New National Monument Marks Nelson Mandela’s Capture Site in Natal Midlands

On 5th August 1962 Nelson Mandela was finally captured by apartheid police and began his long walk to freedom. To mark 50 years since this event artist Marco Cianfanelli has created this beautiful sculpture made up of 50 columns representing the bars of his 27 year long prison struggle.

Cianfanelli comments on the deliberate structural paradox, that, “this represents the momentum gained in the struggle through the symbolic of Mandela’s capture. The 50 columns represent the 50 years since his capture, but they also suggest the idea of many making the whole; of solidarity. It points to an irony as the political act of Mandela’s incarceration cemented his status as an icon of struggle, which helped ferment the groundswell of resistance, solidarity and uprising, bringing about political change and democracy”.