Nelson Mandela Museum

The Bhunga Building is located in the town of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It was constructed between 1927 and 1928 to accommodate the United Transkei Territories General Council, a governing body dating back to 1894.

It became the Transkeian Parliament in 1963 after the introduction of the Bantustan or homeland system. In 1994 it accommodated the Kei District Council. It was officially opened on the 11th February 2000, as one of the components of Nelson Mandela Museum.

The Bhunga Building is one of the two main sites of the Nelson Mandela Museum. It houses exhibits on Mandela’s life and many of gifts and artefacts given to Nelson Mandela by the international and South African communities.

The museum opened its doors ten years to the day after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Its intent is to a provide living memorial to his values and vision.

The architect's design of the building was completed in a defined neoclassical manner. It exhibits strong symmetry, around the centrally placed main Council Chamber.

The second primary centre of the Nelson Mandela Museum is located in Qunu, the village where he grew up. 

The Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage Centre’s purpose is to attract youth from all over the world to come and learn about the story of Nelson Mandela through structured youth programmes that are based on his values.

It also provides exhibit halls, arts and crafts facilities, onsite accommodation, and a German Development bank donated sporting facility suitable for tennis, volleyball, soccer and netball.

The center has backpacker-style accommodation meant for learners and youth participating in museum programming. It is also open to other visiting individuals, researchers and groups.

Exhibition Halls house the story of the humble beginnings of Nelson Mandela. They sometimes show temporary exhibitions loaned by sister organizations such as the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The Ithemba Arts and Crafts project allows the local communities to produce the work  onsite and display it for sale to visiting tourists. The equipment and establishment funding was donated by the government of Lower Saxony, Germany and Lotto.

Nelson Mandela was born in the small village of Mvezo, and grew up with two sisters in the nearby village of Qunu. Situated in the Eastern Cape Province his early life was spent amongst rolling hills and herds of cattle that he helped tend.

In later life Mandela built a hillside house in Qunu near the family gravesite where his mother and father are buried, along his two children who died whilst he was in prison. Nelson Mandela himself was also laid to rest at the same site.

This is a giant granite boulder that as a child Nelson Mandela would slide down, whilst playing with other children.

This is the river where Nelson Mandela enjoyed swimming and moulding animals with clay.

Nelson Mandela roamed and played with other herd boys in these fields whilst looking after his father’s cattle and practicing Nguni stick fighting. These are the open spaces that Nelson Mandela missed whilst he was in prison in Robben Island.

This exhibition tells the story of Nelson Mandela’s school days as a teenager and youth. His junior secondary education was completed at the Clarkebury Institution, a Methodist Church Mission. 

He completed his high school education at Healdtown High School, another Methodist Institution. He then attended the University of Fort Hare to study law, although he never graduated from there as he objected to the administration's control over the role of the student body.

He then attended the University of Fort Hare to study law, although he never graduated from there as he objected to the administration's control over the role of the student body. Given an ultimatum to participate or leave and he chose to leave.

Clarkebury is a Methodist Institution that was established on land given to the church by Nelson Mandela’s grandfather, King Ngubengcuka of AbaThembu. This is where Nelson Mandela did his junior secondary education.

Nelson Mandela completed and graduated (his “matric”, short for matriculation) from Healdtown Missionary School. 

It is located in Fort Beaufort, a small town approximately thirty kilometres away from the University of Fort Hare, the first black university in Africa that has produced African political leaders such as Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere.

Nelson Mandela stood up for many causes and issues during his life and some of the more poignant moments are captured by etchings in the glass entrance of the hall.

The Nelson Mandela Museum which is housed that the in Bhunga Building at Mthatha, has two main exhibits. One is the “Long Walk to Freedom” which tells the story of the life and times of Nelson Mandela. 

The first part of this exhibition is about his life and times from being born in Mvezo, up to enrolling at the University of Fort Hare.

Chief Henry Mphakanyiswa Mandela was the chief of Mvezo village on the banks of Mbhashe River. Chief Mphakanyiswa was ousted from his position over a dispute with the magistrate in a clash of the colonial and traditional systems.

Nosekeni Fanny Mandela from the Nkalane village, which is one of the villages that make up Qunu, was the third wife of Chief Henry Mphakanyiswa Mandela and Mandela’s mother.

Mandela’s first wife, Evelyn Mase from the AmaQwathi clan, met him through Walter Sisulu, her cousin. Together they had two daughters and two sons. After getting divorced he married Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela, a Social Worker and ANC activist.

Winnie was later imprisoned and banished to Brandford, a small town that is located in the Free State Province because of her political activism. They had two daughters. Mandela later married a third time after his second divorce.

This section of the “Long Walk to Freedom” exhibition tells the story of Nelson Mandela’s prison life on Robben Island using audio narration and illustrations. It includes discussion of the lime quarry that he and other prisoners were made to work in.

After Nelson Mandela and his comrades were found guilty of treason, the black prisoners were taken to Robben Island prison to serve their life sentences. Denis Goldberg, who was white, went to Pretoria Central Prison.

Prisoners were required to work in the lime quarry on a daily basis, irrespective of the weather, and with no toilets to relieve themselves or water to drink.

The second main exhibit at the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha is “Mandela and Luthuli in conversation”. 

This exhibit focuses on the characteristics and leadership styles of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Inkosi Albert John Lutuli (often spelled “Luthuli”), two former ANC presidents and Nobel Peace Prize recipients.

Inkosi Albert John Lutuli was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. He was the first African, and the first person from outside Europe and the Americas, to be awarded the honor.

The African National Congress (ANC), which Mandela led when he was elected as South Africa’s president, uses the gold and green South African colors, along with black to symbolises the generations of people who fought for equality.

Mandela and Luthuli were both one time leaders of the ANC presidents and separately received the Nobel Peace Prize for their struggles against apartheid.

Nelson Mandela’s impact was felt all over the world and many people, institutions, governments, and nations wanted to give him gifts and honors to acknowledge the role he played in the struggle for peace, freedom and democracy. 

Among his awards were the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom (US), Lenin Peace Prize (Soviet Union), Bharat Ratna (India), Nishan-e-Pakistan, and Order of Canada. 

In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Mandela's birthday, 18th July, as "Mandela Day", to mark his contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. 

The “Gift to the Nation” exhibition is a collection of the significant number of gifts that Nelson Mandela received from all over the world.

Mandela accepted gifts on understanding that he would donate them to the people and that they would be displayed near his home village of Qunu. 

Instead of building a new space to house the collection, it was decided to create the multi-faceted Nelson Mandela Museum at Mvezo, Qunu and in Mthatha.