Gore Visits Jail Where Mandela Spent 18 Years

Vice President Al Gore toured the island prison Sunday where South African President Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years, calling prisoners’ tales a source of inspiration for the world.

Hosted by South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, whose father, Govan Mbeki, was imprisoned in the cell next to Mandela’s, Gore made the half-hour boat trip from Cape Town to Robben Island and walked the narrow corridor to cell No. 5, a tiny concrete room barely big enough for a bed.

For the first 14 years of his incarceration, Mandela did not have a bed and slept on the bare floor.

With Gore’s wife, Tipper, and two of his children crowding into the confined space, the vice president peered through the bars at the bleak concrete exercise area outside the window. He viewed the quarry where Mandela and other prisoners hacked out tons of rock.

“It’s a very moving experience. It’s unbelievable that so much cruelty continued for so long,” Gore told reporters. “But the triumph of the human spirit is the true story of Robben Island. What they endured is unbelievable, just unbelievable.

“Their inspiration goes beyond South Africa to the United States and the rest of the world,” he said.

Mandela was convicted of treason by South Africa’s white supremacist rulers in 1963 and sent to Robben Island. After 18 years he was moved to another prison on the mainland for more than eight years before being released in 1990. Four years later, he was elected president in the country’s first all-race elections.

Gore later paid a courtesy call on Mandela, and the two discussed the prison visit. Mandela said he would be happy to see the prison turned into a memorial and museum, but he does not want it to become a shrine to him.

“I have got serious reservations about a concentration on a single individual when Robben Island represents generations after generations of freedom fighters who opened this battle as far back as 1659,” he said.

Gore is in South Africa heading a high-level team that is holding talks aimed at improving cooperation between the two countries on trade, education, health, energy and the environment.