Mandela's House
Modest matchbox home of bullet holes and scorch marks, kept as the family left it after apartheid-era raids.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Mandela's House in Soweto follows Nelson Mandela's first night as a free man in February 1990, when after twenty-seven years in prison he came straight back to the small brick house he'd always thought of as home. It traces the scars on the walls around you, bullet holes and scorch marks from police raids during the years Winnie Mandela held the house alone, and the fire that nearly destroyed it in 1988. Best heard standing at the small gate out front.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Vilakazi Street
Heritage street once home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, now lined with cafes and craft stalls.
Liliesleaf
Restored farmhouse where anti-apartheid leaders hid, raided by police in nineteen sixty-three.
Chancellor House
Restored three-storey law office where South Africa's first black-run legal practice once fought apartheid pass laws.
Hector Pieterson Memorial
Memorial marking the spot where a schoolboy was shot dead during the nineteen seventy six student uprising.
Constitution Hill Human Rights Precinct
Prison complex turned constitutional court, built atop cells where political prisoners were held.
Soweto
Sprawling township of vibrant streets and murals, birthplace of the uprising that shook apartheid.