President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday declared Robben Island a national monument and museum to mark the country’s first Heritage Day holiday.
Mandela, who was himself imprisoned for 18 years on the island, said: “Few occasions could awaken a mixture of emotions as today’s, or illuminate so sharply the changes of recent years. In affirming a joint heritage, in this place, we are reminded that our noble ideals were spurred on even more by their long denial, that today’s unity is a triumph over yesterday’s division and conflict.”
Robben Island, which lies in Table Bay off Cape Town, has been a place of banishment and incarceration for three centuries. It was used for a period as a leprosy colony, but gained its greatest notoriety during the apartheid era, when as many as 3 000 political prisoners were held on the island.
According to the curator, the island museum will teach future generations “that the human spirit can overcome the power of evil”.