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The offshore Maximum Security Prison of Robben Island, a mile
from the commercial Waterfront area, was a key site
in the struggle to oppose apartheid and end the regime of
racial segregation. It attracted international attention as
Nelson Mandela, the first black post-apartheid president
of South Africa, was held here for 18 of the 28 years he served
in prison. From his cell in Robben Island, Mandela went on
to become the single greatest figure of freedom and resistance
in the 20th century. Members of Mandela's ANC party, freedom
fighters for equal rights for all races, were kept in solitary
single cells as they were regarded as the most dangerous people
in South Africa. During the apartheid era (1948 to 1990),
the prison became notorious for brutal treatment and human
rights abuses. When apartheid collapsed, the prison became
a symbol of liberation and the triumph of the human spirit
over oppression.
History and Heritage
For four centuries the island was an offshore prison for
social outcasts and political prisoners, and during the 1930s
and 40s it became a dumping ground for leprosy victims and
a World War II defense station. Today, the prison is a museum
and the island became a world heritage site in 1999. The preserved
site offers opportunities to watch birds like the jackass
penguin and guinea fowl and see veld flowers in the spring.
The boat trip from Cape Town allows great viewing of
Cape Fur seals, Southern Right whales and Dusky and Heaviside
dolphins. You can tour the prison with an ex-political prisoner
as a guide, who do this service as part of the belief that
apartheid should be forgiven but never forgotten.
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