One Hundred Years of the ANC: Debating Liberation Histories and Democracy Today
20-23 September 2011
The 100th anniversary of the African National Congress in 2012 is a momentous event in South African and African history. It will also be the occasion for nationwide celebrations, extensive reflection and debate. Histories of the liberation struggle have now become bound to the questions of post-apartheid politics and the ideology of state power. Discussions of the ANC’s past separate themselves with difficulty from debates over the meaning of ‘liberation’, the developmental state, non-racialism, equality and social justice in the present.
Since 1994, public engagement with struggle history remains lively. But there are also worrying signs that a simplistic and elitist version of liberation history has solidified in the media, in government rhetoric, and in state-funded institutions such as museums. Recent anniversaries of signal events, particularly the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, have been marked by sharp debates both within and outside of the ANC over the role of other organizations in the struggle for freedom. A full acknowledgment of the ANC’s tremendous achievements both before and after 1994 should not lead us to minimize this fact: we are facing a crisis in historical memory replete with dangers for public debate and democratic engagement.
In this spirit, South African History Online, the History Workshop (University of the Witwatersrand), and the Department of Historical Studies (University of Johannesburg) are organizing a conference designed to inform the discussions around the 100th anniversary of the ANC. This event will promote a critical evaluation of the production and utilization of historical narratives by the ANC and the state, academic historians, and sectors of civil society. We aim to create a forum that is both accessible and rigorous, and that brings academics, individuals from the ANC and other historic organizations, and intellectuals from civil society into debate and discussion.
REGISTER for the conforence here
Place: Johannesburg
This conference is part of uKhongolose: The Hundred Years Struggle for Freedom, a year-long series of conferences, exhibitions and workshops initiated by SA History Online in order to promote discussion and debate around the 100th Anniversary of the ANC. This project will also include a major research initiative and the online publication of substantial new materials.
