Day Twenty

On our last day before flying back to Cape Town we decided to go on a tour. Our guide was a gentleman named Greg Garson who owns his own tour company. He was absolutely fascinating, and had so many neat opportunities and insights to share.

We started at the home of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, where he lived for 21 years. During which time many of his ideas developed, and the concept of Satyagraha matured.

After that we went to Ohlange High School.  It was here that John Dube, the first President of the ANC is buried. Gandhi and Dube were neighbours for a period of time. Dube lived at Ohlange from the turn of the century, while Gandhi founded his first ashram at Phoenix, in the valley directly below Ohlange, in 1903. Gandhi and Dube shared similar ideologies – determined to achieve equality for their respective communities in a peaceful manner.

After the eventual collapse of apartheid, Nelson Mandela chose to cast his vote here when the first democratic elections were held in 1994.

I voted at Ohlange High School in Indana, a green and hilly township just north of Durban, for it was there that John Dube, the first president of the ANC, was buried. This African patriot had helped found the organization in 1912, and casting my vote near his graveside brought history full circle, for the mission he began eighty-two years before was about to be achieved. As I stood over his grave, on a rise above the small school below, I thought not of the present but of the past. When I walked to the voting station, my mind dwelt on the heroes who had fallen so that I might be where I was that day, the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that was now finally succeeding. I thought of Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Chief Luthuli, and Bram Fischer. I thought of our great African heroes, who had made great sacrifices so that millions of South Africans could be voting on that very day; I thought of Josiah Gumede, G.M. Naicker, Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Yusuf Dadoo, Moses Kotane. I did not go into that voting station alone on 27 April; I was casting my vote with all of them.   

Nelson Mandela

Our guide at the High School was with Mr. Nelson Mandela that day. He was one of the individual's responsible for escorting Mr. Mandela to the ballot box, and was the first person to shake his hand after he had cast his vote.  Currently he is very involved with the High School, helping it to fulfill John Dube's vision.

Shaking the hand that shook Mandela's, in the same spot.

Further on our tour we met an interesting academic, Scott Couper, who has recently published a fascinating book Albert Luthuli- Bound By Faith. It was a fascinating opportunity to talk with him about his ideas and efforts here in South Africa.  Then our tour carried on to show us some of the highlights of downtown Durban.

Our tour was wonderful; we went to amazing places, and met with remarkable people. You would think that sites like Ghandi's home or where Mandela voted would be obvious tourist attractions. But they are not, because they are up in the Township most tourists and guides don't go there, which is really unfortunate. It worked well for us though, if those sites were recieveing the attention that they merit, I doubt the people involved would be have the time to talk with us.