The Mandela Family Museum in Johannesburg
Many cities around the world have museums in honor of the beloved former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. However, not many are in the house where he once lived, just one to be exact, and that one is located in the city of Johannesburg. The Mandela Family Museum is one of the most interesting stops that you can make on a visit to the city, as the history of the man is so physically present, so deeply felt by the sheer fact that you are standing in his house.
The house, Mandela’s first house, is small and humble, consisting of just four rooms, and contains various bits of history, of photographs and paintings and the collection of the doctorates that have been honorarily bestowed on him from the institutions and the universities all over the world. One of the pieces in the collection is Sugar Ray Leonard’s heavy weight championship boxing belt. Leonard sent it to Mandela as a gift, as so too did many other people send him gifts throughout the years. One of the most haunting parts of this collection is a row of Mandela’s old boots that lines one of the walls. To physically see the shoes that this man walked in literally, is quite powerful, especially given the shoes he has walked in figuratively throughout his incredible lifetime.
He did not spend much time in the house beginning in 1958, as he was on the run from the law for his actions as a freedom fighter and political activist. Upon his arrest in 1962, his wife and their daughters remained living in the home while Mandela was imprisoned. While he did return after his release from Robben Island, he only stayed for a short while before settling into a different home in Houghton. The history of the home is like the history of the nation. From the moment you leave the comfort of one of the city’s hotels, Johannesburg will tell you a tale of struggle and of triumph, and what better place to visit, than the home of the man who felt that struggle, and overcame it with triumph and with honor.
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