Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites is a cultural
UNESCO World Heritage Site, comprising 14 places and inscribed on the list in 2024. It commemorates the life of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who would become the leader of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and when apartheid had been defeated, the president of the country.
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Map of Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites
- 1 The Union Buildings (often referred to as "Arcadia"), 2 Church St (Pretoria), ☏ +27 12 300 5200, [email protected]. Gardens open 24/7. The offices of the South African presidency. The building was designed by Sir Herbert Baker in 1908. Entrance to the building is prohibited for security reasons. However, the beautiful terraced gardens, which boast a wide variety of indigenous plants, are open to the public and provide a truly amazing view over the city. Free.
- 2 Walter Sisulu Square (Soweto). In 1955, the organization Congress of the People met here to read out the Freedom Charter, a statement demanding equal rights for all people in South Africa. Today the square is named after Walter Sisulu, a prominent ANC member who like Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island.
- 3 Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station (Sharpeville). On 21 March 1960, thousands of black protesters gathered outside the police station of Sharpeville, a suburb of Vereeniging. They were protesting the pass laws that required them to carry internal passports and limited their freedom of movement. The police opened fire on the protesters, killing 69 people and injuring 180. Since the end of apartheid, 21 March has been commemorated in South Africa as Human Rights Day, and it was here that president Mandela signed the new constitution of South Africa in 1996.
- 4 Sharpeville Memorial garden (Sharpeville). A memorial garden to the massacre near the site of the police station.
- 5 Sharpeville Graves site A (Phelindaba Cemetery, Sharpeville). Graves of the victims of the massacre.
- 6 Sharpeville Graves site B (Phelindaba Cemetery, Sharpeville). Graves of the victims of the massacre.
- 7 Liliesleaf Farm, 7 George Ave (Sandton). Heritage site and museum, the farm is noted for its use as a safe house for African National Congress activists in the 1960s.
- 8 16 June 1976 – The Streets of Orlando West (Soweto). On 16 June 1976, black students staged a protest in the Orlando West district of Soweto against now having to learn Afrikaans at school as this was the language of the oppressors even more so than English. Like in Sharpeville, police started shooting the protestors, killing 176 and injuring more than a thousand students. Today you can visit the Nelson Mandela National Museum in the district, in addition to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum in memory of 12 year old student Hector Pieterson who was among the victims.
- 9 Constitution Hill (Johannesburg). The seat of South Africa's constitutional court, but also the site of the Old Fort. Built in the late 19th century, the fort functioned as a prison until 1987. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned here together with other political prisoners during the apartheid era. Since 2004 it is a museum.
- 10 Ohlange High School (Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal). Founded in 1901 by John and Nokutela Dube as the first school by blacks in South Africa. John Dube would later become the first leader of the ANC, and he was buried at the school grounds. Nelson Mandela casted his vote here in the 1994 general election, the first election where all South Africans were allowed to vote.
- 11 University of Fort Hare (Eastern Cape). Before systematic apartheid, black people could obtain a higher education in South Africa, and Fort Hare was a university for blacks. Mandela studied here for a year in 1939-40, but was expelled for partaking in a boycott against the quality of food.
- 12 University of Fort Hare: ZK Matthews House (Eastern Cape). The house of Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews, a lecturer in Social Anthropology and Native Law and Administration at Fort Hare. Mandela was one of his students. As a provincial leader of the ANC, Matthews was tried for treason in 1956. He was acquitted but left South Africa a few years later and died in the United States.
- 13 Waaihoek Wesleyan Church (Bloemfontein). In this church, the African National Congress (ANC) was established in 1912, first as an organisation to promote the rights of black people, then it evolved into a political party.
- 14 The Great Place at Mqhekezweni (Eastern Cape). Mandela lived in Mqhekezweni in his youth, and the Great Place is a "site symbolic of traditional leadership" there.
See also
[edit]- Robben Island, where Mandela was jailed for 18 years, was already separately listed as a World Heritage Site in 1999.
- 20th-century South Africa