The Nordic Africa Institute – Publications

It is commonly held that the ANC -after its banning in 1960 and the imprisonment of its leaders - largely disappeared off the face of South Africa until public support for it revived in the wake of the Soweto uprising of 1976. This book takes issue with that view. Drawing  on substantial oral testimony, Raymond Suttner develops a convincing case that internally based activist, sometimes working independently of the ANC in exile and sometimes in combination, were able to reconstitute networks within South Africa after the organisation's banning. He discusses the broad features of their secret  underground work, the impact it had on their personal lives, and the opportunities that were presented for both bravery and abuse. One of the distinctive features of his approach is its treatment of such illegal activity through a gendered lens. Suttner concludes by exploring the dominant position which the ANC had established by the 1970s (partly through underground activity), enabling it to become the prime political beneficiary of the Soweto uprising and ultimately creating the conditions for a negotiated settlement in South Africa.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The early underground: From the M-Plan to Rivonia

The reconstitution of the SACP asan underground organisation

The ANC underground betweeen Rivonia and 1976

The character of underground work

Gendering the underground

Revolutionary morality and the suppression of the personal

The re-establishment of ANC hegemony after 1976

List of interviews

Notes

Index