Hi Friends,
This is my 100th post and to mark this occasion and celebration I would love to share the story about the person who was captured from this place on 5th August 1962 and spent the rest of his 27 years in various jails including one at Robben Island near Capetown, South Africa. I will surely take you to Robben Island too in my next posts.
South African government has developed the place where he was traveling that day just 5km outside of Howick and identified himself as the Chauffer of the car but the Apartheid police identified and arrested him on the spot. He was just coming back after paying a visit to the ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli’s Groutville home. Marco Cianfanelli and Jeremy Rose (Mashabane Rose Architects) originally collaborated in 2007 with the view to making an interactive sculpture project that incorporated the image of Nelson Mandela. Culture Mechanics, a specialist museum, exhibition, design, and art consultancy curated the project and commissioned the installation of this piece on the site.
The place is named Nelson Mandela Capture Site with a ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ through the landscaped garden to view the iconic sculpture entitled Release, featuring 50 steel columns which dramatically come into focus as Mandela’s face from a particular vantage point. It consists of 50 steel columns between 6 and 9.5 meters high along a thirty-meter length, which can be seen, from the road looking like a forest of steel poles. The laser-cut steel columns gradually come together and focus at a particular point 30 meters from the sculpture creating the illusion of a flat two-dimensional image magically recreating Madiba’s portrait, metaphorically announcing his return to the site of his disappearance from world view. The place can easily be reached by taking a diversion from the main highway and just 7-8kms from the main road. There is plenty of parking space and entry ticket is R100 for adults and R60 for teenagers and kids go free under the age of 12 years. It’s a must-visit museum and you shall all make it to the struggle of freedom from the man himself and other artifacts kept at the visitors center. Howick if you remember is also famous for the Howick Falls which you can also read in my earlier posts.
Sawubona!
Aashish Rai
#TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra
