Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more

than a series of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence its course.

(dramatic music)

The most infinitesimal of our decisions

can influence the future of humanity.

To know the past is to foresee the future.

December 2018, suburbs of Pretoria, South Africa.

After days spent hidden in their cellar,

these last white inhabitants are finally

being evacuated by the United Nations Intervention Force.

Their neighbors did not get this chance.

Earlier in the day, they were lynched by the crowd.

Crushed by decades of a racist and brutal white government,

the Black communities of South Africa

have finally seized power.

Nobody was able to prevent the outburst

of violence which followed.

Thirsting for revenge, the oppressed

have turned into oppressors.

Fearing an ethnic cleansing, a fast intervention force

was sent to evacuate the white

populations to neighboring Zimbabwe.

But none of that ever happened.

In 1962, a small grain of sand who would lead

to the end of the apartheid government

and the election of the first

Black president of South Africa.

(eerie music)

1836, the southern tip of Africa.

Thousands of Boer settlers leave

their home to migrate inland.

May 26, 1948, the national party wins the elections.

The new government has a free hand to establish apartheid.

August 5th, 1962, the Black leader Nelson Mandela

is found and arrested by South African police.

These three key events led South Africa

to the verge of a civil war during

the terrible period of apartheid.

December 16th, 1838, southern tip of Africa.

Mortally wounded by a gunshot,

this young Zulu warrior knows he is going to die.

(gun fires) (groaning)

Before him, the river is red

with the blood of his brothers in arms.

(gun fires)

They have no succeeded in repelling these demons

who came to steal their land.

His eyes are becoming glazed.

In his mind, he remembers the ancient tales

of white men invading the continent centuries ago.

(rhythmic music)

These white men are Dutch.

They are here to found a colony

at the southern tip of the African continent.

1652 marks the beginning of a story

as complicated as it is violent.

During the following years, the small colony

develops with the arrival of French,

German, and Scandinavian settlers

all carried by Protestant faith.

But quickly, the colony is short of manpower and space.

The first issue is solved by the massive influx of slaves.

The second is settled with the conquest

of bordering territories inhabited

by Khoikhoi, Bushmen, or Xhosa people.

But unlike the Europeans, the natives don't own firearms.

(gun fires)

The white settlers, soon to be called Boers,

a term referring to peasants,

take root on the African continent.

However, in 1795, the balance of power changes dramatically.

(explodes)

The British Empire seizes the colony

and imposes its authority over the Boers.

A minority group at the beginning,

the British population booms

with a massive arrival of migrants.

In 1828, English became the dominant language.

Anglicanism has emerged as the state religion.

British law has replaced Dutch law.

The Boers fear that their identity

is in danger of disappearing.

In 1833, slavery is abolished by the British.

Alarmed, the Boers see their whole

economic system called into question.

During the following years, more than 15,000 Boers

flee the British order and migrate inland

in order to carry on with their lifestyle, a true exodus.

This central and founding event of the Boers

and their identity is called the Great Trek.

In search of virgin lands, they come across

territories occupied by African Tribes.

In 1838, they enter the land of the expanding Zulu Empire.

War is inevitable.

On December 16th, 15,000 Zulus surround a few hundred

settlers entrenched in a circle of wagons.

(guns firing) (people yelling)

But unlike the Boers, the Zulus don't have guns.

3,000 young warriors are massacred by gunfire.

The river of the battlefield, filled with Zulu blood,

will later take the name of Blood River.

- [Narrator] Welcome to memory of humanity.

Every historical event, regardless of how small,

is recorded and connected.

You only need to change one to upset all the others.

Here, we're able to control time,

analyze, and compare billions of events

in order to rewrite history in infinite ways.

The Boers believe they are chosen by God

and invested with a divine mission.

Gradually, they will start to believe in their own destiny

and compare their own faith with the exodus

of the Jews in the Old Testament.

Over time, the Great Trek becomes

the foundation stone of Boer society.

The Boers are convinced of the divine intervention

and the miraculous victory in the Battle of Blood River.

This idea could be compared to the Mormon ideology

during the conquest of the West.

Invested with a divine mission,

they migrated to inhospitable, wide land

in order to preserve their beliefs and way of life.

Now an inward looking community

and carried along by their steadfast faith,

the Boers developed their own concept.

Persecuted, they have no other solution

than surviving at all cost.

- [Narrator] 1902, Republic of the Transvaal.

This Boers farmer has lost everything.

After years of heroic fighting

against British troops, (farmer yelling)

he has seen his government accepting to surrender.

Back home, in the farm he built by himself,

he learnt of the death of his wife

and his three children in one

of the many British internment camps.

Like every Boer, he knows their fate

has reached a tragic turning point.

Someday, his people will be doomed

if he and his peers don't do anything.

Everything started a few decades ago.

Following the Great Trek, the Boers founded many republics.

The Natalia Republic, immediately annexed by the British,

then the Transvaal and the Orange Free State,

officially tolerated by the crown.

Everything changed when in 1866 diamonds,

then gold, are discovered on their land.

For the empire, missing such a financial

Godsend was out of the question.

These territories become the scene

of two wars between white settlers,

two dreadful modern wars.

Indeed, the British army is well ahead of its time.

Scorched-earth policy, fortified houses, human shields.

There are tens of thousands of Boers civilians,

mainly women and children,

crammed into about 50 internment camps.

28,000 of them will never return.

A quarter of the Afrikaner population vanishes.

The survivors are traumatized for decades.

These white farmers, already full of resentment and hatred,

are afraid to see their nation dying out

in a vast territory inhabited with Black men

and ran by powerful Anglo-Saxons.

They have no choice.

They must adapt themselves or they will disappear.

They reluctantly submit to the crown.

The Union of South Africa is created in 1910

and immediately joins the commonwealth.

- [Narrator] The symbolism of words.

The word Boer means peasant.

In English, its pronunciation is similar to the word boar.

Confronted with the threat to be assimilated to the British,

the Boers assert their identity.

They begin to refer to themselves by the word Afrikaner.

This term designates any person speaking Afrikaans,

a language derived from Dutch and tinged

with French, Portuguese, and native languages.

The word Afrikaans, which means African,

allows them to assert some legitimacy

on this new continent and to turn their back

on their distant European roots.

On the other hand, British people are called

Outlanders, which means foreigners.

The Dutch term (speaking in foreign language),

or leaguer in English,

referring to the wagon fort formed

by the settlers every evening

to protect themselves from the attacks,

gradually becomes the symbol of the status of Afrikaners,

permanently surrounded and in the minority,

fighting to the death.

There is often a greater meaning behind a mere word.

(soft, dramatic music)

- [Narrator] March 21st, 1960.

This Black man is in a state of shock.

He has been fighting for years against the deep

inequalities which poison his country.

Today, all of his beliefs are being dashed.

Legal action won't be enough,

not against this racist and criminal government.

As a lawyer, he saw the situation getting worse

year after year, law after law, quite legally.

Since the British arrived, Black people

have always been reduced to a cheap workforce.

Areas had been segregated on the pretext of fighting crime,

but in fact, for economic reasons.

While white people live in town and own good lands,

Black people have inherited infertile

soil and industrial areas.

Just after World War I, while South Africa

gets its autonomy from the British Empire,

Afrikaner nationalists fight to win back absolute power

and expel the English-speaking middle class from it.

- For us, for your children!

- [Narrator] But for white workers, there is a new danger,

the cheap black workforce, which threatens their jobs,

and an ever-increasing Black population.

There is an expression for this danger, Swart Gevaar.

The Black Peril. (dramatic music)

On May 26th, 1948, the elections are won

by the pro-Afrikaner National Party.

A policy of separate development

is immediately established by the government.

The apartheid regime is born.

Obsessed with the survival of their way

of life and traditions, Afrikaner leaders

take refuge behind unjust laws

and acquire a traditional arsenal.

The Population Registration Act defines racial membership

according to subjective requirements,

all South Africans being classified

into one of four racial groups based on their skin color.

White, black, Indian, and mixed race or colored.

The Group Areas Act sets boundaries

for authorized residential areas.

Black populations pack into townships,

which are overpopulated, second-class towns.

The immorality amendment act

forbids interracial sexual relationships,

and owning a passbook for every Black man

over 16 is made compulsory.

In 1951, a law lays the foundations of the Bantustan system.

10 divided territories are designated

to become new Black nations.

Black people have no other choice

than moving from their homes

and becoming citizens of these tribal homelands.

10 million of them effectively lose

their South African citizenship.

In 1953, racial segregation becomes legal.

Signs specify the rights of each person

according to his or her skin color.

Getting deeper and deeper into

an obsession law and order neurosis,

the apartheid system imposes a state of emergency,

massively resorts to the military and the police,

disbands protest movements,

and locks up political opponents,

all of which being completely legal.

The numerous anti-apartheid demonstrations

are repressed and blood is shed.

The country slides into a spiral of violence.

(dramatic music)

March 21st, 1960, township of Sharpeville.

- [Man] We need some more supplies now!

- [Narrator] Thousands of demonstrators burn

their passbooks in front of a police station.

Tension rises.

Policemen aim their gun at the crowd.

(guns fire) A shot is fired.

It's a bloodbath.

Many children have died among the estimated 60 casualties.

World public opinion is deeply shocked.

So is this Black man who decides this day

to modify his strategy and commence armed conflict.

His name is Nelson Mandela.

- [Narrator] Withdrawal into oneself.

Only 20% of the population is Afrikaner

when the apartheid system is established.

Fearing for its survival, the system becomes more radical

and protects itself with segregationist laws.

White leaders believe their only way

to keep power is through repression.

Black people, humiliated and deprived

of almost all their civic rights,

become second-class citizens.

Nowadays in the state of Israel,

Palestinians face massive transfers of people,

strictly separated population areas, a system of passbooks,

and the use of Palestinians as a cheap workforce.

Even though the causes are different,

the consequences are similar,

communities withdrawing into themselves,

violent outbursts, strong resentments

which become, with time, insurmountable.

(people yelling)

- [Narrator] Sunday, February 11th, 1990, Cape Town area.

The prison officer is living an historic moment.

He is aware that his country

is about to change drastically.

He also knows that the 71-year-old prisoner

who has just been released is different

from the man who arrived in prison 27 years ago.

(somber music)

Nelson Mandela started his political career 46 years earlier

when he joined the ANC, the African National Congress,

which fights for the Black civic rights.

As an advocate of non-violence,

he is deeply shocked by the Sharpeville massacre.

In 1961, he takes part in the creation

of the ANC military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe,

the Spear of the Nation.

(gun clicking)

Mandela, a man of law, goes underground

and plans a campaign of sabotage.

(explodes) (people yelling)

August 5th, 1962, Mandela is arrested.

Two years later, he is sentenced to life imprisonment.

He is incarcerated in the prison of Robben Island,

an island off Cape Town.

At this maximum security prison,

he suffers from humiliations and intimidations.

Torture and beatings are a common practice.

(water splashes)

For years, while his country locks

itself into hatred and violence,

Mandela favors the Ubuntu philosophy

of respect for human life,

tolerance, conciliation, and no desire for revenge.

(people yelling)

Outside of prison, nothing stops

his former companions in arms from pursuing his release.

Fighting becomes his wife Winnie's reason for living.

(people yelling)

New, more radical protest movements emerge.

The situation is escalating.

In 1976, in Soweto, unprecedented riots

break out in this overpopulated township.

A state of emergency is declared.

The army intervenes.

There are hundreds of casualties.

(man groans) (people yelling)

These riots, broadcasted by televisions all over the world,

shock international public opinion.

In a demented effort to maintain control over their country,

some South African leaders ask their scientists

to reduce the fertility rate of Black women.

The ANC military wing intensifies its attacks

and even assaults the army headquarters with riots.

In 1986, an indefinite state of emergency

is imposed in the whole country.

Martial law is established.

The government is at war with 54 townships.

In order to cope with this emergency situation,

many apartheid laws are abolished,

but the country is still on the verge of collapse.

In 1989, the nationalist F.W. De Klerk comes to power.

The worst is to be expected,

but the politician is a pragmatic man.

He knows that Afrikaners must adapt themselves once again.

Otherwise, they will disappear.

It is now time to make concessions.

On February 11th, 1990, after more than

a quarter of a century spent in prison,

Nelson Mandela is released and is a free man.

The man watches the crowd,

then raises his fist as a sign of victory.

The white police officer who watches Mandela

going away is desperately tormented

by the fear of a Black revenge

for the dark years of apartheid.

(upbeat electronic music)

- [Narrator] We are now at a point of divergence.

A point of divergence is a key moment

across roads in our history where our world

can swing from one side or the other.

Mandela, at the time of his arrest,

had followed an intensive military training

in order to run guerrilla operations.

What would have happened if that day

of August 1962 he had escaped from his pursuers?

From his first actions, he would have become

the main target of the South African Secret Service.

Considered to be a terrorist, the main goal

would certainly have been to kill him.

Even if he had managed to escape

from the government death squads,

he would have been transformed

by going underground and fighting.

Being more radical would have prevented him

from becoming a symbol of unity and forgiveness.

His wife, Winnie, would not have needed

to struggle for her husband's release.

Consequently, she would not have become

this controversial icon of the fight against apartheid.

- [Narrator] 2018, Soweto.

Born in this shantytown,

this woman nearly hasn't any way out.

She is one of the millions of left behind

of the South African society.

(somber music)

For her, the situation doesn't seem

to have improved since the end of apartheid.

(people cheering)

And yet, in 1990 when Nelson Mandela's release

generated global attention,

a wind of hope swept the country.

But the true reason for opening up

the political spectrum was pragmatic.

The country was crippled by economic sanctions

and international embargoes.

Nearly half of the multinationals had

already left the country.

The removal of embargoes was made possible

thanks to Mandela's release from prison

and the abolition of remaining segregationist laws.

It is the end of apartheid.

De Klerk has saved South Africa from bankruptcy.

In 1993, both Mandela and de Klerk

received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mandela was insistent about de Klerk

receiving this prize as well.

On April 27th, 1994, Mandela becomes

the first president of the Republic of South Africa.

As soon as he is elected, he works for reconciliation

between the different communities,

a daunting task considering

the deep resentments on either side.

President Mandela establishes

the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

and gives it the power to grant amnesty

to those responsible for apartheid offenses.

A bloodbath is avoided thanks

to Mandela's wisdom and forgiveness.

However, he decides not to run for reelection.

The reconstruction of the country will go on without him.

Nowadays, although South Africa generates 1/5th

of the GDP of the African continent,

more than half of its population

still packs into shantytowns unfit for habitation.

(glass shatters)

But that is another story.

- [Narrator] Nowadays, South Africa

remains a country of inequalities.

(somber music)

72% of the lands still belong to white people.

Unemployment in the Black community is close to 40%.

Even the ANC is undermined with bribery.

A minority of poor white people

who were protected by apartheid in the past

live today in a precarious situation,

and are thus driven to move into shantytowns.

What was a racial segregation before

has now become a social class segregation.

Some people start feeling nostalgic for apartheid.

Some others even blame Mandela

for having betrayed his people.

(dramatic music)

South Africa remains a complicated country.

Its government is plagued by rampant corruption.

In 1991, after years of struggles,

South Africans have not only succeeded

in deconstructing this racial policy

but they did it without falling into a complete civil war.

Thanks to Nelson Mandela's action,

they have overcome their desire for revenge.

Today, the rainbow nation,

plagued by the challenges of the 21st century,

is aware that it must fight once again for equality.

(dramatic orchestral music)