The person who twice escaped Robben Island revealed. I would say 78% of South Africans do not know David Stuurman , but if it comes to South African history David Stuurman is a hero. Stuurman is the only person to have twice escaped from Robben Island. Remember many died on the Island.
First escape
“He was arrested and charged for resisting colonial rule as well as opposing the conscription of the Khoi into militias that were created to defend the colony and to attack the San and amaXhosa,” cultural activist Stephen Langtry told the BBC.
“By December of 1809 Stuurman and a few others were the first to escape from the island using one of the whaling boats that was anchored in the harbour.
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“He made it out of the colony and was given refuge amongst the amaXhosa. He was recaptured [a decade later] and put to hard labour on Robben Island. On 9 August 1820, he escaped again,” Langtry added.
‘Tied up and beaten’
Stuurman, under Johannes Vermaak as an employee he faced a lot of challenges ,he abandon his job because of brutal treatment. Stuurman threatened his boss threatened.
“[After the disagreement] Vermaak had first demanded that he be shot but settled for having him tied to a wagon and beaten with sjamboks [whips],” historian Vertrees Malherbe has written.
“After that he was salted and left in the burning sun, for some hours.”
Key dates in Stuurman’s life
- Early 1770sStuurman born in what is now Eastern Cape
- 1795 British forces seize Cape Colony from the Dutch, then return it in 1803 and finally gaining control in 1806
- 1799Khoi rebellion, which Stuurman helps lead, begins
- 1809Stuurman arrested and held on Robben Island but later escapes
- 1820Stuurman recaptured after second escape
- 1830Stuurman dies in Australia after being transported there in 1823
Source BBC :
‘For us, he’s a legend’
“He was important for his contributions in resisting colonial occupation. He was also a formidable resistance fighter,” cultural activist Shepi Mati told the BBC.
“At one point he received refugees – people who ran away from slavery and forced conscription into farm labour and offered them a safe haven among his community who resided in the area now called Hankey in the Eastern Cape.
“Stuurman himself was highly regarded in the community. He was not afraid to take on the colonialists. He took back land and cattle that was forcibly taken from his people.”
“For us he’s a legend. He’s one of the Khoi and San heroes who was the first, together with his brother Klaas, to fight colonialism, land dispossession and slavery at the time,” says Christian Martin, an Eastern Cape-based Khoi and San activist. In 2016, he proposed that Port Elizabeth’s airport should be named in Stuurman’s honour.
“Stuurman was way ahead of his time when it comes to unity and nation building.
“There’s a white people’s version of Stuurman where he is painted as a murderer. Remember some people also thought of Nelson Mandela as a terrorist – but to millions he was a hero.”
Did you know about Stuurman’s escape ?
