Visit South Africa with Madibas Journey App

Madibas Journey App
Visit South Africa with Madiba’s Journey App

Are you visiting South Africa? The lush green hilltop in Qunu where a barefooted child made his way to his school. The vibrant street in Soweto, here a young lawyer visualized the future of his nation. The Robben Island to Cape Town where an aging man was behind bars dealing with hope and despair for freedom. The stately steps of the Union Buildings in Pretoria where an elderly man climbed to face millions of citizens in the hope to heal the divided nation. Let’s find out how to Visit South Africa with Madiba’s Journey App.

Madibas Journey App

Tracing the footsteps of Nelson Mandela this ‘Madibas Journey App’ that works as a guide to South Africa in your pocket is there since 2015 and is the brain child of the Flow Communications and South African Tourism in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The GPS-enabled app is based on the ‘Madiba-inspired tourist attractions

This GPS-enabled app is based on the ‘Madiba-inspired tourist attractions’ map launched in 2014 to encourage tourists from around the world and South Africa to travel the country and walk in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela. It showcases 27 attractions closely associated with Mandela to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of his release from Robben Island.

The GPS-enabled app is based on the 'Madiba-inspired tourist attractions
The GPS-enabled app is based on the ‘Madiba-inspired tourist attractions

Madibas Journey App uses location-based services to establish which attraction the user is visiting and provides real-time information to enrich their experience. This includes a written report on the attraction, audio describing the attraction, and other relevant information including contact details, maps and photo galleries.

app uses location-based services
the app uses location-based services

Madibas Journey app also gives users proximity to other ‘Madiba-inspired tourist attractions’. It includes an itinerary builder, making it as easy as possible for those wanting to visit numerous attractions to best plan their route. It also makes it simple for visitors to share their experiences on social media and features a rewards system linked to visitors’ social media activity. The rewards system will also encourage visitors to visit more than one Madiba site.

Madibas Journey App app is now available for download free in English from the Apple iTunes store (iOS devices) and the Google Play store (Android devices). It is available in other languages including Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Portuguese.

9 Best Locations In South Africa Associated with Nelson Mandela

1. Liliesleaf

Liliesleaf
Liliesleaf

This farm is located in Johannesburg’s suburb of Rivonia. This farm is a place of refuge for African National Congress leaders, and also Mandela went into hiding by posing as a farm worker. After being used for two years, on July 11, 1963 security police raided this place and arrested several leaders. Mandela was already serving sentence in prison at the time, but he was also brought to trial for his connection to Liliesleaf. It became a public historic site in June 2008.

2. Mandela House on Vilakazi Street

Mandela House on Vilakazi Street
Mandela House on Vilakazi Street

In Soweto, which is a town in Johannesburg, this museum served as the private home for Mandela and his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, until their divorce in 1958. He also lived with his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela here. After actively participating in political activities, and on the run, Mandela come back to this house in 1990 briefly after his release from Robben Island. The Mandela family resided here until the mid-1990s when the home became a public heritage site.

3. Nelson Mandela Capture Site

Nelson Mandela Capture Site
Nelson Mandela Capture Site

This is the place of KwaZulu-Natal, near the town of Howick, these grounds mark the area in which Mandela’s 27-year incarceration would begin. On August 6, 1952, Mandela was captured by anti-apartheid police, after driving back from a meeting with African National Council President Chief Albert Luthuli. He pretended to be a chauffeur but was still arrested. At the capture site, a pathway aligned with plaques listing historic dates and facts leads to a visually striking facial statue of Mandela.

4. Robben Island

Robben Island
Robben Island

Can be reached by a ferry ride via Cape Town, from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront, Robben Island is the place where Mandela spent 18 out of 27 years in prison. Other political and event criminal prisoners were sent here too. Tours of Robben Island include a viewing of Mandela’s prison cell and other remaining facilities telling more about the island’s vast 500-year history.

5. City Hall and Grand Parade

City Hall and Grand Parade
City Hall and Grand Parade

Cape Town City Hall is an Italian-Renaissance-style, sandstone building, where Mandela delivered his first speech as a free man on the balcony on February 11, 1990. Crowds gathered on the Grand Parade (the main public square) to hear his speech.

6. Voting Line Sculpture

Voting Line Sculpture
Voting Line Sculpture

At the Dorkin Reserve, in the Eastern Cape’s Port Elizabeth, this lineup of sculpted individuals is a sign of a historic date for South Africa. On April 27, 1994, the country held its first all-race, democratic election after decades of apartheid. The figures represent people of various backgrounds waiting to cast their ballots. Among the voters, that day was Mandela himself.

7. Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill

This place, located in Johannesburg, was a former prison and military fort that held men and women from all backgrounds and convictions with treatment varying according to apartheid stances. Popular prisoners not only included Mandela, but also Mahatma Gandhi and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. See The Old Fort, which held white prisoners; number Four, which imprisoned men of colour; a Women’s Jail; and The Constitutional Court, which handed down significant judgments on high-profile cases.

8. Apartheid Museum

Apartheid Museum
Apartheid Museum

This museum, also located in Johannesburg, gives a solid understanding of what life in 20th-century South Africa was like under the system of apartheid and what the country’s post-apartheid future can hold. Over 20 exhibits guide visitors through various aspects of racial discrimination with films, artifacts, photographs and displayed text of personal accounts; Mandela is also notably featured.

9. Nelson Mandela Museum

Nelson Mandela Museum
Nelson Mandela Museum

Along the Eastern Cape, this museum has two separate structures. Each of them gives a thorough perspective on the man for whom this attraction gets its name — reflecting on both his youth and adulthood. These places are the Nelson Mandela Building, in the city of Mthatha, and the Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage Centre in Qunu, the rural village where Mandela grew up.

About the author

Kamal Kaur