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 ...

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, ...

For nearly 500 years, Robben Island was used as a dumping ground for people considered dangerous, undesirable, or politically inconvenient. Colonial powers, and later the apartheid regime, believed ...

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.

Our Robben Island tour guide, Benjamin, became committed to armed struggle when his pregnant girlfriend was shot through the mouth and killed during the countrywide uprisings against South Africa's ...

Cape Town, South Africa – One morning in December 1967, prison warders strode into Robben Island’s Cell Block 4 with a football and randomly chose two teams of 11. While walking to the grassless pitch ...

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 ...

David Schalkwyk is director of research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and editor of the Shakespeare Quarterly. He is the author of "Hamlet's Dreams: The Robben Island Shakespeare." ...