Robben Island: The Memoirs of Dan Zwelonke Mdluli

This is a non-fiction book written as fiction, an harrowing task; the description of events are laid out differently than they happened; words and speeches have been changed to colourful words, meaning the same thing uttered by the non-actors inmates, words put into their mouths for effectiveness. All incidents, situations, conditions and confrontations are recognizable to inmates. The book Robben Island is not about geography or science; it is about struggle emotions, about how some could forgo the pleasures of a limited life, throw everything and answer the call for service, sacrifice and suffering for the liberation of mankind, to be cooped in Robben Island. A Sobukwe adage tells of a very lean hungry fox coming across a well-fed dog and ask asks something like this: dog where do we catch something to eat; the dog replied well I have plenty to eat where I come from, I am fed, come along with me. Along the way the fox notices a belt around the dog's neck and ask what this is on your neck? The dog replied I am being tied to a pole where I leave most times. Wow! the fox exclaimed: "better hungry and free than plenty in bondage" By Robben Island we refer to the penal colony island where anti-colonial struggle heroes were imprisoned, from Makana the left-handed (Full name Makanda Nxele 1818) to Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (1963 after serving 3 years from 1960). Robben Island more pronounced prisoner was Nelson Mandela. But most sad is fact that Robben Island held unsung heroes of the PAC who spent full life sentences in a bid to free South Africa from apartheid colonialism and racism. Prominent were Jafta Masemola, Ike Mthimunye, Philemon Tefo, Samuel 'Chips'Chibane, John Nkosi, Dimake 'Pro' Malepe. A 20 year full term is also Life sentence that happened to Johnson Mlambo. We lament the names of those others we could not mention here because the design for the unsung heroes is that is that their names disappear out of