Maps are also natural geographic stories, undulations of mountains, natural fortifiers, streams and rivers, desert conditions, etc related to human occupation and a lack thereof, the presence and absence of resources and the life style differences influenced by it. The insight which maps can provide needs to take place in a context. One method of doing so would be when there has been a critical engagement with a variety of stories associated with a place at various periods in its lifetime. It s the stories and associations, which bring a map alive . Asking the correct questions also provides the key to unlocking some of its secrets.
Maps can also define people, their lifestyles and cultural practices.
For example the mapping of Africa. Maps can also act as tools for reconstruction and challenging authority. A case sited by one of the authors on landscape theory, provides the example of the aborigines in Australia using the names appropriated by colonists who ironically denied the existence of aborigines, to claim back their land serves as an illustration of this. Robben Island is no different. Street names and its infrastructure, comparisons between maps over the various epochs of occupation tell their own stories.