Nelson Mandela: A Legacy in Music

Joan Armatrading counts herself privileged to have met Nelson Mandela in South Africa and to have written a song for him: The Messenger.

Here she presents a programme that celebrates the important part music played in Nelson Mandela’s life. Not only as a young man – when he was a keen ballroom dancer – but how music became a soundtrack of protest and support through his anti-apartheid activism, imprisonment and struggle for freedom. That music resonated not just in South Africa but across the world.

Produced by Tim Moorhouse and Susan Marling
Broadcast:  24th December on BBC World Service