For long, it epitomised the brutality of the apartheid state but Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent much of his life in prison, is now a lovers’ rendezvous.
Fifteen couples from South Africa, Germany, Britain and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday said their ”I dos” in a church on the island located just 12km off the coast of Cape Town.
”This island was a symbol of unhappiness. Today, it’s about happiness,” says Kalonda Badibanga (32), from Kinshasa, who was among the 15 to tie the knot.
The first weddings took place on Robben Island in 2000 and about 20 couples per year make the 25-minute boat ride to the island to seal their vows.
Mandela, South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999, served 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid, 18 of which were on Robben Island.
The former prison island was turned into a national museum in 1997. — Sapa-AFP