Robben Island

Our boat trip was due to leave at 1pm, so we were there early to ensure we got a seat on the upper deck. In the event, we were late leaving as we needed oil! However, we spent the time admiring the view of Cape Town (it has to be one of the most attractive cities in the world!) and watching seals frolicking in the water. Once we got going, it was a pleasant 30-minute cruise in the sunshine across to Robben Island.

As we approached, we were struck by how lovely the island looked with its freshly-painted houses (homes to 300 Robben Island Museum staff members and their families), a couple of churches, lots of kelp forests, and the blue waters gently lapping against the rocks on the shoreline. There was little to prepare us for the island’s notorious history.

Robben Island, meaning ‘seal island’ in Dutch, is a South African National Heritage Site, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located at the entrance to Table Bay, 11 kilometres from Cape Town, the island was discovered by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 and later used by Portuguese, Dutch, and English navigators as a refuelling station. Since the end of the seventeenth century, Robben Island has been used as a prison, mainly to incarcerate political prisoners. It was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. During the second world war, the island was fortified as part of Cape Town’s defences.

In 1961, the South African government began using Robben Island as a prison once more, both for convicted common criminals and political activists. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991. The medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later.

Today, Robben Island operates as a living museum and wildlife conservation area. There is a colony of African penguins on the island, but we didn’t see any of them. The only wildlife we saw was a leopard tortoise, which I had to ask some young boys not to touch!

When we landed on the island, its purpose as a prison was immediately obvious with high concrete walls and barbed wire much in evidence. We were transferred to buses and taken on a 45-minute tour of the island. Our guide on the bus was very informative, although we struggled to hear him at times due to several annoying Indian tourists behind us who wouldn’t stop talking! He pointed out the churches and the island’s graveyard, which includes a lepers’ section. He also showed us the former prison governor’s house, which now serves as a conference centre. We stopped to see the view of Table Mountain from the island and used the facilities which are in a building built as a pub for prison warders! We also paused to look at the lime quarry, where prisoners were subject to hard labour, resulting in many of them suffering sight loss due to a combination of lime dust and bright sunshine. Our final stop before visiting the prison was to see the house where Robert Sobukwe, founder and first president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), was kept in solitary confinement for six years.Read more