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Apr 2024
9m 59s

Oliver Tambo returns to South Africa fro...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

On 13 December 1990, the anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa after 30 years in exile.

As the president of the banned African National Congress (ANC), he had lived in Zambia building the liberation movement while other key ANC members including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu were political prisoners.

By lobbying around the world and attracting talented South African exiles such as Thabo Mbeki, he built the organisation into a legitimate contender for government.

When President FW de Klerk unbanned the ANC, Oliver Tambo was finally able to return home where he was greeted by a crowd of thousands at the airport.

Oliver Tambo’s son, Dali Tambo, recalls to Josephine McDermott how his father and other ANC exiles danced in the aisle of the plane as they crossed into South African airspace.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: Oliver Tambo at Jan Smuts Airport. Credit: AP/John Parkin)

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