1963 - Raid at Liliesleaf Farm

Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a suburb outside Johannesburg, was purchased for use as the headquarters and safe house for the underground ANC. Nelson Mandela and other M.K. leaders needed a safe place from which to operate. Mandela lived there under the assumed name of David Motsamayi, a farmer hired to work on the farm.

In July of 1963, police raided Liliesleaf and arrested members of the high command of Umkhonto we Sizwe. They would use the evidence they found, which included a journal of Mandela’s travels, to indict and try them alongside their co-founder and leader, Nelson Mandela, for conspiring to overthrow the government. If convicted, they faced the death penalty or life imprisonment. But the activists would use the trial and resulting publicity to highlight their political cause.