Visit Nelson Mandela's Robben Island

Robben Island is the notorious and isolated political prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison

. When visiting this foreboding place, one gets a thorough insight into the workings of the apartheid regime and the guided tours are all led by former political prisoners held here during the formative years.

The island is situated about (13 km or 8.2 miles) from the coast of Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and the prison held many of the African National Congress's most prominent cadres during the struggle years against the old National Party's Apartheid laws. Robben Island was originally named after the Dutch word for Seal ( Rob ) as in Seal Island and then Anglicized when the British took over many years later. The island was used as a place of banishment as well as a leper colony in the early days and then later a military base before the prisons department took over in 1960.Nowadays it is a UNESCO world heritage site and an extremely popular destination for international visitors.

The island can only be visited on a organized tour from The Nelson Mandela Gateway Museum that run tours throughout the day .Tourists are ferried across Table Bay on a catamaran before being greeted at the island by one of the former political prisoners who provide you with a vivid in your face commentary on what it was like to be an inmate here in the bad old days. The tour takes you past the islands major sites like the quarry where Mandela and his comrades were forced to hard labour.

Robben Island was a prison which was virtually impossible to escape from and the isolation was a definite factor in trying to break the spirit of the prisoners. There was no contact with the outside world in any form including newspapers to ensure that inmates had no idea what was happening in South Africa or the rest of the world. Private letters were restricted to two per year and thoroughly censored before being handed over. The section -B of the prison was where the most important prisoners were housed including Robert Sobukwe , the leader of the Pan African Congress.

The last prisoners finally left Robben Island in 1991 as South Africa's political situation started to change for the good.

Be sure to book early as tickets go very quickly in season and this is one of the most popular tours in Cape Town.

by: Jason Wiltshire

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