‘Once, Mandela was seen as the devil incarnate’: the TV show laying bare the true struggle against apartheid

From the activist who knew him as ‘Uncle Nelson’ to the campaigner who would go on to become a cabinet member, we talk to those involved in the struggle – and who feature in an eye-opening new documentary

We tend to look back at the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, says Peter Hain – the activist who would go on to become a senior Labour minister – “as one of the great success stories of protests and Nelson Mandela as a global icon, and rightly so. But Mandela was considered the devil incarnate. He was denounced as a terrorist by Margaret Thatcher only a few years before his release. We were vilified.” It was nothing compared to what Black people in South Africa faced, he stresses, but still he was targeted – a letter bomb was sent to him, and he was framed for a bank theft. It was, he says, “a hard struggle, a bitter struggle.”

A new documentary series, Free Nelson Mandela, covers the three decades of campaigning until Mandela’s release in 1990 and his election as South Africa’s president four years later. What emerges is an inspiring reminder of the power of resistance and resilience – and the sacrifices so many had to make.