Eleven kilometres off Cape Town, across Table Bay from Table Mountain, Robben Island held Nelson Mandela for eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison. Once a place of banishment, a leper colony and an apartheid maximum-security jail, it is now a museum where former political prisoners lead the tours.
At a glance
Robben Island lies in Table Bay, some eleven kilometres off the Cape Town waterfront, with Table Mountain rising behind the city. For more than three centuries it served as a place of exile and confinement, used in turn by the Dutch colonial administration, the British and, from 1964, the apartheid state, which opened a high-security section there for political prisoners.
The island was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, five years after the end of apartheid. Its name comes from the Dutch and Afrikaans word for seal.
Key facts
- Location: Table Bay, roughly 11 km off Cape Town, Western Cape.
- Nelson Mandela: held here from 1964 to 1982, eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison; his cell, B7, measured 2.1 by 2.4 metres and he slept on a mat on the concrete floor until 1973.
- Other prisoners: Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Ahmed Kathrada were also held on the island.
- Guides: the museum’s tours are led by former political prisoners; Ahmed Kathrada, a Rivonia Trial defendant, guided visitors until his death in 2017.
- Heritage status: UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed 1999, reference 916.
- Coordinates: -33.8063° S, 18.3662° E.
History
Robben Island was first used as a place of banishment by Jan van Riebeeck from 1658, under Dutch colonial rule, and continued under the British as a site of exile. Between 1846 and 1931 it operated as a leper colony. In 1964 the apartheid government opened a maximum-security section for political prisoners, and it was here that Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki and Kathrada, among others sentenced in the Rivonia Trial, were held.
Mandela was released in February 1990, not from Robben Island itself but from Victor Verster Prison, following his transfer some years earlier. The prison on the island closed in 1996, two years after South Africa’s first democratic elections and Mandela’s inauguration as president at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, an event attended by heads of state from 140 countries. The museum opened the following year, in 1997.
What you see
The visit begins with the ferry crossing from the V&A Waterfront, a journey that sets the tone before the island is even reached. On arrival, a former political prisoner leads the tour by bus and on foot through the isolation section where Mandela was held, and to the limestone quarry where he and other prisoners laboured daily; the glare from the white stone was so intense that it permanently damaged his eyesight. At the quarry a small cairn of stones marks the spot where Mandela, on returning to the island in 1994, placed the first stone; visitors have added to it since.
The general prison section shows the contrast in conditions: political prisoners were held in single cells, while common criminals were kept in open dormitories. Elsewhere on the island stands a lighthouse dating from 1865, and the grounds, once bare exercise yards, are now grazed by nyala antelope. African penguins breed on parts of the island’s shoreline.
Practical information
- Booking: tickets are sold through the official Robben Island Museum website; the tour regularly sells out well ahead of time during the December to February peak season, so early booking is advisable.
- Duration: the visit combines a return ferry crossing with a guided tour of the island; check the official site for current departure times and total duration.
- Weather: crossings depend on sea conditions in Table Bay and can be affected by weather; the official channel is the best source for on-the-day status.
Getting there
Robben Island is reached only by ferry from the V&A Waterfront’s Clock Tower Precinct in Cape Town. Departures and tour bookings are managed through the museum’s official website, where current timetables and availability should be checked before travelling.
Nearby
- Table Mountain National Park — visible from the ferry crossing and from the island itself; inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 as part of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, reached by cable car from the city centre.
- Cape of Good Hope — around 60 km south of Cape Town; despite popular belief it is not Africa’s southernmost point, a distinction that belongs to Cape Agulhas some 150 km further south-east. Bartolomeu Dias named it the Cape of Storms in 1488, before King John II of Portugal renamed it to encourage further voyages.
- Cape Winelands — Stellenbosch, founded in 1679, and Franschhoek, settled by French Huguenot refugees from 1688, lie east of Cape Town and are known for Cape Dutch architecture and wine estates.
- Boulders Beach — a colony of African penguins living on a suburban stretch of coast in the Cape Peninsula, with a boardwalk for viewing; African penguin numbers overall have fallen sharply from historic highs over the past century.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Robben Island
- Wikipedia, Nelson Mandela
- Wikipedia, Ahmed Kathrada
- Wikipedia, Table Mountain
- UNESCO, Robben Island, WHS reference 916
- Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Little, Brown, 1994
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