Life in Prison on Robben Island Video - ABC News ABC News Act 3: ABC News' Alex Marquardt describes the scene of mourning and celebration in South Africa. 3:00 | 12/06/13 Coming up in the next {{countdown}} {{countdownlbl}} Coming up next: More information on this video Enhanced full screen Video Transcript Transcript for Life in Prison on Robben Island Now we look at the life of the man who transformed himself, while behind bars and you spoke to a young jailer that became mandela's trusted friend behind bars. This was an incredible tale, the jailer warned he would guard south africa's most dangerous criminal but they would form a secret code. Reporter: Here in america, mount rushmore honors the fathers of our democracy. In south africa, there would be one face. Nelson mandela, a hero to millions whose devotion to the cause of freedom transformed south africa. Mandela was an immensely charismatic figure. Tall, handsome, extroverted, had this fantastic smile, a smile that just lit up whatever room he went into. Reporter: But for 27 years, he spent most of his days a prisoner in this room.

And it was there he would meet a young country boy, who started out mandela's enemy, but forged the least likely friendship in history. A prison guard named christo brand, who remembers took us to a hill overlooking robben island remembering what they warned him. That guard was just 18-year-old when he met his 60-year-old prisoner. When that jailer met mandela, he met an elder, who would treat the young white man with respect. And cristo would slowly offer the same in return. And that jailer told us of one of winnie mandela's visits, and her request she be allowed to show nelson mandela his brand new grand baby. She said can I please show nelson from a distance. Reporter: The jailer telling winnie, no children allowed. What she didn't know was while she waited in a holding area the jailer brought the baby to mandela. Tears were coming out of his eyes. Reporter: Nobody knew. Nobody knew. Reporter: There would be many secrets between the jailer and his friend and the secret code I would show him this, and i would just start showing him this. Mandela immediately know I'm bugged.

I was bugged a lot of times. Reporter: You lied to keep your job and to keep your friendship with mandela. That's correct. Reporter: During all of those isolating years on robben island, the prison guard said there was one view from the prison courtyard of the country nelson mandela loved, and that was the very top of table mountain, here in cape town behind me. That mandela would look to this view, wondering if he'd ever be free. But for mandela, his own freedom was always less important than that of the people of south africa, even as a young man. For if life is a series of choices, nelson mandela never took the easy ones. He was born into african royalty -- the son of a chief, but chose to become a lawyer for the poor. I think not until he got to johannesburg where he felt the effects of prejudice for the first time, where -- where he felt, "my god, you're treating me like this." Reporter: His practice, the first black-run law firm in south africa, was flourishing, but he could not stay neutral against apartheid. A system that made blacks second class citizens, separate housing and schools. Crushing poverty.

For more than three centuries we have lived at the most brutal system of racial oppression. Reporter: Mandela found his calling in the fight against apartheid. A south africa, where the white minority ruled a population that was nearly 90% black. And created divisions, committed untold massacres of innocent people because they wanted to be treated with dignity. His party, the african national congress, was committed to non violent resistance. But many of his own supporters would often ask why so many of their own paying the price. There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people. Reporter: Peaceful resistance -- until the sharpeville massacre in 1960, when white police shot 69 unarmed protestors. The government branding the charismatic leader a terrorist. Mandela went underground. We have made it very clear in our policy that south africa is a country of many races. There is room for all the various races in this country. Reporter: By 1962 mandela's fight against apartheid landed him on trial for treason.

He could have cooperated but instead, at trial, he gave a rallying speech heard around the world, captured by chance on a dictaphone. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Reporter: The power and defiance and eloquence of that statement really electrified the nation, electrified black south africa, electrified the world. Reporter: Sentenced to life in prison, mandela spent most of his 27 years behind bars in that cell on robben island. Assigned to work in the quarry, shoveling rocks, raking stones, work many believe led to those weakened lungs. And to that suffering even in the end. The conditions were brutal. People were assaulted regularly. People were -- deprived of meals for two or three times a day. Prison was this great crucible that taught him self-control. Because you had to have it. Reporter: Mandela would study for years in the tiny prison library -- quietly asking that most unlikely friend, the jailor, to help teach him the language of the whites in power --afrikaans.

He would write essays and there was a reason for this -- mandela famously said, "if you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." That's what he did. And that what he would strive for and that's what he was loved for and that's what he would fight for while he was in prison, to have people live in peace. To spend 27 years at the prime of your life is a tragedy. And I regret, you know, those years that I have wasted in prison. But, I also had the opportunity of reading very widely, and especially biographies, and i could see what men, sometimes from very humble beginnings, were able to lift themselves with their bootstrings. Reporter: And there was something else he did while on robben island. We were given rare access to this tiny archive room in johannesburg where they have spent years pouring through the tender letters mandela wrote to his family, to his children while in prison. He walked out with it when he left prison, so he took it with him.

Reporter: In that cell, lined with books, and the photograph of winnie -- the notebooks with first drafts of every letter. Every word carefully chosen because in the beginning he was allowed just one letter every six months. So he needed to know exactly what he wrote, so he doesn't waste space. Reporter: He wrote to his children about his dream of one day seeing them again. "I do not know, my darlings, when I will return. I told you that the white judge had said I should stay in jail for the rest of my life. It may be long before I come back. It may be soon. Nobody knows it's his name, nelson mandela, and then his prison number, 466/64. Reporter: When we come back, nelson mandela is freed after 27 years. The lines that led to history. And years later, michelle obama's visit to south africa as first lady, in that room with This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. Mandela's prison: ‘This is an island. Here you will die’ | The Independent Africa Mandela's prison: ‘This is an island.

Here you will die’ As the world remembers Mandela the hero, the prison where he spent 27 years seems all the more brutal Tuesday 10 December 2013 19:39 BST Click to follow Mandela's prison: ‘This is an island. Here you will die’ 1/4 Prisoners breaking rocks and sewing clothes in 1964 Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images Mandela’s Robben Island prison cell Photoshot 3/4 Mandela and former US president Bill Clinton look outside from Mandela's Robben Island prison cell, in 1998 AP Nelson Mandela delivers a speech outside his former prison cell, in 2003 Getty Images Prisoners breaking rocks and sewing clothes in 1964 The low, scrubby oval of Robben Island, a few miles offshore, can be made out from any of the heights around Cape Town. During the apartheid era, it was a kind of Purgatory in plain sight for those the white regime feared most, a place forbidden to all but the inmates and their jailers. South Africans called it simply “The Island”, and speculated fearfully as to what went on there.

Yet when Nelson Mandela was asked how his 27 years in prison, most of them on Robben Island, had affected him, his answer was unexpected. “I came out mature,” he said. Mandela disappeared from the world with the reputation of a charismatic but often boastful lawyer, a keen boxer and ladies’ man who did not have the temperament to remain undetected for long when he went underground. He returned a dignified old man who had won the respect of his captors, so much so that they were anxious to negotiate the hand-over of power to him. Thanks to Mandela’s imprisonment there, Robben Island is now a World Heritage Site, but when visitors see the conditions in which he was held, few find it easy to imagine how he retained his sanity, let alone triumphed over his oppression. Disembarking from their jetfoils after crossing the often turbulent waters of Table Bay, tourists see the same sight that greeted every prisoner on Robben Island: a concrete gateway with the emblem of the apartheid prison service and the motto, “We Serve With Pride”.

As they roam the concrete blocks, they are shown the bleak cell, barely 6ft square, where prisoner number 46664 spent years with nothing but a bedroll on the floor, a tiny stool and a ceramic pot. “Journeying to Robben Island was like going to another country,” Mandela wrote in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. “Its isolation made it not simply another prison, but a world of its own.” He first saw it in May 1963, having been sentenced the previous October to five years for sabotage. Mandela’s Robben Island prison cell (Photoshot) After another trial in Pretoria, this time for treason, he returned to the island in June 1964 and remained there until March 1982, when he was moved to the mainland. He did not walk to freedom until February 1990. Mandela recalls his first arrival on the island in his book: “We were met by a group of burly white warders shouting [in Afrikaans]: ‘Dis die Eiland! Hier gaan julle vrek!’ (This is the Island!

Here you will die!)” Immediately he showed the spirit of resistance that helped to carry him through, telling his fellow inmates to walk when the warders were shouting at them to run, and threatening legal action against one notoriously brutal figure who seemed about to hit him. While Mandela was never assaulted during his prison term, everything about the regime was designed to punish and humiliate black leaders who had had the temerity to demand equality with whites. Category D political prisoners like him were allowed one 30-minute visit and one letter every six months. Anything deemed “political” in the letters would be cut out, so that often the prisoner received nothing but a tattered, indecipherable remnant of paper. Even among inmates there was racial discrimination – Mandela recalled that he and other African prisoners were given shorts to wear, while Ahmed Kathrada, the only Asian among the group of African National Congress leaders who arrived on the island together, received long trousers. Africans also had a worse diet than Asian or mixed-race (the so-called “coloured”) inmates. Removing these inequalities was among the first of many issues on which Mandela and his fellow political prisoners mounted campaigns of passive resistance during their years on Robben Island.

Mandela and former US president Bill Clinton look outside from Mandela's Robben Island prison cell, in 1998 (AP) Despite poor food, inadequate clothing in the wet and windswept Cape winter, and heavy labour in the island’s lime quarry, where Mandela’s sight was damaged by the blinding glare of the sun on the quarry’s blanched walls, he remained unbroken. “The challenge for every prisoner, particularly every political prisoner,” he wrote, “is how to survive prison intact, how to emerge from prison undiminished, how to conserve and even replenish one’s beliefs... The authorities’ greatest mistake was to keep us together, for together our determination was reinforced. We supported each other and gained strength from each other.” The bullying, poorly educated white warders were uncertain how to deal with these articulate, determined political prisoners, who seemed confident that they would one day prevail, no matter how long their sentences or how complete the white regime’s apparent domination. By the early 1970s, Mandela had tamed the prison authorities to the point where they would frequently consult him. Occasional attempts to revert to the old brutal regime were seen off, and concessions, such as the right to study, were won.

But Robben Island remained deeply isolated – isolation worsened, Mandela wrote, by the proximity of “the glass towers of Cape Town. The city looked agonisingly close, as though one could almost reach out and grasp it”. (Rather like Alcatraz in San Francisco, a city to which Cape Town has often been compared for its scenic beauty and hedonistic tendencies, Robben Island served as a constant reminder to those on the mainland of the privations being suffered by some.) Above all, Nelson Mandela had to fill the endless years without ever knowing how long his imprisonment would last. He had been sentenced to life, and until the late 1980s apartheid’s masters insisted that he would die behind bars. “To survive in prison,” he wrote, “one must develop ways to take satisfaction in one’s daily life. One can feel fulfilled by washing one’s clothes so that they are particularly clean, by sweeping a corridor so that it is free of dust, by organising one’s cell to conserve as much space as possible.

The same pride one takes in more consequential tasks outside prison, one can find in doing small things inside prison.” Mandela took pains to remain physically fit, and was one of the few who did not complain when the authorities made the prisoners walk to the quarry rather than being taken by truck. He saw it as an opportunity to view the island’s wildlife, much of it descended from animals released for hunting, such as various types of buck, and the swarms of rabbits originally intended to feed passing ships. Nelson Mandela delivers a speech outside his former prison cell, in 2003 (Getty) South Africa’s future president said he first heard about the island as a child, because a hero of his Xhosa tribe, who led a 19th-century uprising against the British, was incarcerated there. But Robben Island was used as a political prison almost as soon as the Dutch colonised the Cape in 1652. Later it served as a leper colony, a lunatic asylum and as a naval base, where my father was stationed during the Second World War. On his daily trek to the quarry, Mandela would have seen the largest of several naval gun emplacements on the island.

Despite their isolation, the prisoners managed to keep some track of events outside through new arrivals, smuggled newspapers and hints dropped during family visits. “During the harsh days of the early 1970s,” Mandela wrote, “ the ANC seemed to sink into the shadows ... In many ways we had miscalculated; we had thought that by the 1970s we would be living in a democratic, non-racial South Africa.” In 1975, he turned 57, and two of his closest comrades suggested he write his autobiography. It cost him study privileges for four years when part of the manuscript was discovered, but even after it was smuggled out, the ANC in exile decided not to publish it. The following year, a new generation appeared on Robben Island: militants jailed after the Soweto uprising. “These young men were a different breed,” said Mandela. “They were brave, hostile and aggressive; they would not take orders.” They were almost as sceptical of the older prisoners as of the authorities: after so many years of being branded a radical revolutionary, Mandela found that “to be perceived as a moderate was a novel and not altogether pleasant feeling”.

It reinforced the fears of the long-term inmates that “we had become frozen in time”. This was the greatest challenge of the ANC leader’s years in prison, and Mandela rose to it. He refused the pleas of the prison authorities to intervene with the younger inmates, instead seeking to mediate among the political factions represented on the island. The new prisoners were predominantly supporters of Black Consciousness, which had little respect for the ANC or the rival Pan Africanist Congress, but in time most came under the ANC banner. The influx also brought unexpected benefits. So busy were the warders with the young firebrands that the older prisoners were practically left to themselves. In 1977, the political prisoners succeeded in having manual labour halted, giving them more time for reading, studying and political debate. Mandela cultivated his garden and kept fit by playing tennis, the yard of his cell block having been converted into a court. But those held on Robben Island were still subject to the whim of the authorities, as Mandela discovered in March 1982, when he was abruptly told that he was to be transferred to Pollsmoor prison on the mainland.

The reason, it later emerged, was that the apartheid government thought he might prove more pliant in negotiations if he was kept apart from his comrades. They soon discovered they were wrong, but, for Mandela, who had spent the best part of two decades on Robben Island, it was a wrench. “A man can get used to anything, and I had grown used to Robben Island,” he wrote. “It had become a place where I felt comfortable.” More than that: as he himself said, his ordeal there was the making of him. USATODAY.com - Prison soccer part of South African freedom march FINDING ROBBEN ISLAND SOUTH AFRICAN SOCCER GURU KNOWS ROBBEN ISLAND Tokyo Sexwale played in, and helped organize, the soccer league on Robben Island. Now he is on the board of directors of South Africa's 2010 World Cup Organizing Committee. Could he have believed the day would come when his country would host the World Cup? "Anything was possible," he said Wednesday by phone from Germany, where he is attending the 2006 World Cup. "We were always looking for great things. We were always fighting for a free South Africa.

The World Cup was not specifically a part of the dream then. But today it is." Sexwale recalls that Nelson Mandela was among the prisoners in isolation on Robben Island who could not play in the soccer league. But Mandela enjoyed watching games from his cell - until prison authorities took that privilege from him as well. A spokesman for the Nelson Mandela Foundation says the former South African president does not do newspaper interviews by phone. Jerome Champagne, the FIFA deputy general secretary in charge of political issues, says Mandela has told him about watching the games. "Mandela said many times that he loved the game," Champagne says. "When the wardens on the island discovered that his only entertainment, his only pleasure was watching the games through the bars and windows of his cell, they built a wall just only to punish him." FIFA was among the first international sports bodies to pressure South Africa because of its policy of apartheid, beginning in the 1950s. FIFA suspended South Africa in 1961 and again in 1964, after the initial suspension was lifted, according to FIFA's account. FIFA expelled South Africa in 1976. "FIFA played an important role by applying sanctions," Sexwale says.

"There is a direct link between South Africa hosting the World Cup and the role played by FIFA against apartheid." FIFA reinstated South Africa in 1992 and 12 years later named it host for 2010. Mandela was in Zurich when the announcement was made and playfully held the World Cup trophy over his head. By Erik Brady Enlarge Provided by Charles Korr A 2005 photograph showing four former prisoners reunited at the Robben Island Prison: Sedick Isaacs, Marcus Solomon, Tony Suze and Lizo Sitotto. Prison soccer part of South African freedom march Updated 7/6/2006 11:34 AM ET E-mail | Print | By Erik Brady, USA TODAY The World Cup is coming to South Africa in 2010. On a global scale, it will be the most important soccer ever played there. On a human scale, the most meaningful soccer in South African history came decades earlier — on the pitch of a prison 7 miles offshore.

This is the little-known story of soccer on Robben Island and how a child's game played a key role in shaping and sustaining a spirit of resistance at the most notorious prison of the late 20th century. "The prisoners on the island believed they would be running their own country one day," sports historian Charles Korr says. "That was partly why they ran a soccer league organized along strict FIFA rules. They saw it as a chance to prove they could run anything." Korr believes they set out to prove that as much to themselves as to South Africa's white regime, which had imprisoned them for opposing apartheid, the brutal system of segregation in South Africa that denied basic rights to the country's black majority from 1948 to 1991. Nelson Mandela, Robben Island's most celebrated resident, was among a small number of prisoners kept in isolation who were barred from the league. But Mandela appears to understand soccer's global import. He was instrumental in convincing FIFA, the game's governing body, to award the World Cup to his continent for the first time. Mandela served 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island for a conviction of attempting to overthrow the government. Others were convicted on similar charges.

South Africa sent its political prisoners to the isle off Cape Town to serve hard time. The prisoners' job was to break rocks. Their captors' job was to break spirits. "But they couldn't break us," says Sedick Isaacs, 66, a professor of medicine at the University of Cape Town who was a prisoner for 13 years. "We kept our spirits, and soccer was part of that." For years, prisoners demanded a right to play sports, including soccer. And for years, prison authorities said no. Eventually they relented under pressure from the International Red Cross, former prisoners say. The prison opened in the early 1960s. The Makana Football Association began in 1966, Korr says, and played off and mostly on until the prison closed in 1991. The league, former prisoners say, was operated in three divisions — A, B and C, based on players' abilities — complete with trainers, managers, referees and coaches from the prison population of as many as 1,400 men. Games were played on Saturdays for almost nine months a year; the league shut down in summer. Eventually, prisoners competed in track and field those months.

The league had several standing committees to deal with a range of issues, including discipline and maintenance. Minutes of meetings were kept. "The level of detail was meticulous," Korr says. "It's clear what they were doing: They were replicating the outside world." Korr is a retired history professor at Missouri-St. Louis. The University of Missouri system has a faculty-and-student-exchange program with the University of the Western Cape. Korr was teaching at Western Cape in 1993 when a South African colleague told Korr he might be interested in a portion of the prison archive housed there. Korr found 63 cardboard boxes that contained thousands of handwritten documents. They were labeled simply "Robben Island — Sports." In the years since, Korr has carefully sifted through an astonishing cache of information about what he calls one of the remarkable stories of modern sport. He is working on a documentary with South African filmmaker Anant Singh, tentatively titled More Than a Game. "The greatest contribution sport could make to their lives," Korr says, "was to replicate the ordinariness of their former lives in a place that was meant to divorce them from the real world." 'Unifying factor' Running is freedom in physical form.

"We got to play in the sun and the fresh air," says Lizo Sitoto, 63, who runs a preschool with his wife in Uitenhage. "You could forget about prison when you were playing a game." The games, former prisoners say, were important on many levels: as a diversion from the harsh realities of their lives, as physical exercise to keep their minds and bodies sharp — and as a way for those from differing political factions to work and play together. "Soccer revived us and made us to feel we are human beings, let me put it that way," Sitoto says. "Because without sport, life was lousy and frustrating. But sport made us to feel organized and we are brothers. It was a unifying factor." The prisoners came mainly from two government-banned parties, the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress, which had a common enemy (the government) and a common rival (each other). Relations, according to Mandela's autobiography, were "more competitive than cooperative." "Up until football," Korr says, "every activity on the island was self-segregated not by race but by political party — seminars, discussions, everything.

Then, for the first time, as football is established, the ANC and PAC begin to train together and play together" in prison. Korr says the league had eight clubs with teams in each division: "One club, the Manong, it's the best on the island, puts it in their constitution that there shall be no discrimination, by which they mean politics, not race. I asked one of the guys who founded the club the reason for that provision. He said it was the right thing to do. I said, 'It also meant you could recruit the best players.' He grinned and said, 'Yeah, it meant that, too.' " The games were often fiercely played, former prisoners say. In one case, according to Korr's research, players on a team known as the Atlantic Raiders were enraged by a referee's call they felt had cost them a playoff game. The Raiders protested. A committee upheld the result, and the Raiders held a sit-down protest, disrupting games. The league suspended play for two weeks and conducted a five-month investigation. Why so long? Korr says prisoners were affording each other the due process denied them in their criminal cases. The league had its share of problems.

Korr says the archives contain evidence of frequent ejections and bitter complaints about referees: "The disciplinary committee was always the most overworked." Even through such low moments, prisoners sometimes recalled the high ideals that brought them together. Korr says he found a year-end summary in one of those cardboard boxes in which Marcus Solomon, acting chairman of a club called the Dynaspurs, wrote: "Our sports have played no small role in acting as a kind of social cement. Let them not become a point of conflict. ... Winning and losing is not all that important. ... For those who think that is just ... big talk, let me reply with a question. If we had no noble ideals, would we be on this place today?" Objects in motion All week, prisoners worked in the quarries in their drab prison garb. On Saturdays, they wore uniforms in club colors such as maroon and white or black and silver. "We could feel different in those clothes," Sitoto says. The prisoners built their own goals. The league's building and maintenance committee rolled and leveled a main field — eventually complete with a drainage system — and later a secondary one, according to Korr's research. He says much of their free time was expended on the league.

"The South African prison authorities were brutal, but they weren't stupid," Korr says. "They had the good sense to understand if you let the prisoners do something that mattered to them, they'd be easier to get along with." Prisoners eventually won the right to play other sports, including rugby and tennis. But soccer was most important, says Isaacs, who played in the least competitive division. "I was teaching physics on the island, and (my students) were teaching me how to kick a ball," he says. "And often they would say, 'You know about the motion of objects, but you don't know how to put them in motion.' " Soccer was important to the prisoners on a deeper level as well — as a sort of laboratory in which they could try ideas they discussed in seminars about what a post-apartheid South Africa might look like, according to Solomon, 67, these days coordinator of a child resource center in Cape Town. "We talked about building a peaceful and democratic and balanced society," Solomon says. "We were all males of different ages, and we became interested in building a new world. On the island we could do this along different racial lines, ages and cultures, which hadn't always been possible in the old South Africa.

People had been forced in living one way all their lives. "Soccer was an opportunity for people of different backgrounds, on a very small scale, to experience some of those new ideas and see how it worked. And it worked well, I think. We could see what a new South Africa could look like." It is striking the degree to which many prisoners believed that sports build character — and could even help to build a country. "It's a Victorian, public-school idea about the ennobling effects of hard play and teamwork," Korr says. "I've never met anyone who believed more fervently in it than some of the guys on the island. It's an interesting paradox. They are the victims of Victorian imperialism, and yet they buy into one of the main ideals of the Victorians." An epigram from Victorian times had it that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. The next World Cup will be played in a country that was won, in some sense, on the soccer fields of Robben Island.

Posted 7/6/2006 12:49 AM ET Updated 7/6/2006 11:34 AM ET Robben Island Prison Museum – South African Tourism A worldwide beacon for human rights Robben Island Prison Museum Robben Island’s place in South Africa’s conflicted past begins with the very start of colonialism as the first Dutch settler, Jan van Riebeeck, clashed with local Khoekhoe leader, Autshumato. Today its lessons are a heritage that belongs to all mankind. They can be learned at the Robben Island Prison Museum. Did you know? Large breeding colonies of comorants, gulls and oystercatchers are found on Robben Island. Robben Island Museum goes way beyond the telling of history; it has symbolic significance not only for South African society with its great diversity of cultures, but for the world. Over and above its emotional story stretching back to the mid-1600s, it is a symbol of justice, human rights and self-sacrifice.

While the anti-apartheid activists of the 1900s have assumed centre stage in this tale, few people realise that Robben Island Prison Museum's history as a place of incarceration began 350 years ago with Autshumato, a member of the Khoekhoe, an indigenous group of people - now vanished. The first Dutch settler to arrive in the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck, depended on Autshumato as an interpreter, particularly in the cattle trade that supported the colonial settlement. Cultural misunderstanding resulted in the interpreter's banishment to Robben Island, but he escaped - the only Robben Island prisoner ever to do so. A 3.5 hour-long tour of the museum on Robben Island begins at the Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, where you can view various exhibitions on the island. After a half-hour ferry ride, visitors are guided through the maximum security prison, often by a former political prisoner who has personal experience of the prison. A 45-minute bus ride around the island details its history as a mental hospital, military base and leper colony. There is also an opportunity to explore Murray's Bay harbour with its Muslim shrine and museum shop.

Over and above its history, the fauna and flora of Robben Island are extremely interesting, and their conservation is another goal of the museum. There are 132 bird species on the island, some of them endangered, as well as small herds of antelope. Robben Island Museum has World Heritage status and is a South African National Heritage Site. Travel tips & Planning info Robben Island, Cape Town Central - TripAdvisor Want the lowest hotel prices? You're in the right place. We check 200+ sites for you. Robben Island, Cape Town Central Is this attraction a "must-see" location? Yes Is this attraction pet friendly? Yes Would this be a good sunny day activity? Yes Is this attraction suitable for all ages? Yes Is this attraction popular with tourists? Yes Is this activity accessible without advanced planning or reservations? Yes Is this attraction good for big groups (greater than 5)? Yes Would this be a good cold day activity? Yes Does this attraction have good scenic or skyline views? Yes Is this location a solemn or serious place like a memorial, cemetary, etc.? Yes Map updates are paused. Zoom in to see updated info.

Reset zoom Address: Private Bag, Robben Island, Cape Town Central 7400, South Africa Phone Number: Recommended length of visit: More than 3 hours Fee: Yes During the apartheid years Robben Island served as a prison for political... During the apartheid years Robben Island served as a prison for political activists. read more Full-Day Robben Island and Cape Town City Tour More Info Full-Day Walk to Freedom Tour in Cape Town Including Robben Island More Info Robben Island and Cape Town City Private Tour See More Tours & Experiences Terrible “Pleased been but not sure would go again ” I was really looking forward to this trip, possibly thought there would be more to it then there was. Ferry ride over was quite good although ferry was very full. Arrived on the... read more Reviewed yesterday 4,884 Reviews from our TripAdvisor Community Which Cape Town Central hotels are on sale?

mm/dd/yyyy mm/dd/yyyy See all travel guides Read reviews that mention: All reviews ex prisoner nelson mandela political prisoners prison tour ferry ride mandela's cell maximum security prison island tour lime quarry leper colony actual prison long walk to freedom prison life his story spent years moving experience humbling experience first hand recent history cape town and table mountain Review tags are currently only available for English language reviews. Start your review of Robben Island Click to rate “Disappointing visit to Robben Island” Reviewed yesterday NEW We were really looking forward to an interesting and informative visit to the island everyone talks about. Sadly we felt let down right from the start. Our tickets were timed for 1pm but were told to be there for 12.30pm. We stood and queued until 1.15 when we started to shuffle forward. If you were at the front of the... More Helpful? Reviewed yesterday NEW via mobile No South African should miss the chance to visit Robben Island and face the demons of the past. Very emotive but equally informative about the historical significance of the island before Madiba. The afternoon greatly impressed my young children who left with a sense of connection to the island and the prisoners. Our tour guides where informative and eloquent and...

More Helpful? Reviewed yesterday NEW via mobile I was really looking forward to this trip, possibly thought there would be more to it then there was. Ferry ride over was quite good although ferry was very full. Arrived on the island to be met by coaches to transport the 100 meters to the entrance, this is where it went downhill slightly the group size was too big,... More Helpful? “Excellent!!” Reviewed yesterday NEW This is a must see, lots of history and the tour guide an ex prisoner was very charming. It was quite sad to listen to his accoutn but at the same time good to learn about what went on. Great views from the boat trip. Helpful? “A must see!” Reviewed 2 days ago NEW via mobile The visit to Robben Island is a must see pilgrimage to the site of Nelson Mandela's and many others incarceration by the Apartheid regime. Take time before the ferry ride to visit the museum (we didn't and I'm sorry we couldn't) and learn about this dark time in history. Helpful? “Ziarah ” Reviewed 2 days ago NEW via mobile Robeen island is best place to see in capetown.

It's nice n peaceful island , having very good ferry service V&A waterfront, capetown . I been der for visit shrine , Karamath , Sufi Sheikh Abdu Rahgman ziarah . It's just opposite boat station. “Very interesting place and tour” Reviewed 2 days ago NEW Fascinating tour - guide was an ex-prisoner (some reviews say they are not but the guide's stories seemed genuine and all questions answered without hesitation and with honesty. We arrived an hour early for our tour to look at the information prior to our boat ride to the island. Would recommend this as it gives you a good base knowledge.... More Helpful? “A very moving experience” Reviewed 2 days ago NEW This was a very moving experience for me and my husband. From the boat ride, to visiting Mandela's cell, I felt very emotional. Our guide was an ex prisoner and it was good to hear his stories of his time spent on this island prison. The view from there was amazing, and I wondered how these poor political prisoners must... More Helpful?

“A "must do", but not if you get seasick!” Reviewed 2 days ago NEW Robben Island is 11km offshore from Cape Town and requires a 40 minute boat transfer across what can be quite rough sea. If you're a poor sailor, don't go. Even if it's calm when you set out, it can have become rough on the way back. Also, bring some warm clothes, even if it's hot weather. Some of the boats... More Helpful? Robben Island | South African History Online South African History Online Robben Island Timeline 1400-1999 Archives UWC - Robben Island Mayibuye Archives Robben Island Unesco declared Robben Island in the Western Cape a World Heritage Site in 1999. Robben Island is located in Table Bay, some 6km west of Bloubergstrand, and stands some 30m above sea level. Robben Island has been used as prison and a place where people were isolated, banished and exiled to for nearly 400 years. It was also used as a post office, a grazing ground, a mental hospital and an outpost.

Initially the island was inhabited by a variety of wild life, including birds, penguins, seals and tortoises. Its name "robben" is derived from the Dutch, meaning a seal. It also had a plentiful supply of fresh water available from a number of springs. Batolomeu Dias, the Portuguese explorer, 'discovered' the island in 1488 when he anchored his ship in Table Bay. Before 1652, In place of dealings with the indigenous residents on the mainland, most visiting ships to Table Bay preferred to land on Robben Island to replenish their supplies of fresh water and meat. As a result it also became a major point for the exchange of mail, where letters from an outgoing ship would be left underneath an inscribed stone for collection and delivery by a home-going vessel. This continued after Jan van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape in 1652, as he had to settle a station where ships that were travelling from Europe to the East Indies, he did not want to stop on the mainland, could get fresh food and water. There were plenty of seals, tortoises and penguins for hunting.

The Dutch also began to use the island as a grazing station for sheep and cattle. Prisoners lined up on arrival at Robben Image source However, the islands potential as a convict station did not go unnoticed, and in about 1671 the Dutch began to place their convicted criminals upon it. It was only a matter of time before this courtesy was extended to political prisoners and other "undesirables" banished to the Cape from other Dutch colonies. In fact the Dutch government sent kings, princes and religious leaders from the East Indies to Robben Island as prisoners because they did not agree with the Dutch rule in their country. When the British annexed the Cape in 1806 they continued this practice. During the first British occupation of the Cape, from 1795 to 1802, whaling activities were begun in Table Bay, and after their return in 1806 a whaling station was located on Robben Island. However it soon became apparent that this offered convicts an easy escape route, and it was closed down in 1820.

In 1812 the first attempt was made to use the island as an asylum for the mentally ill, and in 1843 the Colonial Secretary, John Montagu, put forward a plan to use it as a colony for lepers, paupers, the mentally unfit and the chronically ill. The plan also provided for the removal of the penal colony to the mainland where convict labour could be used more productively on government projects, such as road-building. This plan was accepted and by 1845 the island had become a home for the Colony's unwanted and unloved, those deemed to be 'mentally ill' in those days could include the homeless, alcoholics, people who were to sick or old to work and prostitutes with sexually transmitted diseases. Those unfortunates were often subjected to treatment, which was unhealthy and inhumane even by the standards of that time, and conditions on the island became the subject of constant complaint from progressive clergy and medical staff. Although some improvements were implemented over time, the island's lazaretto was only closed down in 1931. The lighthouse on Robben Island was commissioned in January 1865.

The circular tower, designed by the Colonial Engineer, John Scott Tucker, was built in stone quarried locally, and stood 18m high. The 1875 census indicated that Robben Island had a population of 552. In 1891 this number had risen to 702, and by 1904 it stood at 1,460. Aerial view of Robben Island with Table Mountain in the background. After 1931 all the 'patients' were sent to hospitals in the Cape and the island began to be used as a military outpost before WW II. Guns were stored there and the government built roads, a power station, a new water supply and houses. In 1961 it started being used as a prison again. During apartheid many Black people were kept on Robben Island as political prisoners. Former President Nelson Mandela was kept there. The prison internationally notorious for its harsh conditions and when the political prisoners of the apartheid government were released Robben Island became a symbol of the strength of the human spirit.

Robben Island was declared a World Heritage Site because the buildings on the island are a reminder of its sad history and because the same buildings also show the power of the human spirit, freedom and the victory of democracy over oppression. Last updated : 02-Dec-2016 Visiting Robben Island, Nelson Mandela’s Prison - The Daily Beast The Daily Beast 12.09.135:45 AM ET Visiting Nelson Mandela’s Prison Robben Island is a barren crucible where apartheid’s greatest opponents were honed. It’s not a pleasant trip, but it’s an undeniably powerful one. “This is the island. This is where you will die.” These were the words which greeted Nelson Mandela on his first day of imprisonment on Robben Island. I will never forget my first sight of Robben Island. It was 2012, exactly half a century after Mandela’s incarceration. A searingly hot day, an hour’s ferry ride, then this rocky outcrop of concrete and barbed wire. A sinister swarm of black sea-birds waited at the prison port, hundreds of them crouching on the boulders, giving off a foul smell.

I joined a tour given by one of the island’s former inmates, now a guide. A small, dignified man in his late 60s,he had been held here for 13 years for ‘terrorism offences’. Since his release in 1991, when Robben Island ceased to be a prison, this man has devoted his life to showing people around. He told us that he dreaded returning to the island every single morning, but he did it “so that this never happens again." As we walked around the cell blocks, A, B, C, D and E, our guide explained the different categories, races and offences of the prisoners: “When we first arrived here we were brought off the boat in chains. From that moment we ceased to exist as people. Our names were deleted and our identities erased. We were put into prison uniform—shorts and no shoes for coloureds, trousers and shoes for whites. Each man was given a number: this was your new identity. I am sure you have heard of Comrade Mandela’s number—46664. That was his identity in this place.” He led us into the glaring white heat of the concrete prison yard.

It was in this yard that Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu’s manuscript, which later became the book Long Walk to Freedom , was discovered. The guide recalled: “The guards uncovered it, buried by this wall, but Comrade Mandela had made two copies. They found the first one but the second copy had already been smuggled out. For that crime, he had four years of educational privileges withdrawn.” He spoke about the kindness of his fellow political prisoners; how they shared their meals and cared for each other when they got sick from the terrible food, hard labour and extreme weather. Robben Island is bone dry, with as little as 2mm of rainfall per year: inmates worked in these conditions month after month with the bare minimum of food and water. In B block, he showed us where Nelson Mandela had been held: a tiny cell no larger than a cupboard. It had barred windows, a bucket, a small rolled blanket and concrete floor. Down the hallway were the censorship offices where prisoners’ letters were read and edited, the study offices, and the punishment section. “They did not officially use torture but they used every other method to break us.

They denied us water, they shut us in solitary confinement for weeks on end, the isolation could drive you mad.” “We had a saying: each one teach one. Many uneducated, illiterate men left this place with degrees and doctorates, they went on to become doctors, lawyers, university professors. I asked him about their studies and debates, and why so many great writers and thinkers had come out of the Apartheid regime. “We had a saying: each one teach one. Many uneducated, illiterate men left this place with degrees and doctorates, they went on to become doctors, lawyers, university professors. Look at President Zuma, Motlante, look at Comrade Mandela. This prison was our university.” Then he drove us across the island to see one of these vast limestone quarries. “We worked all day in the sun breaking rocks with blunt tools; some of the prisoners went blind from the glare of limestone on their eyes. Many times we went on hunger strike to try and get protection for our eyes—such a simple thing. It didn’t work.

The guards told us that sunglasses were not part of prison uniform.” Like his fellow freedom fighters, this man displayed a total lack of bitterness, despite all the injustice and suffering he’d experienced. As we left the quarry, I asked him why exactly he’d ended up on Robben Island. “I was protesting with the Congress of South African Students. We were demonstrating against the apartheid regime—but always through peaceful means. I trained in Swaziland, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, learning about political freedom, race, equality and non-violent resistance. I was arrested and detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. My charge sheet included ‘leaving the country unlawfully, re-entering the country unlawfully, conspiracy, and furthering the aims of terrorism’. For this I was severely tortured.” He showed me deep scars on his forearm. “Many of my comrades were killed. There were female prisoners too, I cannot even say what happened to them, their treatment was unspeakable. I was brought to Robben Island with iron shackles on my wrists and ankles.

This was in 1985.” It was shocking to realize that this was less than 30 years ago—how could this have been happening, here in this prison, shackles and irons and hard labour, in 1985? I had heard about the anti-apartheid struggle growing up, of course, but seeing the island at first hand brought it horribly alive. Talking to my guide, I began to appreciate the significance of what these men went through: the beatings, humiliations, and false charges; their thousands of days of imprisonment. I’m reminded of this again as we celebrate the life, and mourn the death, of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The pre-eminent leader in the liberation struggle, Mandela showed the world how to choose forgiveness over bitterness, reconciliation over vengeance, and love over hate. I wasn’t sorry to leave Robben Island behind; it isn’t a place for humans. It was a rough ferry ride back to Cape Town, and the guide’s final words stayed with me all the way: “Remember, freedom doesn’t fall from the sky.” Read previous installments in The View From London here .

FLOTUS Travel Journal: Robben Island, An Experience We Will Never Forget | whitehouse.gov FLOTUS Travel Journal: Robben Island, An Experience We Will Never Forget Summary: The First Family visits Robben Island, located off the coast of South Africa. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with Leslie Robinson, daughters Malia and Sasha, and Marian Robinson, tour the Lime Quarry on Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa, June 30, 2013. Ahmed Kathrada, a former prisoner in Robben Island Prison, leads their tour. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Today, our family visited Robben Island for an experience we will never forget. Robben Island is located off the coast of South Africa, and from the 1960s through the 1990s, this Island housed a maximum security prison. Many of the prisoners there – including the guide for our visit, a man named Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada – were activists who worked to bring down Apartheid, the South African government’s policies that discriminated against people of color. Under Apartheid, people of different races were separated in nearly every part of South African society.

They were forced to attend separate schools, live in separate neighborhoods, even swim at separate beaches – and in nearly every case, the neighborhoods, schools and other facilities for black people were much worse than the ones for white people. Among those imprisoned at Robben Island for fighting Apartheid were three men who went on to become President of South Africa: Nelson Mandela , Kgalema Motlanthe and the current president, Jacob Zuma. So today, as we toured the island, I couldn’t help but think about how this place must have shaped these leaders. Put yourself in their shoes – all they were doing was fighting to ensure that people in South Africa would be treated equally, no matter what the color of their skin. And for that, they wound up confined on this remote island, far removed from the world they so desperately hoped to change. During our visit, we toured the rock quarry where they spent their days doing backbreaking labor, crushing and lifting heavy rocks in the blinding sun. We also saw the tiny cells – including Mr. Kathrada’s cell – where they spent their nights.

It was amazing to see Mandela’s cell, a tiny room – about 6 feet wide – where he spent 18 of the 27 years he was in prison. He slept on a thin mat on the floor, and when he stretched out to sleep at night, his toes touched one wall, while his head grazed the other. The walls were two feet thick with no decorations, and he was given a bucket to use as a toilet. In his first few years on the island, Mandela wasn’t allowed to read the newspaper, listen to the radio, or even have a clock to keep the time. Meals consisted of small rations of porridge – and every other day, he received a tiny piece of meat, but it was mainly gristle. When his mother and son passed away, he couldn’t attend their funerals. And at one point, a prison guard left a news clipping in Mandela’s cell – an article about the government’s mistreatment of his wife – just to taunt him. Yet despite these conditions, Mandela and his fellow prisoners never lost hope.

As Mandela once said, “Prison – far from breaking our spirits – made us more determined to continue with this battle until victory was won.” They did their best to get an education while in prison – they read as many books as they could, and some prisoners even got university degrees through correspondence courses. They vigorously debated philosophy, politics, and the direction of the anti-Apartheid movement. They stood up to mistreatment by the prison guards. And they found ways to communicate in secret, such as stuffing notes inside tennis balls that they would pass along during recreation periods. So when these prisoners were finally released, their spirits were far from broken. Mandela went on to lead the movement to end Apartheid and set up a new democratic government. He won a Nobel Peace Prize and became South Africa’s first black President. And for me, one of the most amazing parts of his story is this: when he was inaugurated as President, his invited three of his prison guards from Robben Island to join in his inaugural celebration. So instead of becoming cynical or despondent, or allowing himself to be consumed by bitterness and hatred, Mandela found it in his heart to forgive.

And even during all those years imprisoned on Robben Island, he never stopped believing that his country could move forward together as one nation in that same spirit of forgiveness. While very few of us will ever encounter the kind of discrimination and brutality that Nelson Mandela endured, all of us can learn important lessons from his struggle. We can learn about the importance of standing up for what you believe in, no matter what the cost. We can learn about how, with self-discipline and courage, we can overcome the most unthinkable hardships. And we can learn about the power of forgiveness to turn enemies into friends and help us move forward from a troubled past to a more hopeful future. So I hope that you will read more about President Mandela’s extraordinary life and seek to live up to his example in your own life. Michelle Obama is the First Lady of the United States More travel journals from the First Lady: Mandela | Brand South Africa Brand South Africa A password will be e-mailed to you. Recover your password Mandela: a life in books 28 Dec 2016 There are plenty of books about Nelson Mandela – written by himself, by people who knew him and by historians and journalists.

Taken together, they tell a story of a life that towers above others, yet also reveal the more private experiences of the great man. Three years on: Madiba’s death, reflections from Ramaphosa 06 Dec 2016 On the third anniversary of the death of Nelson Mandela, the Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted “Mandela the Freedom Fighter and Mandela the Democracy Builder”.... Mandela Children’s Hospital finally opens 29 Nov 2016 The Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital, an idea that began with a vision by Nelson Mandela as far back as his presidency in the 1990s,... Champion Tree proclaimed in Johannesburg 18 Nov 2016 A tree that Nelson Mandela planted with his wife, Graça Machel, in 2008, in Soweto has been declared a Champion Tree by Johannesburg City... Mandela’s legacy lives on in each of us 22 Jul 2016 Education. Literacy. Food security. Shelter. The environment. These are the areas the Nelson Mandela Foundation asks the people of the world to focus on...

Remembering Mandela 20 Jul 2016 The life and legacy of Nelson Mandela spans the globe and has touched many, from ordinary people to respected leaders, past and present. The... Nelson Mandela: a timeline 20 Jul 2016 A comprehensive timeline of the life of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – activist, political prisoner, president of South Africa, statesman and world icon of peace... Listen: the Nelson Mandela audio series 18 Jul 2016 Joe Richman, founder of the non-profit organisation Radio Diaries, worked meticulously to compile audio snippets of Nelson Mandela from more than 50 interviews with... Transcript: 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture by Bill Gates 18 Jul 2016 In his address for the 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, Bill Gates spoke under the broad theme of "living together". He touched on a... What are you doing to commemorate International Mandela Day? 14 Jul 2016 Johannesburg, Thursday 14 July 2016 – Former President Nelson Mandela remains one of the most enduring symbols of the South African nation brand. He...

Mandela death: How he survived 27 years in prison - BBC News BBC News Mandela death: How he survived 27 years in prison By Mike Wooldridge BBC News, World affairs correspondent 11 December 2013 Close share panel Media captionThe BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports the moment Mandela is released from prison "I went for a long holiday for 27 years," Nelson Mandela once said of his years in prison. It was another example of the dry, razor-sharp and often self-deprecating humour for which South Africa's first black president was famous. The prison years ended in a cottage he had to himself in the garden of a jail near Cape Town then known as Victor Verster - with TV, radio, newspapers, a swimming pool and any visitors he wanted. But he was still in prison. And the greatest number of years that he was in prison - 18 out of 27 - were spent on Robben Island, where the contrast could not have been greater. Banishment The notorious island, within sight of the city of Cape Town and Table Mountain, acquired its name from the seals that once populated it in multitudes - robben being the Dutch word for seal.

Its three centuries as a prison island and a place of banishment were punctuated by a period as a leper colony. Image caption The longest spell of his prison life was spent on Robben Island A warder's first words when Nelson Mandela and his ANC comrades arrived were: "This is the Island. This is where you will die." They faced a harsh regime in a new cell block constructed for political prisoners. Each had a single cell some seven foot square around a concrete courtyard, with a slop bucket. To start with, they were allowed no reading materials. They crushed stones with a hammer to make gravel and were made to work in a blindingly bright quarry digging out the limestone. Fellow prisoner Walter Sisulu spoke of a day Nelson Mandela's emerging leadership among the inmates was displayed in a rebellion over the quarry: "The prison authorities would rush us…'Hardloop!' That means run. One day they did it with us. It was Nelson who said: 'Comrades let's be slower than ever.' It was clear therefore that the steps we were taking would make it impossible ever to reach the quarry where we were going to. They were compelled to negotiate with Nelson.

That brought about the recognition of his leadership." Image caption Conditions on the island were difficult Prisoner 46664, as he was known - the 466th prisoner to arrive in 1964 - would be the first to protest over ill-treatment and he would often be locked up in solitary as punishment. "In those early years, isolation became a habit. We were routinely charged for the smallest infractions and sentenced to isolation," he wrote in his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom. "The authorities believed that isolation was the cure for our defiance and rebelliousness." "I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There was no end and no beginning; there is only one's own mind, which can begin to play tricks." Image caption Access to books was sometimes limited - this complete works of Shakespeare was shared by Mandela, who signed this passage from Julius Caesar, as well as other inmates Still, his determination and wit were clearly undiminished. His lawyer George Bizos saw it at first hand. "On my first visit to Robben Island he was brought to the consulting room by no less than eight warders, two in front, two on each side and two at the back… in shorts and without socks.

And the thing that was odd about it is that, unlike any other prisoner I have ever seen, he was setting the pace at which this group was coming towards the consulting room. And then with all gravitas he said 'You know, George, this place really has made me forget my manners. I haven't introduced you to my guard of honour'." University behind bars After the first few months on the island, life settled into a pattern. "Prison life is about routine: each day like the one before; each week like the one before it, so that the months and years blend into each other," Mr Mandela wrote. Image caption A portrait of Mandela now hangs in what was Victor Verster prison... Image caption ... and his statue stands outside the gates Over time, and varying according to who was running the prison, so-called privileges would be granted. Those who wanted could apply for permission to study. Although some subjects such as politics and military history were forbidden, Robben Island became known as a "university behind bars". ANC and Communist Party stalwart Mac Maharaj remembers it as a cause of a falling out with Nelson Mandela.

"He was urging let us study Afrikaans and I was saying no way - this is the language of the damn oppressor. He persuaded me by saying,' Mac, we are in for a protracted war. You can't dream of ambushing the enemy if you can't understand the general commanding the forces. You have to read their literature and poetry, you have to understand their culture so that you get into the mind of the general.' "Here he was showing right at the outset this focus of thinking of the other side, understanding them, anticipating them and so at the end of the day understanding how to accommodate them." When Nelson Mandela reflected on his Robben Island experiences on returning there in 1994 he said: "Wounds that can't be seen are more painful than those that can be seen and cured by a doctor. One of the saddest moments of my life in prison was the death of my mother. The next shattering experience was the death of my eldest son in a car accident." He was refused permission to attend either funeral.

Image caption Mandela was said to be overwhelmed by the crowds who welcomed his release Nelson Mandela's letters from prison to his second wife Winnie are poignant in the way they show the price paid for his total immersion in the anti-apartheid struggle, as is her account of this period. Left to raise their children alone, Winnie once described the impact of taking them to see him in prison: "Taking them at that age to their father - their father of that stature - was so traumatic. It was one of the most painful moments actually. And I could see the strain on my children both before their visit and for quite some time after they had some contact with their father." War of attrition By the time Nelson Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor prison on the mainland, he was the world's most famous but perhaps least recognisable political prisoner. No contemporary photograph of him had been seen for years. The late anti-apartheid activist Amina Cachalia, who had known him well before he went into prison, visited him. She told me she had taken a small camera into the prison with her, and as they had lunch she reached for her bag and said she was going to take a picture of him.

He held her by the arm and shook his head. She said Nelson Mandela was afraid they would confiscate the camera and terminate the visit. Amina Cachalia laughed at the thought of the impact her photograph would have had. "He deprived me of being a millionairess," she joked. Image caption Robben Island is now a tourist destination Fellow prisoner Ahmed Kathrada recalled that in Pollsmoor in 1985, Nelson Mandela was called to the prison office and then returned to his ANC colleagues and started reading the newspapers. After a few minutes he said to them: "Oh by the way chaps, I was told President Botha has offered to release us." "After 20 years or more of us being in prison and that's how cool he was… 'By the way this has happened'," Mr Kathrada told me. "We didn't even have to mull over it and that very night he wrote the letter.

We all read through it and signed it, rejecting the offer." Even though later Nelson Mandela was to have many meetings with the government and to be moved to the more comfortable conditions of his villa at Victor Verster prison - attending Sunday services, playing chess, teaching political economy to his fellow prisoners - he always sought to give the ANC exiled leadership no cause to be suspicious of his intentions and refused to put his own freedom before that of others and before the goals of the movement. Ahmed Kathrada told me that Nelson Mandela fought a war of attrition in everything. In prison, he once played chess against a medical student who had just come in for five years. "They played for many hours in one day and they had to ask the warders to lock the chessboard up in the cell next door. They continued the next day and each move was so slow this was a war of attrition. After a few hours the young chap said 'Look, you win. Just take your victory.' He wins."

Question: In what country would you have found Robben Island prison?
Answer: South Africa