Table Of ContentThe ANC’s War against Apartheid
The ANC’s War
against Apartheid
UMKHONTO WE SIZWE AND
THE LIBERATION OF SOUTH AFRICA
STEPHEN R. DAVIS
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing Names: Davis, Stephen R., author.
Herman B Wells Library 350 Title: The ANC’s war against apartheid:
1320 East 10th Street Umkhonto we Sizwe and the liberation
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA of South Africa / Stephen R. Davis.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana :
iupress.indiana.edu Indiana University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references
© 2018 by Stephen Davis and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017053535 (print)
All rights reserved | LCCN 2017051095 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780253032300 (e-book) |
No part of this book may be reproduced ISBN 9780253032287 (hardback :
or utilized in any form or by any means, alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253032294
electronic or mechanical, including (pbk. : alk. paper)
photocopying and recording, or by Subjects: LCSH: Umkhonto we
any information storage and retrieval Sizwe (South Africa)--History. |
system, without permission in writing African National Congress--History.
from the publisher. | Anti-apartheid movements--South
Africa. | Government, Resistance
The paper used in this publication to--South Africa. | South Africa--
meets the minimum requirements History--1961-1994.
of the American National Standard for Classification: LCC DT1953 (print)
Information Sciences—Permanence | LCC DT1953 .D38 2018 (ebook)
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, | DDC 322.420968--dc23
ANSI Z39.48-1992. LC record available at https://lccn.loc.
gov/2017053535
Manufactured in the United States of
America 1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction xiii
1 A Brief History of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Armed Struggle 1
2 “I Am Not Prepared to Answer at This Stage”: History, Evidence,
and the Mamre Camp, December 26–30, 1962 26
3 The Sight of Battle: Visuality, History, and Representations
of the Wankie Campaign, July 31–September 8, 1967 58
4 Losing the Plot: Mystery, Narrativity, and Investigation
in Novo Catengue, May 1977–March 1979 85
5 Everyday Life during Wartime: Experience, Modes of Writing,
and the Underground in Cape Town during the
Long Decade of the 1980s 127
Conclusion: Making the Struggle Concrete; Nationalist
Historiography at Freedom Park 197
Appendix A: Lists of ANC Members Killed in the Matola Raid 229
Appendix B: ANC/MK Deaths in Angola by Category 230
Appendix C: ANC/MK Combat Deaths by Country 231
Appendix D: ANC/MK Combat Deaths by Country 232
Bibliography 233
Index 261
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many individuals contributed to the research, writing, and revision
of this book in ways that extend beyond any neat categorization but warrant
special foregrounding. This book would not have been possible without
the advice, encouragement, and support given to me by Luise White.
Luise has been a reliable adviser, a close confidante, and trusted friend to
me during every stage of this project. Although I could thank her for any
number of things, I may have benefited most from her vast personal archive
of analogies, anecdotes, metaphors, and one-liners about this kind of work.
Her knack for offering the right thing at the right time has gotten me out of
any number of binds, intellectual and otherwise; kept me from taking myself
too seriously; and got me to think about history in exciting ways. I am for-
ever grateful to her for these things and for much more than I can describe
here. Patricia Hayes offered indispensable guidance and generous support
at critical moments during my fieldwork in South Africa. Her keen eye and
attention to detail allowed me to notice far more about this history than I
would have on my own. Additionally, her interventions during my fieldwork
prevented me from making countless errors and saved me from expending
time and energy on dead ends. David Hlongwane helped me negotiate a
path into veteran communities in the Western Cape and beyond. I owe him
a debt of gratitude for helping me to establish my bona fides among them
and for arranging interviews with individuals who would otherwise have
been inaccessible to me. I am grateful to Anne Mager for her kind hospi-
tality and for opening a window onto the personal dimensions of political
activism in South Africa. Liz Gunner graciously hosted me during several
research trips to Johannesburg and offered her valuable thoughts about
vii
viii | Acknowledgments
how to approach questions of interpretation and the complexities of perfor-
mance. I am especially indebted to the late Malixoli Hadi and his family and
comrades who opened my eyes to the predicaments faced by veterans. My
awareness of these predicaments shaped my interpretations of this history
in incalculable ways.
This book would not have been possible without the education and
support I received as a graduate student at the University of Florida. Leo
Villalón’s ever enthusiastic efforts as director of the African Studies Center
at the University of Florida greatly contributed to my intellectual develop-
ment as a student of African history. Peter Malanchuk and Dan Rebous-
sin went above and beyond their duties as Africana librarians in finding me
obscure materials and in helping me think laterally about research. Mantoa
Smouse clued me into the wonderfully rich and varied ways South Africans
use language to construct meaning and express themselves. I hope that at
least a fraction of the subtleties she pointed out to me over the years are
represented in this book. The History Department consistently provided
generous financial support during each of my seven years in Florida. Last
but not least, Hunt and Jean Davis provided me with funds that allowed me
to travel to South Africa to sketch out the contours of this project and try my
hand at interviewing.
Several institutions and individuals provided essential resources
that allowed me to continue to research, write, and revise this book. The
Fulbright-Hayes DDRA fellowship program funded my fieldwork in South
Africa in 2007–2008. I am also grateful to the US embassy staff in Pretoria
and the Cape Town consulate for their kind support and careful guidance
during that time. The University of Kentucky enabled me to complete the
final stages of writing and revision. Mark Kornbluh, as the dean of the Col-
lege of Arts and Sciences, provided me with funds for several additional
research trips to South Africa and gave generous support for a number of
initiatives that have made South Africa an enduring part of the curriculum
and intellectual life at the University of Kentucky. Karen Petrone, as chair
of the History Department, made good on her commitment to create an
environment where junior scholars could flourish. I recognize that I am a
direct beneficiary of her sincere effort to make funding and time available
to me and my cohort while we finish our first books. I am grateful to my
Acknowledgments | ix
colleagues at the University Kentucky for providing thoughtful comments
on several draft chapters and for being so welcoming and collegial over the
past six years.
Several archives provided the sources and research experiences that
form the basis of this book. The staff at the Mayibuye Centre Archive not
only assisted me in finding material but also provided me with a revealing
introduction into the politics of archives. This initiation of sorts tempered
my reading of the materials that I collected there and elsewhere. Nicky van
Driel provided me with material from her personal archive that reshaped my
understanding of the Wankie Campaign. Derek du Bruyn at the National
Museum in Bloemfontein directed my attention to the invaluable archive
of interview transcripts that he and his colleagues recorded with veterans
in the Free State. Joel Krieg assisted me in finding the trial records that
formed the basis of my chapter on the underground in Cape Town. Ken-
nedy Rampeng granted me unprecedented access to the materials that he
collected before and after his participation in the Write Your Own History
workshops at the University of the Western Cape.
The revision of this book was influenced greatly by incisive readings of
drafts and engaged conversations about how to improve them. Nicky Rous-
seau and Gary Baines provided me with incredibly insightful comments on
the penultimate draft of the manuscript, identifying weaknesses that had
escaped my attention, confirming my doubts about others, and explaining
what was going on in terms I could not articulate on my own. I could not have
asked for better readings of my work at such a critically important time in
the revision process. At very short notice, Albie Sachs read an entire draft of
this manuscript and offered me valuable thoughts from his dual perspective
as an active participant and an empathetic observer. At the eleventh hour,
Chris Gifford identified problems in my chapter on the underground and
suggested useful ways to clarify things. Stephen Ellis patiently answered my
questions about his work over the years and applied his sharp intellect and
ample experience to problems that I encountered in my own research and
writing. Finally, I am grateful to Denis Goldberg for being such a welcom-
ing, passionate, and opinionated interlocutor.
Description: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 of
