Liliesleaf Farm -26.043561, 28.053662
The Old Fort -26.189703, 28.043059 Wits University -26.189795, 28.031697
His House in Vilakazi Street Soweto -26.238920, 27.909467
Mandela & Tambo Law Firm -26.206751, 28.034522 Crown Mines -26.232154, 27.992874
His home in Alexandra -26.104799, 28.093042
Bantu Men’s Social Centre -26.199618, 28.043235 Kapitan’s Restaurant -26.205009, 28.036809
1. Market Street, Johannesburg, 1945.
Running away to Johannesburg Nelson Mandela and his cousin, Justice Mtirara, ran away from the Transkei to Johannesburg in 1941. Justice’s father, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the Regent of the Thembu people, had arranged wives for them after Mandela had been expelled from the University of Fort Hare. Unimpressed by the prospect of marriage, the cousins preferred to engage in a series of subterfuges and slipped away on a journey towards the bright lights of the City of Gold. At 22, Mandela had no idea what to expect in the big city. The cousins left behind a country life of privilege and travelled to Johannesburg where they had a few connections and dreams of a new life, but little else.
“
I was terribly excited to see the city I had been hearing about since I was a child. Johannesburg had always been depicted as a city of dreams, a place where one could transform oneself from a poor peasant into a wealthy sophisticate, a city of danger and of opportunity.
”
NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
2. Nelson Mandela on the roof of Kholvad House in 1953.
3. Commissioner Street, Johannesburg, 1940.
The sojourn at Crown Mines Mandela experienced one of his first challenges when he arrived with Justice at Crown Mines to seek employment like thousands before them. They used the few connections they had and the reputation of the Regent to secure work on the largest gold mine in Johannesburg, Justice as a clerk and Mandela as a security guard. But before long word reached the Regent and he immediately sent a telegraph demanding they return to Mqhekezweni.
The cousins ignored the call and were cast out of the mines. Mandela then looked up another cousin, Garlick Mbekeni in the George Goch township. This proved to be a turning point that would change his life forever. Mbekeni took him to meet Walter Sisulu, an estate agent and political activist from the Transkei. Sisulu took one look at Mandela and knew he had found a leader for the African National Congress.
4. Gold mining Compounds, Johannesburg.
North East West Central
South
CBD
Crown Mines -26.232154, 27.992874
5. Gold mining Compounds, Johannesburg.
“
Johannesburg in those days was a combination frontier town and modern city. Butchers cut meat on the street next to office buildings. Tents were pitched beside bustling shops and women hung out their washing next door to high-rise buildings.
”
NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
6.Johannesburg 1940’s
Move to Alexandra “Life in Alexandra was exhilarating and precarious. Its atmosphere was alive, its spirit adventurous, its people resourceful. Although the township did boast some handsome buildings, it could fairly be described as a slum, living testimony to the neglect of the authorities. The roads were unpaved and dirty, and filled with hungry, undernourished children scampering around half-naked.” NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
Mandela’s meeting and subsequent friendship with Sisulu drew him
increasingly into the world of the fight against apartheid. He moved to the Alexandra township, finished his BA degree by correspondence, and enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand to do his LLB. At the same time Sisulu introduced him to attorney Lazer Sidelsky, a partner at the Witkin, Sidelsky & Eidelman law firm. Mandela signed up in 1943 to do his requisite three years as an articled clerk. He was simultaneously drawn into the world of the anti-apartheid struggle, both through Sisulu and through his fellow legal clerks, Nat Bregman and Gaur Radebe.
7. Alexandra Township, 1940.
ALEXANDRA HOME 1942 HOFMEYER STREET AND 7TH AVENUE
“
Alexandra occupies a treasured place in my heart. It was the first place I ever lived away from home.
” NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
8. Nelson Mandela’s Alexandra home
North East West Central
South
CBD
His Home in Alexandra -26.104799, 28.093042
9. Walter and Albertina Sisulu’s wedding party at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in Johannesburg. Among the guests were Nelson Mandela (far left), Evelyn Mase (flanking the groom) and Anton Lembede (flanking the bride). In the back row, between the bride and groom, is Walter’s sister, Rosabella.
Evelyn While Mandela was working at becoming a lawyer and learning about politics, he found love; he married Evelyn Ntoko Mase in 1944. She was a nurse and Sisulu’s cousin. They had four children, one of whom died in infancy. Although Mandela initially attended political meetings only as an observer, keenly aware of how green he was in politics, his new life of marriage and domesticity clashed with his growing political awareness and the challenges he faced while trying to work and study towards his LLB.
10.
11. 10 & 11. Nelson Mandela, boxing with Jerry Moloi at at his boxing gym in downtown Johannesburg, 1957.
“
Although I had boxed a bit at Fort Hare, it was not until I lived in Johannesburg that I took up the sport in earnest.
”
NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
12. Nelson Mandela with boxing gloves in 1952.
13. ANC Youth League meeting, 1957
The formation of the ANC Youth League Mandela had spent much time in Sisulu’s home; he once stayed for a few months. This was where he had met his first wife and political firebrands like AP Mda and Anton Lembede. It was through these associations that he was to join the African National Congress. Mandela was a founding member of the ANC Youth League, which launched on Easter Sunday in 1944. The Youth League was seen as a group of young radicals who were increasingly frustrated with the African elite in politics.
The ANC Youth League As his family grew, Mandela was becoming increasingly politically involved. His studies suffered as he rose through the ranks of the ANC Youth League where young political activists continued to push the old guard in the ANC towards
more mass-based politics. Mandela was forced to apply for a series of loans to continue his studies and take care of his growing family. His growing political career would eventually result in the end of his first marriage.
14. ANC Youth League signatures, 1944
15.Defiance Campaign, 1952
Mandela & Tambo law firm In 1952 Mandela was elected President of the ANC in the Transvaal Region. It was also the year in which he was forced out of the University of the Witwatersrand due to poor academic performance and financial debt. Nevertheless, he had obtained a diploma in law which entitled him to practise as an attorney. Together with Oliver Tambo he established South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela & Tambo, in 1952. Although they were not the only black lawyers in South Africa, theirs was the only black-owned law firm and as such were the first choice and last resort for many South Africans. Mandela said that each morning they would wade through crowds of people waiting for advice and expert help.
16. Oliver Tambo with Nelson Mandela in Addis Ababa, 1962
North East West Central
South
CBD
Mandela & Tambo Law Firm -26.206751, 28.034522
Defiance Mandela was appointed Volunteerin-Chief in the Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws. Six apartheid laws had been selected for peaceful protest in order to fill the country’s prisons with protestors and draw more attention to the policy of racial discrimination. Mandela’s involvement resulted in him being sentenced to nine months in prison. His sentenced was suspended. He was later banned by the government, forcing him to apply to the Minister of Justice whenever he needed to leave Johannesburg to run court cases in other towns. His banning orders were virtually continually renewed making it impossible for full political activity.
17. Defiance Campaign, 1952
18. Defiance Campaign, 1952
The Freedom Charter Because Mandela had become a ‘banned person’, he was not allowed to attend the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown on 26 June 1955. Instead he watched, in hiding, as thousands of people witnessed the acceptance of a list of basic rights by the Congress Movement, which was made up of the ANC, the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People’s Congress of South Africa, and the Congress of Democrats. Volunteers had travelled the country asking ordinary people about the rights they wanted to see in their ideal South Africa. The answer? A South Africa for all races, equally, and based on human rights.
19. The Congress of the People meet at the Kliptown football ground, June 26, 1955
SOWETO HOME 1946 8115 VILAKAZI STREET, SOWETO
“
For me No. 8115 was the centrepoint of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography
”
NELSON MANDELA,
LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, 1994
20. Nelson Mandela’s Soweto home
North East West Central
South
CBD
His House in Vilakazi Street Soweto -26.238920, 27.909467
21. Honorary Freedom of the City conferred upon Nelson Mandela in 2004
The Freedom of the City of Johannesburg The Freedom of the City is the highest honour a city can bestow upon an individual in recognition of their contribution to the city and its citizens. Mandela received this prestigious award from the City of Johannesburg in 2004. He was the third person to receive it. Mandela was honoured for his outstanding contribution to the struggle for freedom and democracy, and for his promotion of equality.
1. Copyright Museum Africa 2. Courtesy of the
13. Copyrights Bailey’s African History Archive
A Kathrada Foundation
14. Copyright ANC Archives
3. Copyright Museum Africa
15. Copyright Museum Africa
4. Copyright Museum Africa
16. Copyright Rex Features
5. Copyright Museum Africa
17. Copyright Museum Africa
6. Copyright Museum Africa
18. Copyright Museum Africa
7. Copyright Museum Africa
19. Copyright Bailey’s African
8. Copyright David Roberts 9. Courtesy of the Sisulu family 10. Copyrights Bailey’s African History Archive 11. Copyright Bailey’s African History Archive 12. Copyright Rex Features
History Archive 20. Copyright Fr. Kevin Doran 21. Courtesy of the Nelson Mandela Foundation 22. Copyright Museum Africa
22. Eloff Street, Johannesburg, 1949
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