"MK, Mandela’s secret army" : filmmaker Osvalde Lewat meets the forgotten members of a historic liberation army
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
They still have the strength to sing and dance: these veterans have kept the rhythm, that of the music, but above all of this old military routine when they officiated in the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), the political formation which liberated South Africa from apartheid. It is on their performance that opens MK, Mandela’s secret army, the documentary by Franco-Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat broadcast Tuesday April 9 on Arte at 11:35 p.m.
The documentary filmmaker collected testimonies from around ten former members of the secret army Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which means “the spear of the nation” in Zulu. Their words feed into exceptional archives brought together in the film.
“Africans (Blacks)”, “Whites”, “Indians”, “colored” people (terms used during segregation), South Africans or foreigners, young men or even young girls barely out of childhood, like Dudu Msomi who testifies, will join the armed wing of the ANC. From the launch of the movement in 1960 to its dissolution in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, the movement brought together thousands of people from all walks of life. They will each time risk their lives to put an end to apartheid and its violence.
It is following the Sharpeville massacre, March 1960, that Nelson Mandela decides to resort to armed struggle. Black people peacefully protest against the “pass”, a control document, when they are violently repressed by the segregationist regime. “Our resort to armed struggle in 1960, with the formation of the military wing of the ANC, was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid”, explains the wrestling icon upon his release from prison on February 11, 1990 after 27 years in prison. Mandela, a guerrilla and pacifist, notes in the documentary Mac Maharaj, former MK leader. “The idea of presenting Mandela as a pacifist is yet another way of dispossessing us of our history,” believes the veteran.
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