Mandela's South Africa: Then and now

A nine-metre bronze statue of Nelson Mandela on the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. PHOTO | AFP 

In Summary

• Mandela will be with us through the political legacy that brought freedom and democracy for South Africa, and through the many sites that continue to reflect the momentous events in his life: From Qunu to Vilakazi Street, from Howick to Robben Island and Pretoria, and, finally back to Qunu.

By TOKOZILE XASA

Join me on a journey to some very special places in our country, places that tell a remarkable story for the whole world.

Many international tourists, and some South Africans, would have experienced parts of the trip when they visited the tourist sites that relate the story of our first democratic president on Mandela Day.

For those of us who cannot travel right now, let’s start our tour among the rolling hills around Qunu in the Eastern Cape. Scattered homesteads are sometimes clustered into little villages reached only by dusty, bumpy roads.

The cattle that you can see dotted around the landscape would have been tended by a young Rolihlala Mandela as they grazed all day long, nearly a century ago. There would have been a small school in this area, where a teacher bestowed the name “Nelson” upon a young man, little knowing that he was to become a universal symbol of the spirit of humanity and reconciliation.

Places like this are not just about picturesque hills and sparse dwellings. They reveal layer upon layer of our history and heritage.

You can have an authentic interaction by living in private homes and local lodges in rural communities like these. Here, you can gain first-hand insight into how traditional beliefs and cultural practices intermingle with modern life. You can understand how the history and hardships of our people guide our aspirations to transform our economy and bring marginalised communities into the tourism mainstream.

Qunu village where young Mandela grew up. PHOTO | AFP

This place was so important to Mandela that he chose to return here to retire, after leading a divided nation striving to reconcile itself, and serving as a revered statesman.

Let’s leave the quiet rural countryside of Qunu for now, and head north to Gauteng, to Soweto in Johannesburg. It was here, in Vilakazi Street, that Mandela lived in a small red brick house typical of apartheid’s townships. Farther down the road lived Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Together with church colleagues and comrades in arms, Tutu and Mandela led the long struggle to tear down the policies that confined their people to live within their tiny boxes. Vilakazi Street became the heart of the struggle against apartheid.

READ: Vilakazi Street: Home of the Nobel laureates

Today, the precinct is bustling with restaurants and street vendors who depend on the busloads of visiting tourists for trade. It is the only street in the world that was once home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Most visitors are international tourists, but more and more of the locals are starting to experience the benefits of exploring their own country.

On Vilakazi Street, the layer of historic social struggle is interweaved with many economic dimensions — the precinct supports jobs, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Tourist guides, transport operators and vendors of memorabilia all benefit from tourism.

Mandela lived in a small red brick house typical of apartheid’s townships along Vilakazi street. PHOTO | NMG

We leave the city of Johannesburg and head for the quiet town of Howick in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands. It was here, along a winding back road, that Mandela was captured by security police, leading to the Treason Trial, and his imprisonment on Robben Island.

The capture site is marked by an iconic sculpture, which gives visitors a sense of the important historic event. That moment when a policeman stopped a car driven by a man disguised as a chauffeur was to become a defining moment in South Africa’s history.

From here, our journey follows Mandela to the prison cell he occupied for over two decades on Robben Island. A short ferry ride from Cape Town takes you to the island’s small harbour.

A tour of the prison conveys the hardship its occupants were subjected to. Standing in the cell that held Mandela captive, you think about how someone who was confined to the brutality of this place emerged with such humanity, even towards his captors.

Mandela when he visit the cell he had been imprisoned in for 27 years in Robben Island. PHOTO | AFP

The penultimate leg of our trip follows the footsteps of Mandela from Robben Island to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where the prisoner became president. On the front lawns, an imposing statue of a smiling Mandela stretches out his arms, protecting his people.

From here, we return to a traditional family gravesite at Qunu, to Mandela’s final resting place, where his family and comrades gathered to return his body to the soil that sustained his early life.

The funeral cortege carrying the coffin of former South African President Nelson Mandela drives through Mandela's homeland just outside the village of Qunu December 14, 2013. PHOTO | REUTERS

But the story is far from over: Mandela will be with us through the political legacy that brought freedom and democracy for South Africa, and through the many sites that continue to reflect the momentous events in his life: From Qunu to Vilakazi Street, from Howick to Robben Island and Pretoria, and, finally back to Qunu.

Visitors will return home with a renewed sense of what these sites mean for South Africans, and for humanity.

We end our journey as changed people, with a deeper understanding of ourselves and each other, fulfilling the ultimate purpose of tourism.

Ms Tokozile Xasa is South Africa’s Minister of Tourism.