Have You Heard from Johannesburg?

Have You Heard from Johannesburg is a series of seven documentary films, with a total runtime of 8.5 hours, covering the 45-year struggle of the global anti-apartheid movement against South Africa's apartheid system and its international supporters who considered them an ally in the Cold War. The combined films have an epic scope, spanning most of the globe over half a century. Beginning with the very first session of the United Nations, and ending in 1990 – when, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela, the best known leader of the African National Congress toured the world, a free man. Produced and directed by Connie Field, it includes other events such as the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto uprising, the murder of Steve Biko, and covers the role of some people less well-known outside South Africa than Nelson Mandela, such as African National Congress leader Oliver Tambo. The title comes from the lyrics of the Gil Scott-Heron song “Johannesburg”.

In the 1950s many black South Africans realized that the struggle against apartheid had to be built in four arenas of action: mass action, underground organization, armed struggle, and international mobilization. Have You Heard From Johannesburg takes viewers inside that last arena, the movement to mobilise worldwide citizen action to isolate the apartheid regime. Inspired by the courage and suffering of South Africa’s people as they fought back against the violence and oppression of racism, foreign solidarity groups, in cooperation with exiled South Africans, took up the anti-apartheid cause. Working against heavy odds, in a climate of apathy or even support for the governments of Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster and P.W. Botha, campaigners challenged their governments and powerful corporations in the West to face up to the immorality of their collaboration with apartheid.