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CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
36
INTRODUCTION
Robben Island’s history is often described as multi-layered,
as different authorities used the Island for different purposes
during different periods – extracting resources, imprisoning
and banishing people, isolating the ‘diseased’, and as a
static battleship. Despite the varied regimes and purpose
of the Island, many similarities and continuities are evident,
for example, the exploitation of resources, often through
hard labour and segregation according to status, class,
‘race’, or gender – often the custodians were ‘white’ and
the imprisoned or isolated ‘black’ After 1963 all the warders
were ‘white’ and the prisoners ‘black’. ‘White’ prisoners,
with the exception of Tsafendas were not incarcerated on
Robben Island.
Tsafendas was the assassin of Verwoerd, Prime Minister
of South Africa and architect of apartheid. Tsefendas had
been classified as ‘white’ despite having a ‘black’ mother.
Shortly before the assassination, Tsafendas, having fallen
in love with a coloured woman, applied for reclassification
as coloured. For more details see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitri_Tsafendas
Responses to ill-treatment also show continuities in the
form of resistance and attempted escapes, by struggling
for better conditions, by smuggling articles or messages,
and by engaging in activities to organise and provide sports,
education and recreation. Resistance and spirituality are
themes that recur throughout the layered history of Robben
Island.
PRE-COLONIAL ERA1
Robben Island, originally part of the mainland, forms a
pinnacle of an ancient, now submerged mountain. Over
the last 700 000 years on twelve different occasions, rising
and falling sea levels changed the shape of the outcrop
that became an Island. The most recent change occurred
about 12 000 years ago after the last Ice Age when the
sea level rose and created a channel between the Island
and the mainland.2
Three pre-colonial archaeological sites have been found
on Robben Island, two containing stone tools and the third
containing fossilised mammal bones. The former are very
ephemeral stone artefact scatters, consisting of quartz
irregular cores and flakes. The sites with stone tools are
close to each other, situated in an area west of the Maximum
Security Prison (MSP). The third site, containing fossilised
mammal bones of Eland and the now extinct Rhebok, is
below ground level adjacent to the waste management
plant in the northeastern area of the Island.
The first recorded landing on Robben Island in recent
history indicates that a group of Portuguese sailors took
refuge there and stayed overnight in a cave in 1498. A
further visit documented by sailors, records that there were
thousands of seals and penguins, and also many tortoises,
inhabiting the Island; and in 1503 sailors killed and feasted
on these resources. This began Robben Island’s role as
a source of fresh food for sailors en route to or from the
East Indies. Later in the 1600s sailors left sheep to fatten
on the Island’s grass and shrubs; however human
occupation was limited and of short duration until the
establishment of a Dutch settlement at the Cape.3
COLONIAL EXPANSIONISMAND BANISHMENT
Vereenigde Oost-Indishe Compagnie (VOC) period
(1652-1795)After the Dutch established a permanent settlement at the
Cape in 1652, they soon realised the usefulness of the
Island as a place for growing vegetables, as well as for
keeping domestic animals, such as sheep and cattle to
supply passing ships. Rabbits were also introduced to
supplement the supply of fresh meat. There were attempts
to control the extraction of the resources even then, as
Jan van Riebeeck issued strict instructions that passing
vessels limit their Island foraging to one penguin per two
sailors per day.
However, the Island changed over time, particularly its
flora and fauna, as humans exerted pressure on the
resources and brought new species as well. Many of the
species introduced in this way have become part of Robben
Island’s cultural landscape as we know it today, reflecting
a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of numerous layers.
Sailors sketched domestic animals
Within a few years the Dutch found a new role for Robben
Island as a secure site for imprisoning opponents of the
Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oost-Indishe
Compagnie (VOC) from both the Cape and the East Indies.
These prisoners were sent to the Island for punitive exile.
The earliest recorded Robben Island prisoners were slaves
and prisoners of war (POW) brought from the East Indies
in 1657. These prisoners however, were soon joined in
1658 by the earliest indigenous prisoners to be sent to the
Island, namely Autshumato, a leader of the Khoi, and three
other prisoners. In addition, common law prisoners were
also housed on the Island in order to perform hard labour.
The prisoners were forced to cut stone and mine lime,
which was used to build some of the early structures at
the Cape. Later, prisoners also burnt shells for lime, lit the
signal fires and tended the company’s sheep on the Island.
After 1722, political and religious leaders from the East
Indies, where the VOC was fighting for control over the
lands with which it traded, were sent in greater numbers
to Robben Island. In order to differentiate leaders who had
been exiled, from other political and common law prisoners,
leaders did not endure forced labour and were given
allowances.
The Muslim influence on Robben Island is manifest in a
kramat and unmarked graves of Muslim exiles who died
there. A simple shrine was erected to mark the death of
an Asian Prince of Madura, Pangerau Chakra Deningrat.
Although his body was sent back to his place of birth, the
burial of the Prince of Madura is currently symbolised by
the kramat. There are a number of other gravesites in the
area including that of Hadjie Matarim who died on Robben
Island in 1755
Another event that marks Muslim history in South Africa
was the writing of an important text on Islamic jurisprudence
by Tuan Guru, a prince from Tidore in the Ternate Islands,
who was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1780 until
1793. The imprisonment of Muslim leaders from the East
on the Island has therefore left an indelible mark on the
people of the Cape.
British occupation (1795-1802; 1806-1910)After the British took over from the Dutch, they continued
to use the Island as a favourite place of banishment for
indigenous leaders who opposed colonial expansion and
land dispossession both in the eastern and northern regions
of the Cape Colony and later in Natal as well. Chiefs who
led the resistance against the British advancement were
seen as a hindrance to European civilisation and needed
to be silenced.4
For almost the entire nineteenth century, numerous leaders
of Xhosa, Khoi, Gcaleka in the Eastern Cape, the Korana
in Northern Cape, and the Hlubi in Natal, were banished
to the Island at different times. They constructed and lived
in crude structures in their traditional style to the north of
the bay, geographically separated from the village in the
southeast.
During the later years of Dutch rule at the Cape, the Dutch
cattle farmers trekked east and north from Cape Town.
Initially they clashed with the Khoikhoi and San inhabitants,
and later also with the Xhosa in the Zuurveld. The more
numerous Xhosa who had settled in these areas many
years earlier, were also cattle farmers. The resulting, often
violent, clashes over land and cattle continued for over
one hundred years involving nine frontier wars, or wars of
dispossession, the last ending in 1878. Under British
colonialism, from 1806, a combination of guile and warfare
to increase the Dutch and British settlers’ landholdings
resulted in the diminishing power of indigenous leaders to
resist the continual annexation of land. The final annexation
of land on the East Coast was that of Pondoland in 1879,
giving the Cape Colony governance over the land stretching
over 1 000 km to the southern border of Natal.
It is interesting to note that the people of Pondoland engaged
in one of the most extensive revolts against the apartheid
system in 1960.
Clashes between the British and Khoi led to the arrest and
imprisonment on Robben Island of David Stuurman in
1809. This was followed by the arrest and banishment of
Makhanda, an important Xhosa leader, and a number of
his followers in 1819.5 Another group of Xhosa chiefs
including Maqoma, Fadana, Stokwe and others, were sent
to the Island in the 1850s.6 After the last war of dispossession
in 1877-78, fourteen Xhosa leaders, including the sons of
Maqoma and Sandile were imprisoned on Robben Island.
They were separated from other prisoners in a wooden
hut near Murray’s Bay.7
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
37
The kramat as it is today
Diagrams illustrating the expansion of British colonialism
There are incidents of descendants of Xhosa chiefs who
were banished to the Island in the late 1800s being imprisoned
there under apartheid over one hundred years later.
In the northwestern borderlands of the Cape Colony, white
farmers living south of the Orange River came into conflict
with the Korana people as their encroachment deprived
local inhabitants of their grazing land and sources of water
for their livestock.8 This sparked confrontation and resistance
from the Korana people who, under their chiefs, waged
war against this colonial intrusion. By 1870 the conflict
resulted in the capture of several Korana chiefs, three of
whom were seen by the colonialists as the most dangerous
– Jan Kivido, Piet Rooy and Carel Ruiters. They were
convicted and banished to Robben Island where they
served their sentences.9
In 1879 another Korana chief named Lucas, with a number
of other leaders captured by the British, were also sent to
the Island. Lucas died on the Island in 1880 while serving
his sentence.10 Most of the Koranas were categorised as
convicts and were housed in a room adjacent to the convict
station on the edge of the Village.11 These were, however,
not the only chiefs imprisoned as there were others
imprisoned on the mainland as well. In addition, the British
conflict with the Hlubi in Natal led to the banishment of
Chief Langalibalele to the Island in 1874.
Between 1880 and 1884 all the indigenous leaders banished
or imprisoned on Robben Island, were either pardoned
and released or transferred to the Breakwater Prison at
Table Bay Harbour where they worked in the docks.12
GENERAL INFIRMARY– ROBBEN ISLAND AS A PLACEOF EXCLUSION (1846-1931)
13
In 1846 a General Infirmary was established on Robben
Island to cater for three specific categories of the sick in
the colony who were poor – the insane, the chronically ill,
and those with leprosy. As new facilities were developed
for the mentally ill and the chronically ill on the mainland,
the Infirmary was gradually reduced in scope. However
this period is remembered primarily for the isolation of
people with leprosy. While introducing progressive methods
of treating mental illness, forms of punishment were at
times extremely harsh. Patients were segregated on the
basis of race, class and gender, as Robben Island reflected
the predominant attitudes and values of the time. This
subsequently led the way to implementing a policy of formal
racial segregation in the wards at various stages from the
1860s, and provided an example of racial segregation that
was followed by many other Cape institutions in the 1890s.
By accepting the patients least likely to be cured, the
Robben Island Infirmary smoothed the work of hospitals
and gaols on the mainland, and removed from the streets
those people whom middle-class Cape Town found most
threatening to their social order. The social and medical
profile of the Robben Island patient made the General
Infirmary more of a place of exclusion for those who weighed
heavily on the hands of government, than a place of healing.
Another motivation for the establishment of the General
Infirmary on Robben Island was for economic reasons,
being a place with “an abundance of stone, lime and
labour”.14 Putting the chronically ill, those with leprosy and
the mentally ill together in one place as opposed to being
scattered in hospitals on the mainland would relieve the
tax burden.
Major changes occurred in the 1890s, as, in the context
of xenophobia in western countries, there was growing
fear that the disease of leprosy was spreading at the Cape.
An outcome of this fear was the enactment of the Cape
Leprosy Repression Act of 1891, which required that all
sufferers from this disease be isolated from society in
leprosaria. The choice of compulsory segregation as the
primary solution to the problem was specifically related to
racist fears that the spread of leprosy, largely identified as
a ‘black disease’, would not be halted by education or
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
38
Maqoma
Nursing staff of the Female Mental Asylum
Male leprosy patients celebratingChristmas
Female leprosy patients celebratingChristmas
Langalibalele
voluntary measures. This compulsory segregation was
rarely implemented in other countries.
At this time Robben Island was the only leprosarium in the
colony and it was swamped in 1892 by the unexpectedly
large number of people with leprosy, black and white, who
were classified under the Act. When other leprosaria were
built in that decade, Robben Island continued to house the
majority of the patients (close to a thousand at any one
time). It was specifically used to detain escapees or patients
who protested in other ways against their incarceration in
mainland hospitals.
However, as treatment improved over time, a growing
number of people with leprosy were diagnosed as non-
infectious and were allowed to leave the Island. The
leprosaria were closed in 1931 due to rising costs and
decreasing caseloads, thus ending Robben Island’s many
years as a place of exclusion for those who were sick and
marginalised by South African society because of their
disease.
The Role of the ChurchDuring the period of the General Infirmary when hundreds
of people with leprosy were isolated on Robben Island, the
Christian church was very active and became an important
source of spiritual comfort. At the peak of the involvement
of the church, there were as many as seven consecrated
churches on the Island, representing the Anglican, Dutch
Reformed Church and Roman Catholic Church. In addition,
pastors representing the Moravian and other church
denominations visited the Island regularly to conduct
services and to provide pastoral care. A number of churches
were constructed at different times on the Island, including
those built for specific groups, such as women with leprosy.
Most of the churches were constructed in the leprosaria
and, with the exception of the Church of the Good Shepherd,
were demolished in the early 1930s, along with the wards,
houses and other structures of the leprosaria.
The construction of separate churches for Dutch Reformed,
Catholic and Anglican congregations suggests a degree
of interdenominational rivalry at the time. That separate
churches were built for men and for women in their
respective settlements, illustrates the strict segregation of
male and female leprosy patients.15
The role of the Christian church in the history of Robben
Island, however, is an ambivalent one. On one hand, the
church was an important source of spiritual comfort to
those who were forcibly moved to the Island and to their
custodians. On the other hand, the church was seen to be
an extension and a partner of the colonial administration,
as it was perceived to do little to challenge the authorities
or champion the rights of patients.16 There are some
chaplains who are said to have actually sought biblical
justification for the continued isolation of those suffering
from disease, for instance, the church did not speak out
against the segregation of people with leprosy from society.
In one case, individuals with leprosy refused to listen to
their ministers sermonising about ‘lepers’ in the bible.
However to simply dismiss the importance of the church
in providing spiritual strength to leprosy patients is as
dangerous as to completely embrace it without critical
evaluation. Thus despite the church at times collaborating
with the state, it was an important institution that played a
major role in the lives of the people of the Island in different
periods of time.
MILITARY DEFENCE (1939-1945)17
During WW2 Robben Island was chosen as the key site
to protect Table Bay and Cape Town from threat of enemy
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
39
All leprosarium wards were demolished in the 1930s because of a fear thatthe disease would spread and contaminate people moving into the buildings
In 1939 150 000 tons of equipment was transported to the IslandLeprosarium ward c1900
attack. Its role changed during the war from that of a static
battleship and a battery of 9,2” guns to an anti-submarine
detector station. Artillery training took place through most
of the war. To facilitate these varied functions, gun batteries
and related fortifications, new buildings for accommodation,
storerooms, an airstrip and numerous other structures were
built. This required the landing of 150 000 tons of equipment
and material on the Island. To cater for this, the first priority
was the construction of a harbour capable of landing the
material. A large labour force was required for the building
of the harbour and other structures, and approximately
2 000 workers, possibly rising to 5 000 at times, were
engaged in this major project.
Although the 9,2” and 6” batteries were never used against
enemy craft, they played a crucial role in training coastal
and anti-aircraft gunners, many of whom served in North
Africa. A majority of the people, including black men and
white women who served and were trained on Robben
Island during the war, were trained out of public view to
abide by the official position that black men should not be
armed. Unofficially, many men of the Cape Corps, a black
unit, were armed and trained in order to perform duties in
the rear, including the guarding of prisoners of war. However,
2 000 men of the Cape Corps were trained in gunnery on
Robben Island and did duty as coastal gunners on the
Island or engaged in active combat with anti-aircraft
regiments in North Africa.
As white male soldiers departed to serve in North Africa,
many opportunities arose for white women by the creation
of new units, including artillery specialists in the Women’s
Auxiliary Army Service (ASWAAS) and harbour defence
operators in the South African Auxiliary Naval Service
(SWANS). Training of over four hundred women in the
ASWAAS took place at the artillery school on Robben
Island, after which a number of these women continued to
serve in the batteries on the Island. The SWANS played
a key role in operating the various detection systems.
Conditions on the Island during this period continued to
be more difficult for black people who were segregated
and housed in inferior accommodation – the Cape Corps
were housed in a derelict building and then in tents in the
northern region of the Island close to the Cornelia Battery,
and African workers engaged in construction were housed
in a ‘native compound’ on the site of the present-day
Maximum Security Prison (MSP), just west of the harbour.
In contrast, white women were housed in the Village or
‘Logistics’ and were closely guarded at night. White soldiers
and engineers were in barracks in the Village or in the
southern region of the Island, thus continuing the geographic
separation according to race and gender, to a degree.18
This institutionalised racial segregation on the Island,
ironically, took place during a war against Fascism and
Nazism.
Another continuity was the use of the Island as a place of
imprisonment – a group of Vichy prisoners of war were
housed on the Island after they were captured during the
interception of a Vichy fleet that sailed from Madagascar
and attempted to reach West Africa.19 After WW2 a small
prison holding approximately 60 long-term prisoners
sentenced to hard labour was established on the Island.
These common law prisoners maintained the roads and
kept the Island clean, and were also available to work for
the Island’s residents as gardeners or domestic workers.20
Thus imprisonment, segregation and discrimination
remained part of the daily life of the Island even during
times of war against others who also committed social
injustices. The large Island population at this time also
brought with it its negative environmental impact, including
a near decimation of the penguin colony.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
40
Manning the guns
SWANS training
SWANS at work
APARTHEID PRISON (1961-1994)
The South African Navy handed control of Robben Island
to the Prison Services on 24 March 1961. This was to mark
the beginning of the most notorious period of the Island’s
history with the establishment of a Maximum Security
Prison (MSP).
The years 1960 and 1961 were a key turning point in South
Africa’s recent history, after a decade of peaceful protest
and mass actions during which the principles of Gandhi’s
satyagraha protest action held sway.
Satyagraha is roughly translated as non-violent force. It is
interesting to note that Gandhi developed his ideas of
passive resistance or non-violent force in South Africa while
struggling to improve the civil rights of Indians in South
Africa. The Natal Indian Congress formed in 1894 became
an ally of the ANC in the 1950s and a number of their
members were incarcerated on Robben Island. Albert
Luthuli, President of the ANC in the 1950s and awarded
The Nobel Peace Prize, as well as other members of the
Congress Alliance were very influenced by Gandhi’s ideas.
In March 1960 the apartheid state responded violently to
protests against ‘pass laws’ in various places, including
Sharpeville (south of the city of Johannesburg) and Langa
(in Cape Town), as well as in Pondoland (in the former
Transkei). The Pondoland revolt against the imposition of
Bantu Authorities and control over land, was a widespread
uprising in 1960 in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape.
In crushing the uprising many hundreds of men were
arrested and a number were sent to, and imprisoned on,
Robben Island. Despite being charged with offences under
the common law, these men can be regarded as the first
political prisoners on the Island under apartheid.
Pass Laws were used by colonial authorities and again by
the apartheid regime to control movement of people. After
the discovery of gold and diamonds, pass laws were
implemented for those men classified as African in order
to minimise the extent of urbanisation and restrict the
majority of Africans to rural areas. Passes were one of the
most hated of the apartheid laws and thus a key target of
protest actions in the 1950s, especially after the state
extended the pass laws to include African women.
In an attempt to defeat the liberation struggle, the apartheid
regime created numerous laws with the result that large
numbers of Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), African National
Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party
(SACP) members (cadres) were arrested, tried and
sentenced to different periods of imprisonment. The
apartheid regime moved swiftly to ban organisations
opposed to it and introduced legislation that outlawed even
discussion of opposition to the state through armed struggle.
After being banned, both the ANC and the PAC re-
established themselves clandestinely and formed armed
wings, (the ANC established uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and
the PAC set up Poqo in 1961) to continue the struggle
against the regime and its harsh, discriminatory laws.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
41
Arrival of a group of common law prisoners
The Maximum Security Prison
An example of a pass book Burning the passes
PAC march in Langa, Cape Town
Passive Resisters, 1908
South African Communist Party meeting 1945
Despite three members of the SACP’s central committee
being imprisoned on Robben Island, the SACP took a
decision not to establish party structures on the Island in
order to minimise conflicts in the ANC’s ranks.
By the end of 1964 hundreds of political prisoners had
been shipped to Robben Island and placed alongside the
common law prisoners previously held on the Island.21
Hardened criminals were also introduced and used by the
prison authorities to engage in brutal acts to subdue and
break the spirit of the political prisoners. Many of the
warders were cruel, barbaric and participated in acts against
the political prisoners, encouraging the criminals to do
likewise.22 This made life and the already-harsh conditions
even more difficult, for example, the poor food and sparse
diet was worsened by common law prisoners who worked
in the kitchens smuggling out the food meant for political
prisoners; prisoners were given minimal clothing, for
example, the African majority were only given short pants
and no underwear. In addition there was a total lack of
regard for basic human rights, for example, there were no
beds – only thin mats that were placed on the cold cement
floor; forced hard labour was often accompanied by beatings
and torture; there was a news blackout – no radios or
newspapers were allowed; and many other petty regulations
were enforced that made prison life extremely difficult.23
Only black men were imprisoned on Robben Island and,
after the transfer to the mainland of coloured warders, all
the warders were white males. The segregation of blacks
to the northern part of the Island continued, with prisoners
initially housed in the Ou Tronk (Old Jail) and then also in
the Zink Tronk (Zinc Jail) while the prisoners built the new
MSP in which they were then incarcerated. Relations
between the prisoners and the warders were exacerbated
by differences in age, education and even class – many
political prisoners were older, well educated and from
middle-class backgrounds, whereas the warders were often
from poor working-class backgrounds and had little
education. The latter had been indoctrinated into believing
that the political prisoners were terrorists, murderers and
rapists. The brutal treatment meted out by some guards
was partly a result of what they perceived black men to be.
Isolation, so symbolic of Robben Island, was continuously
put into practice; however from the 1960s until the recent
political dispensation, it was more widely enforced. The
prisoners who were regarded as political leaders or seen
to be influential were isolated from the general prison
population and placed in single cells in B-Section. This
section became increasingly well known as the leadership
section, as leading figures from all the liberation movements
were placed here – leaders of the ANC, the PAC, Yu Chi
Chan Club, African People’s Democratic Union of South
Africa (APDUSA), as well as from Namibia’s South West
African People’s Organisation (SWAPO). The following
leaders, for instance, shared this section – four members
of the ANC’s executive, including Govan Mbeki and Walter
Sisulu; leading figures of the PAC, such as Zeph Mothopeng,
Clarence Makwetu and Jeff Masemola; Toivo ya Toivo of
SWAPO; Neville Alexander of the Yu Chi Chan Club; Kader
Hassim of APDUSA; and Eddie Daniels, the solitary member
of the Liberal Party on Robben Island. However, some
very influential figures, including Harry Gwala and Johnson
Mlambo, remained within the general prison population.24
Robert Sobukwe, the charismatic leader of the PAC, was
held in solitary confinement in a house some distance
away from the MSP. He was not allowed to communicate
with anybody including his warders who were ordered not
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
42
MK cadres training
Rivonia Trialists
to speak to him. Sobukwe could only communicate
symbolically with other prisoners by using various gestures.
Some of the conditions improved due to the struggles
described below, and in conjunction with outside
organisations and even legal actions – better quality food,
especially after the common law prisoners were removed
from the kitchen, study opportunities, and, in the mid-1970s,
hot water for showering, and beds were introduced.
Changes and improvements were, however, not a smooth
progression, as a new prison head or a change in the
government’s approach could turn the clock back. Continual
shifts in the regulations resulted in the suspension of
studies, often preventing new arrivals from studying at
university or post-graduate level. From 1975 visits were
restricted to first-degree relatives only, thus impacting
considerably on many prisoners who relied on other family
members and were now further isolated from the outside
world.25
The 1970s witnessed a new wave of resistance against
apartheid led by black consciousness activists and
supported by a vast number of black school and university
students and workers. Student and community organisations
such as the Soweto Student Representative Council
(SSRC), South African Student Movement (SASM) and
the Black Parents Committee (BPC) among others, all
raised the political temperature through their opposition to
apartheid.
A key trigger to the student uprisings of 1976 was the further
implementation of the apartheid government’s Bantu
Education policy in that school subjects had to be taught
through the medium of Afrikaans and English despite the
lack of teachers who could teach in Afrikaans.
As a result of their activities, there was an influx of new
militant prisoners to the MSP on Robben Island. They
introduced ‘black power’ slogans and symbols of resistance
and refused to accede to warders’ demands. Thus they
had a considerable impact on the prevailing atmosphere,
where the long-term prisoners had adopted a more
conciliatory approach. The prison authorities responded
by isolating many of the South African Students Organisation
(SASO) and Black Consciousness Movement (BCM)
leaders, as well as captured MK guerrillas, in A-Section,
and built high walls between many of the sections in order
to minimise contact between the prisoners.
As time passed, there was much pressure from within the
prison and from the outside world for change in conditions
inside the prison as well as in South Africa, and subsequently
the lives of prisoners improved – hard labour was ended,
skills training was introduced, and access to news
broadcasts and newspapers was allowed for A category
prisoners.
In the 1980s many of the long-term prisoners were released
or transferred, including the release of the Namibian political
prisoners and transfer to Pollsmoor Prison of most of the
Rivonia trialists. There were however, new arrivals of
prisoners who now included more captured MK guerrillas
and, after the Vaal Uprising and general unrest from 1983
onwards, a steady flow into the prison of young United
Democratic Front (UDF) and Azanian Peoples Organisation
(AZAPO) activists. Several ex-political prisoners received
second periods of imprisonment on Robben Island, including
Zeph Mothopeng and Harry Gwala. At the same time,
hunger strikes continued to play a role in the struggle to
improve prison conditions.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
43
Robert Sobukwe on Robben Island
Meeting of Black Consciousness students and parents
United Democratic Front rally
Sport and cultural activities were encouraged by the
leadership of the prisoners and played a major role in the
prisoners’ lives, while studies, formal and informal, continued
to mould and shape many within the confines of the Robben
Island prison. After the unbanning of political and other
organisations in 1990, groups of prisoners were released,
until the last political prisoners departed from the Island in
1991. Jeff Masemola, a craftsman and an artist, was the
longest serving political prisoner on Robben Island who
spent 26 years of his life imprisonment sentence in the
MSP. Others who were sentenced to life imprisonment
included the Rivonia Trialists, Petros Mashigo, Johnson
Lubisi, Neph Manana, David Moisi, and numerous others.
There were of course conflicts that occurred between
organisations, between generations, and between
individuals, for example, over strategy and tactics in the
prison and the wider political struggle, or over ideological
and other differences – something that would be expected
in any dynamic society. However, the overriding solidarity
of prisoners to organise themselves against a common
‘enemy’ is an important legacy of this period in the life of
the evolving South African political landscape.
During their incarceration most prisoners engaged in
activities that were meant to equip them with tools for the
future. These activities were carried out as part of the
political agenda and included debates, studies,
organisational activities, and training. The results of this
‘training’ can clearly be seen in the present free South
Africa where, upon their release, many ex-political prisoners
engaged in struggle activities, often taking leadership roles.
Thus during and after the transition to a democratic society,
many ex-prisoners played, and continue to play, key roles
in many sectors of society. This has particularly been
epitomised by Nelson Mandela when he assumed the
mantle of president of the government of a free South
Africa in 1994.26
A powerful symbol of humanity and a product of Robben
Island, Nelson Mandela and his comrades Govan Mbeki
and Walter Sisulu, among many, were victims of
discrimination, incarceration and isolation. These were
people denied their rights for over a quarter of a century.
Together, and jointly with their comrades and all those who
were jailed in Robben Island and other prisons in South
Africa, they all suffered. They all never gave up, but came
out fighting, preaching and practicing forgiveness and
reconciliation. Despite all the difficulties there was a creation
of a ‘rainbow nation’, South Africa. Robben Island therefore
stands out as a symbol of suffering, truth, as well as
forgiveness.
RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSIONTHROUGH THE NINETEENTH ANDTWENTIETH CENTURIES
One of the underlying themes of the history of Robben
Island in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is
that of resistance to oppression. To end this chapter this
theme is analysed in more detail.
The underlying reason for the banishment of indigenous
leaders to Robben Island in the nineteenth century was
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
44
Soccer became one of the most popular sports to partake in. The soccertrophy was designed by Thabo Ngcobo and by D.J. Mpahlwa in the PrisonWorkshop in the early 1980s
Jeff Masemola on his release in 1989
Mandela and Sisulu in the Isolation Block courtyard
their resistance to colonial expansion. This often took the
form of skirmishes, battles and even lengthy wars against
the colonial powers. By banishing or imprisoning such
leaders on Robben Island, the colonial governments hoped
to isolate leaders from their people and break their spirit
of resistance. Their imprisonment failed to achieve this as,
whenever possible, they returned to rekindle the flame of
anti-colonialism. Resistance to banishment and
imprisonment down the years took various forms with
escape being the predominant form in earlier years.
Escapes in the nineteenth century included that of David
Stuurman, who, with Hans Trompetter, had been in the
forefront of the Khoi-led war of 1799 to1803. Stuurman
successfully escaped in a rowing boat four months into his
imprisonment on the Island. He was recaptured only ten
years later and shipped to the Island with the first group
of Xhosa prisoners. Stuurman escaped for a second time
in 1820. Makhanda who arrived on the Island in 1819 spent
less than a year there before attempting to escape.
Apart from indigenous leaders imprisoned on the Island,
other people held on the Island against their will, such as
those with leprosy, also expressed their discontent in
various ways. In 1892 men with leprosy, led by Franz
Jacobs, a former teacher from Cape Town seriously
challenged the Leprosy Repression Act of 1891 and drafted
a petition to the authorities challenging their authority to
isolate people with leprosy on Robben Island. They also
demanded an improvement in their conditions. Later in
1893 women with leprosy went on strike, refusing to assist
in any kind of sanitary work including cleaning their wards
or sending their washing to the leprosarium laundry.27
Others wrote to local newspapers complaining about the
quality of food and water. Thus there has been resistance
and protests at all stages of the inhuman treatment that
has been meted out to people on Robben Island.
A spirit of resistance was again manifest in those who
fought against apartheid in the 1960s and were imprisoned
on Robben Island. Activists and leaders of various liberation
movements and anti-apartheid groups were arrested and
transported to Robben Island to serve their sentences,
often for ten to twenty years, including some sentenced to
life imprisonment. Political prisoners refused to allow the
prison system to break their spirit and engaged in a wide
range of activities that challenged it and the apartheid
authorities.
The political prisoners organised hunger strikes demanding
better treatment, formed clandestine prison cell and party
political structures, held political discussions to sharpen
their political consciousness, developed secret
communication channels to overcome the gap between
the isolation and general sections of the prison, and
challenged arbitrary rules and punishment. There were
other forms of resistance that included, fighting for the right
to pursue academic studies through correspondence,
petitions, and the use of legal channels to change prison
conditions.
Prisoners managed to engage in less direct forms of
resistance that were designed to keep their morale up and
break the feeling of imprisonment. ‘Struggle songs’ sung
rhythmically with work, sourcing food from alternative
sources other than that provided by the prison system, and
developing prison language with terms that were not
understood by warders, are examples of this indirect
resistance.
Thus in the process of attempting to break the morale of
the political prisoners, the prison system became a coarse
stone against which the prisoners sharpened themselves
and their resolve to liberate their country from an oppressive
and discriminatory system of government. In these ways
the survival and growth of the prisoners and their
organisations defeated the apartheid government’s aim of
destroying opposition to apartheid.28
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
45
Xhosa chiefs on Robben Island
Release of political prisoners in 1991
PLEASE SEE FOLLOWING TABLE SHOWING THE
CHRONOLOGY OF ROBBEN ISLAND
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
46
DA
TE
KE
Y E
VE
NT
S I
N S
OU
TH
AF
RIC
A
Pre
-
14
88
Pre
-co
lon
ial
HIS
TO
RIC
AL
PE
RIO
DR
OL
E O
F A
ND
KE
Y E
VE
NT
S O
N R
OB
BE
N IS
LA
ND
• E
ffect of Ic
e A
ge im
pacte
d o
n s
ea le
vels
results
in c
ha
ng
ing
co
astlin
es,
20
00
0 to
4 0
00
be
fore
th
e p
rese
nt
• C
ap
e in
ha
bite
d b
y K
ho
isa
n g
rou
ps fro
m a
tle
ast 1
6 0
00
ye
ars
ag
o.
• D
ue
to
ris
ing
an
d fa
llin
g s
ea
le
ve
ls, a
t tim
es th
e Isla
nd
wa
s lin
ke
dto
th
e m
ain
lan
d.
• P
ossib
le p
eriodic
habitation a
nd e
xplo
itation o
f th
e n
atu
ral re
sourc
es
by th
e K
ho
isa
n liv
ing
in
th
e r
eg
ion
.
• S
ton
e-a
ge
art
efa
cts
use
d o
n R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
aro
un
d 1
6 0
00
ye
ars
ag
o, in
dic
atin
g K
ho
isa
n h
ab
ita
tio
n o
f th
e a
rea
.
14
88
-
16
52
Eu
rop
ea
n s
hip
s p
assin
g th
e tip
of A
fric
a d
uring e
xplo
ration a
nd
develo
pm
ent of a n
ew
maritim
e
tra
de
ro
ute
to
Asia
.
• P
assin
g o
f E
uro
pe
an
sh
ips.
• 1
49
8 –
First re
co
rde
d la
nd
ing
by V
asco
da
Ga
ma
’s fle
et.
• R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
fu
nctio
ne
d a
s a
so
urc
e o
f fo
od
(se
al, p
en
gu
in m
ea
t&
eg
gs)
an
d fre
sh
wa
ter.
• U
se
d a
s a
pla
ce
fo
r fa
tte
nin
g s
he
ep
to
su
pp
ly p
assin
g s
hip
s w
ith
fre
sh
me
at.
• R
obben Isla
nd u
sed a
s a
com
munic
ation o
utp
ost by s
ailo
rs for
oth
er
pa
ssin
g s
hip
s.
• 1
63
2-4
0 –
Au
tsh
um
ato
an
d o
the
r K
ho
i sta
ye
d o
n th
e Isla
nd
inte
rmitte
ntly.
16
52
-
17
95
VO
C p
erio
d –
colo
nia
l expansio
n o
f th
e D
utc
h
in S
ou
th E
ast A
sia
.
Re
sis
tan
ce
str
ug
gle
s le
d to
lea
de
rs b
ein
g c
ap
ture
d a
nd
exile
d.
• E
sta
blis
hm
en
t o
f a
pe
rma
ne
nt re
fre
sh
me
nt
sta
tio
n fo
r D
utc
h s
ailo
rs.
• D
utc
h b
eg
an
tra
nsp
ort
ing
sla
ve
s fro
m A
sia
an
d A
fric
a to
th
e C
ap
e in
16
58
.
• R
esis
tan
ce
to
Du
tch
exp
an
sio
nis
m in
So
uth
East A
sia
led to the b
anis
hm
ent of le
aders
to
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
.
• S
ettle
r expansio
n fro
m C
ape T
ow
n to the n
ort
ha
nd
ea
st le
d to
str
on
g r
esis
tan
ce
in
th
e e
ast
and the w
ars
of dis
possessio
n fro
m the 1
790s.
• M
eat fr
om
rabbits a
nd s
heep, and p
enguin
eggs s
upplie
d b
y R
obben
Isla
nd
.
• A
uts
hum
ato
and thre
e o
ther
Khoik
hoi banis
hed to R
obben Isla
nd in
16
58
.
• R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
fu
nctio
ne
d a
s a
priso
n fo
r co
mm
on
la
w a
nd
po
litic
al
priso
ne
rs fro
m c
16
57
.
• K
roto
a, a K
hoi w
om
an, is
banis
hed to R
obben Isla
nd in 1
669 w
here
sh
e d
ied
in
16
74
at th
e a
ge
of 3
1 y
ea
rs.
• E
ast A
sia
n e
xile
s im
priso
ne
d fro
m 1
68
2.
• Q
uarr
yin
g o
f sla
te a
nd lim
e to s
upply
build
ing n
eeds o
f C
ape T
ow
n.
17
95
-
18
02
First B
ritish o
ccupation –
during
British
/ F
ren
ch
wa
r.
• B
ritish
an
ne
xe
d th
e C
ap
e b
eca
use
of its
str
ate
gic
po
sitio
n.
• R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
fu
nctio
ne
d a
s a
priso
n m
ain
ly fo
r m
ilita
ry p
riso
ne
rs.
• Is
lan
d u
se
d a
s q
ua
ran
tin
e s
ite
fo
r th
ose
with
sm
allp
ox.
• W
ha
ling
rig
hts
gra
nte
d to
Jo
hn
Mu
rra
y.
18
03
-
18
06
Ba
tavia
n p
erio
d•
Pe
ace
Tre
aty
of A
mie
ns r
etu
rns th
e C
ap
e to
Ba
tavia
n R
ep
ub
lic.
• K
ho
i lo
st th
ird
wa
r o
f d
isp
osse
ssio
n in
18
03
and K
hoi le
ader,
Hans T
rom
petter,
captu
red.
• C
on
vic
t p
riso
n r
e-e
sta
blis
he
d.
• H
an
s T
rom
pe
tte
r b
an
ish
ed
to
th
e Isla
nd
.
• Jo
hn
Mu
rra
y fo
rce
d to
clo
se
th
e w
ha
ling
sta
tio
n o
n th
e Isla
nd
.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
47
DA
TE
KE
Y E
VE
NT
S I
N S
OU
TH
AF
RIC
A
18
06
-
19
10
British
co
lon
ial p
erio
d –
pe
ace
en
de
d a
s B
rita
in a
nd
Fra
nce
en
ga
ge
in
Na
po
leo
nic
wa
rs.
Gro
win
g fe
ars
of le
pro
sy a
nd
conta
gio
n le
d to is
ola
ting p
eople
with
le
pro
sy in
ma
ny c
ou
ntr
ies
in 1
89
0s.
HIS
TO
RIC
AL
PE
RIO
DR
OL
E O
F A
ND
KE
Y E
VE
NT
S O
N R
OB
BE
N IS
LA
ND
• B
rita
in r
eo
ccu
pie
d th
e C
ap
e a
fte
r th
e d
efe
at
of B
ata
via
n s
old
iers
at B
attle
of B
lou
be
rg.
• X
ho
sa
an
d K
ho
i lo
se
Ba
ttle
of G
rah
am
sto
wn
during fifth
war
of dis
possessio
n in 1
819, and
ma
ny w
arr
iors
ca
ptu
red
.
• T
he C
olo
nia
l Secre
tary
in C
ape T
ow
n, M
onta
gu
intr
od
uce
d s
yste
m o
f co
nvic
t re
ha
bili
tatio
n.
• D
ecis
ion b
y M
onta
gu to e
sta
blis
h a
n infirm
ary
on the Isla
nd for
the c
hro
nic
ally
ill, p
eople
with
lep
rosy a
nd
th
e m
en
tally
ill.
• F
urt
he
r co
lon
ial e
xp
an
sio
n to
th
e e
ast a
nd
no
rth
sp
ark
ed
re
sis
tan
ce
by in
dig
en
ou
sle
ad
ers
.
• L
ep
rosy R
ep
ressio
n A
ct p
asse
d in
18
91
wa
sused to isola
te p
eople
with lepro
sy fro
m their
fam
ilie
s a
nd
co
mm
un
itie
s.
• 1
80
6 –
Wh
alin
g s
tatio
n r
e-e
sta
blis
he
d.
• 1809 –
David
Stu
urm
an im
prisoned b
ut escapes the s
am
e y
ear
with
oth
ers
.
• 1
80
8-1
84
6 –
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
use
d a
s a
priso
n fo
r m
ilita
ry, co
mm
on
law
an
d p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rs.
• 1
81
9 –
La
rge
gro
up
of p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rs b
rou
gh
t to
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
from
Easte
rn C
ape inclu
din
g M
akhanda, S
tuurm
an a
nd T
rom
petter.
• 1820 e
scape –
Uprisin
g a
nd e
scape o
f prisoners
inclu
din
g M
akhanda,
Stu
urm
an a
nd T
rom
petter
resulted in d
eath
s o
f som
e a
nd r
ecaptu
reo
f o
the
rs.
• W
ha
ling
sta
tio
n c
lose
d a
nd
re
str
ictio
ns p
lace
d o
n fis
hin
g v
esse
ls to
min
imis
e o
pp
ort
un
itie
s fo
r e
sca
pe
.
• 1820s –
Convic
t la
bour
org
anis
ed a
nd s
tone c
uttin
g a
nd li
me b
urn
ing
resu
me
d. A
bo
ut 1
0 p
er
ce
nt o
f th
e im
priso
ne
d a
re w
om
en
als
o d
oh
ard
la
bo
ur.
• R
elig
iou
s in
str
uctio
n fo
r co
nvic
ts b
eg
an
in
la
te 1
82
0s, fo
llow
ed
by
tea
ch
ing
of lit
era
cy a
nd
nu
me
racy.
• 1
84
6-1
93
1 –
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
as a
n in
firm
ary
fo
r p
eo
ple
with
le
pro
sy
(until 1931),
menta
lly ill
patients
(until 1921)
and the c
hro
nic
ally
sic
k(u
ntil 1
89
1).
• 1855-1
871 –
Robben Isla
nd h
oused X
hosa p
olit
ical prisoners
. K
aty
ispends tw
elv
e y
ears
with M
aqom
a, her
husband, on R
obben Isla
nd
afte
r h
is b
an
ish
me
nt to
th
e Isla
nd
.
• 1866-1
921 –
Robben Isla
nd r
eopened a
s a
convic
t sta
tion to p
rovid
ela
bo
ur
for
the
In
firm
ary
an
d fo
r th
e la
ter
co
nstr
uctio
n o
f th
e n
ew
lep
rosa
ria
.
• 1874-1
883 –
Polit
ical p
risoners
bro
ught fr
om
the E
aste
rn C
ape, N
ata
la
nd
No
rth
ern
Ca
pe
.
• 1
88
0s &
18
90
s –
Co
nstr
uctio
n o
f w
om
en
’s a
nd
me
n’s
le
pro
sa
ria
to
ho
use
la
rge
in
flu
x o
f p
eo
ple
with
le
pro
sy.
19
10
-
19
61
Un
ion
of S
ou
th A
fric
a.
So
uth
Afr
ica
gra
nte
d p
art
ial
ind
ep
en
de
nce
by B
rita
in.
19
39
-19
45
– W
W2
be
twe
en
Alli
es a
nd
Axis
co
un
trie
s.
• T
he A
nglo
-Boer
War,
1899-1
902, re
sults in a
ne
w c
on
stitu
tio
n th
at g
ive
s s
elf-r
ule
to
So
uth
Afr
ica
with
a h
ea
vily
qu
alif
ied
fra
nch
ise
.
• D
isco
nte
nte
d A
fric
an
s r
ea
ct b
y fo
rmin
g th
eS
ou
th A
fric
an
Na
tive
Na
tio
na
l C
on
gre
ss.
• 1
93
9-1
94
5 –
So
uth
Afr
ica
fo
ug
ht a
s m
em
be
ro
f th
e A
llie
d F
orc
es in
WW
2.
• 1
95
0s –
Ma
ss c
am
pa
ign
s a
ga
inst in
justice
sle
d b
y th
e A
NC
.
• 1
92
1 –
Co
nvic
t p
riso
n c
lose
d.
• 1
92
1 –
Me
nta
lly ill
are
tra
nsfe
rre
d fro
m R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
to
ma
inla
nd
.
• 1
93
1 –
Le
pro
sa
ria
clo
se
d a
nd
pe
op
le w
ith
le
pro
sy tra
nsfe
rre
d to
lep
rosa
ria
on
ma
inla
nd
.
• 1939-1
945 –
Defe
nces e
sta
blis
hed o
n R
obben Isla
nd to p
rote
ct T
able
Ba
y; tr
ain
ing
fo
r w
om
en
au
xili
arie
s a
nd
Ca
pe
Co
rps.
• 1945-1
959 –
Occupie
d b
y the a
rmy a
nd n
avy for
train
ing a
nd c
oasta
ld
efe
nce
.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
48
DA
TE
KE
Y E
VE
NT
S I
N S
OU
TH
AF
RIC
AH
IST
OR
ICA
L P
ER
IOD
RO
LE
OF
AN
D K
EY
EV
EN
TS
ON
RO
BB
EN
IS
LA
ND
19
10
-
19
61
Un
ion
of S
ou
th A
fric
a.
So
uth
Afr
ica
gra
nte
d p
art
ial
ind
ep
en
de
nce
by B
rita
in.
19
39
-19
45
– W
W2
be
twe
en
Alli
es a
nd
Axis
co
un
trie
s.[co
nt]
• 1
96
0 –
PA
C a
nti-p
ass p
rote
sts
re
su
lt in
th
eS
ha
rpe
vill
e m
assa
cre
.
• G
overn
ment re
sponds b
y d
ecla
ring a
Sta
te o
fE
merg
ency a
nd b
annin
g li
bera
tion m
ovem
ents
.
• c1
95
6-1
96
0 –
Co
mm
on
la
w p
riso
n u
nd
er
na
vy c
on
tro
l.
• 1960 –
Decis
ion to c
hange the r
ole
of th
e Isla
nd fro
m that of a N
aval
tra
inin
g b
ase
to
a m
axim
um
se
cu
rity
priso
n.
• 1
96
0-1
96
1 –
In
cre
ase
in
th
e in
take
of co
mm
on
la
w p
riso
ne
rsim
priso
ne
d o
n th
e Isla
nd
.
• O
ffic
ial h
an
do
ve
r o
f th
e Isla
nd
by th
e N
avy to
th
e D
ep
art
me
nt o
fP
riso
ns o
n 2
4 M
arc
h 1
96
1.
19
61
-
19
94
Ap
art
he
id R
ep
ub
lic o
f S
ou
th
Afr
ica
• A
white
s-o
nly
refe
rendum
ratif
ies the N
atio
nalis
tg
ove
rnm
en
t d
ecis
ion
to
be
co
me
a r
ep
ub
lic.
• 1
96
1 -
Fo
rma
tio
n o
f M
K c
om
prise
d o
f A
NC
an
d S
AC
P a
ctivis
ts, a
nd
Po
qo
lin
ke
d to
th
eP
AC
, e
ng
ag
e in
arm
ed
str
ug
gle
s a
ga
inst th
eg
ove
rnm
en
t.
• T
ria
ls o
f a
ctivis
ts r
esu
lt in
ra
pid
in
cre
ase
of
po
litic
al im
priso
nm
en
t.
• 1
97
6 –
Up
risin
g o
f yo
uth
pro
testin
g a
ga
inst
aspects
of B
antu
education b
egan in S
ow
eto
.
• 1
98
0s –
Re
form
s a
nd
ne
w o
pp
ositio
no
rga
nis
atio
ns le
d to
ge
ne
ral u
prisin
gs, a
nd
Sta
tes o
f E
merg
ency result
in d
ete
ntio
n, arr
ests
an
d tria
ls o
f m
an
y a
ctivis
ts.
• 1
99
0-1
99
1 –
Ne
go
tia
tio
ns a
nd
in
itia
la
gre
em
en
ts le
d to
org
an
isa
tio
ns b
ein
gu
nb
an
ne
d, p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rs r
ele
ase
d a
nd
exile
s a
ble
to
re
turn
.
• 1
96
2 -
First w
ave
of p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rs c
om
prisin
g m
ain
ly P
AC
an
dP
oq
o a
ctivis
ts, fo
llow
ed
so
on
afte
r b
y A
NC
an
d M
K a
ctivis
ts.
• 1962-1
964 –
Constr
uctio
n o
f th
e M
axim
um
Security
Prison b
y p
olit
ical
an
d c
om
mo
n la
w p
riso
ne
rs.
• 1962-1
977 –
Polit
ical prisoners
bru
talis
ed a
nd forc
ed to q
uarr
y s
tone
an
d lim
e, a
nd
un
de
rta
ke
oth
er
ha
rd m
an
ua
l la
bo
ur.
• 1
96
2-1
99
1 –
Ma
xim
um
Se
cu
rity
Priso
n fo
r p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rse
sta
blis
he
d o
n R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
.
• 1
97
4-1
99
1 –
Co
mm
on
la
w p
riso
ne
rs h
ou
se
d s
ep
ara
tely
in
Me
diu
mB
Se
cu
rity
Priso
n.
• 1
97
6-1
98
0 –
Wa
ve
of tr
ials
of yo
uth
s fro
m B
CM
an
d M
K b
rou
gh
tyo
un
g r
ad
ica
l g
rou
p to
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
.
• 1984-1
989 –
Third w
ave o
f polit
ical p
risoners
incarc
era
ted o
n R
obben
Isla
nd
.
• 1
99
0-1
99
1 –
All
po
litic
al p
riso
ne
rs r
ele
ase
d fro
m R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
.
• 1991-1
996 –
Com
mon la
w p
risoners
moved to the M
axim
um
Security
Priso
n.
• 1
99
6 –
Co
mm
on
la
w p
riso
ne
rs tra
nsfe
rre
d to
oth
er
priso
ns o
n th
em
ain
lan
d.
19
94
De
mo
cra
tic
So
uth
Afr
ica
• D
em
ocra
tic e
lectio
ns v
ote
AN
C g
ove
rnm
en
tin
to p
ow
er.
• 1
99
6 –
Ca
bin
et d
ecid
es to
de
cla
re R
ob
be
nIs
lan
d a
na
tio
na
l m
on
um
en
t to
be
ma
na
ge
da
s a
mu
se
um
, a
nd
th
e M
ayib
uye
Ce
ntr
e’s
colle
ctions b
e incorp
ora
ted into
the m
useum
.
• 1
99
4 –
Fiv
e fo
rme
r p
riso
ne
rs a
re a
pp
oin
ted
to
th
e first ca
bin
et o
fd
em
ocra
tic S
ou
th A
fric
a
• 1
99
5 –
Re
un
ion
of e
x p
olit
ica
l p
riso
ne
rs o
n R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
ad
vis
es
tha
t th
e Isla
nd
be
co
me
s a
mu
se
um
• 1
99
7 –
RIM
ta
ke
s o
ve
r m
an
ag
em
en
t o
f th
e Isla
nd
, a
nd
th
e Isla
nd
de
cla
red
a N
atio
na
l M
on
um
en
t.
• 1
99
9 –
Ro
bb
en
Isla
nd
gra
nte
d W
HS
sta
tus.
• 2
00
0 –
Ma
yib
uye
Ce
ntr
e b
eco
me
s p
art
of R
IM th
rou
gh
a 9
9-y
ea
ra
gre
em
en
t w
ith
UW
C.
• 2
00
6 –
SA
HR
A d
ecla
res R
ob
be
n Isla
nd
a N
atio
na
l H
erita
ge
Site
CONCLUSION
This chapter has discussed the historical layering of the
different periods; the continuities of imprisonment and
banishment; of isolation and segregation; of hardship and
punishment. An enduring aspect of the history is that in
this context of hardship, an element of resistance has been
present. The forms of resistance in the era of the apartheid
prison were such that that those released were regarded
as graduates of Robben Island. The refusal by those
imprisoned to give up their dignity in the face of oppression
and their attempt to reach out even to those oppressing
them, testifies not only to the resilience of the human spirit
under trying circumstances, but also to the building of a
culture of tolerance and reconciliation.29
Robben Island’s symbolism of freedom and resistance to
oppression of both colonialism and apartheid therefore
becomes a beacon of hope for those who face oppression,
discrimination and torture in all its various forms.
CHAPTER 4HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE
49
ENDNOTES
1 - Hart, T., Halkert, D. and Mutti, B. ’Baseline ArchaeologicalAssessment of Robben Island’, Report prepared for RIM as inputto the Environmental Management Plan, Robben Island, 1998,pp. 3-4.
2 - Deacon, H. et al, ‘The Robben Island Timeline’, in A. Kathrada,The Robben Island Exhibition Esiqithini, Cape Town: South AfricanMuseum and Mayibuye Books, Cape Town: SA Museum andMayibuye Books, 1996, p. 13.
3 - Penn, N., ‘Robben Island 1488-1805’, in H. Deacon (ed) TheIsland, A History of Robben Island 1488-1990, Cape Town:Mayibuye Books and David Philip, 1996, p. 11.
4 - Knight, I., Warrior Chiefs of Southern Africa, Riverside: FirebirdBooks, 1994, p. 176.
5 - Hodgson, J., ‘Xhosa Chiefs in Cape Town in the Mid 19thCentury’, Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 1984, p. 45.
6 - Hodgson, J., ‘Xhosa Chiefs’, pp. 45-51.
7 - Deacon, H. 1996 ‘The British prison on Robben Island 1800-1896’, in H. Deacon (ed), The Island, A History of Robben Island1488-1990, Cape Town: Mayibuye Books and David Philip, 1996,p. 55.
8 - Strauss, T., War Along the Orange: The Korana and theNorthern Border Wars of 1868-9 and 1878-9, Cape Town, Centrefor African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1979.
9 - Deacon, H., ‘The British Prison’, p. 54.
10 - Strauss, T., ‘War along the Orange’, p. 115.
11 - Deacon, H., ‘The British Prison’. p. 56.
12 - Deacon, H., ‘The British Prison’, pp. 55-56.
13 - This section is a reworking of pages 19-20 of the RobbenIsland ‘Nomination Dossier for World Heritage Site Listing’ whichdraws on the works of Harriet Deacon for its history of the Infirmary.
14 - Montagu quoted in Deacon, H. ‘The Medical Institutions onRobben Island 1846-1931’ in H. Deacon (ed), ‘The Island, AHistory of Robben Island 1488-1990’, Cape Town: MayibuyeBooks and David Philip, 1996, p. 57.
15 - Deacon, H., ’Patterns of Exclusion on Robben Island, 1654-2000’ in A. Bashford, and C. Strange, (eds) Isolation. London:Routledge, 2003.
16 - Ross, N., ‘Robben Island, 500 Years of South African History’,unpublished manuscript, c1999, p. 146.
17 - Much of this section is drawn from Marinda Weideman’smasters thesis, ‘Robben Island: Coastal Defence 1931-1960’,University of the Witwatersrand, 1998.
18 - Weideman, M., ‘Coastal Defence’, 1998, p. 68.
19 - Weideman, M., ‘Coastal Defence’, 1998, p. 62.
20 - Weideman, M., ‘Coastal Defence’, 1998, p. 106.
21 - Buntman, F, Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance toApartheid, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 19.
22 - Dlamini, M., Hell-Hole, Robben Island, Trenton: Africa WorldPress, 1984, pp. 29-41; Babenia, N., Memoirs of a Saboteur:Reflections on my Political Activity in India and South Africa ,Cape Town: Mayibuye Books, 1995, pp. 126-7.
23 - Conditions are described in all the prison writings by politicalprisoners – sources include Mandela, N., Long Walk to Freedom,London: Abacus, 1995, pp. 455-6; Kathrada, A., Memoirs, CapeTown: Zebra, 2005, pp. 197-8, 237 and 301; Dingake, M., MyFight against Apartheid, London: Kliptown Books, 1987, pp. 204ffand Dlamini, M., Hell-Hole: Robben Island, Trenton: Africa WorldPress, 1984, pp. 25 and 121.
24 - Buntman, F., Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance, pp.39-40.
25 - Kathrada, A., Memoirs, pp. 269-70; Buntman, F., RobbenIsland and Prisoner Resistance, pp. 38-39.
26 - Buntman, F., Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance, pp.146ff.
27 - Deacon, H., ‘Medical Institutions’, 1996, p. 70.
28 - Buntman, F., ‘Resistance on Robben Island’, in H. Deacon(ed), ‘The Island, A History of Robben Island 1488-1990’, CapeTown: Mayibuye Books and David Philip, 1996, p. 135.
29 - Mandela, N., Long Walk to Freedom, 1995, pp. 465, 497.