Epilogue — Literature and the Place of Pain

Abstract

On a recent trip to Cape Town, I visited Robben Island for the first time. I’d read fictional, autobiographical and critical pieces about the island over the years and thought the site might speak to my current research exploring cultural responses to memorial sites in Rwanda. The ferry leaves from the highly developed, you could even say glamorous, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. Written on the wall inside the ticket office, for the inspection of waiting passengers, are the words of ANC activist and former prisoner Ahmed Kathrada dating from 1996. The quotation reads:

While we will not forget the brutality of apartheid we will not want Robben Island to be a monument of our hardship and suffering. We would want it to be a triumph of the human spirit against the forces of evil; a triumph of wisdom and largeness of spirit against small minds and pettiness; a triumph of courage and determination over frailty and weakness; a triumph of the new South Africa over the old.