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Robben Island is known the world over as a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment. For nearly 400 years, colonial and apartheid rulers banished those they regarded as political troublemakers, social outcasts and the unwanted of society, to the 575-hectare rocky outcrop of Robben Island.
Robben Island’s unwilling inhabitants included; slaves; political and religious leaders who opposed Dutch colonialism in East Asia; troublesome local Khoikhoi and African leaders who resisted British expansion in South Africa; Leprosy sufferers and other sick and the mentally disturbed; French Vichy prisoners of war; and most recently, political opponents of the apartheid regime in South Africa and Namibia also found themselves imprisoned on Robben Island.
Robben Island's Most Famous Prisoner
During the apartheid years Robben Island became internationally known for its institutional brutality. Some freedom fighters spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for their beliefs. Yet people such as Nelson Mandela emerged to lead South Africa to democracy, with a message of tolerance, reconciliation and hope.
Those imprisoned on Robben Island succeeded on a psychological and political level in turning a prison “hell-hole” into a symbol of freedom and personal liberation. Robben Island came to symbolise, not only for South Africa and the African continent, but for the entire world, the triumph of the human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity.
In doing so it has offered a troubled world, hope for the future.
World Heritage Site
Robben Island Museum (RIM), aims to develop the island as a national and international heritage and conservation project in the new millennium. In managing its resources and activities, Robben Island Museum strives to maintain the unique symbolism of the island, nurture creativity and innovation, and contribute to socio-economic development with the transformation of South African society and the enrichment of humanity.
More about Robben Island can be found in this book. For a most interesting read about Nelson Mandela, we hihgly recommend the book Mandela - In Celebration Of A Great Life, which you can order from our travelshop.
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