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A Fitting

Legacy

Text: Bronwyn Wainwright

Images © Greg Straw & Hanro Havenga

A year ago, South Africa came to a standstill as the news of Madiba’s passing

touched each and every one of us. The world stood by our side. For a rare moment,

it seemed as though humanity united, regardless of race, religion or social

status. Mandela still had the power to bring people together, even in his absence.

Madiba’s Memorial Garden

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AS WE COMMEMORATE the first anniversary of his death, we look back on his life and his achievements. Yet, how do you pay tribute to the man who was father to a family and father to a nation? This was a question that in reality was asked long before Nelson Mandela passed away. As he approached his final years, his children and grandchildren knew the day would come when they would need to answer this pivotal question. His death would not only be theirs to mourn, but also an entire nation’s and the world’s. It would only be fitting, then, that a memorial garden be created in which to honour and remember him.

In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela recalls the hills above his childhood village of Qunu. He describes how they were dotted with large, smooth rocks that he and his friends transformed into their own roller-coaster: “We sat on flat stones and slid down the face of the large rocks. We did this until our backsides were so sore we could hardly sit down.”

It was here that Mandela wanted to be laid to rest when the time came. The Mandela family heeded his wish and called on South Africa’s greatest and most talented landscape architects to tender their designs for the memorial garden. The mandate was to encapsulate all that Madiba means as an icon, a leader and a legend to our country and the world.

Landscape architect Greg Straw, owner of

Earth Outdoor Living, flew to Qunu and walked the land surrounding the Mandela farmstead as he drew inspiration. Straw recalls the experience: “The Mandela family initially approached me to build a memorial garden on the farm. It was unbeknown to me that the garden was going to serve as Madiba’s final resting place. When I eventually discovered the magnitude of what I was doing, I think I did the most amount of research I’ve ever done in my entire life – out of respect, out of needing to know exactly what was going on and had taken place in his life so that I could personify his garden.”

He studied the memorial gardens of Princess Diana, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and many more icons of the past. None seemed appropriate for the father of our democracy. Paying tribute would need to be bigger than a courtyard statue, and bigger than a fountain, and bigger than an avenue of poplars down which you could stroll to leave a bunch of flowers.

Straw realised from the outset that the garden needed to be as magnificent as the man himself, yet at the same time, it needed to respect the land and the community of Qunu. Straw worked closely with the Mandela family in Qunu for six years to create the memorial garden and final resting place. He recalls sharing lunches and teas with Madiba as they explored how he wanted the remembrance garden to benefit the community around his

First Page: Landscape architect Greg Straw was tasked with creating a garden that would best encapsulate Madiba’s incredible legacyThis Page: Straw used plants indigenous to Madiba’s childhood home of Qunu to ensure that the garden’s design fits in harmoniously with the surrounding landscapeNext Page: The garden overlooks the green hills of Qunu which Madiba fondly described in his book Long Walk to Freedom

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homestead in Qunu and draw the people of South Africa to his childhood home.

“So the remembrance garden became a walk through his life. It’s a journey. Those who come to pay their respects can learn about and remember who Madiba was and what he achieved for South Africa,” Straw describes. “This garden is not about his death, it is about his entire life.

“It allows visitors to consider the milestones from his birth, through the struggle and his presidency of the new South Africa, to his retirement and final years, before arriving at a deeply personal symbol of his legacy.”

Straw created a 1.2 km pathway leading towards Madiba’s final resting place that reflects moments in his life, while the plants and rocks tell stories. “As there was turmoil in his life, so the pathway winds and bends. When the pathway turns up a steep hill, visitors will walk through a difficult time in Madiba’s life, such as his imprisonment or the final struggle against apartheid. A dark tunnel symbolises his arrest. As the pathway reaches the crest of the hill, his release from Robben Island is portrayed as visitors stand and look over the vast landscape,” he adds.

The design uses the relief and the natural lay of the land to create a pathway that stretches over a kilometre. At the centre, Straw’s design includes the emblem of the Mandela clan, an enormous bee, built of stone collected from the family farm.

A stream leads to a pond where the water rests surrounding the bee, allowing visitors to pause and

reflect. The water gently flows out through the bee, and stepping over the water means accepting the passage of time. As visitors walk away, the water seems to follow them, or perhaps even guide them.

There is much to discover and embrace, and true to Tata’s style, the remembrance garden is not filled with pomp and grandeur. It is almost natural, despite being designed so carefully. The plants are endemic to the area, and there is no sense of symmetry or formality.

“It’s been an incredible and humbling experience, and one that is not yet complete. There were so many challenges, from the planning and building to politics and media. I think the biggest challenge was probably keeping the garden a secret for so long. Journalists tried to bribe my staff and people broke into my on-site office looking for images or clues. It was a huge responsibility to the family.”

The garden has yet to be competed and will likely open to the public over the next couple of years. In the meantime, as we remember Madiba’s passing and celebrate his life and the legend he leaves behind, the remembrance garden will encourage us to remember that Nelson Mandela was once a simple rural boy, a family man, a father, grandfather and husband. He was a revolutionary. A man who fought courageously for equal rights. A man who became the first president of democratic South Africa when the world believed it would fall to civil war. The true beginnings of our democratic nation will always be remembered.