Things You Didn’t Know About South Africa

5. One street, two Nobel Peace Prize winners

Vilakazi Street punches way above its weight.

Before the arrival of democracy in South Africa, Vilakazi Street looked like any other nondescript dusty street full of matchbox houses in Soweto, near Johannesburg.

But for decades it has been different from its neighbors; it has been and remains a place of pilgrimage as the only street in the world that has been home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela and former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived a few doors from each other on Vilakazi Street.

Tutu and his wife, Leah, still live there.

Mandela’s house is now a National Historical site and open to the public as a museum.

Vilakazi Street is no longer dusty. The gravel has been replaced by pavement and brick sidewalks and the new neighbors include restaurants, bars and local craft sellers.

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