At the time, I did several local and national radio interviews and what struck me most was the strong and powerful voice of black people across America who had seen the film and compared the atrocity of what we were experiencing in South Africa to their own even during those days.
During his imprisonment, he identified as a key pillar to our freedom, and a way in which our people can come together as a unified nation, the need to dispel the fear of the white minority, the fear that black South Africans would seek revenge.
As I look at the United States today and its journey to so-called "freedom" for all who live in it, I am able to reflect on the cruelties meted out not only to its indigenous First Nations people, the near annihilation of those communities, but also to its slave population, predominately from Africa and the Caribbean, their violent oppression and so-called subsequent emancipation.
Now we have an all-embracing global community, mainly young people, protesting for change across the world and we are beginning to see, for the first time ever, symbols such as the Confederate flag and perpetrators of violence being called to book, with even their likenesses being torn from their pedestals of power.
While Mandela was still in prison, I planned to make a film of one of South Africa’s most prolific books, Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Paton almost 100 years ago in which he added his voice to our freedom and formed the Liberal Party.
