Hey there, it's Kathy.

I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s

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The day that Nelson Mandela walked out the front gate of Victor Verster Prison in Cape Town,

Black South Africa exploded with joy.

It was February 11th, 1990, a beautiful sunny day made even more spectacular by the release of Mandela.

After spending 27 years behind bars, he walked to freedom, arm in arm with his wife Winnie.

They each raised a fist in triumph.

It is one of the most memorable moments of the 90s, and it also marked the beginning of a new chapter in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela had become the symbol of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s while serving a life sentence for sabotage.

After his release, he became the face of a free South Africa and was elected the country's first democratically elected president four years later in 1994.

His story and the sacrifices he made during the struggle for a free South Africa are well known. So we wanted to go a little deeper and expand our focus beyond the 1990s, as we take a look at some aspects of this story that you might not know.

I'm Kathy Kinsora, and this is the history of the 90s.

On this episode, we're diving into pirate radio and protest songs

to better understand the pivotal role they played

and helping to free Nelson Mandela and end apartheid.

A defining moment in the struggle for freedom happened on March 21, 1960.

On that day, thousands of people gathered outside a police station in Sharpville,

a small South African town, 35 miles south of Johannesburg. They were angry about new laws introduced

by the anti-apartheid government. Passbook laws required all black citizens to carry reference books, a type of identity card that contained personal information, like name, tax code, and employer.

Anyone caught in a public place without the book could be arrested and detained for up to 30 days.

Blacks called the book Dompas, which roughly translates to the Dumpass.

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