Robben Island was used at various times between the 17th and
20th centuries as a prison, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups and a
military base. Its buildings, particularly those of the late 20th century such
as the maximum security prison for political prisoners, witness the triumph of
democracy and freedom over oppression and racism.
ROBBEN ISLAND
For nearly 400 years, Robben Island, 12 kilometres from Cape
Town, was a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment. It was here
that rulers sent those they regarded as political troublemakers, social
outcasts and the unwanted of society. During the apartheid years Robben Island
became internationally known for its institutional brutality. The duty of those
who ran the Island and its prison was to isolate opponents of apartheid and to
crush their morale. Some freedom fighters spent more than a quarter of a
century in prison for their beliefs. Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded
on a psychological and political level in turning a prison 'hell-hole' into a
symbol of freedom and personal liberation.
JUSTIFICATION FOR INSCRIPTION: CRITERION (III)
The buildings of Robben Island bear eloquent testimony to
its sombre history. Criterion (vi): Robben Island and its prison buildings
symbolize the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom, and of democracy over
oppression. (Source: UNESCO).
Robben Island came to symbolise, not only for South Africa
and the African continent, but also for the entire world, the triumph of the
human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity. People lived on Robben
Island many thousands of years ago, when the sea channel between the Island and
the Cape mainland was not covered with water. Since the Dutch settled at the
Cape in the mid-1600s, Robben Island has been used primarily as a prison.
Indigenous African leaders, Muslim leaders from the East
Indies, Dutch and British settler soldiers and civilians, women, and
anti-apartheid activists, including South Africa's first democratic President,
Nelson Mandela and the founding leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert
Mangaliso Sobukwe, were all imprisoned on the Island.
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