Once Mandela was seen as the devil incarnate: the struggle behind the icon

Peter Hain, the activist who later became a senior Labour minister, warns that while the campaign to end apartheid is rightly remembered as a great success and Nelson Mandela as a global icon, Mandela was once "considered the devil incarnate" and was denounced as a terrorist by Margaret Thatcher only a few years before his release.

Hain recalls being targeted himself—he received a letter bomb and was framed for a bank theft—and says, "we were vilified." The new documentary series Free Nelson Mandela traces three decades of campaigning up to Mandela’s 1990 release and his election four years later, underlining the resilience and sacrifice involved.

Dali Tambo remembers growing up expecting the worst for his father, Oliver Tambo, who was forced into exile in London in 1960; other exiled activists, including Ruth First and Dulcie September, were assassinated and ANC offices in London were bombed. His father accepted the danger: "yes, one day the agents of apartheid will kill me but it can’t dissuade me from doing my work.

nelson mandela, apartheid, anc, margaret thatcher, peter hain, oliver tambo, dali tambo, exile, documentary, letter bomb