Established | 1997 |
---|---|
Location | Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg |
Coordinates | 26°14′18.73″S27°54′31.58″E / 26.2385361°S 27.9087722°E |
Type | Johannesburg's historical heritage |
Website | www |
The Nelson Mandela National Museum, commonly referred to as Mandela House, is the house on Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962. It is located at number 8115, at the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets, a short distance up the road from Tutu House, the home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. [1]
Mandela donated the house to the Soweto Heritage Trust (of which he was the founder) on 1 September 1997, to be run as a museum.
It was declared a National Heritage Site in 1999. [2]
The house is a single-story red-brick matchbox built in 1945. It has bullet holes in the walls and the facade has scorch marks from attacks with Molotov cocktails. The inside hosts some original furnishings and memorabilia including photographs, citations given to Nelson Mandela, and the world championship belt given to Mandela by Sugar Ray Leonard. [3]
As of 2009, the property includes a visitors' centre and a small museum. [4]
In 1999, Soweto was the 16th most popular place for tourists to South Africa to visit, and that was partly ascribed to the opening of Mandela House in December 1997. [5]
Mandela came back to the house after his release from prison in 1990, despite suggestions from government officials that he find a safer home. At a rally welcoming him home to Soweto his opening words were, "I have come home at last." [6] However, after 11 days back at the house he moved out again. [7]
He later wrote in his autobiography:
That night I returned with Winnie to No. 8115 in Orlando West. It was only then that I knew in my heart I had left prison. For me No. 8115 was the centre point of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography. [8]
In 2007, the Soweto Heritage Trust determined that Mandela House was in serious need of attention. Among the concerns were the physical condition of the house and its contents, the lack of any visitor facilities, the lack of training of the guides and the lack of a consistent message. There were also no formally researched exhibition content and displays.
Accordingly, in June 2008 the Trust's deed was amended to focus more exclusively on Mandela House. A new visitor centre was commissioned, restoration work was authorised, a highly qualified curator was appointed, and re-training of staff was scheduled. The building was closed to the public in April 2008 [9] and construction work commenced on 18 July 2008.
It was re-opened to the public on 19 March 2009. [10]
As President of South Africa Mandela's private residence was the Mandela Mansion in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, a property that after his death went into the Zindzi Mandela Family Trust. [11]
Soweto is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist, convicted kidnapper, politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".
Orlando Pirates Football Club is a South African professional football club based in Orlando, Soweto that plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv Premiership. The team plays its home matches at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Alfred Bathini Xuma, OLG, commonly referred to by his initials as AB Xuma, was the first black South African to become a medical doctor, as well as a leader, activist and president-general of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1940 to 1949. He was a member of the African American founded Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
The Constitution Hill precinct is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. It is located in Braamfontein, Johannesburg near the western end of the suburb of Hillbrow. The complex consists of the Constitutional Court, the Old Fort Prison and museum.
First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium, also known as Soccer City and The Calabash, is an association football (soccer) and Rugby union stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. The site is managed by Stadium Management South Africa (SMSA) and is home of Kaizer Chiefs F.C. in the South African Premier Soccer League as well as the venue for key fixtures for the South Africa national football team.
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was a South African novelist, linguist, a descendant of the Zulu royal family, and a radically innovative poet who created a combination of traditional and Romantic poetry in the Zulu language. Vilakazi was also a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became the first Black South African to teach University classes to White South Africans. In 1946, Vilakazi also became the first Black South African to receive a PhD.
The Hector Pieterson Museum is a museum located in Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa. Located two blocks away from where student protester Hector Pieterson was shot and killed on 16 June 1976, the museum is named in his honour and covers the events of the anti-Apartheid Soweto Uprising, where more than 170 protesting school children were killed.
Orlando is a township in the urban area of Soweto, South Africa. The township was founded in 1931 and named after Edwin Orlando Leake, mayor of Johannesburg from 1925 to 1926. It is divided in two main areas: Orlando West and Orlando East.
The Soweto uprising was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.
Orlando Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, in Gauteng province in South Africa. It is the home venue for Orlando Pirates Football Club, a professional soccer team that plays in the Premier Soccer League and owned by the City of Johannesburg.
Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first Black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from Black theology with African theology.
Zephania Lekoame Mothopeng was a South African political activist and member of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).
Peter Sexford Magubane OMSS was a South African photographer and anti-apartheid activist. He was also the personal photographer of President Nelson Mandela.
Alfred Khumalo, better known as Alf Kumalo, was a South African documentary photographer and photojournalist.
Liliesleaf Farm, also spelt Lilliesleaf and also known simply as Liliesleaf, is a location in northern Johannesburg, South Africa, which is most noted for its use as a safe house for African National Congress (ANC) activists during the apartheid years in the 1960s. In 1963, the South African police raided the farm, arresting more than a dozen ANC leaders and activists, who were then tried and prosecuted during the Rivonia Trial.
Evelyn Ntoko Mase, later named Evelyn Rakeepile, was the first wife of the South African anti-apartheid activist and the future president Nelson Mandela, to whom she was married from 1944 to 1958. Mase was a nurse by profession.
The James Mpanza House is a simple house in Orlando near Johannesburg. James Mpanza was a champion for the rights of black South Africans to have homes. His house was where he and his family lived and it was also a place of public meetings and informal courts.
The Tutu House is a house on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, that was the home to Desmond and Leah Tutu. The house is registered as part of Johannesburg's historical heritage.
The apartheid regime in South Africa began in 1948 and lasted until 1994. It involved a system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and placed all political power in the hands of a white minority. Opposition to apartheid manifested in a variety of ways, including boycotts, non-violent protests, and armed resistance. Music played a large role in the movement against apartheid within South Africa, as well as in international opposition to apartheid. The impacts of songs opposing apartheid included raising awareness, generating support for the movement against apartheid, building unity within this movement, and "presenting an alternative vision of culture in a future democratic South Africa."
Media related to Mandela House at Wikimedia Commons