A leader in the making comes of age under apartheid rule.
Pandemic Center
Listening to Shadows
Listening to Shadows | Audio Documentary
A new audio documentary telling the extraordinary story of Wilmot James, now a Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center and a former South African Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health, as he rose from the power struggles in South Africa to the front lines of global health leadership.
Project Highlights
In this audio series, for the first time, Wilmot James shares personal stories growing up as a child of apartheid, being imprisoned as a student activist, and about his work as a close advisor to leaders like Nelson Mandela. Forged in social change movements and tested in public health crises, Wilmot’s story offers us both a warning and a guide to sustaining a healthy civic society, weaving themes of biography, leadership, history, and health.
The series was created by Jennifer Galvin, Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Pandemic Center.
This project premiered at the 2026 PROV/DOC festival, held on October 2-3 and organized by the Brown Political Review, a student-run magazine, and Clara Baisinger-Rosen, a Student Research Assistant at the Pandemic Center. Find more information and links to listen on the series’ webpage.
Episode List
Deeply personal accounts reveal Nelson Mandela’s true magic as a leader finding common ground and bridging divides.
Wilmot James shares behind-the-scenes accounts of launching the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which confronted the heartbreaking and brutal stories of apartheid and sought to restore justice and promote healing for a new democratic nation.
Just as South Africa becomes a new democracy with Nelson Mandela as president, the HIV/AIDS epidemic hits. The defiant activist Zackie Achmat rises, Thabo Mbeki spreads disinformation and pseudoscience, and Mandela confronts the disease ravaging his country.
One fall from grace sparks Wilmot James’s reinvention and rise as a global health leader.
Our Project Team
Individuals involved
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Jennifer Galvin, Sc.D., MPH
Filmmaker in Residence -
Wilmot James, Ph.D.
Senior Adviser to the Brown Pandemic Center, Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health; Director of the Africa Initiative -
Clara Baisinger-Rosen
Pandemic Center Student Research Assistant | Senior
Project Partners
In Media
Read More About Listening to Shadows
Brown Daily Herald
Inaugural PROV/DOC festival platforms local filmmakers’ documentaries
This past weekend, “CLIMATE-CULTURE-COMMUNITY” was the central theme behind the Brown Political Review’s inaugural documentary film festival PROV/DOC. The two-day festival showcased documentaries from student, faculty and local filmmakers that spotlighted underreported issues, according to Julianna Muzyczyszyn ’27, BPR’s co-editor-in-chief.
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Before Wilmot James — professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice — took the helm of the Africa Initiative at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs this year, he had on a number of different roles. From penning a speech for Nelson Mandela to serving in the South African Parliament, James brings wide-ranging knowledge of African health security to his new role on College Hill.
Read Article
Brown Political Review
Listening to Shadows
From apartheid to the front lines of global health, Listening to Shadows is the gripping true story of one man’s fight for freedom, truth, and survival.
At a moment when democracy and truth are under siege across the globe, Listening to Shadows tells the extraordinary story of South African Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health Wilmot James, who rose from the power struggles in South Africa to the front lines of global health leadership.
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Read Article
At a moment when democracy and truth are under siege across the globe, Listening to Shadows tells the extraordinary story of South African Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health Wilmot James, who rose from the power struggles in South Africa to the front lines of global health leadership.
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