common; in the bitter winters we spent years sleeping with just a mat on
the bare floor.'
Today Davis remembers Robben Island less as a place of oppression, than the
crucible of its transformation. Mandela remarked later: 'The physical assaults
were not the most painful experience, it was the psychological torture that
we suffered. But jail had its advantages. In jail you could stand away from
yourself and look at your record and be able to say; "If I get another
chance, this is the role that I am going to play".'
Lionel glanced with distant affection at his former home. 'We didn't call
it a prison, we called it "the university" because we turned it
into one. We educated ourselves,
each other and gradually even some of the wardens.' Lionel took his cell
and its isolation as the spur for an inner journey. Prison became a melting
pot from which a new vision emerged ?as if the island's intense confrontation
fired a process of purification.
'I wasn't born with prejudices,' Lionel said. 'When I was caned by police
after a misunderstanding with a white woman I became even more anti-white.
Having to live through apartheid I saw the wrongs around me and laid it at
their door. But by becoming politically conscious and respecting others' views
here in prison, we dismantled our prejudices. Now I'm not "anti"
anything when it comes to people.'