Long Walk To Freedom

I was going through some of my photos from my global trekking and came across this photo from Robben Island Prison off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. This place has been on my mind frequently for the better part of the last six months while I've read Nelson Mandela's autobiography, "Long Walk To Freedom." There's is a quote on the front cover from a Boston Globe review that said it is a book everyone must read. I agree. I want to go back to South Africa and revisit this place with the fresh perspective experiencing Mandela's life story. I only had a superficial perspective of South Africa and the apartheid on my first trip, and in hindsight I regret not having a greater respect of what Mandela and his fellow members of the struggle went through. I guess this has been a good reminder to me as a storyteller of the written word and visual narrative of the importance of having as much knowledge about an area I'm going to if I want to properly tell a story. Looking back on the photos I took from that trip, I kept thinking how differently I would have shot this had I read his autobiography before I went.

Well, if you don't have the fortitude to read Mandela's 600 page autobiography, even though I think it's worth it, you should at least watch the film Invictus. It will give you a small taste of Mandela's life and work, and the film even revolves around a world cup (rugby, not football). So it's sort of a timely film with the current World Cup going on in South Africa.