Just outside Howick, some 56 miles south of Durban, South
Africa, on the R102 highway, Nelson Mandela was put in handcuffs
and led away to be incarcerated for the next 27 years on Robben
Island. It was August 1962, and after his arrest by apartheid
security forces, Mandela was charged with treason and sentenced to
After a campaign to free him went worldwide, he became a symbol
of the fight for equality in South Africa. After his release he led
his country as President, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1993, and became an international statesman welcomed around the
world. He is now 94, an elderly man in his late retirement.
It was back at that spot where his arrest took place, between
farmland that once was roamed by the Zulus, that Mandela was
honoured by the unveiling of this striking sculpture on 5 August,
2012, exactly 50 years later. Created by Marco Cianfanelli, the
work is made from 50 steel charcoal columns that create Mandela's
head when viewed from a certain angle.
"The front of the sculpture is a portrait of Mandela, it has
vertical bars which represent his imprisonment," said Cianfanelli.
"When you walk through the structure it's radiates like a burst of
light, which symbolises the political uprising of many people and
The unveiling was attended by the current premier Jacob Zuma,
and his hope is that the site could become part of a political
tourist trail for those exploring the country, and that South
Africans cherish it as a heritage site. Nearby are Howick Falls,
where the Umgemi River falls over 300 feet on its way to the Indian
Ocean, and Howick honoured Mandela with "The Freedom of Howick"
back in 1996. An older plaque marking Mandela's imprisonment stands
opposite the sculpture.
Whether or not it moves onto the tourist trail, the sculpture
itself will hope to maintain the memory of one of the world's most
inspiring political figures of the last century well into this one
- and the next.
Nelson Mandela sculpture, R102 highway outside Howick,
located on the N3 freeway, around an hour's drive south of