Oliver Tambo

You've met Nelson Mandela.

You've met heroes around that line, Oliver Tambo.

I want to know what struck you about leaders in that era? You know, I ask that with the frame of in 2026, not just in South Africa, but across the world, leadership seems to be a quality or a commodity, a character that is missing.

I agree with you.

Nobody's a saint.

Mandela never claimed to be a saint.

I don't think Oliver Tambo did.

He was probably a little more saintly.

Oba yabakhava thonda rutsiri

Chris Hani is not here Yeah Oliver Tambo is not here Ja Pita Mkapa is not here Ja

Because of war

Nithi they are not here if they were here and that’s why they were killed.

That’s why Chris Hani was killed.

Mm That's why induced stroke of Oliver Tambo Eish oh Because those ones you could not buy, you could not capture, you could not do anything.

Those were genuine leaders

Ya abas bayisikele

Hmm.

And then mostly would be political books about our leaders and who Thomas Sankara is, um, you know, Oliver Tambo and so forth, but I was really young.

But tho- those were the conversations that we were having at home as to why the country is like this, what's going on in the world, um, how we need to understand what's happening in our community, 'cause we lived-

Hmm

So, um, uh, so they did, Israel did nee- feel a need to, to support the anti-apartheid movement to some extent that the Africans will notice that, right? So, uh, Israel, uh, first, uh, first the ANC, right, the Mandela's party approach Israel.

Oliver Tambo approach Israel, but that was before '63.

Israel was not really ready for relations.

So they talked a lot.

Oliver Tambo was at the Israeli, uh, ambassador's house in, uh, um, residence in, uh, in Dar es Salaam a few times.

Uh, uh, uh, in '63 when Israel said, "Okay, let's-- We are willing.

We put some budget aside.

Let me bring him back home.

It is the leader, the late president, or the longest-serving president of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo, O.R. Tambo, in one of his speeches, and if I'm not wrong, it was either during the Murugoro Conference, or sometimes in the early 70s, where Oliver Tambo said to the leadership of the ANC in exile, Guys, we will defeat the apartheid government.

We will take over.

But we are a liberation movement.

His defenders include Angelique Kidjo, a singer and politician exiled from her native Benin, who views the album and subsequent tour as part of the movement that came around to get Nelson Mandela out of jail.

Oliver Tambo, the president of the African National Congress, tells Mr. Simon, we love you.

You're a brother, and you have our respect, and you're welcome here.

Fittingly, the art on the album's cover is a 15th century rendering of a knight on a quest, and the outcome of quests are notoriously unpredictable.

Some were ra- ran shebeens.

Some, you know, Oliver Tambo's wife, uh, the, he was a real estate agent.

So there were always class contradictions and class differences within Black communities.

Mm.