Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela gave his first ever televised interview in May 1961 to ITN reporter Brian Widlake. Mandela had been forced underground a year earlier when his African National Congress was banned by the government; ANC leaders arranged for Widlake to meet Mandela at his hideout.

Widlake asked Mandela about the ANC’s ambitions and its tactics. “The Africans require, want the franchise on the basis of ‘one man, one vote.’ They want political independence. … People can enjoy the vote even if they have no education. … You don’t have to have education in order to know that you want certain fundamental rights.”

Widlake asked if there was “any likelihood of violence” if the government refused to cooperate. “There are any people feel it is useful and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people,” Mandela replied. “And I think the time has come for us to consider … whether our methods we have applied so far are adequate.”

The December, the ANC decided to form a militant wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to carry out violent attacks on the government. Mandela, who served as commander-in-chief of MK, was arrested in August 1962 and would spend the next 27 years in prison.

Additional Interview With Nelson Mandela
Mandela sat down at his home in Soweto with playwright Arthur Miller in December 1990, 10 months after his release from prison, to give an interview for a BBC documentary. Mandela discussed his childhood and his early impressions of South African society, his work in the ANC as a young man, his time at Robben Island prison, and his ambitions for a free and democratic South African.

To learn more about Nelson Mandela, read his profile on findingDulcinea.