Unisa Press

The Road to Democracy in South Africa – Abridged Version Vol 1

Author: South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET)
Published: 2014-12-12 00:00:00.0
ISBN: 978-1-86888-781-1
Number of pages: 223
This book is not available in electronic format

About the book

Volume 1, the first in the SADET Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series, tells the history of the struggle for liberation in South Africa in the 1960s. Volume 1 includes chapters about ‘The turn to the armed struggle’ and ‘The Morogoro Conference’. While the series covers the period 1960–1994, volume 1 is based closely on the corresponding volume of the celebrated academic version of SADET’s Road to Democracy series, a reference work par excellence that has achieved wide acclaim and is now found on library shelves not only in South Africa but elsewhere on the continent and abroad.

Unlike the bulky academic versions, the Abridged Edition series is much shorter; it is quicker and easier to read. The footnotes and the lengthy quotations have been removed. So too have the intricate details that some might find overwhelming. What has been left is the nitty-gritty, the captivating account of how the oppressed masses strove to achieve their freedom in the 1960s. Each volume captures all the drama, courage and horror of compelling historical events, researched by experts in the field.

The names of authors of the Road to Democracy in South Africa Abridged Edition series have been removed from each chapter but theirs is the credit for researching and creating them, despite the summarising, cutting and paraphrasing that has been done to produce the Abridged Edition. The original chapter headings and most of the sub-headings within the chapters have been retained.

This Abridged Edition series should be read by every South African. The hope is that others on the African continent and elsewhere in the world will find much of interest in this and the other volumes in this series. After all, the history of the liberation struggle in South Africa is one of Africa’s greatest historical narratives.

Table of content

Preface vii

List of acronyms ix

Chapter 1

Introduction: The political context 1

Chapter 2

The turn to armed struggle 21

Chapter 3

Peasant struggles of the 1950s in gaMatlala and Zeerust 47

Chapter 4

Rural resistance in Mpondoland and Thembuland: 1960–1963 59

Chapter 5

The National Committee of Liberation/African Resistance

Movement 73

Chapter 6

The PAC’s war against the state: 1960–1963 91

Chapter 7

The PAC and Poqo in Pretoria 1958–1964 107

Chapter 8

Land and Liberty! The African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa during the 1960s 117

Chapter 9

State repression in the 1960s 127

Chapter 10

Political imprisonment and resistance in South Africa:

The case of Robben Island 149

Chapter 11

The ANC in exile 157

Chapter 12

The Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns 181

Chapter 13

The ANC and the world 205

Chapter 14

The Morogoro conference: A moment of self-reflection 219

Chapter 15

The post-Rivonia ANC/SACP underground 229

Chapter 16

Aboveground activity in the 1960s 247

Index 271