Robben Island (Afrikaans: Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. The island is composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks belonging to the Malmesbury Group. It is of particular note that it was here that Nobel Laureate and former Presidents of South Africa Nelson Mandela and Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent 27 years imprisoned during the apartheid era. Among those political prisoners was current President of South Africa Jacob Zuma who was imprisoned there for ten years.
Read more about Robben Island: History, Maritime Peril, Animal Life, List of Former Prisoners Held At Robben Island, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“I ... would rather be in dependance on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those too who rather than submit to the right of legislating for us assumed by the British parliament, and which late experience has shewn they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)