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.

About the Author

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

Reviews

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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253032294
Author Stephen R. Davis
Format Paperback
Page Count 312
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press