South Africa - Robben Island (3)

ROBBEN ISLAND - CAPE TOWN - SOUTH AFRICA

Robben Island lies 9.678 km from Table Bay Harbour and 7.03 km from Bloubergstrand. This island has attracted enormous interest especially since the release of its famous inmate, Nelson Mandela in 1990. Today the Prison is a National Monument and a World Heritage Site housing a museum showcasing material that recorded the lives and times of those who fought against apartheid.

This is one of the three postcards sent to my daughter, by The Branch Manager of The Post Office at Robben Island Museum in 2014. It reached our address during our busy days of moving house. The other two are here and here.

Robben Island was used at various times between the 17th century and the 20th century as a prison, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups, and a military base. Its buildings, and in particular those of the late 20th century maximum security prison for political prisoners, testify to the way in which democracy and freedom triumphed over oppression and racism.

What survives from its episodic history are 17th century quarries, the tomb of Hadije Kramat who died in 1755, 19th century ‘village’ administrative buildings including a chapel and parsonage, small lighthouse, the lepers’ church, the only remains of a leper colony, derelict World War II military structures around the harbour and the stark and functional maximum security prison of the Apartheid period began in the 1960s.

The symbolic value of Robben Island lies in its somber history, as a prison and a hospital for unfortunates who were sequestered as being socially undesirable. This came to an end in the 1990s when the inhuman Apartheid regime was rejected by the South African people and the political prisoners who had been incarcerated on the Island received their freedom after many years (read more).