
It comes as a surprise to many visitors to South Africa to learn that Mahatma Gandhi who famously liberated India from colonial British rule began his resistance to racial oppression as a young lawyer in South Africa. In fact, he lived in South Africa for no less than 21 years. This part of his life is alluded to in the Richard Attenborough film where Gandhi was famously thrown off a train for sitting in the First Class carriage (which he had paid for) during the apartheid era.
Much of the Gandhi legacy is to be found in the KwaZulu Natal province (more on that another time) but not many people know that Gandhi also lived for a time in Johannesburg at what is now called Satyagarha House.
This wonderful building is now both a guesthouse and a museum, so you can visit it and stay in it. Most interestingly, it was actually built for Gandhi by a German architect friend of his, who built it to resemble a traditional African farm house, replete with round ‘rondavel’ style rooms, thatched roofs and curved window panes.
It’s in a great part of the northern section of the city, near to Melrose, Constitution Hill and the green lungs of the James and Ethel Gray Park and the Houghton Golf Club.
Rates start at R3 000 (US$175) per room per night.
