Making sense of a childhood hidden from apartheid
Milisuthando Bongela grew up in a black state in the heart of white-governed South Africa. Her childhood was shielded from the brutal system that controlled the wider country.
In the late 1980s whilst South Africa was under a state of emergency, Milisuthando Bongela was enjoying a comfortable upbringing in a nominally-independent, black state called the Transkei – unaware of the brutal apartheid system that controlled the wider country.
When apartheid ended in 1994 and the Transkei was reincorporated into South Africa, filmmaker Milisuthando and her family were absorbed into the new ‘Rainbow nation’ and came to face to face with the legacy of the racist system and the different experiences of other black South Africans.
Her documentary is called Milisuthando and is out now.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Thomas Harding Assinder
Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Milisuthando Bongela. Credit: Rob Pollock and Francis Burger / Hankyeol Lee)
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- Wed 13 Nov 202412:06GMTBBC World Service
- Wed 13 Nov 202418:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Wed 13 Nov 202423:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 14 Nov 202403:06GMTBBC World Service
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