Robben Island

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Sorry for the brief hiatus. Ryan and I were both under the weather for a few days. Tomorrow at our next stop we have free wirless so we plan to catch up on the blogging. In the interim - our last day in Cape Town we spent on Robben Island.

Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island and is roughly 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide. It is of particular note as it was here that future South African President Nelson Mandela and future South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era. The island was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. Starting in 1845 lepers from the Hemel-en-Aarde leper colony near Caledon were moved to Robben Island when Hemel-en-Aarde was found unsuitable as a leper colony. Initially this was done on a voluntary basis and the lepers were free to leave the island if they wished. After the introduction of the Leprosy Repression Act in May 1892 admission was no longer voluntary and the movement of the lepers was restricted. Prior to 1892 an average of about 25 lepers a year were admitted to Robben Island, but in 1892 that number rose to 338, and in 1893 a further 250 were admitted.*

*Again wikipedia what would I do without you!

The crazy thing about the tour, you have an ex-prisoner as your tour guide. Seems like torture if you ask me when they have to relive those memories every hour. Also we found out that one man spent more than 6 years, 6 YEARS, in isolation. It was also interesting that Nelson Mandela thought of the jail, as a university. Many prisioners here were educated (well hidden from the guards). People came in that couldn't read or write, but could when they left.

More posts to come...

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Comments

[Charmaine]

Isolation cells
The buildings on the right in the picture you titled "Isolation cells" are in fact dog kennels, the house on the left was occupied by Robert Sobukwe, who lived there for 6 years in isolation.