Robben Island

During our last full day in South Africa, we will visit Robben Island. Robben Island has been used as prison and a place where people were isolated, banished and exiled to for nearly 400 years. It was also used as a post office, a grazing ground, a mental hospital and an outpost. Initially the island was inhabited by a variety of wildlife, including birds, penguins, seals and tortoises. Its name "robben" is derived from the Dutch, meaning a seal. It also had a plentiful supply of fresh water available from a number of springs. Batolomeu Dias, the Portuguese explorer, 'discovered' the island in 1488 when he anchored his ship in Table Bay.  During apartheid many Black people were kept on Robben Island as political prisoners. Former President Nelson Mandela was kept there for 18 of the 27 years he served in prison before the end of apartheid. The prison is internationally notorious for its harsh conditions and when the political prisoners of the apartheid government were released Robben Island became a symbol of the strength of the human spirit. Robben Island was declared a World Heritage Site because the buildings on the island are a reminder of its sad history and because the same buildings also show the power of the human spirit, freedom and the victory of democracy over oppression.

One accesses Robben Island via a 35-minute ferry boat ride from Cape Town. The ferry passes through Table Bay where we have been told to expect possible rough waters and whales! We will tour the prison and have an opportunity to speak with people who were on the island during apartheid. We then take a guided bus tour through the island stopping at Murray's Bay Harbour Precinct. Murray's Bay was named after a Scottish merchant, John Murray, who had a whaling station there until 1820. Not long after this, prisoners who were sent to the island were housed in the bay area. The harbour was constructed in the early 1940's in order to ship heavy defense guns to the island during World War II.