Mandela Family Museum

Just a bit more on today’s visit to Soweto (though I am happy to talk more about it in person)….they have two professional soccer teams! Also, the Mandela and Tutu families lived on the same block in the early days of the struggle, and it is very unusual that two Nobel Prize winners would live on the same street. The Tutu family still uses the family home and the very modest Mandela home is now a museum (we were not allowed to take photos inside the house), but here are a few of the exterior:

The house is very small inside and chock full of memorabilia and family keepsakes. Most of the original furnishing are gone because of a petrol bomb thrown at the house (in the late 50’s/early 60’s I think). The original house had no running water. Mr. Mandela lived here with his first and second wife. Three of his four children from his first marriage (his first wife died) have passed away, the son most recently of AIDs. One of his daughters with Winnie Mandela is now married to the Prince of Swaziland. It was a very solemn experience walking through this house.
Even though the days of the Bantu educational curriculum are long past, learners still struggle here because there aren’t many teachers and the public schools are still pretty disadvantaged. We met some girls

in Grade 8 dressed in school uniform who told us they were on strike (actually it is the teachers who are on strike), just outside the Mandela Family Museum (gen. info page, website under construction). The lack of teachers will make it difficult for them to get the preparation they need for university. They were very sweet girls. I took a picture with them. I had some small gifts in my luggage for just this occasion, but couldn’t get to it. We dug through our carry-on bags and I had a couple of nice headbands, new barrettes, and bracelets that I gave away. Others gave them book light keychains and other items. We got their addresses and address of the school, so hopefully we can keep in touch with them somehow.  We didn’t have time for a planned visit to the Hecter Pieterson Museum (opened on June 16 (Youth Day), 2002), so we drove past it on our way to having lunch at Wandie’s before heading to the Apartheid museum (I still haven’t wrapped my brain around that experience). One thing about holidaying with a group, your time is not your own.