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House Call
On the Road in South Africa
Sunday, August 23, 2026Johannesburg, South Africa
This is an African savannah morning, cool turning to cozy in the rising light with those quiet calls of doves: coo-uh-CUCK-ew. Peace across the land, for now.
We Uber from Castle Kyalami to Soweto (So[uth]wes[t]to[wn]), courtesy of driver Nqaboni. In Xhosa, the “q” in the name is pronounced with a click or “TOK” of the tongue against the palate. “N … ” plus “TOK” plus “ … aboni” takes practice.
The 35 minutes are over rolling hills, past innumerable upscale developments – shopping centers, walled fashionable housing, a Land Rover dealership complete with test track. The trees fall way and an “unauthorized settlement” (tightly packed tar paper and tin shantytown) appears next to a polluted stream. Population, 10,000? Soweto’s total is now some 1.8M.
And now here is the paved road, cinderblock Orlando section. Something significant must be coming on this side street, various locals trying to wave us into parking spots. Up a slight incline is Mandela House, evident by lots of white folk exiting a tour bus, greeted by a trio of leopard-skin scantily clad hawkers.
“[My first night back in Soweto following release], I returned with Winnie to number 8115 in Orlando West. It was only then that I knew in my heart that I had left prison. For me, 8115 was the center point of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography. The house had been soundly rebuilt after the fire. When I saw the four-roomed house, I was surprised by how much smaller and humbler it was than I remembered it being. Compared to my cottage at Victor Vester [his transition house], number 8115 could have been the servants’ quarters at the back. But any house in which a man is free is a castle when compared to even the plushest prison.” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
We spend an hour or so at this now-museum of perseverance. It is indeed modest – and to the visitor, humbling -- on a corner that made it the open target of regular apartheid drive-bys and two fire bombings. Bullet pockmarks remain in the brick.
“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I discovered the secret after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back at the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.” Long Walk to Freedom.
See, also:
Tim Bowles
September 4, 2026
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