of his own.”
He spent little time in his home
in Vilakazi Street; the all-consuming
role he played in the struggle kept
him away, often for long periods of
time. He says, “I enjoyed domesticity,
even though I had little time for it…
I enjoyed relaxing at home, reading
quietly, taking in the sweet and savoury
smells emanating from pots boiling in
the kitchen. But I was rarely at home to
enjoy these things.”
In 1961 he was forced underground
and had to live on the run from the
police until his arrest in 1962. While
he was in prison, the house was petrol
bombed, and in 1988 it was burnt down
by arsonists. It was rebuilt at a cost of
R45 000.
His return to the house after his
release from Robben Island in 1990
was brief but significant. Winnie had
built a bigger and better home while
he was incarcerated, but he refused
to move in there. He wanted to go
home. In Long Walk To Freedom, he
writes: “That night I returned with
Sources:
Winnie to No. 8115 in Orlando West.
• Long Walk
It was only then that I knew in my
to Freedom
heart that I had left prison. For me,
by Nelson
No. 8115 was the centre point of my
Mandela
world, the place marked with an X in
• www.
my mental geography. When I saw it,
joburg.org.
I was surprised by how much smaller
za (“Mandela
and humbler it was than I remembered
House opens
it being. Compared with my cottage
in Soweto” by
at Victor Verster, No. 8115 could have
Lucille Davie)
been the servants’ quarters at the back.
But any house in which a man is free is
a castle when compared with even the
plushest prison.”
“It is the heritage not
only of one family but
that of all the people of
Soweto and our nation
who refused to bow
down to tyranny or
succumb to bitterness.”
He resisted the advice to move into
a home more appropriate for a man of
his stature for as long as he could. He
wanted to “live not only among [his]
people, but like them”. For security
reasons he was moved to a secret
location before moving to his residence
in Houghton.
Madiba handed this piece of
The modest bedroom has been restored to its original look and feel history to the Soweto Heritage Trust
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