People lived on Robben Island many thousands of years ago, when the sea
channel between the Island and the Cape mainland was not covered with
water. Since the Dutch settled at the Cape in the mid-1600s, Robben
Island has been used primarily as a prison.
Indigenous African
leaders, Muslim leaders from the East Indies, Dutch and British soldiers
and civilians, women, and anti-apartheid activists, including South
Africa's first democratic President, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the
founding leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert Mangaliso
Sobukwe, were all imprisoned on the Island.
Robben Island has
not only been used as a prison. It was a training and defence station in
World War II (1939-1945) and a hospital for people with leprosy, and
the mentally and chronically ill (1846-1931). In the 1840s, Robben
Island was chosen for a hospital because it was regarded as both secure
(isolating dangerous cases) and healthy (providing a good environment
for cure). During this time, political and common-law prisoners were
still kept on the Island. As there was no cure and little effective
treatment available for leprosy, mental illness and other chronic
illnesses in the 1800s, Robben Island was a kind of prison for the
hospital patients too.
Since 1997 it has been a museum and a
heritage site. The museum is a dynamic institution, which acts as a
focal point of South African heritage. It runs educational programmes
for schools, youths and adults, facilitates tourism development,
conducts ongoing research related to the Island and fulfils an archiving
function.