From the activist who knew him as \u2018Uncle Nelson\u2019 to the campaigner who would go on to become a cabinet member, we talk to those involved in the struggle \u2013 and who feature in an eye-opening new documentary<\/p>\n
We tend to look back at the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, says Peter Hain \u2013 the activist who would go on to become a senior Labour minister \u2013 \u201cas 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.\u201d It was nothing compared to what Black people in South Africa faced, he stresses, but still he was targeted \u2013 a letter bomb was sent to him, and he was framed for a bank theft. It was, he says, \u201ca hard struggle, a bitter struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new documentary series, Free Nelson Mandela, covers the three decades of campaigning until Mandela\u2019s release in 1990 and his election as South Africa\u2019s president four years later. What emerges is an inspiring reminder of the power of resistance and resilience \u2013 and the sacrifices so many had to make.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/0e0a8ea7974e9158831bfe9c155ad99384a95917\/0_0_1477_1182\/master\/1477.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5d179f4e347aba19d28223eb4cc4efc6\" "\\"\u2018Once,")
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