National liberation and the political life of exile : sex, gender, and nation in the struggle against apartheid / Rachel Sandwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sandwell, Rachel, 1983- author.

Series:

New African histories series

New African histories

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African National Congress--History--20th century.

African National Congress.

Anti-apartheid movements--South Africa--History.

Anti-apartheid movements.

National liberation movements--South Africa--History.

National liberation movements.

Women anti-apartheid activists--South Africa--History.

Women anti-apartheid activists.

Women--Political activity--South Africa--History.

Women.

Physical Description:

xvi, 296 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"This groundbreaking book explores the often-overlooked role of women in South Africa's liberation movements, particularly within the African National Congress during its years in exile from 1960 to 1990. It examines how transformations in gender roles-though contested-were central to imagining a postapartheid South Africa. Through an analysis of women's diplomatic work and their advocacy for policies on sexual education, birth control, family life, and childcare, Rachel Sandwell challenges traditional narratives that have ignored or minimized women's contributions. She highlights how South African women played a crucial role in connecting exiles to left-wing international organizations like the Women's International Democratic Federation, positioning women as key figures in global anticolonial politics. The book also explores how gender transformation was at the heart of the exiled antiapartheid movement's vision for a free South Africa. Women fought for recognition beyond the role of "mothers of the nation," sparking internal debates over revolutionary morality, the compatibility of motherhood with military service, and responses to sexual and domestic violence within the movement. These struggles mirrored broader ideological conflicts over nation building, belonging, and political identity as the African National Congress sought legitimacy as a government-in-exile. Ultimately, National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile asks how we write histories of revolutionary movements-especially those that, despite their transformative ambitions, did not fully realize their goals. A vital contribution to feminist history, anticolonial studies, and the history of global liberation struggles, this book reshapes our understanding of gender and politics in the antiapartheid movement"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Parties, Protests, and Symbolic Mothers in South Africa's 1950s

In Search of "our Vietnam". South African Women's Diplomacy in Exile's Difficult Years, 1960s-1980

A Crisis of Pregnancy? Making Mothers' Homes in Rural Tanzania

Spy Rings, Infiltrators, and the Politics of Intimacy: 1980-

Mutinies in the Camps, "Inmates" at the Charlottes Discipline in Wartime.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780821426661

0821426664

9780821426654

0821426656

OCLC:

1514656688