Written : James Gregory (Book)
Screen play: Greg Latter
Starring:  Dennis Haysbert,  Joseph Fiennes, Diane Kruger
Music: Dario Marianelli
Cenematography:  Robert Fraisse
Released: 2007
Running Time: 140 minutes
Language: English, Xosa
Country , Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, South Africa

South Africa – 1968

GOODBYE BAFANA is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner’s name was Nelson Mandela.

Twenty-five million blacks are ruled by a minority of four million whites under the brutal Apartheid regime of the Nationalist Party Government. Black people have no vote, no land rights, no rights to freedom of movement, to own a business, to housing or education. Determined to retain power, whites ban all black opposition organizations, forcing their leaders into exile or imprisoning them for life on Robben Island.

James Gregory, a typical white Afrikaner, regards blacks as sub-human. Having grown up on a farm in the Transkei, he learned to speak Xhosa at an early age. This makes him an ideal choice to become the warder in charge of Mandela and his comrades on Robben Island. After all, Gregory speaks their language and can spy on them. However, the plan backfires. Through Mandela’s influence, Gregory’s allegiance gradually shifts from the racist government to the struggle for a free South Africa.

Goodbye Bafana tracks the unlikely but profound relationship between these two men. Through their unique friendship, we witness not only Gregory’s growing awareness of man’s inhumanity to man, but South Africa’s evolution from Apartheid to a vibrant democracy.

The story, which documents how Mandela became the most inspirational political figure of the modern world, poses the questions: Who is the prisoner? And who sets whom free? –© Paramount Classics

Factual basis

The autobiography the film was based on, Goodbye Bafana: Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend, was derided by Mandela’s longtime friend, the late Anthony Sampson. In Sampson’s book Mandela: the Authorised Biography he accused James Gregory, who died of cancer in 2003, of lying and violating Mandela’s privacy in his work Goodbye Bafana. Sampson said that Gregory had rarely spoken to Mandela, but censored the letters sent to the prisoner and used this information to fabricate a close relationship with him. Sampson also claimed that other warders suspected Gregory of spying for the government, and that Mandela considered suing Gregory.
In his own autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela mentions James Gregory in two occasions. The first was during his imprisonment in Pollsmoor:
“Often, Winnie’s visits were overseen by Warrant Officer James Gregory, who had been a censor on Robben Island. I had not known him terribly well, but he knew us, because he had been responsible for reviewing our incoming and outgoing mail. At Pollsmoor I got to know Gregory better and found him a welcome contrast to the typical warder. He was polished and soft-spoken, and treated Winnie with courtesy and deference”.
The second occasion that Mandela mentions Gregory in his autobiography is on the day of his release in 1990 from prison:
“Warrant Officer James Gregory was also there at the house, and I embraced him warmly. In the years that he had looked after me from Pollsmoor through Victor Verster, we had never discussed politics, but our bond was an unspoken one and I would miss his soothing presence”.
The Goodbye Bafana, The Making Of DVD contains an interview with Nelson Mandela where he speaks of James Gregory as follows:
He was one of the most refined warders. Well-informed and courteous with everybody. Soft spoken. Very good observations. I developed a lot of respect for him.