Nelson Mandela’s birth name, Rolihlahla, translates to troublemaker. This episode looks past the marble statue to explore a pragmatic, strategic leader raised as a hereditary royal counselor in the Thembu court and educated in British Methodist schools, giving him fluency in two very different systems of power.

We follow his radicalization in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, the ANC Youth League, the turn to armed sabotage with Umkhonto we Sizwe, his years on Robben Island and at Pollsmoor, secret talks with Kobie Coetsee, his refusal of conditional release, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, his economic compromises as president, and his role in resolving the Lockerbie impasse.

• How the left-hand house of the Thembu royal family shaped his role
• Why the ANC turned from nonviolence to sabotage after Sharpeville
• How prison transfers unintentionally strengthened his negotiating position
• Why his government kept a capitalist economic framework
• How his ties to Gaddafi enabled the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands