On the 18th of July 2006 we will celebrate the birthday of one of South Africa’s true living legends – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
More than a decade after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, and South Africa’s shift to democracy, he is still commemorated as the greatest South African alive. Through the towns, cities, walls and walkways of this country, his history is always just a step away, smiling out at us; his legacy will last for years to come, reminding us where we have been, and telling us to cherish where we are.
You too can follow in the footsteps of this legend:
The Nelson Mandela Museum
Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo, Transkei, in what is now the Eastern Cape. When Mandela was still small, his family was displaced from the area by authorities. Made to surrender their royal claim to chieftaincy, they moved to nearby Qunu, where Mandela enjoyed some of the happiest years of his youth.
Today, Qunu is a cluster of villages still entwined with the natural landscapes that surrounded Mandela as a boy. Together with Mvezo it forms part of the Nelson Mandela Museum, opened in 2000, primarily housed in the nearby Bhunga building. The museum contains exhibitions about his life, a selection of gifts he received during his presidency, as well as the ruins of the original Mandela homestead in Mvezo.
Nelson Mandela Yard Interpretation Centre
“Alexandra occupies a treasured place in my heart,” Mandela says in his autobiography ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, “[it is] a home where I had no specific house”. Alexandra township, near Sandton, is the first place Mandela lived after moving to Johannesburg from the Transkei in the early 1940s.
Known in apartheid years as “Dark City” because of the lack of electricity, “Alex” today is dotted with numerous regeneration projects and has a new emphasis on tourism and other local initiatives.
The one-roomed house on Stanley Road where Mandela lived still stands; it forms part of the new Nelson Mandela Yard Interpretation Centre that is under construction, and which will include a tourist information office, restaurant and retail outlets when complete.
Mandela Family Museum
In 1944, Mandela married his first wife Evelyn Mase, and soon after moved into their Orlando home on Vilakazi Street, Soweto. Vilakazi Street has become one of the most famous streets in the world, containing the prior homes of 2 Nobel Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and the Bishop Desmond Tutu.
In 1958, Mandela married Winnie Madikizela who lived with him and their children in the Orlando home. But Mandela, who was deeply involved in struggle politics at the time, could hardly spend any time at home.
Today, the home has been turned into the Mandela Family Museum. The small structure houses awards and memorabilia from the couple’s life together, including photographs, certificates, and an honorary boxing belt given to him by Sugar Ray Leonard.
Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill in Johannesburg is the site that houses South Africa’s highest court, The Constitutional Court, and has seen more than 8 decades of political resistance, David Maziba, a local guide says.
Previously the “Old Fort” prison, it housed many political prisoners including Mahatma Gandhi; the site is now a symbol of justice, freedom and hope. Maziba says that in restructuring the site, bricks from the old prison were preserved and used in the walls and stairways of Constitution Hill. “It represents walking between the injustices of the past and the possibilities of the future,” he says, “and stepping on the bricks that imprisoned us.”
Staircases from the prison’s old “Awaiting trial” section were also preserved; they still stand in their original spots. Mandela, who was detained here at the time of the 1956 Treason Trial, was kept in this section. After his arrest in 1962, he was again sent to the Old Fort prison, where he was held separately in the hospital section, so that he would not influence the other prisoners, according to Maziba.
The Constitutional Court now houses a permanent exhibition of Mandela’s diaries, letters, files and photographs from his time in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Robben Island
After the Rivonia Treason Trial in 1964, 46 year old Mandela was sent to Robben Island and imprisoned there for 18 years.
Twelve kilometres off the shore of Cape Town lies Robben Island, a World Heritage Site and quiet reminder of the fight against apartheid. Used as a leper colony at the beginning of the 20th century, it later housed political prisoners like Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada, who like Mandela, were also imprisoned during apartheid.
Today, the island has a museum, remembering and honouring the sacrifices of individuals who gave everything to the struggle, with ex-Robben Island prisoners used as tour guides.
Union Buildings
Designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built in 1913, the Union Buildings have always been the centre of power in South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria. It was named after the South African Union, a coalition of the British and Afrikaners, which was formed in 1910.
In 1994, 4 years after his release from prison, a new ‘union’ emerged with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. The 275 metre long building is still the seat of governmental power in the country, with parliament spending half the year there.
The grounds of the Union Buildings are open to the public. They include the accompanying Gardens of Remembrance, a 9 000 seat amphitheatre, and the Delville Wood World War I Memorial.
Mandela’s life is one that has moved a country of people from despair into hope. And this hope is manifested, not only in the faces and smiles of South Africans, but also in the museums and monuments that bear his name and memory. From those places that share his yesterdays to those that honour him today, they will remain a part of history long after tomorrow is gone.
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