Satyagraha House is the home where Mahatma Gandhi lived during part of his 21 years in South Africa, from 1893 to 1914. It was in this country — not India — that Gandhi developed the political and moral philosophy that would define the twentieth century. The house in the Orchards/Troyeville area has been carefully preserved and looks much as it did when Gandhi lived and worked here. It now operates as a small guesthouse and museum.
The connection between Gandhi's time in South Africa and his later campaigns in India is not as well known as it should be. He came as a young lawyer, was thrown off a first-class train carriage in Pietermaritzburg for being non-white, and spent the following two decades building a movement. The museum documents this period in detail. If you are interested in twentieth-century political history, this is one of the most quietly significant houses in southern Africa. It is in a residential neighbourhood that is fine to visit during the day.