BET announces 6 part mini-series on Nelson Mandela

Black Entertainment Television (BET) has announced it will air a mini-series about Nelson Mandela next year, with actor Laurence Fishburne portraying the late South African leader.

Stephen Hill, the network’s chief programming executive, said that the 6-hour “Madiba” series is being made with the cooperation of Mandela’s family.

Mandela, the longtime prisoner of the apartheid system, became South Africa’s first black president. He died in 2013 at age 95.

BET moved into miniseries last year with “The Book of Negroes,” about a girl who grew up in Africa who was sold into slavery in America.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press