--- title: Watch Nelson Mandela's 'First TV Interview,' From 1956 description: A video believed to be former South African President Nelson Mandela's first television interview ever has been released canonical: https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-02T03:40:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:22:06.284Z article:section: History og:title: Watch Nelson Mandela's 'First TV Interview,' From 1956 og:description: The freedom icon would have been 37 at the time og:url: https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Nelson Mandela's 'First TV Interview,' From 1956 twitter:description: The freedom icon would have been 37 at the time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch What Might Be Nelson Mandela's First Television Interview, From 1956 by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Sep 2, 2016 3:40 AM UTC by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Sep 2, 2016 3:40 AM UTC A video believed to be former South African President Nelson Mandela’s first television interview ever has been released by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, an organization devoted to preserving the icon’s memory. The foundation, Reuters [reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-mandela-idUSKCN1175IE), said the video was from 1956, when Mandela would have been 37\. At the time, he was among the more than 150 antiapartheid political activists who had been rounded up on sedition charges, bringing international attention to the racist regime in South Africa. “We have always regarded it as wrong for one racial group to dominate another racial group,” the bearded man believed to be Mandela says in the video. “From the very beginning, the African National Congress has fought without hesitation against all forms of racial discrimination, and we will continue to do so until freedom is achieved.” Mandela would go on to be imprisoned for nearly 30 years until the twilight of the apartheid era, in 1990\. He was elected South Africa’s President in 1994. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-mandela-idUSKCN1175IE)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/"},"headline":"Watch What Might Be Nelson Mandela's First Television Interview, From 1956","datePublished":"2016-09-02T03:40:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:22:06.284Z","description":"The former South African President would have been 37 at the time","url":"https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/","keywords":["South Africa","Nelson Mandela","Apartheid"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/south-africa/","name":"South Africa"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4477150/nelson-mandela-first-tv-television-interview-south-africa/","name":"Watch What Might Be Nelson Mandela's First Television Interview, From 1956"}}]}] ```