Prison Number 4
on October 23, 2006
Category: Racism, Travelogue, Human Rights
Behind the Mask and Few are located in the old Women’s Jail which itself is situated in the former prison complex in Johannesburg known as the Old Fort Prison Complex. The complex consisted of the Old Fort, the Women’s jail, the men’s jail which consisted of a white area and the infamous men’s jail known as Number Four.
“the place where thousands of black men were imprisoned and brutalised but it was also the place were many learned to survive and defy their jailers. Many of the prisoners were guilty of non-political crimes. But many fell foul of race laws or were guilty of resisting these laws”.
Gandhi and Robert Sobukwe who founded the PAC were imprisoned here.
The photos in the collage are from Number Four and MORE PHOTOS UP AT FLICKR
TAUSER was the process of forcing black prisoners to strip naked, jump in the air in a scissor like move which would expose all parts of their bodies including the rectum. It was done in the open yard in front of all the other prisoners and the guards to check the prisoners were not hiding anything. Once political prisoners started entering the jail they began a protest to end the TAUSER.
The isolation units for non-whites were just wide enough to stretch your hands from wall to wall. No beds, blankets or toilet facilities were provided and prisoners ate water and rice and were locked up for 23 hours a day. You were supposed to go for just a few days but many ended up staying for months on end. The whole regime was based on punishment and torture was routinely carried out. Prisoners were divided into white and non-white in terms of diet, clothing, blankets, mats and so on. The communal quarters were built to hold 30 men but generally between 60-80 men. The open latrines were next to the open space were food was served and the men had to suffer the humiliation of having guards stand over them whilst they were on the toilet.
Words are difficult to describe this place but this quote from Alex La Guma who was a political prisoner in 1953 pretty much sums up the place.
“One of the reasons for my disease (typhoid) is found in this jail, filth. The mats are filthy, the blankets are filthy, the latrines are filthy, the food is filthy, the utensils are filthy, the convicts clothes are filthy. The latrines over flow and make a stench” – Alex la Guma political prisoner 1953”
“Those prominent prisoners and victims have been helped but what about the thousands of ordinary people who suffered? They have not received any help or support”
Tags: South Africa Apartheid Prison
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12 Comments so far
1. Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » South Africa: do you remember the days of Apartheid?
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:35 pm
[…] Black Looks takes us back to South Africa’s Apartheid era with a post about Prison Number 4, where Ghandhi and Robert Sobukwe, the founder of the Pan-African Congress, were jailed: “TAUSER was the process of forcing black prisoners to strip naked, jump in the air in a scissor like move which would expose all parts of their bodies including the rectum. It was done in the open yard in front of all the other prisoners and the guards to check the prisoners were not hiding anything. Once political prisoners started entering the jail they began a protest to end the TAUSER.” […]
2. Rethabile
October 24th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Damn! Thank you for the booster shot, Sokari. Alex LaGuma always had a way with words. Damn!
3. Beauty
October 24th, 2006 at 9:09 am
In the 1940s Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is the camp that many people know simply as “Auschwitz”. It was the site of imprisonment of hundreds of thousands, and of the killing of over one million people, mainly Jews, but also large numbers of Poles, Gypsies, and homosexuals. In the 1950s Alex La Guma was a political prisoner in Number4, the same like for like type prison yet mainstream media only pick up on the jewish story.
4. Ababoy
October 24th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
I am lost for words!
5. Webgirl
October 24th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Yea I was there Xmas time between 1972 - 1974
Number 4 I hate you
You robbed me of my adolescence
Go wash your face
You shitty face
I hope you never come back
You’re just a thorn in my mind
6. Magoo
October 25th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Webgirl - your poem is SO POWERFUL
Were you in the Women’s Jail of No 4? The curators here (I work at Behind The Mask who have offices here - it is a mixed use site) are collecting the names of women and adolescent girls who were held here. The Women’s Jail exhibition is quite powerful in the middle atrium part in my view -
Sokari did you see that part or was your tour just The Fort and No 4 the men’s section?
7. Webgirl
October 25th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Yes I was there and whenever I think about it - start shaking.
8. Sokari
October 25th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Magoo@ so far I have only passed through a couple of times on my way to the back of the building - I will be at BTM on Tuesday so will go to the museum then.
Webgirl@ Like Aba Boy I WAS lost for words - but now I have your powerful words which will stay with me and I will think of them when I go there next Tuesday.
9. Magoo
October 27th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Shoo, Webgirl, you need to receive healing for what happened to you then. That is terrible - and if some kind of restorative healing could happen for you … I don’t know what to say.
Magoo
10. Vagabond Realities
November 7th, 2006 at 6:35 am
I read ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ a while ago and caught a glimpse of what it was like in South Africa during the apartheid days. Imprisonment, torture, racial discrimination…all this, deplorable, deplorable…it’s a shame that as humans, we have such ugliness in us…from Auschwitz to Robben Island.
11. Black Looks
March 4th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
[…] At the Old Fort prison complex in Constitution Hill, Rita Marley opened the Bob Marley photographic exhibition amongst the tiny isolation cells and small exercise, shower and meal area of the prison where Mandela was imprisoned in the 1960s. The cells are tiny, just arms length, hardly enough space to lie down for a grown man. A powerful exhibition of Marley’s life in a place that was at the heart of his protest music. […]
12. Black Looks
March 12th, 2007 at 5:59 am
[…] Was launched at Constitutional Hill [Number 4 courtyard] on Saturday with speakers Raymond Suttner, Phumla Dneo Gqola and, Nomboniso Gasa. […]