The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1963 to 1994.

Speaker: Hugh Macmillan, research associate, African Studies Centre, Oxford University

Venues in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town (Videoconferencing facilities: see below)
 
Date: 1 April 2014

Time: 12H15 for 12h30  – 13H30  

Hugh Macmillan will discuss his recently published book (Jacana: 2013).  Drawing from material in the ANC’s own archives, other archives in South Africa and Zambia,  and oral sources, the book, which is also informed by participant observation,  provides a vivid account of this crucial era in southern African history. It seeks to understand the sociology of the ANC in exile in Zambia and argues that this was very different from its camp-based culture in Angola. It also examines the influence of the ANC’s exile experience on its approach to negotiations with the South African government and the transition from apartheid. It concludes by arguing that the legacy and lessons of exile were not, as some observers suggest, so much secrecy, paranoia and a lack of internal democracy, as caution, moderation and the avoidance of utopian experiments or great leaps forward.
Professor Hugh Macmillan is a historian who has taught at universities in Swaziland, Zambia and South Africa. He is currently a research associate at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University and is a research fellow in the History Department at the University of the Western Cape. He has published widely on a variety of southern African topics, including the history of the ANC.
 
Kindly RSVP by 28 March 2014

Cape Town : HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Jean Witten, Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or JWitten@hsrc.ac.za
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