Reporter Volume 25, No.29 June 13, 1994

By DOROTHY WOODSON
If Cape Town is successful in its bid to host the 2004 Summer
Olympics, it may not be because of the city's incomparable setting, or
because of its splendid climate, or even because of South Africa's
long tradition of supporting sports, but quite possibly because of the
inspired and inspirational suggestion to light the Olympic flame atop
Robben Island.
	Robben Island, once a beacon to explorers as far back as the
Portuguese in the 1400s, and of course, most recently as a maximum
security prison for political prisoners, is perhaps the most
emotionally charged geographical feature in the country.
	From the top of Table Mountain, which looms over Cape Town,
the island, situated about six miles offshore in the icy blue waters
of Table Bay, looks as though it would be a truly restful heaven in an
uncharitable world. Its somnolent appearance though, belies its less
than restful, and at times extremely colorful, history.
	Used originally as a shelter by mariners exploring the Cape of
Storms (later renamed the Cape of Good Hope), it was first developed
as a farm by the Dutch settlers in the 1650s. Safe from "marauders,"
the penguins, seals, rabbits, and transplanted sheep, among other
creatures, flourished. Fresh water was abundant, and though physically
smallQabout 2 miles by 4 miles in extentQthe island was large enough
to support the food demands of Jan van Riebeeck's small Dutch
settlement on the mainland. Used briefly in the early days as a
convict station, the Dutch East India Company began sending slaves and
political dissidents from their southeast Asian colonies
(Malaya/Indonesia) by the late 1600s. 
	These exiles included numerous Muslim princes and priests
whose descendants today comprise a portion of this region's enormous
Cape Malay population. Other dissidents banished to the island in its
early years included African chiefs deemed bothersome to the
authorities.
	Around the mid-1800s the island entered another phase in its
history, becoming a leper colony as well as a home for "lunatics." The
leper colony was particularly well established, and today one can
visit the sad little graveyard as well as the stone church used by the
male lepers. The church, incidentally, is one of three places of
worship still standing on the island. A somber-looking Anglican church
stands on the main street of the island village, and a slate Muslim
shrine freshly decorated in bright green and white paint stands
adjacent to the main prison building.
	The leper colony dissolved prior to World War II, when it was
decided to convert the island to a military base. Hundreds of military
personnel and their families were housed there and embattlements are
scattered throughout the southern and western sides of the island.
Vast underground tunnels connect these structures with former storage
chambers. Tour groups of school children now romp through these
tunnels and climb on the massive guns that fortunately were never put
to use.
he post-war years saw the island once 
	again becoming a prison, first for common-law prisoners and
then in the mid-1960s for both common-law and political prisoners. At
first, these two groups were kept in the same cells, but then as the
generally well-educated and highly articulate political prisoners
began to "educate" the common-law prisoners, it was decided by the
authorities to send the common-law prisoners elsewhere, and by the
early 1970s Robben Island Maximum Security Prison was developed
exclusively for political prisoners.
	It should be mentioned that apartheid applied at all levels of
"corrections"; white political prisoners were sent elsewhere; black,
coloured, and east Indian/Malays were sent to Robben Island.
Furthermore, prison clothing and food differed for the various racial
groups. Indians/Malays were treated "best," being given shoes, four
blankets, long trousers, etc. Blacks were treated the worst, receiving
sandals, two blankets, shorts, etc. 
	Cape Town winters are uncomfortable with considerable rain and
frigid winds and although conditions improved considerably later in
the 1970s, the earlier years of incarceration were exceedingly harsh.
Many of the thousand or so political prisoners banished to Robben
Island spent decades there. High profile prisoners, such as Nelson
Mandela, Walter Sisula, and Ahmed Kathrada, to name just a few, were
transferred out of Robben Island in the early 1980s and the last
political prisoners left the island in April 1991. Today there are
approximately 800 low-security common-law prisoners, as well as about
250 warders and their families living on the island.	n
Dorothy Woodson, UB librarian at Lockwood, spent a semester as a
Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Mayibuye Center at the University of
the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, where she organized and
prepared a catalog of the Robben Island archives.