Robben Island

Robben Island is situated in Table Bay 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town. The name is Dutch for "seal island." Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide. It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event.

After a failed uprising at  Grahamstown in 1819, the fifth of the Xhosa Wars, the British colonial government sentenced African leader Makanda Nxele to life imprisonment on the island. He drowned on the shores of Table Bay after escaping the prison.

The island was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. Starting in 1845 lepers from the Hemel-en-Aarde (heaven and earth) leper colony were moved to Robben Island on a voluntary basis and the lepers were free to leave the island if they so wished. After the introduction of the Leprosy Repression Act in May 1892 admission was no longer voluntary and the movement of the lepers was restricted. Prior to 1892 an average of about 25 lepers a year were admitted to Robben Island, but in 1892 that number rose to 338 and in 1893 a further 250 were admitted.

During the Second World War the island was fortified and guns were installed as part of the defences for Cape Town.

From 1961, Robben Island was used by the South African government as a prison for political prisoners and convicted criminals. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid.

With the end of apartheid the island was declared a living museum and in 1999 was declared a World Heritage Site.

The Robben Island ferry starts from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront And takes about 35 minutes to reach the island. Many of the guides are former prisoners. The guide for our tour was a former political prisoner who was confined there for four years in the late 1980's. He showed us around the prison and the cell where Nelson Mandela was kept in solitary confinement. He told of the torture he suffered at the hands of the guards although this cannot be corroborated.
We spoke to one of Nelson Mandela's guards, Christo Brand, who later became a good friend of Mandela.

When Nelson Mandela, as President, returned to visit Robben Island all dignitaries and ex inmates collected a stone and placed them in a pile which is still there today as a memorial.