The History of the house

Under its thatched roof and within its typical white-washed facade , this small house built in 1907 in the Orchards neighbourhood , on the outskirts of Johannesburg, houses the exceptional story of two men. First , Hermann Kallenbach, a German-born jewish architect, who, inspired by the Kraal : the African farm, built this house characterised by two rondavels, circular rooms resembling native huts. His encounter a few years earlier with a young and talented Indian lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, will be life-changing for the place. The future Mahatma , who was concerned about social justice at a very early age was hosted by his friend in 1908. He will spend more than twenty years in South Africa. It is here that, amid the lush vegetation of the garden and surroundings ( the neighbourhood is then very rural) and in the peaceful small mezzanine that Gandhi conceptualised the basis of Satyagraha , «Truth Force » in Sanskrit over a year. This philosophy will soon influence his life and the fate of India but also that of South Africa, through Nelson Mandela. Besides a very strong friendship, Gandhi and Kallenbach share an unconditional desire to change society . They gradually give up the race for success and material comfort that both had then acquired to adopt an ascetic life, based on closeness to nature, manual work, sport ( the garden housed a tennis court then ), meditation and healthy food. Faced with the rise of the movement, Gandhi and Kallenbach will leave the Orchards Kraal for the more remote Tollstoy Farm, which will become the new bastion of passive resistance.

« Truth implies love, and firmness engenders force. I thus began to call the Indian movement satyagraha; that is to say, the force that is born of truth and love or nonviolence…. Satyagraha is soul-force pure and simple. »

MAHATMA GANDI
Satyagraha House, Johannesburg November 2014.

Back to the roots

In the following decades, Kallenbach’s house will have several owners and undergo various transformations. In 2009, Voyageurs du Monde acquired the place with the wish to restore the original spirit. Satyagraha House, a museum-guest house now listed as a national heritage, opens to the public in the autumn of 2010.Two years of research involving Gandhi’s specialist Eric Itzkin, curator Lauren Segal, the late architect Rocco Bosman, interior decorators Christine Puech and Amit Zadok were necessary to restore the original spirit in every detail.
A wing of bricks and glass is added to the home and the cottage (built in 1920). The typical harmonious lines and decor gives the traveler the opportunity to immerse in Gandhi’s philosophy.