African and diaspora · An open list of places

South Africa: imprisonment, resistance, and democracy

A prison island, a fort turned constitutional court, a museum built on a mine dump. Where apartheid was enforced and where it was ended.

Robben Island Museum
Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe island seen across the bay.

The journey in one line

10 places on this journey in South Africa so far. The first rung is 2 of them, and the list keeps growing.

South Africa has been unusually willing to keep the buildings that shamed it. The prison where Mandela was held is a museum. The fort where Gandhi and Mandela were both jailed now shares a site with the Constitutional Court. The house a family was evicted from is preserved with the street signs of the district that was bulldozed around it. This journey runs through those places. Most are in Johannesburg, Soweto and Cape Town, and several are guided by people who were there.

Apartheid was law from 1948 until the first democratic election in 1994. It moved people by race, forbade marriages, broke up neighbourhoods and jailed those who resisted. It was ended by decades of organising inside the country and by pressure from outside it. The places on this list hold both halves of that: the machinery of the system, and the people who broke it.

Robben Island is reached by ferry from the V&A Waterfront and is the one stop that must be booked well ahead. Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum, Mandela House and the Hector Pieterson Memorial can be done across two days in Johannesburg and Soweto. Howick is on the road between Johannesburg and Durban. Many Soweto sites are visited with local guides who live there, which is worth doing.

Rungs

  • First places: 2 places on this journey
  • The road: 6 places on this journey
  • The long road: 10 places on this journey

This list is open and keeps growing. Reaching a rung is not finishing a culture.

Where it goes

Preparing the map. The order below is the same information.

  1. 1Robben Island Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
  2. 2Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa
  3. 3Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
  4. 4Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, Soweto, South Africa
  5. 5Mandela House, Soweto, South Africa
  6. 6District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
  7. 7Nelson Mandela Capture Site, Howick, South Africa
  8. 8Freedom Park, Pretoria, South Africa
  9. 9Liliesleaf Farm, Johannesburg, South Africa
  10. 10Union Buildings, Pretoria, South Africa

10 places on this journey, in order.

The places on this journey

What a visit means here. A visit means entering the named museum, memorial or heritage site. Progress is counted quietly as places on this journey visited.

  1. 1

    Robben Island Museum

    Cape Town, South Africa

    Robben Island Museum
    Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe island seen across the bay.

    Robben Island was a leper colony, then a prison. From 1961 the apartheid government held political prisoners here, including Nelson Mandela, who spent eighteen of his twenty-seven years in the B section. Tours are led by former prisoners.

    What counts as a visit

    The island tour, including the maximum security prison and the lime quarry, reached by the museum's ferry.

    Access

    The full tour runs about three and a half to four hours including two ferry crossings. Sailings are cancelled in rough weather and the museum warns that bookings can be moved or refunded at short notice. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  2. 2

    Constitution Hill

    Johannesburg, South Africa

    Constitution Hill
    Photo: The Heritage Portal, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Old Fort entrance, no people in frame.

    The Old Fort prison complex held Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and tens of thousands of ordinary people arrested under the pass laws. The Constitutional Court was built on the site in 2004, partly from the bricks of the demolished awaiting-trial block.

    What counts as a visit

    The prison museums, the Women's Jail, Number Four and the Constitutional Court building.

    Access

    Court sittings are public when the court is in session; museum tours run daily. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  3. 3

    Apartheid Museum

    Johannesburg, South Africa

    Apartheid Museum
    Photo: NJR ZA, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe museum's entrance wall.

    The museum opened in 2001 and begins by handing each visitor a ticket marked white or non-white, sending them through separate entrances. Inside it works through the laws, the resistance and the negotiated end.

    What counts as a visit

    The permanent exhibition and the grounds.

    Access

    Allow at least two hours; closed on some public holidays. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  4. 4

    Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum

    Soweto, South Africa

    Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum
    Photo: The original uploader was Albinfo at German Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe memorial stone and plaza.

    On 16 June 1976 schoolchildren in Soweto marched against being taught in Afrikaans. Police opened fire. Hector Pieterson was twelve. The memorial stands two streets from where he was shot, and the museum beside it tells the uprising through the pupils who were in it.

    What counts as a visit

    The memorial plaza and the museum.

    Access

    In a working Soweto neighbourhood, a short walk from Vilakazi Street. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  5. 5

    Mandela House

    Soweto, South Africa

    Mandela House
    Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Moongateclimber assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe house on Vilakazi Street.

    The small brick house at 8115 Vilakazi Street was the Mandela family home from 1946. Winnie Mandela lived here through the years of his imprisonment and the house was firebombed more than once. It is kept as a museum by the Soweto Heritage Trust.

    What counts as a visit

    The house interior and yard.

    Access

    A small house with timed entry; busy in the middle of the day. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  6. 6

    District Six Museum

    Cape Town, South Africa

    District Six Museum
    Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net )., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe museum building, formerly a Methodist church.

    District Six was declared white in 1966 and around sixty thousand people were moved to the Cape Flats. The houses were bulldozed and most of the ground was never built on. The museum, in a former Methodist church, is run largely by former residents, and its floor is covered by a map they marked themselves.

    What counts as a visit

    The museum galleries and the memorial floor map.

    Access

    Closed Sundays; guided walks with former residents are booked separately. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  7. 7

    Nelson Mandela Capture Site

    Howick, South Africa

    No freely licensed photograph of this place is on file. The panel above is a drawing, not a picture of the place.

    Mandela was stopped on this road on 5 August 1962 and did not walk free again for twenty-seven years. Marco Cianfanelli's sculpture of fifty steel columns resolves into his face from one point on the path, and a small museum stands behind it.

    What counts as a visit

    The sculpture, the approach path and the museum.

    Access

    On the R103 between Howick and Tweedie; open daily. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  8. 8

    Freedom Park

    Pretoria, South Africa

    Freedom Park
    Photo: Leo za1, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe memorial landscape at Freedom Park.

    Freedom Park sits on Salvokop across the valley from the Voortrekker Monument, which is part of the point. Its Wall of Names carries the dead of the conflicts that made South Africa, from pre-colonial wars to the liberation struggle, and the site is designed around Indigenous practice as much as around exhibits.

    What counts as a visit

    The Wall of Names, the Isivivane garden and the //hapo museum.

    Access

    A large hillside site; guided tours are the usual way in. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

  9. 9

    Liliesleaf Farm

    Johannesburg, South Africa

    Liliesleaf Farm
    Photo: Martinvl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe farm outbuildings.

    A smallholding in Rivonia that was the secret headquarters of the ANC, the South African Communist Party and Umkhonto we Sizwe. The police raid of 11 July 1963 swept up the underground leadership and led to the Rivonia Trial, at which Mandela was Accused Number One.

    What counts as a visit

    The farm buildings and the exhibition.

    Access

    The site closed to visitors in 2021 and has since reopened under new management with reduced operations. Confirm opening before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

    This entry is marked unsure in the research and is not treated as part of a complete set.

  10. 10

    Union Buildings

    Pretoria, South Africa

    Union Buildings
    Photo: Davinci77, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Union Buildings above their terraced gardens.

    The seat of the government that made apartheid law, and the place where Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president on 10 May 1994. Twenty thousand women marched on these steps in 1956 against the pass laws. The terraced gardens are a public park.

    What counts as a visit

    The public terraced gardens and the Mandela statue; the offices themselves are not open.

    Access

    The gardens are open to the public. The building is a working seat of government and is not a visitor attraction. Checked 2026-09-16.

    A place of reflection

    Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

Respect and access

Several of these places are still raw for the people who show you around. Let them set the pace. Soweto's memorial sites sit in a working neighbourhood, so ask before photographing anyone. Selecting this journey says nothing about your politics or your identity. A visit is a record that you were there, not a position.

A place of reflection
This is a memorial or a site of atrocity. Visitors are asked to be quiet, to follow the custodian's guidance on photography, and to treat it as somewhere people grieve.

Opening times, prices, permits and eligibility change. Nothing on this page is a statement about today. Follow the Check access link on a place before you plan around it.

Sources

TravelDay selected and grouped these places. Naming a custodian, a government agency or UNESCO as a source is not a claim that any of them endorsed this journey.

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