{"id":425920,"date":"2011-05-18T06:23:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T06:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/"},"modified":"2011-05-18T06:23:40","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T06:23:40","slug":"mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandela&#8217;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"135\">\n<div>\n<p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He buries the gun before he is thrown into prison in 1962<\/li>\n<li>The Makarov pistol was a gift to him by an Ethiopian colonel<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s worth about $3 million, according to a museum official<\/li>\n<li>Group hires military experts to try and pinpoint its exact location<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>(CNN)<\/strong> &#8212; As a young freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela stepped out of a farmhouse hideout in South Africa, took 20 strides and dug a hole on the sprawling land.<\/p>\n<p>He leaned over, put in a semiautomatic pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, and carefully put a khaki uniform over them.<\/p>\n<p>After covering them with heaps of soil, he sauntered back into his rural hideout in northern Johannesburg &#8212; hoping to retrieve them soon.<\/p>\n<p>He never got a chance to fire a shot with the Makarov pistol. A few weeks after he buried it at the farm in Rivonia, he was hurled into prison for the next 27 years.<\/p>\n<p>That was in 1962, and the whereabouts of the gun &#8212; now estimated at $3 million &#8212; remain a mystery, said Nicholas Wolpe, the chief executive of Liliesleaf Farm, the former hideout now converted into a museum.<\/p>\n<p>A scramble to find the gun has sparked a frenzy among collectors, historians and Mandela fans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s interesting how we came to find out about the gun,&#8221; Wolpe said. &#8220;Mandela visited Liliesleaf in 2003, and as we were walking around, he turned to me and asked, &#8216;By the way, did you find my gun?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wolpe said he was stunned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I turned to him and said, &#8216;Gun, what gun?&#8217; &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Mandela then asked him to pinpoint where the main kitchen once stood.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He then made a 45-degree angle and said, &#8217;20 paces from here, I buried a gun,&#8217; &#8221; Wolpe said.<\/p>\n<p>During the visit, the two tried to retrace his steps using the paces as a guide, but the farm had undergone some changes, making it hard to determine the original location of the kitchen with certainty.<\/p>\n<p>Wolpe later realized that the former South African president had talked about the gun during an interview with a journalist in the 1990s right after he was freed from prison.<\/p>\n<p>During the interview, Mandela indicated that he buried the pistol, ammunition and the uniform at the site in case there was a raid at the house, according to Wolpe.<\/p>\n<p>Mandela and the military wing of the African National Congress used the secret location &#8212; now Liliesleaf Farm &#8212; to plan the toppling of the South African apartheid government.<\/p>\n<p>It is the first gun Mandela owned and the first weapon linked to the anti-apartheid fight in South Africa, Wolpe said.<\/p>\n<p>The gun was a gift by Ethiopian Col. General Biru Tadesse, whom Mandela visited in the early 1960s for military advice on fighting apartheid.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its hefty price tag, Wolpe hastily makes it clear that it&#8217;s not about the money or glorifying violence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is all about the historical significance of the gun and who it belongs to,&#8221; Wolpe said. &#8220;The 1960s were a defining moment in South Africa&#8217;s struggle &#8230; The gun has a special link to a very significant period and epoch to our liberation struggle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A scramble to find the gun has prompted Wolpe to take extreme measures.<\/p>\n<p>He hired searchers to demolish a home on Liliesleaf&#8217;s property, carefully ripping up chunks of concrete and turning over a yard to find it.<\/p>\n<p>He also dispatched military experts to try and pinpoint its exact location based on Mandela&#8217;s information. His trust owns about five acres of the original 20-acre hideout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The expert identified three possible locations, two of which are on our site,&#8221; Wolpe said.<\/p>\n<p>The third location is on neighboring property, which was put up for auction last week. Historians, collectors and potential international bidders were among the 400 people who participated.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the frenzy surrounding the potential site of the gun, the property worth about $350,000 did not sell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m still shocked, I don&#8217;t understand why it did not sell,&#8221; said lead auctioneer Joff van Reenen, who speculated that potential buyers may have been scared off by the publicity surrounding the gun.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Wolpe, the owner of the neighboring property did not make an effort to find the gun. The property includes a modern Spanish-style house, under which the military expert believes is the potential third location of the gun.<\/p>\n<p>And the mystery continues as both Wolpe and the owner of the neighboring home hope the gun is on their land.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, it would be totally inappropriate to ask him for help now,&#8221; Wolpe said of the ailing 92-year-old Mandela. &#8220;And there is no new information he can give us that would make finding it easier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>View the original here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/edition_africa\/~3\/6kqcd9nohmI\/index.html\" title=\"Mandela's pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mandela&#8217;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> STORY HIGHLIGHTS He buries the gun before he is thrown into prison in 1962 The Makarov pistol was a gift to him by an Ethiopian colonel It&#8217;s worth about $3 million, according to a museum official Group hires military experts to try and pinpoint its exact location (CNN) &#8212; As a young freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela stepped out of a farmhouse hideout in South Africa, took 20 strides and dug a hole on the sprawling land. He leaned over, put in a semiautomatic pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, and carefully put a khaki uniform over them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mandela&#039;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mandela&#039;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"STORY HIGHLIGHTS He buries the gun before he is thrown into prison in 1962 The Makarov pistol was a gift to him by an Ethiopian colonel It&#039;s worth about $3 million, according to a museum official Group hires military experts to try and pinpoint its exact location (CNN) -- As a young freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela stepped out of a farmhouse hideout in South Africa, took 20 strides and dug a hole on the sprawling land. He leaned over, put in a semiautomatic pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, and carefully put a khaki uniform over them\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Mandela&#8217;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-18T06:23:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\"},\"wordCount\":793,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\",\"name\":\"Mandela's pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-18T06:23:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mandela's pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Mandela's pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"STORY HIGHLIGHTS He buries the gun before he is thrown into prison in 1962 The Makarov pistol was a gift to him by an Ethiopian colonel It's worth about $3 million, according to a museum official Group hires military experts to try and pinpoint its exact location (CNN) -- As a young freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela stepped out of a farmhouse hideout in South Africa, took 20 strides and dug a hole on the sprawling land. He leaned over, put in a semiautomatic pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, and carefully put a khaki uniform over them","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Mandela&#8217;s pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later","datePublished":"2011-05-18T06:23:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/"},"wordCount":793,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/","name":"Mandela's pistol remains a hidden treasure decades later - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-18T06:23:40+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/mandelas-pistol-remains-a-hidden-treasure-decades-later\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}