Hell Hole, Robben Island : Reminiscences of a Political Prisoner by Moses Dlamini

ISBN: 9780851244013

Spokesman Books, 25 October 2012

Paperback, 202 pages

Hell-Hole, Robben Island is one man's account of political imprisonment under conditions designed to degrade human beings and destroy the ideals of Black liberation. In the years about which Moses Dlamini writes, Robben Island prison contained both "criminal" and "political" prisoners, the former being ruthlessly used by the government as an extension of its power to destroy dissent. The desperate relationships between the criminal gangs, in particular the Fascist "Big Fives", and the political prisoners are shown as a reflection of South African society by reminiscences which throw light on the author's background and the sequence of events leading to his imprisonment. out of that experience has come this book with its vivid and compassionate descriptions of individual attempts to survive, both physically and mentally, in desperate circumstances. Writing in a uniquely South African style, Moses Dlamini has given us a stunning account of the Black people's life in that tortured country.