Mandela's gun

Mandela’s trip through Africa in 1962 included military training in Algerian National Liberation camps across the western border with Morocco. At that time Mandela was already talking and writing about guerrilla warfare in his journals.

An Ethiopian officer, Colonel Tadesse Biru, his military scientific instructor, gave him a gun (thought to be a Makarov). According to Mandela, he buried the gun at Liliesleaf in a pit about 1,5m deep, and about 50 paces from the kitchen door of the main house. When Mandela visited Liliesleaf in 2003 he asked the founder & CEO of Liliesleaf, "Have you found my gun?" , pointing to the back of the Main House.

Mandela's gun

Mandela’s trip through Africa in 1962 included military training in Algerian National Liberation camps across the western border with Morocco. At that time Mandela was already talking and writing about guerrilla warfare in his journals.

An Ethiopian officer, Colonel Tadesse Biru, his military scientific instructor, gave him a gun (thought to be a Makarov). According to Mandela, he buried the gun at Liliesleaf in a pit about 1,5m deep, and about 50 paces from the kitchen door of the main house. When Mandela visited Liliesleaf in 2003 he asked the founder & CEO of Liliesleaf, "Have you found my gun?" , pointing to the back of the Main House.