Robben Island

16th February 2019 The Team ventures to Robben Island

Back in Shrewsbury in January the boys’ coach Ed Ashlin had issued sound advice on resilience: the need for the boys, whilst on tour, ‘to treat triumph and disaster just the same’. IF any one of the thirteen, or indeed thirty four of us were in need of some further instruction on resilience, it was delivered to us in spades at Robben Island. There, Thulani Masakele, a former inmate - a man who had stood side by side with Nelson Mandela - held us spellbound. His narrative confronted us with appalling and uncomfortable evidence of human depravity. But to each anecdote there seemed to be a counterpoint – the kind and brave actions of a guard, and most remarkably, the preparedness of the prisoners, on release, to cast aside all their grievances. There could be no more potent a story of fortitude, of resilience. A privilege indeed and the day had further enrichments in the form of the sighting of a Southern Wright Whale and a top supper together at the V&A Waterfront.