I went to prison yesterday. But only for a few hours as a heavily guarded visitor at Westville Prison — Durban’s massive correctional facility bursting at the seams with 12,000 inmates, just a stone’s throw from the huge Pavilion mall.
I was at the prison as part of the Izichwe Youth Football delegation attending a function for about 80 inmates and their families. The inmates have formed a self-help group based on restorative justice, the principle made famous by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. The event was sponsored by the South African National Taxi Council, the representative body of the black-owned minibus sector that carries two-thirds of South Africa’s commuters.
Part evangelical revival, part corporate social responsibility, and part community outreach, the function took place under a tent erected between the goalposts of a football pitch in the bowels of Medium “B” section. Thinking back to the story of the Robben Island prison football association told by Chuck Korr and Marvin Close, I wondered if playing the game makes the Westville inmates feel a little more human and a little less unfree.
2 replies on “Football behind bars”
Definitely, playing the game lends one a sense of freedom, especially if you play it outside the professional sport parameters, when you just play it for fun and the score-line doesnt matter.
Many people outside real prison, but well within the inevitable ‘prisons’ of our free life engage in football to get some momentary freedom. I do that too.
My husband is in meduim B Westville Durban. I think if they just had more time to move arond give them jobs insideit would make it so much better for all