I'm speaking to you at a moment of grave crisis.

I'm Jeff Turner and this is Recall.

It's a series about history, not the ancient past, but history that's still hot to the touch.

In this first season, I explore a revolutionary political movement that brought a modern democracy to the brink.

You can find Recall how to start a revolution on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC Podcast.

Before we start, just a heads up.

This episode includes disturbing content, depicting violence and explicit language.

Please take care while listening.

Move founder John Africa and his philosophy came of age through a decade of great change in America, the 1960s.

But that change had an umbilical connection to freedom struggles across the world.

Movements connected by shared conditions, tactics and demands.

It's hard to make out, but that's Nelson Mandela.

In the spring of 1964, Mandela is on trial with nine others.

He's facing life in prison under South Africa's so-called sabotage act.

In here, he's saying, quote,

I do not however deny that I planned sabotage.

I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence.

I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.

At the time, Mandela is a high-ranking member of the nation's anti-apartheid political party, the African National Congress.

He's also the leader of the group's armed wing, Umkondo Wiseeswe.

Better known English, a spear of the nation.

...