Robben Island was the laboratory of a major political experiment. Here a major test of the political fibre of the oppressed was to be conducted…. All the ingredients of a laboratory experiment were there: the constant conditions and the variable conditions – the latter divided into dependent and independent variables. The main constant condition was the prison population itself, of course. The independent variable as the name implies changed independently of the constant. They were manipulated by the experimenter – the prison authorities. In the early days there were the ‘carry on’ inductions, the inadequate food and clothes. The variables were both independent and physical. The ‘carry ons’ stopped and there was some improvement in the quantity of food and the quality of clothes.

Later a new set of variables was introduced: withdrawal of study privileges on flimsy excuses, vindictive censorship of letters…. It was psychological.

I want to say that whilst we are going to talk about the human rights violations it would be unfair to the men I was with on that Island to portray them as just simple victims who passively accepted human rights violations. I can safely say for most of us who were there it was the continuation of the struggle. I can also say that a great deal of the penal reforms that took place in this country were as a result of the sacrifices of the men who were at Robben Island.