“Silence Means Consent”

            During the tour of Robben Island this phrase was repeated frequently by both of our guides after they asked if everyone was ready to move on to the next part of the island.  Often in safety seminars I’ve needed to sit through for school the leader repeats many times “Silence does not mean yes, only the word yes means yes.”  The re-appropriation of this phrase was striking to me and somewhat unsettling.  But there seemed to be a myriad of re-appropriations throughout the entire island, starting with the context of the island itself.  It began as a place of extreme oppression and now has transformed into a representation of freedom and equality.  On a smaller scale, those who were prisoners are now the ones who lead the prison tours and create the narrative of the island for its guests.  With the idea that history is typically written and narrated by the winners, their presence insinuates that they have been the winners of their situation.   Their presence also provided a tension between the personal connection to what happened on the island and the very impersonal and factual description that was given about the island. 

The houses of the former guards have also been re-appropriated into housing for those who work on the island giving tours.  Because the people who run the current tours used to be those who were imprisoned, I wonder if this gives them a feeling of empowerment or triumph by now residing in the homes of their former oppressors.  Through this re-appropriation it appears that some of the facilities of the island have been rejuvenated, the walls of the cells seem to have been given a fresh coat of paint and other small cosmetic touches.  Annie Coombes argues that these improvements take away from the overall experience.  The initial tour she went on was much more stark than the tours given today and says that “the no-frills quality of the tour seemed…one of the strengths of the visit…that appeared to encourage a more intimate and reflective experience of the site” (Coombes 73).  The starkness could also contribute to the experience but personally I think the abundance of re-appropriations also create a powerful feeling of unease that allows the visitor to have a reflective experience.