Recommend July 2018 - 61

KRISTAN SCHILLER

onsitereview

Voting Line sculpture in
Port Elizabeth.

Selling
Madiba's Journey
Kristan Schiller

One of the greatest thrills of my life was
meeting former South African President
Nelson Mandela in 2003 when he
was checking into the Saxon Hotel in
Johannesburg and I was checking out. As
I stood in the lobby awaiting my airport
transfer, Mandela ambled in. I gazed in awe,
seconds later gathering myself enough to
smile and extend my arm for a handshake.
While the encounter lasted less than five
minutes, the privilege of meeting a man
of such unwavering courage and resilience
stays with me as if it were yesterday. And so,
when Recommend received an invitation
from South African Tourism to travel on
their Madiba's Journey itinerary, celebrating
the global icon's legacy by visiting the places
across South Africa that helped shape the
story of his life just four years after his death,
and the publication asked me if I was able to
attend, I jumped at the chance to go.
I embarked upon a 2-week voyage, visiting
a handful of the 100 tourist attractions
featured in the recently relaunched (and
free) Madiba's Journey app, created by
South African Tourism in collaboration
with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The
app highlights 100 historic landmarks and
sites that influenced Madiba during this
centenary year of his birth from the Eastern
Cape to Johannesburg to Cape Town and
beyond. (Madiba is Mandela's Xhosa clan
name and is considered a title of respect
and affection.) Travel advisors with clients
who want to follow in the footsteps of
Mandela can offer South African Airways
Vacations' 10-day Celebrating Mandela's
100th itinerary, starting at US $2,499 pp.
The itinerary takes visitors to buzzy

Nelson Mandela Square in upscale Sandton,
Johannesburg (where we stayed at the
excellent DaVinci Hotel & Suites), the
Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto (a
tribute to the children killed during the
Soweto Uprising of 1976), Robben Island off
the shores of Cape Town (where Mandela
was held prisoner for 18 of his 27 years in
captivity), and the Iziko Slave Lodge, a
former slave quarters that's now a museum
of slavery, also in Cape Town. Also included
in the 100 attractions are the informative
Mandela House Museum in Soweto, and St.
George's Cathedral in Cape Town, whose
basement was once used as a meeting place
for apartheid resistance activists, and has
now been transformed into The Crypt Jazz
Restaurant, a popular club where Cape jazz
musicians jam into the wee hours.
Other notable highlights include
Mandela's house in the quiet suburb
of Houghton in Johannesburg, where
he lived with his third wife Graca
Machel; Constitution Hill in downtown
Johannesburg, where hundreds of political
prisoners were held including Mandela,
now home to South Africa's Constitutional
Court; and the Nelson Mandela Capture
Site in Howick, about an hour's drive west
of Durban. Here, a small museum has been
set up near a giant sculpture by Johannesburg
artist Marco Cianfanelli, constructed from 50
steel columns cut by laser to form an image of
Nelson Mandela when viewed at the correct
angle. The sculpture stands along a stretch of
dirt road at the exact spot where, in August
1952, Mandela was captured and arrested
by police after a 17-month pursuit for his
anti-Apartheid activism. For aficionados of

both art and South African history, I highly
recommend a visit to this site. (Note: Tell
clients to wear a hat and walking shoes as
there is little shade here and it's a short hike
to get a good view of the sculpture.)
On the second to last day of my Madiba's
Journey tour, we enjoyed a Public Art City
Tour on Route 67 at the Donkin Reserve in
Port Elizabeth on South Africa's Eastern Cape.
It's called "Route 67" because it consists of
67 public art works that symbolize Nelson
Mandela's 67 years of work dedicated to South
Africa's freedom struggle.
The most prominent work here, in my view,
is the steel sculpture called Voting Line, which
consists of a likeness of Nelson Mandela
next to that of everyday South Africans, a
tribute to the thousands who participated
in the nation's first democratic elections
in 1994. Route 67 forms part of the greater
Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey, which
includes a number of galleries and museums
in Port Elizabeth such as the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan Museum, the newly renovated
Athenaeum Building, the Red Location
Museum, Uitenhage Market Square and the
artEC art gallery. Travel agents can book
guided tours of this heritage trail route for
their clients through Nelson Mandela
Bay Tourism.
The nearby Boardwalk Hotel with its
elegant lobby, spacious rooms, and sweeping
outdoor patio overlooking beautiful Hobie
Beach was the ideal end to my South African
adventure following in the footsteps of the
great leader.

Getting There
South African Airways (SAA), the leading
carrier from New York to South Africa with
the only nonstop daily flight, offers roundtrip
to Johannesburg, Cape Town, or Durban,
South Africa. ■
Contact Information
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism: nmbt.co.za
South African Airways: flysaa.com
South African Airways Vacations: flysaavacations.com
South African Tourism: southafrica.net/us/en
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http://nmbt.co.za http://www.flysaa.com http://www.flysaavacations.com http://www.southafrica.net/us/en
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend July 2018
