-
Sunday, Apr 6, 2025
5:00 PM (63 mins)
Get Tickets
BAMPFA
MK: Mandela’s Secret Army
(MK, l’armée secrète de Mandela)
-
Introduction
Zamansele Nsele is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art at UC Berkeley, where she specializes in modern and contemporary African art. Her current book project examines the visual art of nostalgia in contemporary African art.
Osvalde Lewat’s eye-opening documentary showcases the forgotten history of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress’s armed revolutionary wing, the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). While internationally known and recast as a pacifist and statesman, Mandela was, as one subject notes, foremost “a freedom fighter, as ready to pick up arms as put down arms . . . [for him] to be portrayed as a pacifist is to appropriate our history and place it in a colonial mentality.” Archival footage showcases the brutality of the apartheid era and its crackdowns against dissidents, while interviews with surviving, now-elderly veterans of the group showcase a battle for freedom—and justice—that still continues.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Osvalde Lewat
Cinematographer
- Julien Bossé
Language
- English
- German
- French
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 57 mins
Source
- Temps Noir
Preceded By
Ota Benga
Chadrack Banikina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2023
An animated retelling of the infamous true story of a Congolese citizen exhibited at the Bronx Zoo.
FILM DETAILS
Language
- French
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 6 mins
source
- African Film Festival
Event Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility or need accommodations to attend this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-1412 (Wed–Sun, 11 AM–7 PM) as soon as you can. Advance notice helps us fulfill your request.
Learn more about accessibility services at BAMPFA.