Jo Menell and Angus Gibson, dirs. Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation. 1997. 155 minutes. English. South Africa and U.S. Palm Pictures. $19.97.

Abstract

Jo Menell and Angus Gibson, dirs. Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation. 1997. 155 minutes. English. South Africa and U.S. Palm Pictures. $19.97.This Oscar-nominated documentary tells the inspiring story of Nelson Mandela from birth to his ascendency to the presidency of South Africa. The story is told through interviews with Mandela himself, his sister, Mabel, his first wife, Evelyn, Winnie Mandela, and several ANC activists and lawyers. The film also features archival and contemporary footage of confrontations between South Africans fighting justice and the police; political speeches by supporters of apartheid as well as the ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Labor Party, and neofascist extreme right leaders; and trials, rallies, celebrations, and funerals. All of this provides a comprehensive picture of the man who has come to be known as the Father of the Nation of South Africa.The film opens with a pan over the desolate landscape of Robben Island before focusing on the prison where Mandela spent twenty-seven years of his life. It then shows Mandela looking out the window of his former cell, his back to the camera. The scene gives way to festive music and a scene of people making their way into a stadium a rally to support Mandela's candidacy president.Using narrative voiceover, the film provides a brief history of the Xhosa people in eastern South Africa, including the arrival of Europeans and their subsequent campaign to drive the Africans from the land. Finally, the narrator tells the viewer that Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela was born in 1918 in the Eastern Cape of royal heritage. It was not until he attended school that he was given his Christian name, Nelson.The film moves from the quiet and tranquility of Mandela's childhood and adolescence in the Cape, with Mandela telling the story of his traditional circumcision and the message that he and his age-mates received from the brother of the king: that they must fight for the liberation of [their] people from the bondage that had been cast upon [them] by the white man. We then move to the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg in April 1941, where Mandela fled with his brother to escape an arranged marriage. By the time Mandela was twenty-three years old he was living in Alexandra, a black slum outside of Johannesburg, and had become a well-respected and formidable lawyer. It was also during this time that he became involved in the African Nadonal Congress (ANC). It was an involvement that he sustained through most of his life, becoming president in 1991.The film depicts the rise of the Nationalist Party in 1948, the implementation of apartheid and pass laws, the demolition of black homes, and the response by the ANC as well as the larger black population through a strategy of nonviolence. It also touches on the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the subsequent imposition of martial law, Mandela's decision to go underground, his military training in preparation armed struggle against apartheid, his arrest and trial high treason, and his sentencing to life in prison on Robben Island. …