EXCLUSIVE: Inside Mandela’s Home in Soweto

Ezeobi besides Mandela's portrait

Chiemelie Ezeobi who recently visited Nelson Mandela’s home in Soweto, South Africa, a few days before the anti-apartheid icon died writes on how the house the late South African leader lived in his early years has become a tourist’s delight

In Soweto, it is not difficult to locate where he once lived. The people on the streets are eager to point in the direction of his house. Of course, no one would want to miss out on the memory of such a man as Nelson Mandela, whose death recently brought multitude of leaders to Africa.

Mandela achieved a series of firsts in his lifetime including being the first black man to rule South Africa. But that was 27 years after he was jailed at Robben Island.

With Lagos Police Officers

A physical encounter with Mandela, although a lifelong dream which like many others persons, were not achieved before he passed, a visit to his Soweto home brought him closer home to the writer and others.

On November 8, this year, I was among the fortunate few that was afforded the opportunity to visit Mandela's home in Soweto, as one of the recipients of the Security Watch African (SWA) awards, a security award with a participatory coverage of over 41 African countries, for best best investigative crime reporter in Nigeria.

Alongside the Nigerian Director Defence Information, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Joseph Mbu; the Area E Commander, Lagos Command, ACP Dan Okoro; who were also recipients of the award organised by the Convener, Patrick Agbambu, we set out that sunny morning.

Others in our entourage were the Divisional Police Officers Adeniji Adele Ikoyi and Victoria Island, CSPs Monday Agbonika, Adegoke Fayode and SP Aisha Haruna, respectively, alongside the former Ikeja DPO, ACP Abiodun Alabi, amongst several others.

With the help of a tour guide called Big Ben, although he was anything but big, we stopped along the way to see other tourist sites but with the visit to Mandela's house at the back of our mind.

Fortunately, we had also paid a visit to the FBN Stadium where his service of songs was held last week.  But at that time, our reason to visit was to bask in the euphoria of visiting the stadium where the Super Eagles triumphed and carried home the African Nations Cup this year.

After taking pictures, the journey to Madiba's house continued although we did stop at intervals to take shots of interesting sites and scenery one of which was the bungee jump.

At the sign that ushers one in from Fourways, Johannesburg where we lodged, we all got down from our tour vehicle and paid homage to the town that had housed the great one.

At a casual glance at the entourage, it would have been difficult to believe that almost all the tourists were police officers as the excitement alone was contagious. Even the Rivers CP abandoned the paraphernalia of office and took pictures with other junior officers.

The Vilakazi Street

As symbolic as it was, right before one get's to Mandela's house, you get to pass the building where the Africa charter rights were signed after apartheid regime was overthrown.

Soon we got to Mandela's street, Vilakazi, we headed down to his address at no 8115 Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto and we were met at the entrance by photographers and tour guides.

As if having Mandela on the street wasn't enough history for one street, the street also has the famous Noble Laureate, Desmond Tutu, therefore endowing the street with the honour of being the only street in the world with two noble laureates on the same street.

The street had shops and craft shops with different souvenirs crested with Mandela's face and sayings. The coffee shops were not left out as they had a steady stream of tourists who patronised them.

The tour fee was 40 dollars per person and it was paid without hesitation. As an evidence that Mandela never paid lip service to his ideologies of equality of all colours, some of the tour guides were whites as was our own tour guide who admitted that she was a university student but also volunteered as a past time.

With precision, she gave details of the travails of Mandela in the house with his former wife, Winnie and their children when they were being haunted by the colonial masters.

Mandela's Moments of Pain

Entering the building that once housed him, one could literally feel the fear, the pains, the uncertainty that must have been exhibited by the inhabitants of that house during the apartheid regime.

If houses could breath, feel and talk, Mandela's house would have certainly had its fair share of tales to go round. Every crack, soot or bullet hole on the wall told a story of a family's fortitude in times of their trial.

The tour guide was quick to point out that the house was virtually left the way it was apart from a few touches. Pointing to the scarred walls, she said the soot on the walls were from the several times the police set fire on the building to smoke Winnie and the kids out.

There were also gunshot points in the walk which was said to have occurred when hails of bullet were released on the building. Probably tired of the uncertainty, the family soon built a wall inside the house to shield them from the bullets.

Also intact was the very bed Mandela slept on whilst living in that house. The house also touted several awards bestowed on him by different countries and organisations as well as picture of his immediate family and their spouses.

Mandela the Writer

With enough time behind the prison bars, he certainly had the time to write letters to Winnie his wife and then family. In one of the rooms, a kitchen which was turned to an audio room had some of the letters he wrote to Winnie.

The letters were locked behind glass frames and they were read by an automated voice one after the other once anyone steps into the room. This was probably activated by an inbuilt sensor.

Some of the letters were at times passionate, other times it was coated with despondency. But in all, the letters conveyed a sense of pride in Winnie for the efforts and rallies she organised to ensure his freedom.

Mandela the Boxer

Safely locked behind one of the glasses was Mandela's heavyweight championship belt touted to have been given to him by a heavyweight champion as a mark of respect.

It was no secret that one of Mandela's past time was boxing. A hobby he enjoyed passionately as he vented steam during so many bouts in the ring. This perhaps explains his firm body shape despite the toll of prison and later old age.

Mandela the Family Man

Who understands the saying that having a ‘family is everything’ better other than Mandela. His family suffered and paid the price throughout his years of activism as they had to live in uncertainty after he was jailed.

Although pictures of his family dotted the walls of all the rooms, more profound was the tree which like an Iroko tree crowned one side of the iron fences.

Although bent with age and long-term effect of the weather over the years, the gnarled tree had relics of each member of the family buried underneath it.

According to the tour guide, Mandela had buried the umbilical cord of all his children underneath that tree and as such has become an age-long tradition whereby children born into the family have their umbilical buried there too as a sign of unbearable unity

Mandela and Hector Peterson’s Price of Freedom

Mandela's story would not be completed without mentioning Hector Peterson, the school boy that first paid the price of apartheid in South Africa. He was shot by the South African police in the infamous 1976 Soweto uprising that marked the end of the beginning of the apartheid regime.

In recognition of that fact, Mandela had upon his release from jail, unveiled the marble placed in honour of Hector and several others who died during the uprising.

Not an eye was dry when we saw the graphic but historic picture where another student simply identified as Mbuyisa, carried the bleeding Hector and ran home to his mother.

More profound was the words of the Ma' Makhubu, the mother of Mbuyisa, who although has not seen her son since then, shunned every attempt to call her son a hero.

In her words which was written on marble at the park and museum dedicated to Hector and others who died later in the riot, she said, "Mbuyida is or was my son but he is not a hero.

"In my culture, picking up Hector is an act of heroism. It was his job as a brother. If he had left him on the ground and somebody else saw him jumping over Hector, he would never be able to live here."

According to Big Ben, after his act of heroism, no one ever set eyes on Mbuyisa again including his family as a manhunt was allegedly launched for him. Big Ben went on to say that while many were of the opinion that he might have been caught and killed, others opine that he simply relocated to another country.

But whilst hope of his return might have dwindled, the echoes of the struggle by SA for emancipation lives on in the lives of those that fought and won the struggle like Madiba.

Although it was a visit that had no physical meeting with Mandela, one was left with the feeling of having met him in person after visiting his home because his spirit was felt in every corner of the house.

Of course, the visit was not complete without a snapshot from the many photographers outside with the famous Mandela pose (the right hand tightened to form a fist). We had written our thoughts on what Mandela meant to us in an open register, but we left each silent with his thoughts as we ruminated on the courage, resilience and forgiveness which he showed at every point during his lifetime.