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| Nelson Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in prison in this cell on Robben Island where mainly political prisoners were forced to spend their days breaking rocks in the hot sun. On the day of his release, Mandela called for peace and reconciliation with the white minority of South Africa. |
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)
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