Arena

Season 1, Episode 488

Episode Title: Voices from the Island

Air Date: 1994-04-23

Overview:

Robben Island is South Africa's Alcatraz. For three decades Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and hundreds of other political prisoners were held in its maximum security prison for opposing the apartheid regime. Conditions were harsh and prisoners were treated like animals. The island itself has a tragic history as a dumping ground for convicts, lunatics, lepers and enemies of the state. It became a bizarre microcosm of the rest of South African society. In an extraordinary tale of survival, Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners reveal the strategies with which they transformed life on the island and the vision they created for a new South Africa.