IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

Centennial of celebrated South African leader’s birthday is July 18

QUNU, SOUTH AFRICA — July 18 marks 100 years since the birth of Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013. Visitors can follow in Mandela’s footsteps from the villages where he was born and raised, to the Soweto township where he became an anti-apartheid leader, to Robben Island where he was imprisoned for years.

The Eastern Cape

“When Mandela was just a child, he walked for miles on this route, moving from one village to another,” said tour guide Velile Ndlumbini as we drove through the picturesque green rolling hills of the Eastern Cape. The homestead where he was born can be seen in the small village of Mvezo. He lived here until age 2, when his father lost grave, across from his family’s burial site.

Qunu also houses the Nelson Mandela Museum, which opened on Feb. 11, 2000, the 10th anniversary of his release from prison. It takes visitors from his childhood through his involvement in politics to his triumphant election as president.

Some 200 km south lies the Steve Biko Museum in King William’s Town. Biko was an icon of antiapartheid activism, an African nationalist and a leader of the grassroots Black Consciousness Movement. He was a major influence on Mandela, and died in 1977 after being arrested and beaten.

In neighbouring Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth, an installation called Route 67 showcases 67 artworks symbolizing Mandela’s 67 years of service. The art, all by locals, depicts significant moments on

the journey from apartheid to democracy, moving from lasercut steel figures forming a voting line in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, to a stairway that starts in darkness and progresses to an era of colour and new beginnings.

Soweto

Created in the 1930s by the white government to relocate the black population away from Johannesburg, Soweto became the largest black city in South Africa. Poverty was rampant in the shanty towns and civil unrest was common during apartheid.

Mandela lived in Soweto from 1946 to 1962 and met African National Congress activist Walter Sisulu there.

Mandela’s Soweto home has also been converted into a museum.

But the most exhaustive and heartbreaking site is the Apartheid Museum. The entrance is divided into “blankes/whites” and “nie-blankes/non-whites,” followed by a display of “passes” that the black population was required to carry, restricting their movements. The museum details the white settlers’ history in South Africa, the beginnings of apartheid and daily struggles blacks endured, along with the story of how Mandela transformed the African National Congress into a mass political movement.

The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum tell the story of the 1976 Soweto riots. Hector was 12 when he was shot and killed by police firing on student protesters. A famous photo shows his limp body being carried as his sister ran alongside. Some accounts say hundreds died during the protests.

The museum contains a heartwrenching and moving collection of oral testimonies, large-scale photos, audiovisual displays and historical documents about the uprising.

A drive north takes you to Liliesleaf, in the suburb of Rivonia. This farm-turned-museum, once owned by South African Communist Party member Arthur Goldreich, was used in the 1960s as a secret hideout for Mandela and other activists on the run from police.

The famous Rivonia Trial ended with Mandela and his comrades sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island.

Robben Island

A 45-minute ferry ride from Cape Town, Robben Island is where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison, beginning in 1964, alongside other heroes of the movement like Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.

The most powerful part of the tour, led by a former prisoner, is a visit to Mandela’s cell, a 2-by-2.7metre room. Despite the humiliation and oppression of his years here, this was where he honed his skills as a leader, negotiator and proselytizer, which put him on the path to the presidency in 1994.

Madiba’s journey

For visitors, making a pilgrimage to places connected to Mandela’s life is both distressing and uplifting.

While South Africa has come a long way, this young democracy still has a lot of work ahead, including improving living conditions and resources for its majority black population.

A mobile app, Madiba’s Journey, created by South African Tourism and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, can help you trace the footsteps of the man who dedicated his life to freedom.

UDO WEITZ AP FILE PHOTO Feb. 13, 1990: Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela give black power salutes as they enter the Soccer City stadium in the Soweto township of Johannesburg shortly after his release from 27 years in prison. The centennial of Mandela’s birth is July 18, and those who made a pilgrimage to honour his legacy will find sites around South Africa, from the villages of his childhood to museums and historic sites.

THEMBA HADEBE AP FILE PHOTO Tourists leave after visiting the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto in June 2006, ahead of the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising.

PETER DEJONG AP FILE PHOTO Mandela reacts after a meeting in 2007 at the Nelson Mandela Foundation building in Johannesburg, South Africa.

MARKUS SCHREIBER AP FILE PHOTO A girl sits outside the Mandela House Museum in the Soweto township in Johannesburg as the funeral service for Nelson Mandela takes place in his ancestral village of Qunu, on Dec. 15, 2013.

CAROLYN KASTER AP FILE PHOTO The prison on Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 years of his 27-year prison term locked up by the former apartheid government.