South African family history, genealogy, heritage and interesting places, past and present. All articles researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl. COPYRIGHT ANNE LEHMKUHL, no article can be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission. EMAIL ME
Tolstoy Farm to be heritage site
Tolstoy Farm, home to Mahatma Gandhi, on and off, between 1910 and 1913, will be developed into a heritage site at a cost of about R860 000. The farm will form part of a Struggle route that includes Soweto’s Hector Pietersen Museum and the Regina Mundi church. The land is now owned by brick factory Corobrik, which has agreed to donate 4ha. Plans for the farm include a peace museum and a resource centre that will contain resistance documents. Gandhi’s great-granddaughter, Kirti Menon, heads the Gandhi Committee which is working on the project. Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893 as a 23-year-old lawyer and spent 21 years developing his philosophy of non-violence. The farm was named after Russian author Leo Tolstoy, whom Gandhi admired. Gandhi used the farm as an experiment in communal living.