From Robben Island to Houghton, these landmarks offer powerful insights into the life, legacy, and enduring impact of Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela Capture Site
On a quick visit to the Nelson Mandela Capture Site earlier this year, it was apparent that the location is hugely popular with international visitors and that there is an entry fee. While we can have imaginary debates about what Mandela would have made of it – he never saw the project completed – the Capture Site has clearly struck an emotional chord.
Artist Marco Cianfanelli’s monumental, fragmented sculpture, Release, is based on Jürgen Schadeberg’s famous photograph of Mandela and is simply stunning. One can’t help but wish that heads of state around the world would follow suit and commission more works by the Johannesburg-born and -based artist. Release was inaugurated to symbolically mark the 50th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s capture at the site in KwaZulu-Natal.
On 5 August 1962, this otherwise ordinary stretch of road along the R103, approximately five kilometres outside Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, suddenly took on profound significance. Armed apartheid police flagged down a car in which Nelson Mandela was posing as a chauffeur.
Having successfully evaded capture by apartheid operatives for 17 months, Mandela had just paid a clandestine visit to ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli’s home in Groutville to report back on his travels across Africa, where he had sought international support for an armed struggle.
It was at this unassuming spot that Nelson Mandela was finally arrested. The event became a catalyst for the trial that led to his original conviction for inciting a workers’ stay-away and travelling without a passport. This formed part of a chain of events that ultimately resulted in his appearance as Accused No. 1 at the Rivonia Trial and his sentence of life imprisonment.
Robben Island: Mandela’s Most Famous Prison
As a guest of the museum’s curator, Zayd Minty, every detail of visiting the Robben Island Museum for its media opening in 1997 remains vivid in my memory.
Mandela’s prison cell is forever etched in my mind: the famously photographed cell on the once-uninhabitable island. The shower stalls. The bright, intense sunlight reflected off the limestone quarry where he was forced to work in brutal conditions that permanently damaged his eyesight.
On 13 June 1964, Mandela was taken to the maximum-security prison on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he spent 18 years on the island before being transferred to prison on the mainland. He was released on 11 February 1990 after serving 27 years behind bars.
Today, hundreds of visitors travel to the island by ferry from the V&A Waterfront.
Nelson Mandela Bridge: Bridging Divides
The Nelson Mandela Bridge is a proud post-apartheid landmark, completed in 2003 while Mandela himself was still alive and present for its unveiling.
Named in his honour, the bridge was once particularly impressive at night, illuminated in the colours of the Rainbow Nation. More recently, years of neglect, power failures, vandalism, and crime have dimmed its glory.
Today, the Nelson Mandela Bridge is once again attracting attention as one of Johannesburg’s most photographed gateways undergoes a makeover. Solar street lights are being rolled out, while emergency and police response centres are in development.
Linking Braamfontein and Newtown, the bridge symbolises Mandela’s ability to bridge divides. Now it is over to the City of Johannesburg to make it safe enough to walk across once again.
Sanctuary Mandela: Mandela’s House
Sanctuary Mandela served as Mandela’s home base during the CODESA negotiations and during his time as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.
The Edwardian-Dutch Revival mansion and gardens in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Houghton were Mandela’s home from 1992 to 1998.
Welcoming guests since 2021, the boutique hotel offers visitors glimpses into Mandela’s life at the landmark property. Staff members share stories and anecdotes from his years there.
At Insight, the on-site restaurant, visitors can experience Mandela’s favourite dishes, prepared by Xoliswa Ndoyiya, his long-time personal chef.
Umsila Wenkomo – slow-roasted oxtail with baby carrots, green beans, and potatoes, served with samp and beans – remains one of Madiba’s favourite dishes and is always on the menu.
Nelson Mandela Foundation: Mobilising the Legacy
During a visit to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, I was treated to a museum-quality exhibition. I saw Mandela’s iconic jackal-skin kaross behind glass – the traditional cloak he wore as a powerful assertion of his African identity.
The symbolism stayed with me, as did a glimpse into the Foundation’s storeroom collection of gifts he received over the years. There was everything from signed soccer balls and rugby jerseys to pairs of sneakers. The beloved statesman was certainly given a great deal of memorabilia.
One of the strategic focus areas of the Nelson Mandela Foundation is global justice, aiming to increase awareness, consciousness, and action on peace, human rights, and democracy for oppressed and marginalised people around the world.
Through the active mobilisation of Mandela’s legacy, the Foundation recognises the interconnected nature of conflicts globally and across Africa, and the idea that our struggles are linked.
It views freedom as a collective pursuit and works towards creating conditions in which people can thrive in diverse, equitable and democratic societies where rights are recognised and respected.
Mandela’s love of gardening is reflected in both the Sanctuary Mandela and Nelson Mandela Foundation gardens – spaces of freedom and reflection.
In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela describes how gardening, first at Robben Island and later at Pollsmoor Prison, offered an escape from the monotony of prison life.
“A garden was one of the few things in prison that one could control,” he wrote. “To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.”
