Free Mandela

While it celebrated Mandela’s release, the AAM stressed that apartheid remained. It asked its supporters to campaign for the release of all political prisoners and to press the de Klerk government to take measures to end the killings in the townships.

Crowds welcomed Nelson Mandela to London in April 1990, on his first visit there after his release from prison. On 16 April he attended a concert at Wembley stadium held in his honour, and thanked the people of Britain for campaigning for his freedom.

A week of music and poetry in venues all over London led up to the second Mandela Wembley concert on 16 April 1990. 

T-shirt produced for the Wembley Stadium concert held on 16 April 1990 to celebrate the release of Nelson Mandela. Mandela thanked the people of Britain and the world for campaigning for his release. The back of the T-shirt lists the lead artists who performed at the concert.

Two months after his release, Nelson Mandela attended a second Wembley Stadium concert held on 16 April 1990. The concert was attended by a capacity audience of 76,000 people and broadcast around the world. Mandela thanked the hundreds of thousands of people who had campaigned for his freedom and called for the continued isolation of South Africa until it had been transformed into a non-racial democracy.

Poster celebrating Nelson Mandela’s release and calling for the release of all other South African political prisoners. Mandela visited Britain in April 1990 and spoke at a concert held in Wembley Stadium, London.

Nelson Mandela at the Wembley concert held on 16 April 1990.

Handwritten letter from Nelson Mandela ‘to the British public’ thanking them for their ‘overwhelming generosity’. The letter was written on the day Mandela attended the 16 April 1990 Wembley concert held to celebrate his release from prison on 11 February.