We tried to accept the reality that we may, in fact, spend years in prison. But we believed very strongly that we would not die in jail. We would return. But we stayed there for 27 years.
- Nelson Mandela, sentenced to Robben Island in 1964
Nelson Mandela 1918-2013
Read our tribute to his life
Mandela: An Audio History is the award-winning radio series documenting the struggle against apartheid through intimate first-person accounts of Nelson Mandela himself, as well as those who fought with him, and against him.
Recognized as one of the most comprehensive oral histories of apartheid ever broadcast, the series weaves together more than 50 first-person interviews with an unprecedented collection of rare archival recordings, some of which had never been heard before. Featuring:
- A lost recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela's life sentence
- A secret tape of a visit between Mandela and his family on Robben Island, saved for more than two decades by a prison guard
- Marching songs of guerilla soldiers
- Government propaganda films
- Pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Congress
- First-person accounts from former ANC activists, National Party politicians, army generals, Robben Island prisoners, and ordinary witnesses to history. A range of voices from Desmond Tutu to former President F.W. de Klerk to Nelson Mandela himself.