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Robben Island, Cape
Town
Robben Island, just off the coast of Cape Town, is famous for the
imprisonment of South Africa’s first democratic President, Nelson
Mandela in its maximum-security prison and its association with
apartheid. |
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Photograph of Robben Island Courtesy of and © South Africa Tourism |
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However, today the island
is a World Heritage Site and home to a museum that reflects the triumph
of the human spirit over adversity. Robben Island lies just 12 km
offshore and is one of the highlights of any trip to Cape Town.
It was not always a prison. People originally lived here, before the sea
cut off the spit of land that connected it to the Cape mainland. It was
only after the Dutch arrived in the Cape in the mid-1600s that its use
as a place of incarceration began. Because of its remoteness its
advantage as a place of isolation for leprosy patients and the mentally
ill meant that it was used for this purpose between 1846 and 1931.
Robben Island was a prison for indigenous African leaders, Muslim
leaders from the East Indies, Dutch and British settler soldiers and
civilians, women and anti-apartheid activists.
It was after the unbanning of the ANC and the beginning of the end of
apartheid, in 1990, that political prisoners began to be released from
the island. The island only ceased being a jail in 1996 with the
departure of the last common-law prisoners and it was in 1999 that
Robben Island was finally declared a World Heritage site of cultural
significance.
The museum also arranges workshops, tours and camps for children and
adults keen to learn about both the historical and modern day South
Africa. The youth camps in particular, explore the themes of racism,
sustainable development, sexism and gangsterism in an attempt to embrace
a culture of human rights and respect for ethnic, cultural and religious
diversity.
Visitors can see the former prison, view memorabilia of past prisoners,
visit the quarry mines where prisoners were forced to dig and other
buildings. The island is also a sanctuary for bird life, with over 132
bird species |
