Mandela House

Mandela House is the modest red-brick home on the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets in Orlando West where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 until 1962, the years in which he rose from a young lawyer to a leader of the struggle against apartheid. The house was built in 1945 as standard township housing. Mandela returned briefly after his release from prison in 1990, staying for only eleven days, and in 1997 he gave the house to the Soweto Heritage Trust to run as a museum.

It opened to visitors in December 1997 and was declared a National Heritage Site in 1999. After a restoration project it reopened in 2009 with a visitor centre on the property. Inside, the rooms are small, which is part of the point: you see how a family lived in a small township house. Displays include family photographs, some original furniture, honours and memorabilia, and the championship belt given to Mandela by the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. Look for the bullet marks in the walls and the scorch marks from petrol bombs on the outside, reminders of the attacks the family faced.

A visit is fairly short, usually under an hour, so most people combine it with other sights on Vilakazi Street. The street is famous as the only one in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have lived, and it is lined with restaurants, craft stalls and street performers. The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum is a short walk away.

The museum has become cashless, so bring a bank card. Ticket prices are set separately for South African and African Union visitors and for international visitors, with reductions for children, students and pensioners, and children under seven pay little or nothing. The museum closes on Good Friday, Family Day, Christmas Day, the Day of Goodwill and New Year's Day; at other times it is worth checking with the museum before you travel, especially on public holidays.

Most visitors come on a Soweto tour, by bicycle, minibus or car, which also helps with context and parking. If you drive yourself, Vilakazi Street is in Orlando West, about 20 kilometres south-west of central Johannesburg. Mornings tend to be calmer than early afternoon, when tour groups arrive.