Robben Island

Robben Island (Afrikaans: Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the archaic Dutch word for seals (robben), hence the Dutch/Afrikaans name Robbeneiland, which translates to Seal(s) Island.

Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 kilometres (2 miles) long north–south, and 1.9 km (1+1⁄8 mi) wide, with an area of 5.08 km² (1+31⁄32 sq mi). It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. It was fortified and used as a prison from the late-seventeenth century until 1996, after the end of apartheid.

During the late 20th century, it was used to imprison political prisoners who opposed the postwar apartheid state. Political activist and lawyer Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on the island for 18 of the 27 years of his imprisonment before the fall of apartheid and introduction of full, multi-racial democracy in South Africa. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was elected in 1994 as President of South Africa, becoming the country's first black president. He served one term from 1994 to 1999.

Two other former inmates of Robben Island, in addition to Mandela, have been elected to the presidency since the late-1990s: Kgalema Motlanthe (2008–2009) and Jacob Zuma (2009–2018). Other former prisoners have held a variety of political positions in the democracy.

Robben Island is a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Located at the entrance to Table Bay, 11 km from Cape Town, this island was 'discovered' by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488. For many years, it was used by Portuguese navigators, and later by English and Dutch sailors, as a refueling station.

In 1654, the settlers of the Dutch Cape Colony placed all of their ewes and a few rams on Robben Island. The men built a large shed and a shelter. The isolation offered better protection for the livestock against wild animals than on the mainland. The settlers also collected seal skins and boiled oil to supply the needs of the settlement.

Since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used for the incarceration of chiefly political prisoners. The Dutch settlers were the first to use Robben Island as a prison. The island's first prisoner was probably Autshumato in the mid-17th century. Among its early permanent inhabitants were political leaders imprisoned from other Dutch colonies, including the Dutch East Indies. These included the two surviving Malagasy leaders, named in Dutch East India Company records as Massavana and Koesaaij, of the mutiny of Malagasy slaves on the slave ship Meermin. They had been sold to the Dutch East India Company in Madagascar to be enslaved in the Cape Colony. Massavana died three years later, but Koesaaij survived at Robben Island for another 20 years.