Netflix to air seven-part documentary series on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

The series, based on her solitary confinement journal, will premiere in April 2026.

A seven-part documentary series about anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela will premiere on Netflix on 23 April 2026.¹²

The series, titled The Trials of Winnie Mandela, is based on a journal Madikizela-Mandela kept during her detention in solitary confinement, which began with her arrest by security police on 12 May 1969.¹² Princess Swati Mandela-Dlamini, her granddaughter, received the journal from Madikizela-Mandela 13 years ago at a family event.¹²

"She said: 'Darling, I've got this journal that's been returned to me from when I was in solitary confinement from the late widow of my lawyer who was representing me at the time. And I'm going to give it to you and you decide what you want to do with it,'" Mandela-Dlamini told Daily Maverick.¹²

Mandela-Dlamini co-edited the journal with veteran journalist Sahm Venter and published it in 2013 as 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69.² The autobiography became a best-seller.¹²

Ivor Ichikowitz, executive chairman of Paramount Group, approached Mandela-Dlamini to develop a documentary after reading the book.¹² The series was directed by Mandy Jacobson, a two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker who has since died.¹²

The documentary is part of the African Oral History Archive, described as a non-profit history initiative.¹²