Robben Island

Robben Iceland ( Afrikaans: Robben Eiland ) is a small island in Table Bay in the Atlantic Ocean about twelve miles off the South African coastal city of Cape Town and 6.9 km from the nearest mainland section at Bloubergstrand. The once used as a prison island was redesigned mid-1990s, to a natural and national monument, the former prison building into a museum. In the former prison Nelson Mandela spent nearly two decades as a prisoner in a 4 m² single cell.

Geography

Robben Iceland measures about 3.5 by 1.5 km and is 547 acres in size. The island is located west of the coastline Bloubergstrand and 60 kilometers north of the Cape of Good Hope in the " Table Bay " ( Table Bay ). The cold Benguela current of the South Atlantic ensures moderate temperatures of the surrounding country, and let the seabed and the cliff a colorful cold-water flora arise.

The coast of Robben Iceland is a natural habitat for seals and penguins. The highest point on the island is 30 meters, the Minto Hill (formerly Fire Hill ) in the southeast.

History

Robben Iceland was good as a prison island suitable, since attempts to escape because of the distance to the land and the harshness of flow were practically hopeless and Cape Town was settled very early close.

The island was already used in the 17th century as a penal colony. In addition, a good slate building material ( Malmesbury Stone) for the Castle of Good Hope was mined in the quarries. This base near Cape Town established the Dutch East India Company on behalf of and for the supply of ships, after the British had decided against a colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The merchant Jan van Riebeeck landed at April 6, 1652 in the bay below Table Mountain with 82 men and eight women, the fruit and vegetables cultivated and exchanged against flesh with the locals. You interned on the island Robben Eiland but early members of the tribe of the Khoikhoi.

To 1658 the first Malays arrived as plantation workers. Under the Sufi Shaykh Imam Yusuf (as a result of the uprising in 1694 deported to South Africa ) could Islam be exercised at the Cape. To 1785, a prominent Muslim was banished to Robben Iceland with Tuan Guru for the first time, but could be ten years later Imam.

Between 1795 and 1806 the United Kingdom took the Cape Colony in 1834 and abolished slavery from. The Xhosa Robben Iceland became known as Esiquithini, which means " The Island". The Xhosa Makanna commander was exiled here by the British in 1819 after he led a rebellion against British colonial rule. He tried to flee from the island, but drowned before he could reach the mainland. Robben Iceland a 18 -meter high lighthouse was built in 1865 after numerous shipwrecks. Until the 20th century, was on the island a camp for lepers who lived here in isolated villages.

From 1939 Robben Iceland served as a military base, 1961 was again a prisoner island. South Africa interned here in the apartheid era, especially political prisoners, but also criminals. In 1991, the maximum security prison for political prisoners was dissolved in 1996 and the tract for common criminals. Since early 1997, Robben Iceland is released for sightseeing.

Apartheid prison and " Mandela University "

With the rise of the anti -apartheid movement Robben Iceland became the most notorious prison for political prisoners in South Africa. With hard work in the quarry they were often poorly dressed and had to sleep on thin straw mats on the cold stone floor initially.

In 1969 there was in prison the Makana Football Association as an independent from the occupants of organized football association. In 1971, it managed the prisoners after strikes and protests to enforce humane conditions and were now allowed to study even in detention. The main part of this was Nelson Mandela - ANC rebel leader and later Peace politician on Robben Iceland spent 18 years in prison. He used his free time for their own training and also called his fellow prisoners on to the University Mandela also called the place in the 1970s. The first part of Mandela's memoir Long Walk to Freedom ( Long Walk to Freedom) was born here. Ahmed Kathrada acquired in the four distance learning bachelor's degree - Master's degree programs have been denied him. He later published his diaries and letters from this period, which he had kept secret.

In 1994, Mandela took on eleven of his former fellow prisoners of Robben Iceland in his government as the first black president of South Africa. Kathrada directed until 2006, Robben Iceland Committee, which manages the island as a museum.

Museum

Today Robben Iceland is a national memorial, a much-visited museum, and since 1999 also a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.