Robben Island prisoners to tell their story at London's South Africa House
Kick It Out, in conjunction with the PFA and Leicester De Montfort University, is hosting a reception, ‘Our journey: Robben Island remembered’, at the South African High Commission in London today (20 July).
Invited guests will have a unique opportunity to hear the story of former Robben Island prisoners Marcus Solomon, Mark Shinners, Sedick Isaacs and Lizo Sitoto, who are visiting England to receive the Companionship of De Montfort University at its 2011 graduation ceremony this Friday (22 July).
While being held in appalling conditions during apartheid, the four won the right to play organised football matches, and were highly influential in the establishment of the Makana Football Association, a sporting body formed by the political prisoners on Robben Island, which was, in recent years, made an honorary member of FIFA.
Chuck Korr, from De Montfort University, said: “Winning the right to play football and successfully maintaining a league gave them one link to the pleasures of ordinary life before imprisonment. It helped them to retain their sense of dignity and to continue the fight to create a free, non-racist South Africa.”
