Search results for ""Author Hugh MacMillan""

This biography shows how Black political leader Chris Hani’s life and death were pivotal to ending apartheid and to establishing a democratic government in South Africa. Chris Hani is one of the most iconic figures in South Africa’s history, as a leader within the African National Congress (ANC) and as chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. His assassination in 1993 by a far-right militant threatened negotiations to end apartheid and install a democratic government. Serious tensions followed the assassination, leading Nelson Mandela to address the nation in an effort to avert further violence: Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world… Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for: the freedom of all of us. Hugh Macmillan’s concise biography details Hani’s important role in shaping twentieth-century South African history.

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This book traces Oliver Tambo's role as a leader of the legal ANC through the Defiance Campaign, the Congress of the People and the Treason Trial, and his evolution from militant 'Africanism' towards acceptance of the idea of the ANC as open to people of different racial groups and political persuasions. The book also traces his role from the aftermath of Sharpeville in 1960 as, for 30 years, the pre-eminent leader of the ANC in exile in London, Tanzania and Zambia. It shows how, placing himself at the political center of the organisation, he held the ANC together through great difficulties, managing its relations with African states and great powers, and steering it towards the negotiated end of apartheid.

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The assassination of Chris Hani outside his home in Dawn Park on 10 April 1993 by a right-wing extremist was a decisive moment in the transition to democracy in South Africa. Drawing on personal knowledge of the ANC in exile in Lusaka, as well as archives and interviews, Hugh Macmillan shows in this book how it was that a man from a remote corner of the Transkei, who had never held high office, was held in such high esteem by so many people. He demonstrates how Hani's conspicuous displays of both physical and moral courage, taken together with compassion and humanity, combined to make him a great leader.

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Kinship and partnership united Elie and Harry Susman when they crossed the Zambezi from the south in 1901 and travelled north to buy cattle from King Lewanika in Barotseland. The result was a remarkable family business that has flourished for over a century in some of the most logistically difficult and politically problematic environments in the world. An African Trading Empire is a unique story set against the backdrop of the great themes of European and African history.

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Jack Simons: Teacher, Scholar, Comrade is a pocket biography informed by personal knowledge of its subject, and firsthand experience of the ANC in exile in Zambia, as well as by research in the archives and interviews. Born in 1907, Jack Simons was one of the leading left-wing intellectuals - and one of the greatest teachers - in 20thcentury South Africa. As a lecturer in African Studies at the University of Cape Town from 1937 until he was prevented from teaching by the government in 1964, and thereafter through his lectures and writings in exile, he had a profound effect on the thinking of generations of white and black students and on the liberation movement as a whole. As Albie Sachs wrote in an obituary in The Guardian (1995), 'It is not just the way he influenced so many individuals. It was the impact he had on the culture of a people. The new South African Constitution requires that the values of an open and democratic society should be nurtured. Simons fought all his life both for openness and democracy. His intellectual rigour, the honesty of his person, the sweep of his information, the humanity of his vision and interactiveness and the vitality of his ideas, imprinted themselves on the generation that fought hardest for liberty and made the most direct contribution to achieving the new constitutional order.'

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This work represents the definitive account of the Jewish community in central Africa. It tells the story of the coming of the first Jews to the area in the late 19th century, the heyday of the Jewish community in the mid-20th century, and its decline since Zambian independence. Dealing primarily with the Jewish traders in Zambia who flourished in the face of both anti-semitism and their own acute social dislocation, Macmillan explores a number of interrelated topics: the colonial office discussions about Jewish immigration in the 1930s, the attempts to settle refugees in Africa by both pro- and anti-semites, Jewish religious life in the region, and the remarkable cultural and professional role played by the Jewish settlers. Setting these issues in the context of a general history of southern and central Africa, this book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the economic history of the entire region. It will be of interest to both historians of Africa and anyone concerned with economic development, identity and immigrant communities.

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An omnibus collection of concise and up-to-date biographies of four influential figures from modern African history. Chris Hani, by Hugh Macmillan Chris Hani was one of the most highly respected leaders of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and uMkhonto we Sizwe. His assassination in 1993 threatened to upset the country’s transition to democracy and prompted an intervention by Nelson Mandela that ultimately accelerated apartheid’s demise. Wangari Maathai, by Tabitha Kanogo This concise biography tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who devoted her life to campaigning for environmental conservation, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty. Josie Mpama/Palmer: Get Up and Get Moving, by Robert R. Edgar Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered Black women’s political activism, South Africa’s Josie Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women’s social and political equality, a member of the Communist Party of South Africa, and an antiapartheid activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa, by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola A penetrating, accessible portrait of the Nigerian activist whose execution galvanized the world. Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr and symbolized modern Africans’ struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental exploitation.

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