I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.

¿ Nelson Mandela: Statement at the Rivonia Trial in 1964

By the early 1400s, Europeans possessed a technology of new ships that was capable of transiting the open sea and thus the exploration of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans began.

Much of the early impetus for sea-going voyages came from the extreme west of Europe, from the small country of Portugal, which had largely escaped the ravages of the Black Plague and therefore the decimation of its population, due to its isolated position at the end of the Iberian Peninsular.

Thus 80 years before Columbus set sail to the west and the unknown Americas, Portuguese seamen were making their way down the west coast of Africa through uncharted waters, eventually seeking a way around that continent to lands in the Far East.

Foremost of those explorers was Bartolomeu Dias, who was the first European pilot to round the Cape of Good Hope and the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas, in January 1488. After leaving Walvis Bay in modern Namibia, Dias was blown by a storm far to the south and when it abated he sailed north, not knowing that he had passed the Capes, for he saw them not until he made a U-turn for Portugal some way up the eastern coast of southern Africa. Dias sailed with Vasco da Gama, but later died in the wrecking of his ship off the Cape of Good Hope.

Vasco da Gama has become more widely known than Dias, for it was he who reached India in 1498, thereby establishing the lucrative trade routes to the Far East for Portugal.

The newly remodelled Vasco da Gama Club on Reid Street in Hamilton is named after that national hero of Portugal. It is likely that on one of his voyages that da Gama set eyes upon a small island off the coast of Africa as he approached the Cape of Good Hope, a forlorn place surrounded by turbulent currents, the name of which also reflects some of the most turbulent times in the history and heritage of the continent: Robben Island.

Situated offshore within eyesight of the magnificent Table Mountain, which forms the backdrop for the stage of Cape Town, Robben Island is a low-lying place of 500 hectares, or roughly about one-tenth the size of Bermuda.

In 1999, UNESCO designated the island as a World Heritage Site, due to its position as a prison for political detainees during the battle against apartheid in South Africa, the most famous being Nelson Mandela, who later became President of the country, and is father to Dr. Maki Mandela (who recently visited Bermuda). The "Justification of Inscription" was that "Robben Island and its prison buildings symbolize the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom, and of democracy over oppression".

In addition to the spiritual heritage represented by the long incarceration of Mandela, Robben Island contains significant natural and earthly, or material, heritage. As well as shipwrecks, or underwater heritage, the first of which dates to 1611, that is to say the year that Bermuda's first permanent inhabitants, Carter, Chard and Waters, were fighting over a lump of ambergris, or whale vomit, the Island has several pieces of major artillery.

These are the brothers of the two great guns at St. David's Battery and are 9.2-inch Breech Loading Rifles, complete with anti-flak steel shelters yet painted in camouflage. The guns were installed during the Second World War and due to the prison-nature of Robben Island, they and some of the other earthly heritage have been largely free from the depredations of vandals.

In the natural order, Robben Island is home to a colony of some 12,000 African penguins, one of the three great rookeries in southern Africa, and something of a miracle of recolonisation, as the species was wiped out on the Island by 1800.

After oil spill accidents, rescued penguins were released on Robben Island, though most immediately cruised back to their home bases. Starting in 1983, some birds began to moult there and that settlement of permanent residents has grown to make the Island one of the most successful recolonizations of penguins anywhere in the world.

The African Penguin, however, remains an endangered species. We are the main threat and everyone's contribution to such endangerment is encapsulated in the 2007 Cape Town headline: "Condoms, Rubber Bullets Trash Robben Island but Plastic Tops the Heap".

The newspaper article notes that on one day alone, school children from Cape Town collected over a ton of plastic trash alone from the coast of the island. It was "an audited clean-up ¿ every single piece of litter collected from the beaches was noted in a register, and weighed afterwards" ¿ of Mandela's place of long imprisonment.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 near Umtata in the Transkei, South Africa. His middle name can mean "to pull a branch of a tree", or more directly, "troublemaker", and that he was to the South African authorities for many years in his fight against the apartheid system of that country.

Ultimately tried and imprisoned, Mandela spent 27 years behind bars, 18 of which were at Robben Island, where his cell is now preserved. In 1989, Frederick W. de Klerk became President of South Africa and arranged the release of Mandela, to world acclaim, on February 11, 1990.

Under Mandela's leadership, the African National Congress won the first democratic elections in South Africa in late April 1994 and shortly thereafter, he became the first black president of the country. His exemplary leadership helped South Africa to avoid a civil war and promulgated unprecedented proceedings for reconciliation among its peoples. In what can be described as an epic spiritual journey, Nelson Mandela replaced thoughts of revenge for his years of incarceration with the blessings of forgiveness, not only for others, but also for himself and his peace of mind, in his Long Walk to Freedom, the title of his autobiography.

Perhaps some time along that road, almost without end, Mandela came across the old adage that "If you seek revenge, first dig two graves". His is an example that many, who have suffered far less in comparison, might wish to emulate, if only for their own peace of mind in the long walk of life.

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or by telephone to 799-5480.