INTRODUCING: Boycott! The fight to end apartheid

How South Africans fought to win their freedom, and the Australians who helped them fight for it. It's 1990, and the world is watching as Nelson Mandela walks free from his prison cell after 27 years. The global movement to end the racist policy of Apartheid in South Africa is finally on the brink of victory. Host Sisonke Msimang https://www.sisonkemsimang.com/ grew up in a family of South African freedom fighters, and in this series, she talks to South Africans who risked their lives in the struggle to end apartheid. She also meets Australians who used sport, culture, alongside boycotts and sanctions to bring South Africa to its knees. This is a story of hope in unsettled times, a story about the power of collective struggle to change the course of history.

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  The most famous political prisoner in history, Nelson Mandela, is finally free. I'm watching on TV and I am weeping. This is the beginning of the end of the brutal racist regime of apartheid in South Africa.

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  You were a non-person, you were non-white. All through the night, he is screaming, he had gunshots, and that was apartheid.

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  I'm Sisongem Simong. I was raised in the anti-apartheid movement. My father was a freedom fighter for Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.

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  They'll have to listen to the bullets, to power.

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  But now I live in Australia, and I'm unraveling the story of how people here joined a global movement that stood up against racism and segregation on the other side of the world.

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  Using boycotts, sanctions, and something Aussies love: sport.

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  Rights-only teams. Such a clear case of terrible discrimination. We thought that to the average Australian, that would be despicable.

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  It's the story of a movement to fight racism overseas and at home.

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  There was a lot of anger and resentment that white people could see it in another country, but couldn't see it right here in their own backyard.

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  It's also the story of how South Africans fought back against white supremacy.

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  It is an idea for which I am prepared to die.

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  There's deals done in the dark.

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  Someone knew someone who were selling very dodgy documents, but these documents worked.

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  And fallen heroes.

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  He was ashen, and I said, "What's wrong?" And he said, "Steve Beiko is dead. If he'd lived, he would have been the leader of South Africa."

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  Right now, there is plenty that's wrong with the world. So join me. Be inspired by a story of how millions of people fought to change history and won.

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  All people were waiting for was for someone to kick-start a movement. And once it did, it got off the ground like a rock.

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  Boycott: The Fight to End Apartheid. Coming soon to ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.