Nelson Mandela and the revolutionaries
The ANC and Nelson Mandela’s turn to violent anticolonial struggle in the early 1960s, is the subject of a new book by historian of South Africa, Paul Landau.
Image credit Darren Glanville via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0
The book, SPEAR: Mandela and the Revolutionaries (Jacana Press and Ohio University Press, 2022), by Paul Landau, is a recreation of the political scene from 1960 through 1963, enmeshing Nelson Mandela and others around him. It is about the effort, nearly forgotten about today, to challenge the state from a liberationist position.
Spear focuses on human relationships in the context of the advent of violence, debates about ideas, and the mechanics of action. It is a history of the early 1960’s revolutionary challenge to the apartheid state, involving the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the Communist Party, and others. Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK—Spear of the Nation), Mandela’s assembled military wing, is at the center of the account. This is an edited transcript of a book launch of SPEAR: Mandela and the Revolutionaries held at Love Books in Johannesburg on May 26, 2022. The conversation below is lightly edited by Landau from a recording.
