"Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "In South Africa in the '60s, apartheid was law." "The police..." "The police were extremely powerful, Iike an army, peaceful protests were met with killing, torture and imprisonment." "Our people were denied all basic rights." "Manu!" "Manu!" "Come on, boys, defence!" "We risked our lives to advance the struggle for freedom and many of us ended up on the notorious Robben island, the AIcatraz of Africa." "We found ourselves in a place and a ime when i was easy o lose one's self." "If spor was never here on Robben Island, hen really, i would have been a very noorious place o live." "I seems srange ha wih wha we remember and wha we've done, ha we go and ell people ha we've played soccer in prison." "If you look a he way ha we had o figh and campaign o be allowed o play soccer, i's..." "You could equae i o he figh for freedom." "Bu we did play soccer on Robben Island and I hink we played i well." "We were just becoming aware of a cruel and unjust system that was taking over most of our lives." "My firs knowledge of his sysem came from a primary school eacher." "He came ino he class and wroe he word "apar" and "hae" on he board, emphasising the "apart" and "hate"." "I made explosives." "In those days, you could get the components of explosives almost anywhere." "Imagine today going into a shop and saying," ""Good day, sir, can I have some ammonium nitrate and ten kilograms of toluene." ""l wan o make some TNT, you see."" "I think we knew that we were getting into something dangerous when we were getting into the struggle." "But I don't think we knew exactly how dangerous it was going to be." "I seemed normal o be involved in he Druggle." "Do much injusice in he land." "There was ension." "And we were young." "I was in Standard 9 at Hofmeyer High school in Pretoria." "We were collecting unexpIoded shells from a nearby range for use at a later stage." "In the end, they came in overnight, raided different homes, arresed 250 o 300 kids." "Came in again, and those of us who were simply trying to make sense of the chaos that were around were also taken in." "The Druggle mean a lo o me, because I saw wha was happening." "I realised that our people were oppressed and therefore I felt that I should involve myself into the struggle." "Good evening, Mr Dioo." "Do where do you hink you're going?" "I was arrested by the British in Northern Rhodesia." "And hey drove us all he way back o Preoria." "And of course, some of us came from a differen poliical radiion." "The main liberation organisation didn't offer what we were looking for." "We were a group of young activists, rather intellectually inclined." "We had decided to study Mao Tse-tung's book on guerrilla war, Yu Chi Chan." "And when hey finally arresed us, he media sounded as if he whole Red Army had landed in Douh Africa." "We were at the beginning stages and some of us were still trying to organise to leave the country." "And then a comrade and I were arrested getting a lift with a famous person." "Good afernoon." "Good afernoon." "Your pass, please." "I don' carry a pass." "Chairman Mao says he does no carry a pass." "Never mind, Mr Dolomon, we know who you are." "You and Mr Bam." "Will you come wih us, please?" "Good day, Mrs Mandela." "Bloody bich!" "Fooball was my passion." "You could even say i was my obsession." "I was the Terror of AtteridgeviIIe." "Pass he ball." "I wanted to win." "When I played football, I played hard." "I played every chance I got." "Every time I got a ball or an open field, I played." "They told me not to go to school that day." "This girl had come to my house and told me that the police were looking for me and that they were going to look for me at school." "And I had said to her, "Let them look for me at school." "They know where to find me." ""Let them come and pick me up. " We were so brave." "What was a couple of years in prison?" "What was 15 years when you're not even 20 yet?" "We didn't realise." "We didn't think the system could be that cruel as to send schoolchildren to Robben island." "You people always say you wan o go and rain overseas." "Do now we're aking you overseas!" "The island, it seemed to one, was a very bleak place." "You had a feeling some are forsaken." "The waers jus seemed o deepen ha impression." "We were told in no uncertain terms that you will be treated" "like somebody without a name and were reminded that here, you become a number." "You have to be an epitome of obedience to the racially supreme master." "Come, don' be shy." "The coffee is geing cold." "You darkies look a bi hesian, or wha?" "No enough pap and wors, hey?" "Jus like in he old kraal, hey darkies?" "...a home..." "Welcome o Gevil's Island." "We apologise for..." "We don' undersand Afrikaans." "Then you're going o come shor because here we don' use kaffir-alk." "We don' use kaffir-lover alk eiher so say one more English word and Warder Gelpor will break you..." "Go you undersand me?" "Ok hen." "Good." "Welcome..." "Once again, I apologise if he meal ha we have prepared is no o your ase bu here on he island we enjoy life's simple pleasures." "If here is bird shi on your food, you will eiher find food ha hasn' been shi on or you mus learn o like shi." "Warder Gelpor is full of shi bu we like him." "Righ, Warder Gelpor?" "We know ha you hink you're going o govern his counry one day." "Your Mr Mandela also hough he same hing." "Waned o be presiden." "Go you know where your Mr Mandela is sling now?" "He's sling on his arse over here in he isolaion cells alking o he walls." "And you're never going o see him again." "Bu wha do I hear from Warder Grikus?" "He says you don' even know how o march wo by wo he says ha you looked like a bunch of chimpanzees when you were climbing off our lile boa." "Go you know he sory of he hree chimpanzees, hey?" "Wans o proes..." "Wans o sudy..." "Wans o rule..." "All you communiss and erroriss who come visi us on he island you all hink you are srong." "Bu do you know wha happens afer a few years of breaking rocks?" "The same as wha's going o happen o you lo." "Before we are done wih you here... before you leave here... you will beg o shine my shoes..." "Tha's no going o happen." "I will never happen." "Righ, fingerprins and ideniy cards as quick as you can." "So it became very clear that if we were going to survive, we would have o figh he noion ha we were passive." "We had o show he auhoriies ha we could organise ourselves efficienly and wih discipline." "But it was tough, especially in the quarry." "During winter, sitting down, breaking stones, exposed to the freezing atlantic sea spray, is something that is very difficult to erase from memory." "Sedick, for example, still feels cold today." "It's an almost pathological reflex." "Come, come, come, ge up, ge up, move!" "You are here o work, you're no on vacaion, move move move." "Go I look like a radio?" "No, hen move when I alk!" "I wan you ou of my prison, now!" "Move, move, move!" "It was the same routine every day." ""Kom, kom, kom." Grab clothes and shoes and out." "The problem was you had to grab any two shoes, whether they were the same feet or differen sizes, whaever." "I'm a size 10." "Wha is his?" "Dize 10." "Easy, man." "You know wha, I've go wo lef fee here." "Come on, man, you're he clever one here, how abou you organise me a righ foo?" "I hink Blues has go hree 7 s over here." "Wha's wrong wih Blues?" "He's he only one I know ha has hree shoes for wo fee." "Hey, gens, I'm going o find a 10." "Hey, seriously, and no a 7-10, a 10-10." "Line, sop!" "No matter how hard they tried to crush our spirit, we were prepared to survive." "We were prepared and determined to execute our struggle." "Line, move!" "Hey, Tony, his could be a 10." "I'm sure if you asked Gelpor nicely, maybe he..." "Negotiating, you know, came out of necessity." "You had o negoiae in order o make sense of life on Robben Island." "Come on, move." "Why is his aking so long?" "Pu some speed ino hose legs!" "The bigges misake he auhoriies made was o pu us all ogeher in ha slae quarry in prison." "If they intended to break us in that way, they achieved quite the opposite because different people with different ideas cross-poIIinated ideas and thinkings." "And when I Iook back at it, people became much more stronger in their convictions and persuasions than they would otherwise have been." "Dep forward hose men who have a driver's licence." "Come now, men!" "Lovely, lovely, come here." "There are your cars...your speed machines." "And now?" "You've go licences, don' you?" "You're qualified." "Grive!" "I remember one of the warders, he said, here in he quarry we are going o be worked o deah." "We are going o be desroyed." "He had a slogan for he quarry, he said, "Daar maak jy groot kIippe klein en klein kIippe fyn"." ""There you will make big stones small and small stones tiny. "" "I was very hard in he quarry, breaking he slae, you know." "When we remember the quarry, we see it as a place that unified us as prisoners and it also contributed in unifying us as sportsmen." "Robben island is remembered as some kind of university." "And he sone quarry, we remember i as a main audiorium of ha universiy." "It was a decision we made that there we are not going to allow our vision of ourselves to be blurred by the vision the Prison Department and the authorities had of us." "And ha made us demand, no concessions, bu privileges in erms of heir own, very own regulaions." "Mass murder everybody." "We could no jus spend one idle momen behind he cells so we ended up organising games." "Which we played ou of he sigh of warders." "Chess and cards, which we made out of cardboards, or draughts, which was made out of pieces of soap or even wood." "And of course there was Iudo." "We'd draw the Iudo board on a blanket with a piece of soap, which was jus as well." "Wha is his noise?" "Go you hink his is a holiday resor?" "Ge up, ge up, wha have you go here?" "Wha do you have?" "Dhow me!" "Where is i?" "Why are you geing up?" "Wha is his?" "Why is here a chess board here?" "No more games!" "Le his be a lesson." "No more games!" "And keep quie!" "And we enjoyed those games, but this was not enough." "We needed somehing more physical." "Hey!" "Dhu up!" "And suddenly, soccer was a passion." "It was all we could think about." "It was all we wanted to do." "We made soccer balls with anything." "Pieces of rag, paper, anything." "For us youngsters, it became a crusade." "Now we would organise our guys o go in delegaions, we would go o he senior warder." "We requested our request for soccer to be considered seriously." "And?" "We reques he righ o play fooball on weekends." "Dpor is no a righ." "I's a privilege." "Ou." "We reques he righ o play fooball on weekends." "No!" "Geclined." "We reques he righ o play fooball..." "...fooball on weekends." "Nee." "We reques..." "...he righ o play fooball..." "...on weekends." "Nee." "We reques..." "Nee." "The righ o play fooball..." "Nee." "...play fooball on weekends." "Uit!" "We reques he righs o beer food." "En?" "And we reques he righ o play fooball on weekends." "No." "No." "Ou." "Ge ou." "We reques he righ o play..." "Yes, yes, yes he righ o play fooball..." "On weekends." "When he hell else would you play fooball?" "Go you hink his a damned social club?" "Of course on bloody weekends!" "Ou." "Ge ou." "Nex." "Naidoo, is somebody sill waiing ouside?" "No." "I says here one ime soccer ball o be bough wih..." "Wha's his word here, Naidoo?" "Funds, sir, o be bough wih funds." "I'm alking o Naidoo." "When I'm alking o you, hen you can answer." "Bough wih funds donaed by he following players." "For a bunch of communiss, you boys are quie flush wih cash, hey?" "Tha 20c a monh you pay us for breaking rocks can add up." "Naidoo, are you being funny?" "Go you wan o make jokes?" "Hey?" "Go you wan o..." "come hen, make jokes..." "Le's see if you're sill so funny once I've chucked your ass ino soliary confinemen for hree monhs." "The chaps simply wan a ball." "A proper ki, as soon as he guys can organise he funds." "Moseneke, if he CO les you play, and he's no going o le you play..." "You boys are going o break - you will suffer." "You are oo weak." "You people are ille piccanin scarecrows already." "Thank you, sir." "Boss!" "If you coninue o ask me for his bloody supid hing, you bloody learn o call me "Baas."" "Undersand?" "Yes." "Now ge ou." "Well, we had o show ha our approach was indeed a very, very serious one." "Once we go going i also gave rise o wha l would call a unied fron ha cu across pary poliical lines and across all age groups." "It was that united front that the authorities could not ignore." "And it was a really very powerful instrument for us to get things going." "Go you hear wha hey are asking, Fourie?" "Go you even read hese hings?" "These guys are obsessed wih heir soccer." "Like lile kids." "Bu does Capain hink...?" "They are dying in he quarry." "How long do you hink hey'll las?" "Come on, Fourie, we are no unreasonable men." "Give hem heir damned soccer." "They're asking so nicely!" "We will invie he Red Cross o come and observe he whole hing." "Afer all hey like soccer in Dwizerland, don' hey Fourie?" "I couldn' say Capain." "Well I know hey like chocolaes." "Do we'll give he geezer from Geneva a few chocolaes, and a soccer mach." "Bu find a few guys who look a lile muscular, okay?" "Healhy." "And speaking of healhy his plan looks a lile ragic, no so Fourie?" "Yes Capain." "Bu can I ask Capain wha..." "Fourie... ln wo weeks hree... hey'll be exhaused and his whole hing will be forgoen." "And insis ha we keep conrol of i." "We are giving i o hem, undersand?" "They're no aking i from us... ha's how i works." "Do Capain's answer is...?" "Yes Fourie my answer is yes." "Le hem build heir field and le hem play." "It was amazing." "In 1967, four years after arriving on Robben island, we began to play soccer on a small, makeshift field, just outside our communal cells." "Everybody waned o play fooball." "He ook he line, come on Lizo." "As a person who came from he Easern Cape, i was foreign o me, because I played rugby and cricke." "And when his soccer was inroduced on he island, hose who inroduced i were willing o each us." "Righ, ke madoda, here we go, i's on he ches, i goes down." "Conrol i and kick." "For sure." "Good." "Tony." "All righ, all righ, gens, Alfred, you ready?" "Anthony Suze was one of those soccer fanatics." "He loved soccer, he was a hard kicker and we even nicknamed him..." "Which means, "Move, I'm going o kick!"" "Here we go." "There!" "Almos here!" "Nice ry, Alfred, nice ry." "Marcus, you ready?" "For sure." "All righ, le's do his." "Okay, we'll work on ha." "We'll have o work on ha." "We'll have o work on ha." "Lizo?" "Dharp." "All righ." "Okay." "Le's go." "Hey, i's rugby, Tony." "Hey, gens, I hink we found our goalkeeper." "Hey!" "Goalkeeper!" "There was selflessness in he eaching, of course, but it was not always about being selfless." "Those guys that I taught about soccer," "I taught because I wanted the best players on my team." "I wanted to win." "Lizo, here." "Dorry." "Dorry." "Pro." "Alfred, Alfred!" "Come guys, le's keep i moving." "Uneachable!" "I couldn' believe i." "You know Dedick is a scienis?" "And I asked him, I said, "You, a physicis, you know all abou" ""forces and velocity and stuff like that." "And so why can't you just kick that ball?"" "This is...no, no, no, Gick..." "Pro, he ball." "Lisen o me I wan you o go and sand over here." "Over here, okay." "Lizo." "Okay." "Lizo..." "Now Lizo, he was different, even though he was a rugby player." "Okay, now when Lizo passes me he ball, you are going o run." "Firs ouch you ge on he ball, you srike i ino he ne." "No, I don' hink I can do ha, hey." "Gick, don' hink." "Jus lisen o me." "Firs srike you ge on he ball, you hi i ino he ne." "Okay?" "Head down, weigh going forward," "kick under he ball." "Ready?" "Dorry, sorry, sorry." "Dorry." "l'll ry i again." "Okay, okay." "Yeah." "l'll ry i again." "Eye on he ball." "Eye on he ball." "Okay, ready, ready." "Jus give he ohers a chance raher, man, I'll jus si over here." "No, no, no, no, you're doing very nicely here." "Lizo, don' lie o he man." "He's no doing nicely a all, he's he wors fooball player in he world." "Tony, i's difficul when you don' come from a spors background." "Hey, hey, I come from a spors background." "Wha spors?" "Dwimming is big in our family." "Dwimming, Gick, swimming!" "Tha's one spor ha's no going o ge encouraged here, wena, he five-mile freesyle o Cape Town, huh?" "No, no, Gick, come on, again." "He was helpless." "You know, thank God for soccer." "When I first arrived and saw my dear friend, Bennie NtweIe," "looking like skin and bones in just a few weeks on the island," "I thought I would die here, but soccer was our salvation." "And it was driven by people like Pro MaIepe." "Pro was a diamond." "He was fas." "He was srong, he was fi." "He was known as Pro because he was already a professional player from Pretoria and he was allocated the task of training the rugby players and the non-soccer players to prepare them with basic skills." "He didn't know when to stop." "When Pro trains, he just goes on and on and on and it's up, up, up, if it's down, it's down, down, down, but he never knows when to stop." "I need you o be saving goals, no creaing hem." "Keep your fee on he ground." "Come on, le's go." "Come, I'm couning." "One!" "Two!" "Three!" "Genlemen, his is he man you should be looking up o." "Freddie Dimons is a specimen of my good work." "I's passion, i's commimen, i's power." "I love i." "You're going o kill yourselves." "You're going o go down." "Morning, Dir." "Gon' you bloody "Good Morning" me, Malepe." "I's a shi morning." "Why is ha?" "Promoions all of hem." "Every damned one of hem." "And no you, Mr Gelpor?" "And no bloody me." "The English call i "passed over."" "Pass over." "Go I look like a bloody Jew, ha l migh enjoy Passover?" "Tha is no righ." "No, i's no righ." "You're a good guard." "Mr Gelpor, an excellen officer, you're always here in he rain wih us." "Very duiful." "Yes, always." "Bu ha is he problem, Mr Gelpor." "How's ha?" "Why is i you ha is sanding in he rain and hey all ge promoions and you don'?" "I's... I's because hey're using you." "They do no respec you." "Even hough you work hard and you're an excellen officer." "They rea you like us." "Like a..." "like sor of..." "Like less han a human being." "You mus figh your case." "You mus wrie a leer." "I don' know how o wrie such a leer." "Maybe we can help you." "DeIport, who was so violent and so mean, eventually became our ally." "He joined our classes and we helped him with his studies." "And slowly DeIport become more human and DeIport became a different person, and finally, he passed his subjects and he was promoted." ""Things change..."" "Many of he warders loved o wach us play because we creaed grea specaor spor for hem." "Come, come, come, you men mus work..." "Look lively wih ha wheelbarrow... I wan o build!" "Move i, sackers!" "Hey, hey!" "You see ha aeroplane?" "Tha's a whie man flying here, flying in he sky." "And you can' even push a wheelbarrow sraigh." "Hey, don' urn your back on me, boetie." "When I'm alking o you, you pay aenion, okay?" "Hey, Jaco." "The Old Man's looking for you sounds urgen." "You'd beer move i." "Do, who's in he saring 1 1 on Daurday?" "We're playing agains he Bucs, aren' we?" "We're going o crush hem." "Ja, Dhinners beer have his boos on his weekend." "Malan, leave ha prisoner alone." "Ge away here, he has work o do." "Bes hurry..." "There were warders who were very fond of us, there were warders who actually were our fans." "There was his warder, "Maxolo" Dmih we called him, who could come and open up every ime i waned o go and play." "Bu here was always a degree of ension because i ook us years to break down the barriers, but most importantly of course, it took years to improve the situation on the island." "You had those who were among them who were very lonely." "They had cases where warders committed suicide, where young men just put that rifle on the chest and pulled the trigger." "We decided to organise soccer in a much more conscious way." "We wanted to play competitive soccer so that, if there are clubs, the one club can plan and the other club can then try and defend." "We wan o se up a fifa ype of associaion." "We waned compeiion, and in ha compeiion we are going o creae ineres, and ha is why soccer for us had to be introduced very, very systematically and carefully." "I undersand, Tony, bu wha l am rying o say is ha he chaps can be quie regimened." "You know I can play wih anybody, bu oher men are saying "uh-huh"." "They say a lo of hings, Mark, and ha's he problem." "Everybody is saying somehing, bu who's doing?" "Who is engaging?" "Carefully, discussion, negoiaion, i's no jus alk." "Yes, bu you see hem, I mean, you see hese chaps who always alk abou a unied fron or hese games serving fooball insead of poliics, and wha do hey do he momen we sar picking sides?" "ANC on his side, PAC on ha side." "Hey?" "Righ from he beginning, I was agains picking eams according o poliical organisaions." "Tony, i's more complicaed han ha." "You know ha." "Fooball is never jus fooball." "Hey, I don' know wha game you've been playing, Mark, bu when I'm playing fooball, ha is wha l'm doing and I'm doing i properly." "Bu everyhing ha we do here, we do i properly." "You don' have o ell me." "Bu i do." "We mus keep on saying i." "We mus keep repeaing i." "I's very easy in his place o rerea ino..." "I mean, how would you pu i," ""ino familiar hings"?" "Like hese safe poliical srucures?" "We canno discriminae along pary lines." "Go I hear i righ ha you've pu a clause of non-discriminaion in he Manong consiuion?" "Exacly righ." "Today Manong, omorrow he Makana Fooball Associaion, and nex year fifa." "If we're going o do his, we're going o do i righ." "And ha's he fifa way, or no way a all." "Tha is why I recruied Lizo, an African Naional Congress member, into my team, Manong, which was predominantly a Pan-Africanist Congress members club." "Our moo was "A lapile", which lierally mean "The vulures are hungry"." "We stood for soccer and not politics." "Our team's aims were very clear." "One, to promote and demonstrate soccer." "Two, to spread sportsmanship and comradeship on the island." "The third one was to ensure that every abIe-bodied person was taught soccer on the island." "Penaly!" "Penaly!" "Penaly!" "Penaly!" "They're no geing ha ired any more." "You know, I'm seeing a seady improvemen in our play, Marcus." "For one, beer discipline from he players, and for wo, you know, beer coaching mehods are being employed. I'm really happy." "Pass he ball!" "You have o admi, né Sedick, he sandard of play is now really good." "Absoluely." "And i's also having a remendous impac on our morale." "Through football, we could realise and make a statement abou our humanly, abou ourselves." "I's for enjoymen, i's for relaxaion." "I is for fun, i is o give an opporuniy for people to get away from the hardships of the present." "We worked hard to keep football together." "Tha Duze basard can play." "Hey, Duze!" "I don' hink I'd be wrong if I say soccer saved many of us on the island." "indres Naidoo and Dedick Isaacs were our adminisraors." "They could no play very well, but they were very good administrators." "You know, when people see that reams and reams of minutes and notes we kept, they might find it strange that we created such a Iarge bureaucracy of our sport and our associations there on the island." "But that's the way we fought the struggle." "Tha was he sysem we came ou of." "Wha we did, we did properly, horoughly, and we applied ha on our spor." "Sunday to Wednesday to do post-mortem." "Wednesday we're planning for Saturday and if perchance here were delays, if for some reason, he warder did no urn up on ime, we would end up filled with anxiety." "Hey, hey, wha's all his?" "Ah, Mr Malan, you know we only have from 9:00 unil 1 1 :00." "I'm sure i's abou 9:15 now." "I's jus five pas." "We can' run our prison according o your sporing imeables, hey, Dhinners?" "Eish, Warder Malan, i's jus ha we don' have a lo of ime." "You've go fifeen years, Dioo!" "You've go pleny of ime." "Dwar says las week you didn' play oally crap." "Gid you wach?" "No." "Are you going o wach now?" "Come people!" "Move i!" "Your five minues will become en, hen you're going o file a complain agains us hen we'll have o si wih Gelpor in he quarry, because you waned o chi cha." "Come on, le's go!" "Warder Malan is now speaking Xhosa?" "Hey, Wena, I wonder wha Warder Gelpor would say, Warder Malan?" "Dilence!" "Ja, ha is exacly wha he would say." "playing football was the only time we were out in the open, away from the cells and not doing any hard work of the quarry." "It was so wonderful to feel the sun on you while you were enjoying soccer." "It brightened us." "Why did I ge a yellow card?" "We boh wen for he ball." "Mr Maseko, he Makana Fooball Associaion Gisciplinary Commiee has reviewed your case and we came o his conclusion." "I was a 50-50 siuaion and you boh wen for he ball." "Bu you, on he oher hand, deliberaely showed your suds across he face of he ball, inending o harm he oher player." "Tha's why you go he yellow card." "Your complain is overruled, Mr Maseko." "Thank you very much." "You may leave he cell." "Gid you ge ha down?" "Gefence!" "Pass he ball, man!" "And then they sent warders to the mainland to buy our soccer kit and we finally got colour into the game and into our lives." "You know, the uniform of a prisoner is monotonous." "It's the same all over and all over, but now putting something different would place us to a greater extent, you know, to think that we are outside, enjoying ourselves ouside prison." "Makana football Association was named after the Xhosa chief, a warrior, who was arrested by the British." "He was taken to the island." "He aemped o escape." "He died whils doing ha." "And we honoured him by naming our Association after him." "This Makana Fooball Associaion, i was a big hing." "We had over 200 guys playing." "For exampIe, there were three teams." "There was the A, B and C." "The A eam was for he op players, whereas your C eam would be for he real amaeurs, guys like Dedick, for example." "The A division had three teams." "The B division had three teams." "And the C division had two teams." "The A eams needed chairmen, and they got the chairmen." "The crieria we had was no he abiliy o speak refined English, or a sense of formal education, but what we needed was the ability to lead." "The A chairmen were going o be led by one single chairman, he Makana Fooball Associaion chairman." "And the guy they eventually chose, was a unifying guy, a calm guy, a guy ha could debae issues." "He had a fanasic grasp of he rules of soccer." "Dikgang Moseneke," "I think he was 16 years when he came to the island." "Today, he is he Gepuy Chief Jusice of Douh Africa." "Yeah, we demanded o be given a bigger field where we were going o play our spor." "Regulaion size, o fifa requiremens." "And so, in 1969, we moved to our new field." "well, Harry GwaIa was a prominent member of the Communist Party of South Africa, but he also had a very deep understanding of sports in what was known as the socialist bloc, especially soccer." "He would know he names of all he grea soccer players." "Moscow Gynamos, which was he famous Russian eam." "He was also very srlc on he field." "I was no easy for him o change his decision." "Welcome, genlemen." "Firs on our agenda is a repor back from Marcus Dolomon." "Bu firs he will ake us hrough maers arising from Daurday's mach." "Oh, he has also advised me ha he would like o ackle a very imporan issue before he reads he repor." "Wih your permission, genlemen?" "Yes, sure." "Marcus, please." "Thank you, Chairman Gwala." "No, i's jus ha, how can I pu i, we are all players from ime o ime." "We are no only referees." "We know how i is." "There are passions, healhy passions." "Bu i know I've said his before, and please forgive me if I'm flogging a dead horse, bu we canno allow rough play." "Wha?" "Makana Fooball Associaion, draw for Daurday, he 1 4h May, 1970." "Black Eagles versus Gynaspurs, your referee is Mr Harry Gwala." "Finally, we've go he Dilver Dars versus Rangers, referee Mr D. Govender." "Linesmen will be Mr Njama, Mr Kunene, Mr Dingh and Mr Radebe." "Look, can' we have Mr..." "The League log laes poins." "I don' wan o hear i, Mr Duze." "I ruled according o wha l saw in he field of play." "Field of play, wha field of play, on which field of play were you on" "when ha happened?" "Tony, if you have any complains," "use he official channels." "Official channels?" "Go you wan o know wha you can do wih your official channels?" "I'll ell you wha you can do, you can ake your official channels, file hem, in riplicae for all I care!" "Righ is righ and wrong is wrong, Mr Referee, and in his case, I am righ and you are wrong!" "Presenaion o he B Givision champions!" "Well done, sir." "Well played." "B Givision champions!" "We had fans, we had banners, we had logos, we had everyhing." "Spectators were fanatics, you know, they were..." "They loved soccer." "They tended now to own the sport itself." "A chap like blues, and there was another one like Baartman." "For my sake, Mark, win i for me!" "If you can' win i for your capain, hen hink of Baarman, who cries every ime when you lose!" "I hurs me." "Please, I'm begging you." "I don' wan hose oher guys o win." "You're my only hope, my heroes, my supersars!" "Gefence!" "Gick!" "Hey, Gick!" "They promised me hey're going o win i for Baarman!" "They swore!" "Leave ha Blues maniac alone and figh wih he real man." "A real soccer man!" "Isaacs!" "Dedick Isaacs!" "Wha is i, Blues, I can hear you!" "l call you ou." "Wha?" "Hey, Blues, you a crazy man." "Here I am." "You sill suppor he losing eam." "Today, Gick, oday is oday!" "Wha day, Blues?" "Today's he day ha you die!" "Hey, you said ha hree weeks ago!" "is ha he day or is oday he day?" "You're confusing me." "Today is he day ha you die." "Pass he ball!" "Wow!" "I can' be." "Look a ha!" "Yes!" "Look a ha!" "Yes, i is!" "Hey, hey!" "Mandela." "And Waler Disulu!" "Ahmed Kahrada!" "l don' believe his!" "No, no, no, no, no, no, ha's no Kahrada and ha's no Mandela!" "Power...is ours!" "After that, we never saw the prisoners from that section again." "They actually built a wall between us to keep them hidden away." "When we used o have regular meeings, we had o pick sides." "And of course, there was a motto that guided all soccer on the island." "The motto of the Makana football Association was "Service before self. "" "Genlemen, we have here he names of he eam ha will be playing he big mach on Daurday." "Okay!" "Dhabalala." "When I played i was like I was home again." "I would ranspor you away from he island." "Chilewane, Kekane, Zwelendawu." "When we were told that we were not going to play in a particular weekend we fel so bad." "I'm sorry for hose genlemen ha didn' make i." "We'll pracise hard his week wih Pro." "l'm sorry." "As far as we were concerned, a socialist society was one in which all aspecs of your life had o be caered for." "Your mind, your body, your soul, your spiri." "And spors..." "Playing spors, playing soccer was a very imporan par of ha inegraed, holisic approach o life." "For me i was very difficul because I always waned o win." "And by now we were successfully administering and playing soccer ourselves." "We had allowed no interference from the authorities, and this made them mad!" "It was one area on the island in which we were sovereign, and where we had control over our lives." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Even when working in that terrible quarry, we found time to discuss soccer issues." "Like me complaining about selecting the best teams, and Pro's complaints about training." "I ell you, man, hey're going o lose." "They're going o lose because hey have go no samina, because hey only wen o he bahroom for 10 minues." "Ten minues!" "You can' do anyhing in 10 minues." "I hough i was scheduled for half an hour?" "No, i's 45 minues!" "The upper body for fifeen minues and hen he runk for fifeen minues." "And running for fifeen minues, man." "Do?" "Wha is Pro complaining abou now?" "He's angry ha Harry ook mos of his raining ime o give he guys anoher glimpse behind he lron Curain." "Pro feels hey are no going o be ready for he soccer." "Wha's Pro's feeling abou Mbaha playing his week?" "Marcus, i is very difficul." "Old Boos hasn' had a game in hree weeks." "Hey!" "Old Boos hasn' had a game in hree weeks because old Boos plays fooball like a drunk." "And he is very unhappy abou no playing." "Yeah, well, I'm very unhappy abou i when he does play." "They old me Boos wans o lodge a complain wih he commiee" "if you play Pro again." "Yeah, I know, I know." "The selection process, it was a hell of a process." "You want to play inclusive soccer." "You want to involve everybody." "Bu hen you know ha Daurday, he oher eam is going o pick up heir bes players." "You sar wondering o say, "Now, look man, wha is imporan his week, you know?" ""Talk o your guys, you know, hey should ake i easy on socialism, you know," ""unil we've played our fooball and hen hey can go back o heir agenda."" "There were clubs playing, and a he end of he year, in order o play wihin one anoher's clubs, no playing agains one anoher, hey creaed wha was called "seleced sides."" "Mix he clubs up, and hose who played wih one anoher, now played agains one anoher in heir new emporary club and hey called i "seleced sides."" "A side was picked on Robben Island, and hey named hemselves he Alanic Raiders." "The Raiders were, almos by acciden, a very, very srong side." "Drong soccer players like Duze, and Bimos and Freddie Dimon." "And it was out of the whole discourse of inclusiveness on the one side and a desire to win at all costs, that the incident of the atlantic Raiders arose." "Maybe we won' have..." "Dkull and Bones, gens, Alanic Raiders." "Young guys, fas guys, hard guys." "They've poached wo players from Manong." "The Bucs eam have los wo players." "People are saying hese Raiders play only for pride, for vaniy." "Duze only plays for one hing and ha's o win!" "Dkull and Bones forever." "Enough wih ha nonsense now." "I know you gens. I know you, you are Dilver Dars men and Manong men." "You're no secessionis hooligans!" "Dop his nonsense now." "atlantic Raiders, they were the elite." "We were the elite." "The best players in the best team." "Deleced from across all he cells in he island." "We were he bes." "Alanic Raiders was jus a eam ha had everyhing o do wih he saus, you know." "Yeah, yeah, here were complains and accusaions because we were he bes, we were he sronges eam." "They were rocking he boa righ from he sar." "The men waned o leave heir clubs in order o join he Raiders." "We were good, man." "The Alanic Raiders was a op eam and the blue Rocks were right at the bottom." "It was a very poor team." "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "old crocks, you know?" "But everybody had to play in the Makana football Association." "It was the ethos." "And so that's how it came naturally that these blue Rocks, hese old guys, hese crocks, had o play Alanic Raiders." "I was always going o be a massacre." "Massacre." "I don' know wha was heir preparaion like before we played ha November." "But what I know that our preparation, as always, was pretty intense." "Nice!" "And hen he big day came." "I was really looking forward to that match." "You know, although we were political prisoners, we did not want politics to consume us." "We did seminars and political discussions." "But then we also wanted some fun." "And playing blue Rocks was going to be great fun." "Offside ref, offside." "Play on!" "No offside!" "Play on!" "He was oally offside." "Toally." "I hink he even handled he ball." "Really, i's a ough experience, going behind he ne o go and collec a ball ha has been scored agains you as a goalkeeper." "A goal?" "How?" "I's a goal. I am applying fifa rules, he goal sands." "Tha was clearly offside, and wha abou he hand ball?" "And wo bloody yards away from he las fee." "How can ha possibly..." "This is unaccepable!" "I canno ref under hese condiions." "Harry Gwala is subborn." "Where are you going?" "You are refereeing." "Where's he going?" "You're walking away." "Anhony Duze is subborn!" "Tha's agains rules and you know i!" "I was crazy bu we said, "Le's jus win his hing and ge back home."" "Pass he ball!" "Move." "Come gens, come gens." "Pass he ball!" "The old crocks decided to go and block the goals, you know." "Pass he ball, man." "Pass he ball, Freddie!" "I wen on unil when i came clear ha the pros, the Raiders camp, could not score." "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "Blue Rocks!" "The record book of course refleced ha Blue Rocks had won he mach." "l know, Tony, I saw i." "Okay, I saw i." "Jesus, Gick!" "Jesus!" "I mean, a complain." "A formal appeal or somehing." "Tha hing can' sand. I's a farce." "We will appeal immediaely." "There are various grounds we can appeal on." "For insance, for sarers..." "The refereeing is a bloody joke." "Yes." "Tha's wha." "Gick, you can' do ha." "You saw wha he did, he jus wen off he field like ha." "You can' do ha." "Tha is agains fifa regulaions, righ?" "l'm almos cerain i is, yeah." "How hen?" "Jesus, Gick, I mean his hing is a knockou compeiion." "But now, they couldn't take it." "We ge knocked ou..." "Blame he referee, blame he linesman, blame everyhing in he world, you know." "We appealed almos immediaely." "We threw the book at the MFA." "It was serious stuff." "We went there with our captain, Freddie Simon, our vice captain, Lucas MahIangu, and we became very, very technical." "But Mr Isaacs, the executive committee of the Makana football Association believes that you have covered this territory already." "If you had a complain, i behoves you o make your proes immediaely afer he irregularly had been observed." "Once again, I'd like o refer you o he consiuion of he Makana Fooball Associaion, secion 7C, page 9," "where i clearly saes ha..." "Wih all due respec, Mr Decreary." "Wha we are saying, and no for he firs ime in his meeing, is ha we are aware of secion 7C." "Bu we find i problemaic." "The Oxford english Dictionary defines observe as "become conscious of."" "The evens leading o our proes..." "Mr Isaacs!" "Please do no ry o diver his hearing wih sophisry." "I will no be oleraed." "Mr Decreary, I'm simply poining ou ha he evens leading o our proes are complex and require checking." "Will you concede ha?" "Go on." "And because hey require checking he process of becoming conscious of hese evens, ha is, observing hem, has aken some ime, which is why we are presening our peiion of appeal hrough he correc channels now." "He allowed..." "Gown." "...ha rubbish hand-ball of a goal and he jus walks off he field, like a bloody chicken!" "And he unceremoniously desered he field afer allowing a goal which had a elling effec on our morale." "And which arose from a malicious applicaion of he conens of he Referees' Charer. ln ligh of hese horrible misakes, I kep on shouing," "Gick, I kep on shouing, "Come on!" "I mean, come on, are you blind?" ""Can' you see?" "Gon' you know wha a hand ball is?" ""Gon' you know wha an offside is?" Then, you know wha?" "He hen reaced o he infringemen of he associaion fooball rules wih mirh, as if i was a joke." "This is fully couner o he spiri and hisory of associaion fooball." "And i is also proof ha all referees are bloody nincompoops, yeah!" "You ell hem, Gick, you ell hem." "Nincompoops." "We asked for a replay." "We asked for a change of he saus of he game, anyhing, we fough very hard." "But sometimes I think we fought too hard." "It took five months to resolve the atlantic Raiders-BIue Rocks demonstration." "We allowed due process to take place, no matter how frustrating the whole affair was." "And we would never have become violent about it." "One of the cardinal rules was never to lay hands on another political prisoner, and never give warders or guards an excuse to intervene." "Duress." "We'd make our case in such a way that they had to listen." "Was it the right thing to do?" "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time." "It seemed like the only thing to do." "Wha he bloody hell is going on here?" "I'll bea you o a pulp." "When Makana football Association stages a match, we'll no allow hem o play." "We wen and squaed on he soccer field." "I's duress, Warder Gelpor." "Proes, Warder Gelpor." "You know abou proesing and wha you believe in is due o you, no so?" "You can' do ha here!" "Freddie, Anhony, how long are you going o lie here?" "For as long as i akes o ge jusice." "Miser Makaleni." "This man belongs o your club." "Please, alk o him." "Yes." "This man belongs o my club, Manong." "...bu, he has forgoen his." "Now he hinks he is anoher kind of animal." "And now, gens, why such long faces?" "A vulure mus fly high from ime o ime." "Tha is a poin of principle." "No, I do no see any vulure, bu l see somehing ha's lying fla on his belly on he ground." "Please, Anhony." "Your chairman is asking you." "No, no, no, Chairman." "I'm sorry, bu l'm drunk wih rebellion." "I is no proper." "This hing is no proper!" "Your moher raised a disgusing screw-up of a child, or wha Duze?" "Gon' you go any manners?" "Uncivilised." "Tha's wha you are." "No respec for age." "No respec for spor." "Uncivilised." "This is your mess." "Play or cha, you have 45 minues." "No." "44." "And now?" "And now, we wal for jusice." "We were serious." "We were willing o push his proes." "To hell wih he consequences." "I's he principle. lf you're playing o fifa sandards, you canno jus suddenly say..." "Wha abou he principle of comradeship?" "Wha abou ha, Maxabane?" "You guys have become so obsessed wih winning." "I'm no obsessed wih anyhing." "Warder Malan, give us a "lile booser" please man." "Hey, very nice." "Now go, please." "Careful, prisoner." "Jus now I'll oss his "booser" ino he ground, under my shoes... and you... I'll have you for calling me man and no boss, hey." "And hen we will see who is "going" and who's no!" "l heard ha old guy in C2..." "Mpofu?" "Mpofu, yeah." "He's go high blood pressure because of his whole proes." "Everyone ges high blood pressure and depression here. I's like ashma and TB." "Bu you can' ell me we're also geing TB and depression because of he Alanic Raiders." "Hey, guys, I don' like i." "The whole hing makes me very, very unhappy." "Wha is wrong, is seing down guidelines, agreed o in a democraic and organised way." "And hen changing hose guidelines a he las minue?" "Comrades, please." "Leave his hing ou on he soccer field, or he disciplinary hearing where i belongs." "Please, i is very disressing." "Bu ha is he poin, comrade." "This is somehing ha affecs every aspec of our lives." "Do we have o ake posiion on..." "Enough!" "Go no ell me wha o do." "Leave i alone!" "This is causing mayhem, high blood pressure, you name i." "Those who are angry, those who don't relate, they don't talk to one another, and so forth." "Laughter, ridicule, turn to anger, it turned to emotion, it tended to divide us now." "I was serious." "We couldn' accep he fac ha we'd been beaen by his lousy side." "Genlemen." "I have here my repor on he aciviies of our club, Gynaspurs Fooball Club, over he period January o June, 197 1 ." "And I had inended o read he enire documen o you oday before I make i available o you for your perusal." "There are various adminisraive improvemens I waned o share wih you." "And here are also players whom we should single ou as having improved dramaically so far his year." "Bu righ now I hink I would like o sar on he second page of my repor wih an issue ha has been weighing very heavily on all of us and ha has cerainly depressed me personally since i ook place." "Why do we play soccer?" "Or any spor for ha maer?" "Go we play o win?" "Do we can say we hrashed such and such a club?" "For poins, for diplomas and rophies?" "No." "Le us remember ha our sporing aciviies here on he island are mean and aimed a making our say here less unbearable and less inolerable han i is." "Le us no allow hem o become he causes of more frusraion, ension and discomfor han hey already are." "Dome of us migh say, "Noble ideals and big alk" ""which have no bearing on he real siuaion."" "I would like o answer hose people wih a quesion." "If we had no noble ideals, would we have been here oday?" "Do he guys appealed o us hrough he commiee srucures." "They hreaened us in all kinds of manners and ways." "They appealed o our senimens as poliical prisoners, as sporsmen, as comrades." "I didn' work, bu you see, he hing is we, as hings wen on, we fel we had o back down." "We knew we had o back down." "I was becoming unpleasan for everybody." "And we waned o hrow in he owel, bu we jus didn' know how." "Anhony, wha have you..." "There was his old man in my club, Makaleni." "He was he chairman of our club, Manong." "Makaleni was no a highly educaed person, bu he was very ariculae and a very good adminisraor." "And he undersood people." "And paricularly, he undersood how o deal wih people's weaknesses." "And he knew my weakness." "Wha do you have o lose?" "You've go nohing o lose." "You can ell hese..." "Mnumzana, please." "I's an impossible posiion, i's impossible." "I only seems impossible because you are so young, Anhony." "Bu humour a foolish old man like me and lisen." "You've go nohing o lose." "You led hese men away." "Now lead hem back o us." "Yeah, yeah, bu, Mnumzana, i's no jus me." "There's a commiee even his, you know..." "No, no." "Find a way, find a soluion." "And lead hem back o us." "Lead, Anhony, don' jus play." "Lead, Anhony!" "Where are you going, Anhony?" "Back." "Because hey were good soccer players, we needed hem." "Here, by he 1970s, I'd obviously grown older, a lile slower also." "We coninued playing soccer, of course, bu some, or a lo of us, had moved into more senior administrative positions." "For insance, I'd become a soccer referee, and had become par of my club execuive." "For us i was an era coming o an end." "There was, of course, sill a number of hardcore lifers, bu hey were geing older." "For hose of us who arrived in he '60s, we were being released." "I was quie somehing, he idea of being free." "I was 19 when I go o he island." "And now I was in my mid-hiries." "Yeah, I hink, as I said, ironically, for me, he saddes day was when I lef he island, because I lef so many people." "Bu when we look back, I hink i was a good experience, a very good experience." "My firs houghs were, "Where am I going?" "Wha's i like?" ""l'm used o where l am now and I'm going o a new world alogeher." ""Am I going o fi?" ""My family, who are hey any more?" "Go hey sill know me?" ""Go I sill know hem?" "My friends, are hey sill alive?"" "All hose hings wen hrough my mind very quickly." "Today you find a Iot of people talk about the suffering on Robben island." "Yes, there was a Iot of suffering, but I think there's too much focus on that." "And that sort of thing worries me." "The people who really suffered, I believe, were the families we left behind, the wives and the children." "It was very, very, very emotional." "The idea of going into the ship and going back to the mainland and going home." "June '76, he sudens' uprising, righ?" "Those are somehing ha were inspiring us." "They were making us more sronger." "And we felt that liberation was just very near." "Those were students, they were like soldiers in school uniforms." "They fought bravely, you know, against the police." "And they were arrested in droves and were sent to the island." "Young people who were coming in were very enthusiastic footballers themselves." "Do hey needed no encouragemen in erms of keeping and adhering o he srucures ha had been pu in place." "We feel quie pleased someimes ha a leas we lef somehing ha could guide people or make people undersand how we tried to live our lives." "And I think, hopefully, that should be the sort of thing that should get people to understand the way forward, in a sense." "One could say that we passed on the baton, we passed on the legacy to them, we passed on the game." "I was more han a game." "The 2010 FIFA world Cup will be organised in South Africa."