A monument to the development of democracy and equality.
Tours to the island are run by the Robben Island Museum T021-413 4220, www.robben- island.org.za. The Nelson Mandela Gateway at the Clock Tower Centre is the embarkation and disembarkation point for tours. The Gateway also houses a shop, the ticket office and a small museum with photographic and interactive displays on Apartheid and the rise of African nationalism, open 0730-2100. An air-conditioned catamaran completes the half- hour journey to the island. Tickets cost R180, children under 18 R90. Tours begin with a 45-minute drive around the key sites, including Sobukwe’s house, the lime quarry where Mandela was forced to work, the leper cemetery and the houses of former warders. Tours around the prison are conducted by ex-political prisoners, who paint a vivid picture of prison life here. Departures are daily at 0900, 1100, 1300 and 1500, and the whole excursion lasts 3½ hours. You must remain with your guide throughout the tour. Be sure to book a day ahead (or several days in peak season) as tickets sell out quickly, and always phone ahead to see if the ferry is running in bad weather. Do not drink any tap water on the island.
Lying 12 km off Green Point’s shores, Robben Island is best known as the notorious prison that held many of the ANC’s most prominent members, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. It was originally named by the Dutch, after the term for seals, ‘rob’ – actually a misnomer as none are found here. The island’s history of occupation started in 1806, when John Murray was granted permission by the British to conduct whaling from the island. During this period the authorities started to use the island as a dumping ground for common convicts; these were brought back to the mainland in 1843, and their accommodation was deemed suitable only for lepers and the mentally ill. These were in turn moved to the mainland between 1913 and 1931, and the island entered a new era as a military base during the Second World War. In 1960 the military passed control of the island over to the Department of Prisons, and it remained a prison until 1996. On 1 December 1999 the island was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Robben Island’s effectiveness as a prison did not rest simply with the fact that escape was virtually impossible. The authorities anticipated that the idea of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ would be particularly applicable here, and to a certain extent they were correct. Certainly, its isolation did much to break the spirit of political prisoners, not least Robert Sobukwe’s. Sobukwe, the leader of the Pan African Congress, was kept in solitary confinement for nine years. Other political prisoners were spared that at least, although in 1971 they were separated from common law prisoners, as they were deemed a ‘bad’ influence. Conditions were harsh, with forced hard labour and routine beatings. Much of the daily running of the maximum security prison was designed to reinforce racial divisions: all the wardens, and none of the prisoners, were white; black prisoners, unlike those deemed coloured, had to wear short trousers and were given smaller food rations. Contact with the outside world was virtually non-existent – visitors had to apply for permission six months in advance and were allowed to stay for just half an hour. Newspapers were banned and letters were limited to one every six months.
Yet despite these measures, the B-Section, which housed Mandela and other major political prisoners, became the international focus of the fight against Apartheid. The last political prisoners left the island in 1991.
WAs a prison, the area was strictly protected allowing the fish and bird populations to flourish. There are over 100 species of bird on the island, and it is an important breeding site for African penguins....
