Robben Island has had so many uses over the years. The Dutch used it as a stop over and restocking point for ships that were going around the Cape of Good Hope. Both the British and Dutch both used the island as a holding area for prisoners and for quarantine purposes. But the post British apartheid government used the island for political prisoners - the most famous of whom was Nelson Mandela, the first elected post apartheid president of South Africa. The fact that the tour was done by a former political prisoner made it seem all the more human.
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| On our way to Robben Island with Table Mountain behind us |
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| Every cell had a photo of a former prisoner and the dates he was there |
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| This is Mandela's garden where he hid his manuscript/manifesto from the guards. A fellow inmate was able to smuggle some of them out. |
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| Cape Town looks so close, but in reality it is a very long and extremely cold swim to freedom |
Robben Island has had so many uses over the years. The Dutch used it as a stop over and restocking point for ships that were going around the Cape of Good Hope. Both the British and Dutch both used the island as a holding area for prisoners and for quarantine purposes. But the post British apartheid government used the island for political prisoners - the most famous of whom was Nelson Mandela, the first elected post apartheid president of South Africa. The fact that the tour was done by a former political prisoner made it seem all the more human. 
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