It’s actually quite cynical, thinking about it. If you join a tour to Robben Island, they’ll drive you around in a bus. Halfway through they'll stop so you can buy refreshments in a little restaurant. The views from this side of the island are really magnificent. You see Table Mountain, the ocean and the city. Most of the tourists stop to take pictures. You’ll almost forget the history of this island, and the reason why you here in the first place.

What springs to mind the minute someone starts to talk about Robben Island? Off course: Nelson Mandela! The first president of a democratic South Africa spent eighteen years of his life here. In his autobiography ‘A Long Walk To Freedom’ he paints a picture of life on the island.

The minute you set foot on Robben Island you get this feeling. The same feeling you get when you enter a Nazi concentration camp or Anne’s Franks Achterhuis in Amsterdam. You know something terrible happened here.