Editor(s): Arianna Lissoni, Jon Soske, Natasha Erlank, Noor Nieftagodien, Omar Badsha

Contributor(s): Arianna Lissoni, Crain Soudien, Hugh Macmillan, Ineke van Kessel, Joel Netshitenzhe, John S Saul, Jon Soske, Liz Gunner,Natasha Erlank, Noor Nieftagodien, Norman Etherington, Omar Badsha, Philip Bonner, Roger Southall, Susan Booysen, Thozama April, Vladimir Shubin

EAN: 9781868145737

Publication Date: 2012

Dimensions and Pages: 230 x 150 mm, 384 pp

Format: Paperback

On 8 January 2012, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, the oldest African nationalist organisation on the continent, celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. This historic event has been cause for celebration and has generated significant public debate both within the ANC and South African society at large. This centennial anniversary of the ANC is an opportune moment for critical reflection on the ANC’s historical trajectory on the struggle against colonialism and apartheid. This edited collection brings together new work by a number of South African and international scholars and seeks to open up debate around various aspects of the ANC’s past. Covering a broad chronological and geographical spectrum, using a diverse range of sources and multiple theoretical frameworks, the chapters in this anthology both build upon and extend the historiography of the ANC by offering new perspectives on a variety of themes. These include the relationship between Christianity and African nationalism; political biography; language and the politics of performance; the production of ideas; popular movements; exile politics; and the complex transformation of the ANC from liberation movement to state-governing party. By moving away from utilitarian approaches to the history of the ANC that have dominated contemporary discussions around the centenary, the contributions published in this volume suggest that the relationship between the histories of earlier struggles and the present needs to be rethought in more complex terms. This timely contribution will certainly challenge hegemonic narratives of liberation that have become an established part of the national discourse since 1994.

Buy the book here: www.witspress.co.za

  • Introduction One hundred years of the ANC: Debating struggle history after apartheid Jon Soske, Ariannna Lissoni and Natasha Erlank
  • Keynote address 1. A continuing search for an identity: carrying the burden of history Joel Netshitenze
  • Keynote address 2. Fragmentation and cohesion in the ANC: the first 70 years Philip Bonner
  • Chapter 1. Religion and Resistance in Natal, 1900-1910 Norman Etherington
  • Chapter 2. Christianity and African Nationalism in South Africa in the First Half of the Twentieth CenturyNatasha Erlank
  • Chapter 3. Between Liberation Histories and Academic Histories Thozama April
  • Chapter 4. Imagining the Patriotic Worker: The Idea of ‘Decent Work’ in the ANC’s Political Discourse Franco Barchiesi
  • Chapter 5. Popular Movements Contentious Spaces and the ANC, 1943-1956 Noor Nieftagodien
  • Chapter 6. Unravelling the 1947 ‘Doctor’s Pact’: Non-European Unity and the Production of a Nationalist History Jon Soske
  • Chapter 7. The Politics of Language and the reporting of Chief Albert Luthuli’s funeral 30 July 1967 Liz Gunner
  • Chapter 8. Robben Island University Revisited Crain Soudien
  • Chapter 9. Shishita: A Crisis in the ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1980-1981 Hugh Macmillan
  • Chapter 10. Comrade Mzwai Vladimir Shubin
  • Chapter 11. Revisiting Sekhukhuneland: Trajectories of Former UDF Activists in Post-Apartheid South AfricaIneke van Kessel
  • Chapter 12. Regeneration of ANC Political Power, from the 1994 Electoral Victory to the 2012 Centenary Susan Booysen
  • Chapter 13. The ANC: Party Vanguard of the Black Middle Class? Roger Southall
  • Chapter 14. Globalisation, Recolonisation and the Paradox of Liberation in Southern Africa John S. Saul

Arianna Lissoni obtained her BA and PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at North-West University, Mafikeng. Jon Soske is Assistant Professor of Modern African History in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University, Quebec. From 2009 to 2011, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA) and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), both based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His most recent publication is Boundaries of Diaspora: African Nationalism and the Indian Diaspora in 20th Century South Africa. Natasha Erlank trained as an historian at the University of Cape Town. She has a doctorate from Cambridge University. Noor Nieftagodien is the Deputy Chair of the History Workshop and Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Omar Badsha is a self-taught, award-wining artist and photographer. He is the founder and Director of South African History Online, a website and publishing venture on South African history and culture.

R250.00