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Seals
It is named for the seals, and was a place to leave livestock
The name Robben Island comes from the archaic Dutch word for seals. Bartolomeu Dias discovered the island in 1488, and Portuguese, English and Dutch sailors used it as a refuelling station. In 1654 the settlers of the Dutch Cape Colony sheltered their livestock there, because with no predators it was safer than the mainland. They also collected seal skins and boiled oil.
A prison
It has held prisoners since the 17th century
Since the end of the 17th century the island has been used to hold mainly political prisoners. The Dutch were the first to use it as a prison, and its first prisoner was probably Autshumato in the mid-17th century. In 1819, after a failed uprising, the British colonial government sentenced the African leader Makanda Nxele to life imprisonment on the island.
A leper colony
People with leprosy were sent here from 1845
The island was also used as a leper colony and an animal quarantine station. From 1845, lepers from the Hemel-en-Aarde colony near Caledon were moved here. At first people moved on a voluntary basis, and they were free to leave. After the Leprosy Repression Act of May 1892, admission was no longer voluntary and their movement was restricted. In the Second World War the island was fortified with guns.
The Kramat
A Muslim shrine marks the grave of an exiled imam
The Moturu Kramat, now a sacred site for Muslim pilgrimage, was built in 1969 to commemorate Sayed Abdurahman Moturu, the Prince of Madura. He was one of Cape Town's first imams, was exiled to the island in the mid-1740s, and died there in 1754. Muslim political prisoners would pay homage at the shrine before leaving the island.
1961 to 1996
Nelson Mandela was one of the political prisoners held here
From 1961 to 1996 the South African government used Robben Island to isolate and imprison political dissidents. Notable prisoners included future Presidents Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma. The maximum security prison closed in 1991, and the island became a museum and national monument in 1997. Many of the guides are former prisoners. Many black South Africans regard the island as a symbol of oppression.
Day 5, morning
Next is District Six Museum.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Robben Island, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.