Retracing the road to democracy
12 October 2004
"The Road to Democracy in South Africa" is a five-volume work that aims to redress the lack of historical material on the arduous, complex road to SA's peaceful political settlement after decades of violent conflict.
In the recently published Volume 1, which covers the years between 1960 and 1970, a dedicated team of researchers unravels events that would eventually lead to a negotiated settlement, focusing on:
- The Sharpeville and Langa massacres as a turning point in the struggle.
- The banning of liberation movements and the imprisonment of struggle activists.
- The measures taken by the apartheid state to suppress resistance.
- The underground activities of, among others, the African National Congres and the Pan Africanist Congress.
- The decision to resort to armed resistance.
- Life in exile for political activists.
- The activities of mainly white activists in above-ground organisations.
According to the
work's producer, the South African Democracy Education Trust, the first volume "provides new insight into how anti-apartheid movements operated in the 1960s - a decade generally known as the golden age of apartheid - drawing on previously unexploited documentary sources, such as trial records and state archives, as well as the archives of the liberation movements.
"Most importantly, it includes the voices and experiences of liberation veterans recorded during hundreds of interviews.
"As a complete recounting of the events that led to liberation and a democratic society, The Road to Democracy is a document of immense historical importance about an extraordinary process of change."
The South African Democracy Education Trust was established after President Thabo Mbeki indicated his concern about the paucity of historical material on the four decades leading up South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.
Order the book:
Source: Struik Publishers
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