Hundreds of tourists are tapping into the ANC’s Nelson Mandela-led legacy of liberation at the multi-million restored and curated Liliesleaf farmstead in Rivonia, Johannesburg.
Yesterday the Daily Dispatch toured the “place of liberation” and “site of memory”, now a multi-media treasure house where Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and 14 others, including other key leaders of the new ANC underground liberation army, Umkhonto weSizwe, were arrested in an apartheid police raid in 1963.
Yesterday, 20 international journalists hosted by SA Tourism were shown Liliesleaf and then taken to famous Vilakazi Street in Soweto to see Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s homes and visit shebeens and restaurants as part of a tour in a topless double-decker bus.
Among the hi-tech displays at Liliesleaf was a large table in the famous front room where operation Mayibuye, the ANC’s insurgency war plan was devised and discussed in top secret.
The table has been reconstructed to allow for a digital block the size of a stubby baton to be moved around on its surface, opening up panels giving insights into the operation and period via a projector.
The room next door features a “cabinet of curiosity and mythology” where at the push of a button a drawer opens and a story is narrated and displayed on a screen, such as the mystery of Mandela’s Makarov pistol and 200 rounds, which he said years after his release he had hidden 50 paces from a tiny outside room where the ANC high-command was finally arrested.
The weapon was apparently never recovered.
Mandela’s tiny backroom where he stayed while on the run from a five-year prison sentence, is festooned with memorial cards. The only original furniture is a table and chair. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
‘Place of liberation’ now restored as SA memorial
Hundreds of tourists are tapping into the ANC’s Nelson Mandela-led legacy of liberation at the multi-million restored and curated Liliesleaf farmstead in Rivonia, Johannesburg.
Yesterday the Daily Dispatch toured the “place of liberation” and “site of memory”, now a multi-media treasure house where Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and 14 others, including other key leaders of the new ANC underground liberation army, Umkhonto weSizwe, were arrested in an apartheid police raid in 1963.
Yesterday, 20 international journalists hosted by SA Tourism were shown Liliesleaf and then taken to famous Vilakazi Street in Soweto to see Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s homes and visit shebeens and restaurants as part of a tour in a topless double-decker bus.
Among the hi-tech displays at Liliesleaf was a large table in the famous front room where operation Mayibuye, the ANC’s insurgency war plan was devised and discussed in top secret.
The table has been reconstructed to allow for a digital block the size of a stubby baton to be moved around on its surface, opening up panels giving insights into the operation and period via a projector.
The room next door features a “cabinet of curiosity and mythology” where at the push of a button a drawer opens and a story is narrated and displayed on a screen, such as the mystery of Mandela’s Makarov pistol and 200 rounds, which he said years after his release he had hidden 50 paces from a tiny outside room where the ANC high-command was finally arrested.
The weapon was apparently never recovered.
Mandela’s tiny backroom where he stayed while on the run from a five-year prison sentence, is festooned with memorial cards. The only original furniture is a table and chair. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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