INSIDE MANDELA’S ISLAND PRISON

Looking out on to the crystal blue waters of the south Atlantic Ocean at Cape Town in the distance would have been torture for those imprisoned on Robben Island.

Built in the 1960s during Apartheid, the maximum security prison housed political and common-law prisoners, including the country’s former president Nelson Mandela.

Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he was behind bars before the end of Apartheid.

A faded image of Christ painted on a wall and rusted steel bunk bed frames serve as relics to the country’s confronting history underscored by violence, racism and oppression.

That history was brought to life by our guide, an ex-political prisoner on the island.

He showed us through the four H-block general sections, each with four large cells with capacity to hold 52 inmates. The U isolation block comprised about 90 cells.

After the prison tour, visitors were then bussed around the island to give insight into its long history prior to Apartheid.

Historical sites on the tour include the island graveyard, the disused lime quarry, prominent South African political dissident Robert Sobukwe’s house, the blue stone quarry, the army and navy bunkers.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the island was used as a hospital for lepers and other social outcast groups as well as a military base during World War II.

It was declared a United Nations World Heritage site in 1999.