South Africa, France / 2022 / 57mins / documentary / English

MK: Mandela’s Secret Army chronicles the lives of former members of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress. The documentary is an intergenerational reflection on the all-consuming call to take up arms for South Africa’s liberation, heeded by young men and women—some barely in their teens—who gave up their lives and any future to risk death for the dream of a free South Africa. The young guerilla fighters of yesteryear are now aging veterans. How will history remember them? Where are they now, and how have they reconciled a past committed to liberation with a present-day reality that their contribution to a free South Africa has almost been forgotten?

Osvalde Lewat

Osvalde Lewat is an award-winning filmmaker who began making documentaries after several years as a journalist. She produced her first documentary, Upsa Yimoowin (The Pipe of Hope) in Toronto in 2000. The film denounces the sidelining of Native Americans. With Au-delà de la peine, Lewat tells the story of a prisoner who, after being sentenced to four years in jail for a minor offense, is imprisoned for thirty-three years. In her 2009 film, Black Business, Lewat addresses the question posed by Nigerian Nobel Laureate author Wole Soyinka: “They say Africans are not ready for democracy. So I wonder: have they ever been ready for dictatorship?” Lewat studied at Sciences Po in Paris. Since 2012, Levat's main focus has been on photography. Her work explores the idea of "otherness and ways of seeing". She has exhibited her work in Paris, the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Learn More