Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 27 June 2018

Tracing Nelson Mandela's footsteps 100 years after his birth

By CHARMAINE NORONHA morial and Museum tell the
QUNU, South Africa (AP) story of the 1976 Soweto
— July 18 marks 100 years riots. Hector was 12 when
since the birth of Nelson he was shot and killed by
Mandela, who died in 2013. police firing on student pro-
Visitors can follow in Man- testers. A famous photo
dela's footsteps from the shows his limp body be-
villages where he was born ing carried as his sister ran
and raised, to the Soweto alongside. Some accounts
township where he be- say hundreds died during
came an anti-apartheid the protests. The museum
leader, to Robben Island contains a heart-wrench-
where he was imprisoned ing and moving collection
for years. of oral testimonies, large-
THE EASTERN CAPE scale photos, audiovisual
"When Mandela was just a displays and historical doc-
child, he walked for miles uments about the uprising.
on this route, moving from A drive north takes you to
one village to another," said Liliesleaf, in the suburb of
tour guide Velile Ndlumbini Rivonia. This farm-turned-
as we drove through the museum, once owned by
picturesque green rolling South African Communist
hills of the Eastern Cape. Party member Arthur Gold-
The homestead where he reich, was used in the 1960s
was born can be seen in as a secret hideout for
the small village of Mvezo. Mandela and other activ-
He lived here until age 2, ists on the run from police.
when his father lost his posi- In this Oct. 6, 2007, file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela reacts after a meet- The famous Rivonia Trial
tion as village chief in a dis- ing at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. ended with Mandela and
pute with a magistrate. Associated Press his comrades sentenced
The family then moved to to life in prison on Robben
neighboring Qunu, where there along the N2 highway icon of anti-apartheid ac- has also been converted Island.
Mandela lived until age 9, for his family, where some tivism, an African nationalist into a museum. But the ROBBEN ISLAND
when his father died. He still live, and he moved and a leader of the grass- most exhaustive and heart- A 45-minute ferry ride from
and his mother then moved back to Qunu himself after roots Black Consciousness breaking site is the Apart- Cape Town, Robben Island
19 kilometers (12 miles) retiring from public life. Movement. He was a ma- heid Museum. The entrance is where Mandela spent
away to Mqhekezweni. Dusty roads lead to his pri- jor influence on Mandela, is divided into "blankes/ 18 years of his 27 years in
Here he was adopted by vate grave, across from his and died in 1977 after be- whites" and "nie-blankes/ prison, beginning in 1964,
the acting regent king and family's burial site. ing arrested and beaten. non-whites," followed by a alongside other heroes of
groomed for leadership. Qunu also houses the Nel- In neighboring Mandela display of "passes" that the the movement like Sisulu
Mandela wrote in his auto- son Mandela Museum, Bay in Port Elizabeth, an in- black population was re- and Govan Mbeki.
biography, "Long Walk to which opened on Feb. stallation called Route 67 quired to carry, restricting The most powerful part of
Freedom," that his interest 11, 2000, the 10th anni- showcases 67 artworks sym- their movements. The mu- the tour, led by a former
in politics was first kindled lis- versary of his release from bolizing Mandela's 67 years seum details the white set- prisoner, is a visit to Mande-
tening to tribal elders hold- prison. It takes visitors from of service. The art, all by lo- tlers' history in South Africa, la's cell, a 7-by-9-foot (2-by-
ing community meetings his childhood through his cals, depicts significant mo- the beginnings of apart- 2.7-meter) room. Despite
in Mqhekezweni. A shady involvement in politics to ments on the journey from heid and daily struggles the humiliation and oppres-
spot under a circle of gum his triumphant election as apartheid to democracy, blacks endured, along with sion of his years here, this
trees, Ndlumbini said, is still president. moving from laser-cut steel the story of how Mandela was also where he honed
used for that purpose. Some 200 kilometers (125 figures forming a voting line transformed the African his skills as a leader, negoti-
It was Qunu where Mande- miles) south lies the Steve in the country's first demo- National Congress into a ator and proselytizer, which
la returned after 27 years in Biko Museum in King Wil- cratic elections in 1994, mass political movement. put him on the path to the
prison. He built a complex liam's Town. Biko was an to a stairway that starts in The Hector Pieterson Me- presidency in 1994.q
darkness and progresses
to an era of color and new
beginnings.
SOWETO
Created in the 1930s by the
white government to relo-
cate the black population
away from Johannesburg,
Soweto became the larg-
est black city in South Afri-
ca. Poverty was rampant in
the shanty towns and civil
unrest was common during
apartheid.
Mandela lived in Soweto
In this July 18, 2008, file photo, tourists take photos of former from 1946 to 1962 and met In this Dec. 15, 2013, file photo, a young girl sits outside the Man-
South African President Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Is- African National Congress dela House Museum in the Soweto township, in Johannesburg,
land, South Africa. activist Walter Sisulu there. South Africa.
Associated Press Mandela's Soweto home Associated Press