No. 8115, Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg is an address most South Africans are familiar with. The address is now a pilgrimage centre for foreign football fans. Former South African president Nelson Mandela lived at a quaint little house bearing No. 8115 from 1945 to 1958.
“It was the opposite of grand, but it was my first true home of my own and I was mightily proud. A man is not a man until he has a house of his own,” says Mandela in his book, The Long Walk to Freedom. The house has a special place in Mandela’s heart because it is located on Soweto, which was the nerve-centre of black uprising in 1976.
Mandela lived with his second wife, Winnie, at the house until his life imprisonement in 1964.
Like the number of years he had spent in jail, 27, the number of his “true home” is also ingrained on the minds of South Africans. The Vilakazi Street landmark has been converted into a museum, which attracts a steady flow of tourists throughout the year. The museum houses rare photographs of the Nobel laureate besides a variety materials used by the architect of modern, democratic South Africa.
Jonathan Makhuvele, a guide at the museum, says there has been a sharp increase in the number of visitors because of the World Cup. “People of different nationalities and races are coming here every day. Mandela is our father and I’m honoured to work in a place that captures his selfless struggle. I felt like crying when I first entered the house,” he adds.
Mader Zakipur, a British national of Iranian ancestry, was at the museum on Sunday with his young son. “This place is inspirational. I feel so humbled. I’m speechless. Visiting the great man's house is the highlight of my South African trip. The sacrifices Mandela made to unite his country are unbelievable,” he says.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1984, has a house a few metres away from Mandela’s. Thus Vilakazi has the rare honour of housing two Nobel winners.
The visitors of the Mandela House Museum are greeted with a sentence from The Long Walk to Freedom: “That night I returned with Winnie to No. 8115 in Orlando West. It was only then that I knew in my heart I had left prison. For me No. 8115 was the centre point of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography.”