The former prison on Robben Island off Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years, is an international tourist icon. But the site is plagued by a host of troubles, including alleged ...

Tourists take photos on Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 8, 2026. Robben Island is known as the site where ...

It was the Alcatraz of South Africa, a grim island outpost off the coast of Cape Town. The inmates of Robben Island, unlike those on The Rock, were political prisoners: Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, ...

U.S. News Insider Tip: The ferry ride to Robben Island can be quite choppy. If you tend to get queasy, visit the museum at the Cape Town ferry dock and also consider the free Apartheid to Freedom ...

Robben Island has served many functions. Most famously, it was the political prison that housed Nelson Mandela, the deceased South African president, for 18 years. In the 19th century, it served as a ...

Plans to auction off the key that kept Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and legendary anti-apartheid activist, behind bars are off. The auction house, New York City-based ...

It may be more than a decade since South Africa's first free elections, but apartheid is still claiming victims. This time, however, it is penguins that are being killed - by the descendants of pet ...

Robben Island – for centuries a place of banishment, exile, imprisonment and pain. Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images South Africa’s Robben Island Museum is an institution ...

The official symbolism of the Robben Island Museum, adopted early in its existence, is “the triumph of the human spirit over adversity”. But after 24 years in existence, the museum is substandard.

Former political prisoner and Robben Island tour guide Vusumsi Mcongo provides video annotation of the tour. Mandela's cell (pictured) measured 2-by 2 meters (6.5-by 6.5 feet). As Mandela was 6-foot ...