Liliesleaf Farm and the Rivonia Trial

A place I had been dying to see, but knew I’d have a hard time convincing the rest of my family to visit, was Liliesleaf Farm. So when my sister in law, who is always interested in such things, was recently visiting, we took the opportunity to go check it out.

By the way, I always thought it was spelled Lilieslief, which somehow seems more Afrikaans, but I have since seen that it is spelled both ways. I'll go with the spelling used by Wikipedia and the Liliesleaf Trust.

Liliesleaf Farm Museum today

Liliesleaf Farm in the 1960s

Liliesleaf Farm was where Nelson Mandela, after the founding of the militant arm of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, also called MK), was hiding and plotting for a time before being captured. It is not a far drive from where we live, located in the suburb of Rivonia, which back then was more on the outskirts of town but of course now is surrounded by the city. It was only recently restored and made into a museum, in fact, I think it might still be in the finishing stages as some exhibits weren’t open yet. Therefore, it is one of Joburg’s lesser-known tourist attractions and we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

The Thatched Cottage where most of the arrests during the Liliesleaf raid were made

I’ve lately been laboring through Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. I say laboring because it is a long book, and a bit dry to read, what with all the people involved in “the struggle” that he mentions at one point or another and all the twists and turns of his personal story. It’s really another one on the South African must-read list, but I admit that I haven’t been making great progress. Going to Liliesleaf Farm gave me a good jolt and I’ve now resumed with more vigor, because it brought the story to life so well and provided me with the faces and life stories of the collaborators described in the book.

The faces of some of those involved with Umkhonto we Sizwe
and its secret operation at Liliesleaf Farm

There is Bram Fischer, whose name I’ve been intrigued with since we moved here because I kept driving along Bram Fischer Drive in Randburg on my various errands. He was a lawyer of Afrikaner descent who pretty much gave up his heritage and allegiance to fight alongside Nelson Mandela and others against the apartheid regime. Then there is Arthur Goldreich, who was instrumental in providing the cover for MK at Liliesleaf by posing as the white farmer overseeing black laborers, while in secret plotting with these very laborers how to commit acts of sabotage against the government. And there are all the other men who were arrested during the infamous raid at Lilieleaf Farm on July 11th, 1963. Goldreich, along with Harold Wolpe, another member of the South African Communist Party, managed to escape from custody, and I think one was acquitted, but the others were accused of treason at the so-called Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life in prison. The rest of the story, of course, is well known. Nelson Mandela was finally released in 1990 and was elected the first president of a free South Africa in 1994. To learn what became of all the others, visit Liliesleaf Farm!

Truck used to smuggle weapons into South Africa through Africa Hinterland Safaris

One entirely new piece of history I learned at Liliesleaf was the story of the Secret Safari (a documentary film telling this story, "The Secret Safari," was made in 2001, directed by Tom Zubrycki). An actual truck is tucked away in a corner of the estate, which you can climb atop to watch movies about its history. It is the very same truck used by Africa Hinterland, a decoy safari company used to smuggle arms into South Africa to assist the armed struggle. The drivers, who were recruited from various countries, were in on the plot, but the participating tourists had no idea that the whole thing was just a charade, probably having the adventure of a lifetime. 

You can watch the story of the Secret Safari unfold here...

...and see where the weapons were hidden below.

It's easy to forget that South Africa’s amazing history is so very recent. The trips of Africa Hinterland didn't stop until late 1993, when it became clear that elections would soon be held, giving hope to a peaceful resolution to the conflict that ravaged South Africa in the years after Mandela's release. In fact, if you watched the recent movie "Bang Bang Club," you will get a good understanding of the violence of those years. The drivers, or rather arms smugglers involved in the Secret Safari were my age, or even younger, when they undertook this risky business. Yet I had no idea this was happening in another part of the world.


Visit Liliesleaf Farm Museum - two hours is ample time to watch the short movie and visit all the sites, unless you want to relax on the beautiful patio afterwards for a cup of cappuccino - and you will go home with new appreciation of South Africa's intriguing history.

This article is part of Joburg Expat's What To Do in Joburg series. 

Read more ...

Tweet

I've Fallen in Love

Everything about my new object of desire is perfect. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm already scheming to spend time together again.

No, this is not a marital crisis. In fact, Noisette is equally smitten. We've both fallen in love with Franschhoek.

Typical wine estate in Franschhoek

Read more ...

Tweet

Der Schwabenbutcher in Südafrika

Sorry, but this post can only be written in German (a first on this blog!), as it is about sausages, sweet mustard, and Southern German culture, so my English readers will have to take a (well-deserved) break.

Da wir gerade wieder einmal unser jährliches Oktoberfest hinter uns haben, ist das eine gute Gelegenheit, euch den Schwabenbutcher vorzustellen. Ja, das ist richtig, es ist nicht nur ein Name, den ich mir ausgedacht habe, sondern dieses Geschäft heisst wirklich so. Das muss man geradezu erst mal auf sich einwirken lassen,  nicht wahr? Hier in Johannesburg, umgeben von Townships, der Busch mit Löwen und den restlichen Big Five nicht weit entfernt, kann man zum Schwabenbutcher gehen und Brezeln einkaufen.

Read more ...

Tweet

Living Under the $#!&pipe

I'm only so wholesome as to disguise my spelling because I can't remember if I signed away my rights to foul language under whatever agreement I must have entered with Blogger, and I don't want to be reprimanded. I hate to be reprimanded. Or banned, that would be even worse, as my blog has become slightly addictive.

In any case, my topic today is exactly that, $#!&. I smell it when I wake up in the morning. I smell it when I take a break (from writing these posts) on my patio with a cup of cappuccino, and I smell it at night before I go to bed. At first we suspected our cat, who lately has taken to doing her business in the flowerbed rather than her litter box. Noisette in particular was quick to suspect her, which would give him another reason to dislike pets. Okay, her confusion during a recent thunderstorm and subsequent usage of Jabulani's bed for her business might have given him a tad more reason for dislike.

Read more ...

Tweet

The Gods of Bureaucracy

I think the gods of bureaucracy must have sensed that Joburg Expat's material of "what-a-hassle-stories" is starting to dry up, what with Eskom so unceremoniously leaving the stage (once again, I can highly recommend calling in your own meter readings around the 12th of the month as it makes everything so much easier).

So I almost - can you believe this? - welcomed the opportunity to pay a visit to the Douglasdale police station with Noisette this morning, in order to start our visa renewal process. This has sort of snuck up on us and I still find it hard to comprehend that we will have been here for two years in just a few short months.

Read more ...

Tweet

Beware of the Horn-Pod Tree

“Every time I came across this tree as a child, my blood would run cold.”

It is a bright and cool morning and we’re glad to have stopped, a beautiful silence replacing the rumbling of the diesel engine and the sun warm on our skin. We’ve been driving through Welgevonden Game Reserve for what seems like hours, lumbering up steep hills and down into ravines again, not seeing much of anything other than the occasional zebra, which is why our guide Justinus has decided to give us a botany lesson.

Read more ...

Tweet

In the Footsteps of Paul Kruger and the Voortrekkers

I have a confession to make: We’ve lived in South Africa for almost two years, and until last week I had never set foot in Pretoria, its administrative capital, even though it is only 40 minutes from where we live. But two things conspired to make us finally explore it – a visitor from Germany interested in new sights, and the fact that the Jacarandas are beginning to bloom. It was a very educational trip, so much so that I feel like my head is going to explode if I don’t write it all down.

The first bit of learning occurred before we had even left the garage. I wanted to read up on the history and locales before we got there, and searched our travel guide’s index for Pretoria – in vain. It was not to be found. I finally stumbled across it under “Tshwane,” to which Pretoria apparently had been rechristened in 2002. Really? I had no idea! It’s still known and talked about as Pretoria by everybody I’ve ever come across, and incidentally our NAVI also knows it as Pretoria. So that’s what I will keep calling it for the purpose of this post.

Read more ...

Tweet

Jamila Lodge

In my recent post about how to pick a safari, I promised I’d tell you about Jamila Lodge in Welgevonden Game Reserve as soon as I’d seen it, and now I have.

The food at Jamila Lodge was excellent

Midday bliss between game drives

As I’ve said before, you really can’t do much wrong when picking a game lodge, so if you find a fairly decent deal for one, grab it. Jamila was recently renamed (from Martial Heights, which our host told us sounds like a row of flats and therefore didn’t attract a high enough number of guests in the past) and was offering a limited time special to promote its rebirth, so to speak. It has everything you could ask from a luxury lodge. It’s situated on top of a hill with stunning views all around and a cool breeze wafting up from the valley, the service and food are excellent, and we particularly enjoyed the hot tub right on our own private deck. 

Reminds me of the platform to get on an elephant's back

A special touch is the ramp for easy access to the game drive vehicle and the hot towels and welcome drink upon your return to the lodge. In case you can’t bear to be cut off from the world for a few days, there is WiFi in the main lodge. And Jamila welcomes families travelling with children, even small children, something you won’t find often in Welgevonden, which in general seems to cater more to the honeymoon and luxury safari crowds.

As for the reserve itself: Having been to Madikwe twice, I was eager to see something else. Welgevonden, at least on paper, is a bit closer to Joburg and has the same advantage of being malaria-free and home to the Big Five. In reality however, a series of road construction projects between Modimolle and Vaalwater (“Attention: Road construction for the next 48 km”), where the road becomes a one-laned pot-holed dirt path, makes your drive from Joburg to the West gate a four-hour affair. It’s a bit more hilly than Madikwe and the scenery is much more varied. You could be going up a rocky hill one minute and down into a lush valley with a river meandering through the next. But I have to say missed Madikwe’s packs of wild dogs and the fact that you almost cannot help yourself from stumbling over a pride of lions. I was also worried that the abundance of water in this area might have the effect of spreading out the animals too much, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem – our first game drive yielded a wonderful viewing of elephants wallowing and playing in a mud hole.

It's not that easy to get such an open shot at elephants

One thing about elephants: In my imagination, before moving to South Africa, I always pictured elephants walking across a wide open plain of dry grass, single file, to be seen from miles and miles away. Well, it's not quite like that. Elephants, you see, eat trees. So where do they like to be? In between the trees, that's right! They are usually so quiet and well hidden that you might pass them by at less than ten meters away without having any inkling that they're there. They usually leave a pretty wide path of destruction so it's easy to see where they've been, but not so easy to actually find them.

Our second evening's game drive didn't yield very much at all, at least initially, but it didn't bother me. I could amuse myself endlessly watching our guide Justinus in the rear-view mirror because he resembled Barack Obama (I love being able to work our president into my blog posts).

Justinus resembled President Obama in other ways too. Here we were ambling along, not seeing much of anything, with the collective truckload of guests getting more antsy by the minute, and he was as calm as can be without any discernible sense of urgency, stopping occasionally and lecturing us about the wildlife (like the story about the black rhino always keeping its baby behind, much like black mothers carry their babies on their backs, and the white rhino keeping its baby in front, much like white mothers push their babies in a stroller in front of them - getting me to finally remember which rhino does what!). But then a radio message came in from another guide who had spotted lions, and it was as if someone had flipped a switch on Barack aka Justinus, giving him a sense of urgency we hadn't suspected he was capable of. He calmly informed us that our sundowner drinks would maybe have to wait a bit, and to please hold on. Then he took off at breakneck speed, flying over those bumps in the road that he had previously so carefully circumnavigated for our comfort, racing against time and the setting sun, so that he could deliver the elusive goods at the eleventh hour, successfully I might add. Doesn't that sound familiar?

Maybe it was the roller-coaster ride, or maybe it was just my usual ineptitude with night photography, but the fact is that I struggled to get one single good lion picture. First I was shooting on AV when P with the flash is better at night, then I finally remembered the flash and  managed to change the settings using the light from my phone (all while trying to catch a glimpse of the lions), but then it turned out the external flash was out of charge. When I finally had all the right settings, the lions were gone. I really need to get my act together sorting out my camera while it's still light, and make sure everything is charged. Or maybe I just need to let it go and savor the moment by actually observing. It was a great viewing with several young and very playful lions.

Overall, Jamila Lodge is another safari option I can highly recommend. I'm still chasing that leopard and have high hopes for the Kruger Park this coming Christmas, but other than that Welgevonden Game Reserve was well worth the visit. If you'd like to see more of the pictures I took, take a look at the slide show below.

Read more ...

Tweet

Diving in Mauritius

I like to think that we've had our fair share of adventures here in Africa, and that I personally have been fairly adventurous, but there is a line I won't cross. Bungy jumping was the one thing I skipped (even the canopy tour was a stretch), and diving so far has been the other. I don't like heights, and I don't like depths, it's that simple.

But looking at the beautiful pictures Noisette took on the boys' most recent diving trip in Mauritius, I have to say that I'm tempted, at least a little bit. I tried the scuba equipment in the pool and admit that it's much easier to breathe than I thought. Much easier in fact that snorkeling, where you always end up getting water into your snorkel, no matter how you approach it. If I could always stay very near the surface, I might be persuaded to go diving, though that seems to be a waste of compressed air. Plus everyone else would be frolicking somewhere deep below me, leaving me as much behind as if I was still sitting in my sunny beach chair with a good book, so I might as well be doing that in the first place.

Anyway, I thought I'd share Noisette's pictures here with you, without any further words, because I wasn't there to experience any of it.

Sunshine begged to be allowed a trial dive with the instructor

Impatience begged not to have to do a trial dive but then liked it anyway

There was no escaping the round of trial dives for me and I have to admit it was pretty cool

So don't be surprised if I do end up writing a first-hand diving account on this blog at some point in time, but for now it feels like I can't possibly add another interest to my life.

Read more ...

Tweet

Racism in South Africa

I realize that this title alone will generate controversy, without me having written a single word. Not just in South Africa but everywhere around the world, this little word is enough to stir strong emotions, one way or another. I won't even pretend to cover this topic comprehensively - a certain United States senator's speech on race in 2008 would be a far better start - but ever since we've moved here my thoughts keep drifting back to the question of racism.

Read more ...

Tweet

Moving to South Africa and Terrified of all the Bad News?

Having lived  here in South Africa for over one-and-a-half years, it seems hard to believe that we were once prospective expats who knew next to nothing about this country and who were not at all sure we should even come here in the first place. I remember being pretty excited initially and going online to check out any available information, and my jaw dropping - this country was a cesspit of crime and we were about to be murdered. Or so it said on every expat-related forum I came across.

As you well know, we did come in the end and I started this blog, in large part to provide better information for all those expats coming after us and armed with the same questions. Which is why I was so thrilled when I read the following by Martina, a newly arrived expat in Joburg (also called Jozi) who has already started a wonderful blog of her own called Martina-in-Jozi:

Read more ...

Tweet

Driving Through Alexandra

Fellow blogger 2Summers' recent post about Alexandra inspired me to add my own. I have no shortage of posts about Alexandra Baseball and my involvement with them, but Alexandra, the township, deserves a post in its own right.

As 2Summers pointed out, Alexandra is steeped in history, perhaps even more so than Soweto, its much more famous cousin to the South. And if you want to get a glimpse of township life, I'd argue that Alexandra is a much better place to go than Soweto, which has become a tourist hotspot in the last few years and in a way lost some of its authenticity. Or maybe it's just that inkling of "danger" that makes Alexandra so interesting to me. After all, I was warned to never drive there unless I wanted to be killed.

Read more ...

Tweet

Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama

If even someone as illustrious as the Dalai Lama has to bow before the intractable bureaucracy of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, who am I to complain?

Maybe you haven't been following the news about this latest kerfuffle in South African politics. What happened is that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is turning eighty years old, invited the Dalai Lama to his party. A visa was applied for - in June - but never granted, even though it is now October and the birthday in question only days away. Oh doesn't that sound like a familiar story to this expat?

Read more ...

Tweet

Help! Which Safari Lodge?

A reader asked me the other day how I managed to write such timely posts, such as where to buy your first appliances after moving here. It turned out she was just planning to go out on that very errand. I think my timing is inspired by all the questions I get from newly arrived expats, and there has been a spate of them lately with the beginning of the new (American) school year.

So once you’ve set up your internet, got a cellphone, hired domestic help, and bought your car, the next question inevitably becomes: How the hell do I pick a place to go on safari? Or if your family is anything like ours, you will still be working on the cellphone and car and sitting atop a mountain of stuff the movers just dumped in your house, wishing for an entire week of uninterrupted time, when your spouse tells you to book a safari for next weekend because he has a day off on Monday. What, leaving the house now when it looks like a tornado touched down? That was my first thought. In fact, I was harboring the wish that I could just send Noisette on safari with the kids so I’d have time for the house. I hate living in clutter, though sometimes I suspect that Noisette doesn't entirely believe that.

Beautiful landscapes in the Waterberg

Read more ...

Tweet