Robben Island is a short ferry ride from the Cape Town waterfront, and that physical separation of land by water is one of the most significant symbols of the city’s Apartheid past. The island is synonymous with oppression, race, politics, resistance, and of course, Nelson Mandela, but what hit me the most wasn’t the prison itself–where Mandela spent 18 years–but the tragic landscape around it.
To pass through the gate and into the prison, click here, and scroll through.