Robben Island Museum

Biography:

Robben Island Museum (RIM) is a public entity responsible for managing, maintaining, presenting, developing and marketing Robben Island as a national estate and World Heritage Site. It was established by the Department of Arts and Culture in 1997. The museum is located on Robben Island, a small island located in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The island is flat and only a few metres above sea level. It was used as a place of banishment, isolation and imprisonment from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Today, it is a World Heritage Site and museum, a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of its past.