Book Extract
We fought apartheid, not the whites
Sandi Sijake, an ex-Robben Islander, has written his story of leaving the Eastern Cape as a youth and joining the early uMkhonto we Sizwe MK of the late 1950s and 1960s. The memoir is a largely untold story of the beginnings of MK uMkhonto we Sizwe and the early pan-African and Soviet efforts to arm and train the new freedom army
15 December 2024 - 00:00
On a day between Christmas 1961 and New Year 1962 I was collected by a young colleague named Mrhabalala from Nyanga East. Mrhabalala drove me and a few other young men north west from Athlone, about an hour’s drive from Tata Gaika’s place. The camp was in a forested part of Mamre called Louwskloof. In that fairly bushy land was a small stream called Mooi Maak, meaning “beautify”. There were wild fruits like pomegranates and peaches growing naturally, so we called the place Emyezweni, meaning a place of plenty, like a Garden of Eden...
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