Located in Table Bay, this island is best known as the place where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of the 27 years for which he was imprisoned. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a museum, and boatloads of visitors make the journey daily to experience a little of South Africa’s political past in this hauntingly evocative place.
t The bleak stone entryway to Robben Island Prison
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t The starkly furnished interior of Nelson Mandela’s cell, within the island prison
This flat, rocky island lies 11 km (7 miles) north of Cape Town in the icy Atlantic Ocean. Composed mainly of blue slate, it is only 30 m (98 ft) above sea level at its highest point. Named “Robben Eiland” – seal island – by the Dutch in the mid-17th century, Robben Island has seen much human suffering. As early as 1636 it served as a penal settlement, and it was taken over by the South African Prisons Service in 1960. There is a lime quarry on the island, and political prisoners were required to work in it for at least six hours a day. Prisoners suffered damage to their eyesight as a result, due to the constant dust and the glare of the sunlight on the stark white lime cliffs.
The island’s most famous inmate was Nelson Mandela; tours of the island end with a viewing of his cell (tours must be booked in advance). In 1991, the South African Natural Heritage Programme nominated the island for its significance as a seabird breeding colony; it hosts more than 130 bird species, including the endangered Caspian tern. In 1997 the island was designated a museum, and in 1999 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Political Prisoners
In the 18th century, high-ranking princes and sheikhs from India, Malaysia and Indonesia were sent to Robben Island by the Dutch East India Company for inciting resistance against their European overlords. The British banished rebellious Xhosa rulers to the island in the early 1800s. In 1963, Nelson Mandela and seven other political activists were charged with conspiracy against the state for their political beliefs and were condemned to life imprisonment. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island; the last political prisoners there were released in 1991.