Nelson Mandela’s old prison cell on Robben island has undergone a strange transformation.
Photos from the Johannesburg archives show a cosy cell with furniture and books and above all, a bed and mattress.
On many later visits by Mandela to his old cell in the company of foreign journalists and film crews, not much had changed. His books were no longer there, but the furniture looked the same.
Even recent visits by the likes of Beyoncé showed the cell as it had been while the famous South African was imprisoned there for inciting violence and terrorism.
With president Barack Obama’s most recent visit however, the cell suddenly strangely took on the appearance of a bare, 19th century gaol, stripped of all furniture.
