The Nelson Mandela Foundation has released what it believes is the anti-apartheid hero’s first television interview, given in 1956 to a Dutch broadcaster.
The rare footage appears to have been taken during a break in Mandela’s treason trial that lasted four and a half years. Mandela was acquitted in March 1961 and went into hiding shortly after. In the 24-second clip, Mandela says:
“From the very beginning, the African National Congress set itself the task of fighting against white supremacy. We have always regarded as wrong for one racial group to dominate another racial group.
The African National Congress has fought, without hesitation, against all forms of racial discrimination and we shall continue to do so until freedom is achieved.”
Mandela was in prison for 27 years before becoming president in the country’s first multi-racial election in 1994. He died in 2013. An interview Mandela gave in 1961 while in hiding in Johannesburg was previously believed to be his first television interview.