Learning from Robben Island

These essays by Govan Mbeki were written, circulated and preserved in Robben Island prison. They were never intended for publication but to be read by other prisoners, with the aim to educate politically.
They are remarkable documents that provided activists with a distillation of practical lessons about political organisation in the most testing conditions. They include extended historical, political and economic analyses that are vital to any assessment of the intellectual history of the South African left. And they are pages in a truly international literature - a record throughout the ages of the creativity and indomitability of people imprisoned for their beliefs.
Learning From Robben Island is an extraordinary selection of Mbeki's essays, written mostly between the late 1970's and mid 1980's.
"[It] bears testimony to the endurance of the human spirit . . ." - Philip Steenkamp, The International Journal of African Historical Studies
"Learning From Robben Island gives better insight into life on Robben Island, showing that the struggle continued even within prison boundaries." - Lakela Kaunda