This is the extraordinary story of the ANC in exile in Zambia, where the organization had its headquarters for most of the time after it was banned in South Africa. The book uses the ANC’s own archives, the Zambian archives, and oral sources, as well as the author’s own participant observation, to provide a vivid account of this crucial era in southern African history. It seeks to understand the sociology of the ANC in exile in Zambia and argues that this was very different from its camp-based culture in Angola. It also examines the influence of the ANC’s exile experience on its approach to negotiations with the South African government and the transition from apartheid. It concludes by arguing that the legacy and lessons of exile were not, as some observers suggest, so much secrecy, paranoia, and a lack of internal democracy, as caution, moderation, and the avoidance of utopian experiments or great leaps forward.

Hugh Macmillan is a research associate at the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. He has taught at universities in Swaziland, Zambia, and South Africa and is the author of An African Trading Empire and Zion in Africa.