Durban - South Africa can expect a significant upswing in tourism next year as the death of Nelson Mandela focuses the world’s attention on our country.
South Africans have long been privileged to visit the sites where this extraordinary man changed the course of our history. Now foreign tourists will want to follow in his footsteps too, as he grew from village boy to lawyer, activist to political prisoner, and from president of the country to an international icon.
Just hours after his death sent shock waves around the world, foreign travel agents began contacting local operators to ask about Mandela magic packages for their clients.
“Since Mandela’s passing we have had a lot of international tour operators wanting us to put together a Long Walk To Freedom Tour,” said Craig Drysdale, head of global sales for Thompsons Africa and the past president of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association.
The first calls came from Dutch tour operators on the morning after his death. Travel agents in the UK and US would probably wait until after the funeral in case their enthusiasm seemed disrespectful, Drysdale said.
Thompsons already runs some tours that include the site of Mandela’s arrest, his house in Soweto and Robben Island. Its 15-day South Africa Surprise tour has always included an optional trip to Qunu, the village where Mandela grew up. Not many tourists have taken that up in the past, but that was before his death caused such global grief.
Now Drysdale will begin putting together some stand-alone Long Walk to Freedom packages that will include Qunu, now Mandela’s burial site.
“I think there will be a huge international interest in coming to South African to see his sites now. It’s emotional tourism and you will see a lot of people wanting to spend the week here,” Drysdale believes.
“Whenever I market South Africa abroad everybody knows the country where Nelson Mandela comes from, even if they don’t know where South Africa actually is. People will use this opportunity to showcase the country as a tourist destination and put us back on the map.”
Anyone who thinks it smacks of capitalising on grief should remember that foreigners want to experience for themselves the places and the conditions that shaped the man who became an international hero. Mandela also championed the goal of creating more jobs, and tours that trace his footsteps will create jobs in some very needy areas.
Domestic tourism could also enjoy a fillip, as people feel moved to visit places they have previously ignored. Robben Island has already seen a massive spike in visitors, with many South African taking the ferry to place flowers at his jail cell.
Here are some of the best places to follow Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom:
Qunu
Rural Qunu hasn’t been a major tourist destination until now, but that’s bound to change as tourists make a pilgrimage to this village in the Eastern Cape. It’s where Mandela spent his formative years and where he will be laid to rest.
The Nelson Mandela Museum and craft shop organises Madiba magic tours to the rocks where he used to play, the stone church where he was baptised and the ruins of his primary school where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name “Nelson” on his first day.
The Madiba clan dominates Qunu and several homesteads owned by his relatives are in the area. This forms part of the story told by the museum’s exhibits.
Daily from 9am to 4pm www.nelsonmandelamuseum.org.
Cycle through Alexandra
Mandela stayed in Alexandra when he first moved to Johannesburg in 1940. The yard where he rented a room is a scruffy place, as it always was, but now it’s a Heritage Precinct.
His room had no running water or electricity, yet in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela wrote: “Alexandra occupies a treasured place in my heart. It was the first place I had ever lived away from home. Life in Alexandra was exhilarating and precarious. Its atmosphere was alive, its spirit adventurous, its people resourceful. In spite of the hellish aspects of life in Alexandra, the township was also a kind of heaven.”
A new Mandela Museum is being built behind the yard, an imposing affair that literally overshadows the ramshackle room where he began his struggle years.
Young entrepreneur Jeffrey Mulaudzi operates bike tours of Alexandra, which are the best way to experience its vibe. You’ll visit Mandela’s Yard, a shebeen, a school and hear about the hospital and hostels set up to house the workers. Details from: www.alexandratours.co.za.
Soweto
Mandela spent many years in Soweto, and his former home, 8115 Vilakazi Street, is now a museum. Vilakazi is the only street in the world to have been home to 2 Nobel Peace prizewinners – Mandela and his friend, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Mandela’s house has been preserved as it was when Nelson and Winnie lived there in the 1960s. Since his death was announced, groups of South Africans of every age and colour have gathered outside his home laying flowers, singing struggle songs and dancing.
Guided tours usually include a traditional meal and drinks in a shebeen. Several companies run guided tours. Soweto Tour (www.sowetotour.co.za) offers one for R495 with options to add on lunch or a visit to the Apartheid Museum.
Liliesleaf
Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia was the secret headquarters of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Mandela used to masquerade as a gardener in between plotting to overthrow apartheid.
The raid on Liliesleaf, on July 11, 1963, dealt a severe blow to the struggle with key leaders arrested and enough evidence seized to stage the Rivonia Trial, where Mandela and seven other activists were jailed.
The farm, at 7 George Avenue Rivonia, has been preserved and extended to create an interactive museum. There’s a great video clip about a jailbreak by some of the captured conspirators when they bribed a guard to let them out. Outside is an old tourist truck that ran safaris from the UK. But its real purpose was to smuggle in AK-47s and grenades from the exiles abroad, so tourists were unwittingly sitting on an arms cache.
You can wander around alone for R60 but rather take a tour for R110, or R30 for students, so you have a guide to help you make sense of the information.
Open daily from 8:30am-5pm and 9am to 4pm at weekends. www.liliesleaf.co.za
Mandela Capture Monument
Mandela wasn’t captured at Liliesleaf, much to the annoyance of the authorities, but he was captured soon after while driving from Durban to Johannesburg. He was caught on August 5, 1962, on the R103 near Howick, after 17 months in hiding. A striking metal monument has been erected at the spot where Mandela lost his freedom for 27 years. The sculpture by Marco Cianfanelli consists of 50 steel poles, 8 to 10m tall, arranged in a pattern that creates an image of Mandela’s face as you walk towards it. Cianfanelli says the 50 columns represented 50 years since his capture, and suggest the idea of solidarity, with many making the whole.
Tourism info: 033 330 5305.
Robben Island
Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island, and the place still has the power to shock, stir and inspire. This high-security prison for political prisoners practised apartheid itself, with black prisoners like Mandela fed a poorer diet and made to wear shorts instead of long trousers even in winter.
The tour guides are former prisoners who share their memories as they show you the lime quarries where they worked and the impossibly small cell where Mandela spent so many years. Linger at the back of the group and close the cell door behind you to feel a profoundly moving sense of his isolation.
Ferries leave at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm from Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Adults R250, children R120 to visit. Pre-book online (www.robben-island.org.za) as the tours fill up quickly.
Apartheid Museum
Johannesburg’s excellent and moving Apartheid Museum tells the story of racially segregated South Africa. Your entrance ticket comes in “white” and “non-white” versions, determining which entrance you’re allowed to use.
Audio-visual archives, photographs and displays recreate this harrowing period of history. The reels include Mandela’s 1961 interview with the BBC while he was in hiding, and footage of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd trying to justify racial segregation.
Allow at least 2 or 3 hours to tour the museum, which will remind you how far South Africa has to go to build a society based on dignity and equality after such brutal, long-lasting oppression. www.apartheidmuseum.org
Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
The not-for-profit Nelson Mandela Foundation works out of the Centre of Memory in Houghton, Johannesburg. It focuses on three areas: the Life and Time of Nelson Mandela, Dialogue for Social Justice and Nelson Mandela International Day. It runs regular exhibitions relating to those who played a role in the liberation struggle. www.nelsonmandela.org - Sunday Tribune