2012. Soft cover. 72 pages. Very good condition. Under 1kg.
The ANC in Exile. EXTERNAL MISSION. Stephen Ellis
A forensic investigation based on hitherto hidden archives of the ANC's struggle in exile against the apartheid state
Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February 1990 was one of the most memorable moments of recent decades. It came a few days after the unbanning of the African National Congress following thirty years during which the ANC had fought against the apartheid state. The ANC, founded a century ago and outlawed in 1960, transferred its headquarters abroad and opened what it termed an External Mission. Voted into office in 1994, the ANC today regards its armed struggle as the central plank of its legitimacy. External Mission is the first study of the ANC's exile period based on a full range of sources in southern Africa and Europe, including not only the archives of the ANC itself but also of the Stasi, the East German ministry that trained the ANC's own security personnel. It reveals that the decision to create a guerrilla army known as Umkhonto we Sizwe, which later became the ANC's armed wing, was made not by the ANC but by its allies in the South African Communist Party, after negotiations with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Many of the strategic decisions made and many of the political issues that arose during the course of the armed struggle had a lasting effect on South Africa, shaping its society even to the present day.
Review: 'There is hardly a page of this fascinating book does not throw fresh light on South Africa's murky past. Impeccably researched and written in the clear, dispassionate prose of a historian, Stephen Ellis has provided an indispensable guide to the ANC.' - Martin Plaut, Africa editor, BBC World Service 'Meticulously researched and passionately argued, this book casts valuable new light on the ways that the African National Congress was formed and deformed by its years in exile.' - Mark Gevisser, author of Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred 'Ellis has produced an excellent, even brilliant, book that greatly adds to our knowledge of the ANC.' - Professor David Welsh, author of The Rise and Fall of Apartheid 'It is time that the ANC's mythology about its years in exile gives way to critical history. Stephen Ellis's new book is to be welcomed as a step along the journey from myth to history.' - Jonny Steinberg, author of The Three-Letter Plague 'An explosive expose that is timeous and relevant as much as it may be discomforting to some.' - Barney Pityana, theologian and human rights lawyer '[A] book that contains startling revelations about the ANC's flirtation with totalitarianism. - Mr Ellis is a clear-eyed observer of all things African, a fearless butcher of sacred cows. External Mission begins by annihilating conventional understandings of the circumstances surrounding the ANC's 1961 declaration of war on apartheid. According to Mr Ellis, all critical decisions were actually taken by the South African Communist Party (SACP), which sought support from Moscow and Beijing and then bounced the ANC into following its lead. - Mr Ellis goes so far as to report that Mr Mandela was almost certainly a member, at least for a time, of the SACP's central committee.' - Wall Street Journal
