The ANC's War against Apartheid: Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Liberation of South Africa

by Stephen R. Davis

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253032294
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2018
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 16.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen Davis is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. A Brief History of the Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Armed Struggle
2. "I Am Not Prepared to Answer at This Stage": History, Evidence and the Mamre Camp, December 26–30, 1962
3. The Sight of Battle: Visuality, History, and Representations of the Wankie Campaign, July 31–September 8, 1967
4. Losing the Plot: Mystery, Narrativity and Investigation in Novo Catengue, May 1977–March 1979
5. Everyday Life during Wartime: Experience, Modes of Writing, and the Underground in Cape Town During the Long Decade of the 1980s
Conclusion: Making the Struggle Concrete: Nationalist Historiography at Freedom Park
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Universityof the Western Cape - Nicky Rousseau

This is an important and timely study, highly readable, solidly researched, and well written. It provides a fascinating and provocative engagement for those interested in histories of liberation, armed struggles, and informal armed formations.

"Stephen Davis charts new territory in a bold and lively fashion. Apart from furthering our knowledge and understanding of MK, he contributes significantly to scholarship on liberation movements more broadly. Essential reading."

Gary Baines]]>

Stephen Davis charts new territory in a bold and lively fashion. Apart from furthering our knowledge and understanding of MK, he contributes significantly to scholarship on liberation movements more broadly. Essential reading.

Gary Baines

Stephen Davis charts new territory in a bold and lively fashion. Apart from furthering our knowledge and understanding of MK, he contributes significantly to scholarship on liberation movements more broadly. Essential reading.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an important and timely study, highly readable, solidly researched, and well written. It provides a fascinating and provocative engagement for those interested in histories of liberation, armed struggles, and informal armed formations."—Nicky Rousseau, University of the Western Cape

"Stephen Davis charts new territory in a bold and lively fashion. Apart from furthering our knowledge and understanding of MK, he contributes significantly to scholarship on liberation movements more broadly. Essential reading."—Gary Baines, author of South Africa's Border War

"The ANC's War against Apartheid is a masterful corrective to contemporary grand narratives about the military struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Its value and sheer usefulness for scholars and advanced students working on southern African political history cannot be overestimated."—American Historical Review

From the Publisher

The ANC's War against Apartheid is a masterful corrective to contemporary grand narratives about the military struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Its value and sheer usefulness for scholars and advanced students working on southern African political history cannot be overestimated.

American Historical Review