Robben Island (prison)


Robben Island Prison is an inactive prison on Robben Island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometers west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. Since then, three former inmates of the prison have gone on to become President of South Africa.
It is a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

Beginning in 1961, the prison was used by the South African government for political prisoners and convicted criminals. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991 and the medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later in 1996.
Robben Island Prison had, by the time of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment, long been viewed as "a symbol of oppression" by many black South Africans.

List of former prisoners