Voice 1
Hello and welcome to Spotlight. I’m Nick Page,
Voice 2
And I’m Mike Procter. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Welcome to our second of two programmes about football on Robben Island. Robben Island was a prison in South Africa. Our first programme looked at how the prisoners worked together to change the minds of the prison authorities and the guards. After years of struggle, they were permitted to play football. Today’s Spotlight looks at how the prisoners developed football in Robben Island prison, and how football developed them. This is the story of the Makana Football Association.
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‘Football kept us alive. Everything was banned on Robben Island. We brought in football books secretly. The teams were divided by people’s political groups. There were days when if one group was angry, there would be no game. But the Makana Football Association was a way of uniting all of us. It ran across all the political barriers. We saw that it was a very important tool for unity and working together.’
Voice 2
One man describes how football helped to bring the different groups on the island together. The man is Tokyo Sexwale. He was one of the prisoners who played football on Robben Island. Football on Robben Island was more than just a game. For the prisoners it was a chance to work together. It was a chance to show that they could govern well. From the beginning, fairness and freedom were at the centre of the competition. Football was one area where they were all treated with respect.
Voice 1
The prisoners managed the competition just like a real football league. In 1969, they created their own organisation to manage the competition. They called it the ‘Makana Football Association’. Every person in the Makana FA was a prisoner. If there were any disagreements, a group from the Makana FA would meet to discuss the problem.
Voice 2
The prisoners created seven teams. Each team contained people who shared political beliefs. That is, except for one. The Manong team would accept anyone. It did not matter which political group the prisoner came from. This was an attempt to unite people in the prison. But it was also a huge advantage. The team could invite all the best players. And so Manong quickly became the strongest team in the league. Each team also had a second and third team. So football was not just for the highly skilled players.
Voice 1
However, in 1970 football threatened to divide the prison community in two. The problem came when the Makana FA organised a new competition. It reorganised the teams just for this competition. Each prison building created its own team. However, by chance almost all the best players were in the same prison building. This building was Block C4. Its team was called the Atlantic Raiders. In one of their first games they played a team called the Blue Rocks. The Blue Rocks team contained older and less skilled players. They had no chance of winning - well that is what everyone thought.
Voice 2
Sometimes in sport, strange things happen. In this game, the Blue Rocks scored an early goal. This was a huge surprise to everyone, including the Blue Rocks players! For the rest of the game the whole team defended as well as they could. Although Atlantic Raiders were clearly the more skilful team, they were just unable to get a goal. The Blue Rocks were the winners. There were wild celebrations. It was a huge surprise. But for the Atlantic Raiders players, defeat was difficult to live with. Everyone seemed to be laughing at them. The Atlantic Raiders protested to the Makana FA. They said that the winning goal should not have counted.
Voice 1
The issue quickly became serious. At the beginning of the Blue Rocks’ next game, a group of Atlantic Raiders players walked on to the field. They lay down in the middle of the game. It was a peaceful protest, but it angered many people on the island. The game never started and everyone went back to their prison cells. The Makana FA met to decide how to deal with the situation. They wanted to punish the Atlantic Raiders for their protest. The Raiders wanted to replay their game. The Makana FA cancelled all football games - nobody played football.
Voice 2
It was very important that the Makana FA made a decision that was fair. Each prisoner had the right to appeal to the football authority. This was at the centre of what the members of Makana FA believed. After five months of meetings and letters between the two sides, they finally made an agreement. The Atlantic Raiders would not play as a team again. But its players were free to play for other teams.
Voice 1
In the following years football on the island changed. Some of the prisoners left the island. A new generation of prisoners came to the island. The prisoners were also able to play different sports. Prisoners competed at rugby, tennis and even in a special Robben Island Olympics competition. The Makana FA had made it easier for prisoners to ask to play sport. Ten years after football was first played on the Robben Island, it was no longer at the centre of life in the prison.
Voice 2
Many of the former Robben Island prisoners now have important jobs in South Africa. Tokyo Sexwale is now a successful businessman. He was also a member of the organising group for the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa. Mosiuoa 'Terror' Lekota was one of the best footballers on the island. He later became the government’s Minister of Defence. Another former prisoner, Jacob Zuma, became the President in 2009. Other former prison footballers are now business leaders, judges, and politicians.
Voice 1
Robben Island prison closed in 1991. The Makana FA closed with it. But that is not the end of the story. FIFA is the group that governs world football. In 2007 FIFA made the Makana Football Association a special member of its organisation. This was in honour of the amazing story of the Makana FA. It was forty years since football first started on Robben Island. Football helped to change the lives of the men on the island. And these men helped to change the future of South Africa.
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