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Soweto: Township rich in tales

Mandela House on Vilakazi Street. [iStock Photos]

My South African counterpart ended up being overcome and could not stay in the museum any longer, with the story being too real close to home, considering apartheid only ended in 1994. I could hardly contain my tears going through the museum either.

The crowning jewel was visiting Mandela House on Vilakazi Street, where the man himself, Nelson Mandela, lived between 1946 to 1962, before his arrest. The house, No 8115, is close to where Pierterson was killed. Mandela returned to the same house and lived there for 11 days after his release in 1990, saying of the place, “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.”

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