Once a prison complex notorious for its inhumane treatment of political prisoners, Constitution Hill is now a shrine to South Africa’s long and brutal history of racial violence. Built with prison labor in 1892, Constitution Hill spent about a decade as a military fort before becoming a prison that suffered from severe overcrowding, neglect, and inhumane conditions. After the National Party implemented apartheid from 1948 onwards, the prison’s population became increasingly black as the political prisoners poured in. The leaders of countless civil rights movements, including Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, and students who participated in the Soweto Uprising, are among the thousands who were incarcerated here.
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