Synopses & Reviews
The African National Congress (ANC) is Africa’s most famous liberation movement. It has recently celebrated its centenary, a milestone that has prompted partisans to detail a century of unparalleled achievement in the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. Critics paint a less flattering portrait of the historical ANC as a communist puppet, a moribund dinosaur, or an elitist political parasite. For such skeptics, the ANC — now in government for two decades — has betrayed South Africans rather than liberating them.
South Africans endure deep inequality and unemployment, violent community protests, murders of foreign residents, major policy blunders, an AIDS crisis, and deepening corruption. Inside the ANC there are episodes of open rebellion against the leadership, conflicts over the character of a postliberation movement, and debilitating battles for succession to the movement’s presidency. The ANC is nevertheless likely to remain the party of government for the foreseeable future.
This book explores how ANC intellectuals and leaders interpret the historical project of their movement. It investigates three interlocked ideas: a conception of power, a responsibility for promoting unity, and a commitment to human liberation. It explores how these notions have shaped South African politics in the past, and how they will inform ANC leaders’ responses to the challenges of the future.
Review
“
The Idea of the ANC takes a look at how conception of power, promoting unity, and a commitment to human liberation have in the past shaped politics in [South Africa] and the possible role they could play in guiding the leadership of the ANC’s responses to future challenges.… Be sure to get this exciting and very easy to read pocket book.”
LOOCHA Magazine (South Africa)
Review
[A] sobering but measured account
.In an accessible manner, synthesizing historiographies and thus ideas, the Ohio Short Histories
provide comprehensible introductions to the nature of South Africa's past, particulalry the role that the ANC have had in shaping the trajectory of the country's recent history.”
Journal of African History
About the Author
Anthony Butler is a professor of political studies at the University of Cape Town.