1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910467666003321

Autore

Davis Stephen R. <1977->

Titolo

The ANC's war against apartheid : Umkhonto we Sizwe and the liberation of South Africa / / Stephen R. Davis

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bloomington, Indiana : , : Indiana University Press, , 2018

©2018

ISBN

0-253-03230-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (251 pages)

Disciplina

322.420968

Soggetti

Anti-apartheid movements - South Africa

Government, Resistance to - South Africa

Electronic books.

South Africa History 1961-1994

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- A brief history of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the armed struggle -- "I am not prepared to answer at this stage" : history, evidence, and the Mamre camp, December 26-30, 1962 -- The sight of battle : visuality, history, and representations of the Wankie campaign, July 31-September 8, 1967 -- Losing the plot : mystery, narrativity, and investigation in Novo Catengue, May 1977-March 1979 -- Everyday life during wartime : experience, modes of writing, and the underground in Cape Town during the long decade of the 1980's -- Conclusion: making the struggle concrete: nationalist historiography at Freedom Park.

Sommario/riassunto

For nearly three decades, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), waged a violent revolutionary struggle against the apartheid state in South Africa. Stephen Davis works with extensive oral testimonies and the heroic myths that were constructed after 1994 to offer a new history of this armed movement. Davis deftly addresses the histories that reinforce the legitimacy of the ANC as a ruling party, its longstanding entanglement with the South African Communist Party, and efforts to consolidate a single narrative of struggle and renewal in concrete museums and memorials. Davis



shows that the history of MK is more complicated and ambiguous than previous laudatory accounts would have us believe, and in doing so he discloses the contradictions of the liberation struggle as well as its political manifestations.