Harry Enfield defends Nelson Mandela Blackface sketch: “I wouldn’t do it now, but it’s a shame”

Harry Enfield has defended a series of old sketches where he played South African leader Nelson Mandela in Blackface, although he has conceded he wouldn’t perform it today.

A running segment in the 2007 sketch show Harry & Paul saw Enfield play the politician, known for being a beloved and virtuous figure, advertising illicit items such as alcohol, heroin and cocaine. The skits drew criticism, and the comedian looked back on the period in an appearance on The Third Act Podcast.

“I did get in trouble a bit for doing Nelson Mandela. What’s that called, ‘Black-voicing’ now?” he said. “Anyway, we used to be what was called blacked up, but cultural imperialism has taken the phrase ‘Blackface’ from America, where there is a very different culture.”

Defending the piece, he said it was inspired by a comment from actor David Harewood, who said he moved to the US to work as he felt he was being stereotyped as a black actor in the UK, only being offered the chance to play “bad people.”

“I thought, well, Nelson Mandela is the only person in the world that is sort of universally loved,” Enfield explained. “And I thought, that’s funny – the idea of Nelson Mandela, if he’s on the BBC, he has to be a mugger or a robber or a drug dealer. But the only thing that really offended them wasn’t that it was that, but it was me doing it – and not someone with a different coloured skin.”

Asked how he feels about it with hindsight, he said: “I get it now. I wouldn’t do it now, but it’s a shame.”

This isn’t the first time Harry Enfield has defended his use of Blackface, as in 2020 he said he didn’t “regret” doing the Nelson Mandela sketch during a radio interview in which he also used a racial slur.

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