Mandela’s first video found

The 24-second clip was filmed during a break at the infamous 1956 Treason Trial which lasted four-and-a-half years, it said. The interview was conducted at the Old Synagogue in Pretoria which was used as a court for the Treason Trial. Mandela was one of the last group of 28 accused in the marathon trial who were acquitted on March 29, 1961.

The recently resurfaced video was broadcast on January 31, 1961 by a Netherlands television broadcaster, AVRO. It was included in a programme on apartheid South Africa called ‘Boeren en Bantoes’ (‘Boers and Bantus’, the references to white and black South Africans used during the apartheid era).