Free Nelson Mandela shows how exposing injustice and building power is not the same as going viral

“Free Nelson Mandela. Free, free, free, free, free Nelson Mandela.” You don’t even need the tune. Just the words. People of a certain generation can still feel it in their bones. It was protest chant, pop song and political education rolled into one. Jerry Dammers and The Specials didn’t just write a hit; they helped turn Nelson Mandela into a global cause.

Rogan Productions’ new three-part documentary Free Nelson Mandela on Channel 4 understands that. Music runs through it like a pulse. Not as background noise, but as part of the machinery of resistance itself.

At the London premiere, Dammers played down the role of musicians in anti-apartheid activism, spotlighting people who did the hard graft, like Steve Biko and the thousands of organisers, protesters and campaigners who kept going year after year. Fair enough. History often gives celebrities too much credit.

But it’s also true that movements need culture. They need songs, symbols and stories that can travel further than speeches or leaflets. Music made people care. It gave people who had never experienced apartheid a way in. A reason to join in.

Watching the documentary in 2026 feels radical in itself. Solidarity feels thinner now. Politics has become hyper-individualised and aggressively tribal. Algorithms reward division, outrage and isolation. Collective action is harder when we are encouraged to see ourselves as consumers rather than citizens.

Which is partly why Mandela’s story still lands with such force. Now, 36 years after Mandela’s long walk to freedom, Action for South Africa (ACTSA), the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s successor organisation continues to fight the legacy of colonial power across Southern Africa. Celebrating Mandela’s journey is essential but so too is understanding what his cause would be today. How would he show up in a post-Obama, Trumpian world? That’s the work ACTSA stands on the forefront of – continuing the fight for solidarity and fairness.

The documentary reminds us that solidarity is built through connection, not purity. During the anti-apartheid struggle, people didn’t need identical politics to agree apartheid was morally indefensible. The movement grew because it created a shared human cause bigger than ideological labels.

It also reminds us that local action matters. Glasgow famously gave Mandela the freedom of the city while he was still imprisoned, long before many governments were willing to take a stand. Across Britain, communities organised protests, concerts and boycotts because they believed injustice somewhere else was still their business.

Read more:

• Jon Snow: ‘It was wonderful to talk to Nelson Mandela’
• Amid austerity and poverty, The Specials are back when we need them the most
• ‘Those in power are afraid of people like you and me’: From Greenham Common to the Policing Bill

Imagine trying to build that level of solidarity now. It feels almost unimaginable. And yet it happened. If we are seeking solutions to our democratic and social ills, what better place to look than the Anti-Apartheid Movement? 

Connection, not ideology.
A movement grows faster when it creates a shared moral objective, rather than demanding total ideological conformity.

Campaigning is local– building a movement is international. Real change requires global solidarity, exposing injustice and building a sense of being a part of something greater.

Culture and symbolismmatters. Music and art enables people to connect irrespective of background.

Change needs resilience rather than depending on viral moments.

That matters in an age of performative online activism, where awareness is often mistaken for action. Going viral is not the same thing as building power. A hashtag trends for a day; movements survive because people commit for years. The documentary reminds us of the power of the possible. That we are capable of driving change. And that music and art are powerful weapons of disruption. 

Free Nelson Mandela is on Channel 4from 14 June.

Rachel Palma Randle is the director of ACTSA

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