#  The Politics of Armed Struggle in Southern Africa 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 23 - November 26, 2016** 

 All day 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg)**  



 

 



 

As decolonisation swept across the African continent, in the early 1960s African liberation movements in countries that were still under the grip of colonial occupation, white minority rule and apartheid took up arms to overthrow their oppressors. In South Africa, the last country to become free in southern Africa, the advent of democracy and peace after a violent and protracted struggle for liberation has been accompanied by a renewed effort to write and document the history of the resistance against apartheid and colonialism. While major strides have been made in the historiography thanks to both scholarly and insiders’ narratives, these histories are not being sufficiently popularised and communicated, to the point that we may be facing a crisis in historical memory. The risk is that, as generations of cadres gradually pass on or their memory fades, their knowledge will be lost forever and their stories never recorded.The Wits History Workshop, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), the Liliesleaf Trust, and South African History Online (SAHO) – on behalf of a larger consortium working in this field – are organising a conference on the history and politics of the armed struggle in southern Africa in November 2016. The conference seeks to include all armed resistance movements in South Africa and the region. One of its key aims is to provide a space for telling stories about the armed struggle from the perspective of its protagonists. Given that the armies of the exiled or banned liberation movements found shelter and support in African countries, it would be important to reflect on the impact of that solidarity on the host countries and their citizens. Comparative perspectives with armed struggles in other parts of the continent and beyond are also welcome as, in some instances, southern African liberation armies found themselves embroiled in various conflicts and civil wars in foreign lands. In addition to the academic focus, the conference will include a popular component consisting of public discussions, book launches, film screenings, storytelling, poetry readings, and other cultural and artistic expressions of struggle narratives – providing a focal point for the encouragement of a new body of creative work on the liberation struggle in general and the armed struggle in particular.

 

 



 

 

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