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A look at Liliesleaf farm

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Liliesleaf farm gives visitors a first-hand account of the events and circumstances leading up to the infamous raid of the Rivonia farm on July 11, 1963. Tanja Bencun chats to Gavin Olivier, head of exhibition development at Liliesleaf, about the interactive museum. Liliesleaf was the secret hide-out of the ANC and the Communist Party where the final raid led to the leaders of the movement being sentenced to life imprisonment and where the armed wing of the African National Congress was born. The Farm, restored to it’s former state and now a Museum, was chosen by the Communist Party and the ANC in 1961 as a suitable place to have their meetings to plan the overthrow of the apartheid government. Featured prominently in Nelson Mandela’s book “Long Walk to Freedom”, the farm was the scene of the Rivonia Raid in 1963, and was Nelson Mandela’s home when on the run from the authorities as the “Black Pimpernel”.

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