The Nelson Mandela museum located in South Africa, was opened exactly ten years after Mandela's liberation from prison. Created as a living, breathing museum, Mandela was determined that this museum should not just be a stagnant shrine to him, but a living embodiment of his ideas and philosophies in the hopes to inspire and nurture those who come to visit the museum.
The museum itself has two campuses: the Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage center in Qunu, and the Bungha building in Mthatha. This allows visitors to walk in the same exact steps as this great man himself. See the same neighborhoods and culture that inspired him, rather than the much more separate and dull atmosphere we are commonly use to seeing in most tribute museums. Visitors are able to see the remains of the school he attended as a child, the place in which he was first anointed with the name "Nelson". The granite sliding rocks he used to play on as a boy, the cemetery in which his children and parents are buried, his current home, all are within the location making the visitor experience that much more poignant and awe inspiring. The remoteness and authenticity of the entire landscape makes the entire experience more unbelievable and resonating.
Mandela's spirit and value of the human spirit and equal rights is at the heart of everything the museum does, and although this great man is now deceased, I am confident in saying that this mission will continue to strive on and create a large remembrance as a site of pilgrimage of a great man.
#NelsonMandela #MoreThanATribute #SouthAfrica #GreatVisionGreaterMan #InRemembrance
www.nelsonmandelamuseum.org.za
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