8115: A Prisoner’s Home is the day-to-day story of the Mandela family at home at 8115 Vilakazi Street in Soweto through the lens of Alf Kumalo, inarguably one of South Africa’s greatest photographers and a close friend of the iconic family.

This is a remarkable record beautifully presented and we have one copy to giveaway to a reader who sends us their name and email address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Nelson Mandela

‘My child, I fear that I am not much longer for this world, and before I journey to the land of the ancestors, it is my duty to see you properly married,’ said Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, acting regent of the Tembu, to his nephew Nelson Mandela.

Mandela, a law student at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape, took fright at the prospect of this planned union and fled to Johannesburg. Arriving in the city in the early 1940s, he enrolled at the University of South Africa to complete his legal BA and joined the legal practice of Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman as a clerk. Sharing his office was the firm’s interpreter and messenger, Gaur Radebe, a member of the African National Congress (ANC).

Alexandra Bus Boycott

Mandela, then living in the township of Alexandra, joined the movement and in August 1943 took part in his first march in support of the Alexandra bus boycott, protesting the raising of fares. Soon the youthful Mandela was pushing to the front of resistance marches.

He was also at the forefront of changing the direction of the ANC. At the outset the organisation concerned itself more with weighty matters rather than the daily oppression encountering most blacks. To give greater voice to the concerns of the masses it established the Congress Youth League (now the ANC Youth League) in 1944, which Mandela joined.

The Youth League had immediate appeal and with each slight, with each injustice and indignity to blacks, it gained a wider following.

8115 Vilakazi Street

Shortly thereafter, in 1946, Mandela moved to 8115 Vilakazi Street in Soweto. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, he describes the house as ‘… identical to hundreds of others … it had the same standard tin roof, the same cement floor, a narrow kitchen, and a bucket toilet at the back.’ Little did he know then that it would become the stage for some of the most important political events in South Africa’s turbulent history and, in recent times, a cultural landmark visited by thousands of tourists each year.

Renowned photographer and close family friend Alf Kumalo captured the day-to-day life of the Mandelas – the raids by the security police and intimate family moments, both of joy and sorrow. And he continued to photograph the family when Mandela was sent to prison in the 1960s as well as his return home after his release in 1990, twenty-eight years after he had left it.

The Kumalo Collection

At this point I must express an interest. I am an author and writer with an interest in South African liberation history with a knack for finding the pinhead on which to develop a broader story. About a decade ago a publisher approached me and asked me help Alf compile a book of his work.

I took an instant liking to this gentle, courageous, talented man. I nearly had a heart attack, though, when he began pulling out his photographs from nooks and crannies in his sprawling home. They were in boxes in the garage, in the ceiling, under his bed, everywhere. In them were hundreds of thousands of brilliant pictures ranging from everyday people and township life to gangsters and jazz festivals.

After nearly a week I had hardly made any dent in his collection and was even further away from coming up with that single idea of to how to best showcase this great mans work. Sadly, it never came to me and I had to take my leave. There was some hope in me, however, that someone somewhere would have a spark of inspiration.

8115: A Prisoner’s Home

Well, someone has and I am grateful to them because it is an exceptional tribute. Using Mandela’s unassuming house as the setting, 8115: A Prisoner’s Home collects some of Kumalo’s most historically important and beautiful images of the Mandela family and their home, giving us a unique insight into the life of the family who would have a profound effect on South Africa’s political landscape.

As importantly, this beautiful book is testament to Alf Kumalo and his work that has been exhibited all over the world and earned him the Order of Ikhamanga; South Africa’s highest award for excellence in the creative arts. The text is by Zukiswa Wanner, the author of the acclaimed novels The Madams and Behind Every Successful Man.

Published by Penguin Books, this is a work of art I urge you to buy. It will become a lifelong treasure, as my copy will be for me. But one lucky reader of SenseOnline will not have to purchase their copy as we are giving one away to a reader who sends their name and email address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it