blocks as seen from the yard. The cell that is fourth from the right was Nelson Mandela's. He served 18 of his 27 years in Robben Island. Our guide was released in 1991, as were all of the prisoners. Had the prison not been shut down and the prisoners released, he would still be serving his sentence until 2009.
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