A little more than a hundred years ago, a high security prison was built on the Braamfontein ridge in Johannesburg. A few years later the establishment was strengthened and given a military capacity through the building of a series of forts around it. That site became a landmark in Johannesburg. It was known in some circles as the Johannesburg Fort, and in others, as Number Four, the name given to the frightening section of the prison in which black male prisoners were incarcerated. That was typical of the times through which we have lived. Racial segregation prevailed even in gaols, for it was considered by those who wielded power to be necessary in every sphere of life.