The ANC, MK, and ‘The Turn to Violence’ (1960–1962)

Abstract

Why did the African National Congress (ANC) appear to embrace violence in 1961? Can one say it did so? Was the Communist Party responsible behind the scenes? What did the ‘turn to violence’ mean? With a plethora of new sources and reminiscences emerging, one can begin to craft a set of answers. Communists as Communists did not determine the timing of the ANC's embrace of MK (Umkhonto we-Sizwe, ‘Spear of the Nation’). The ANC was a large member-based organisation which could not nimbly shift in any direction. During the state's repressive and punitive measures in 1960–1962, however, a group of Communist African men from within the ANC hierarchy made use of the unsettled nature of political life to commit the ANC to a new path. They interacted intensively, together with non-African Communists, in the Treason Trial (1956–1961), and then in jail during the 1960 ‘State of Emergency’. Their aim was revolution. Preeminent among them was Nelson Mandela.