Mkatashinga: Narratives of the Mutiny in ANC Camps in Angola (1983/84)

Abstract

The 1984 mutiny in the Angolan camps of the African National Congress (ANC) has been the stuff of legends. For a long time two contradictory interpretations were prominent. One interpretation painted it as, completely, the work of apartheid agents and agent provocateurs. The other painted it as an instance where patriotic democrats took a stance for justice and they were crushed by an undemocratic ANC. The information that recently came out of the memoirs and biographies of former soldiers paints a more nuanced picture that reveals the situation to be more complex than the ANC’s official view and those of its distractors. While there can be no way of absolutely ruling out enemy interference, all narratives point to the presence of genuine challenges that could have been handled better. The absence of senior leadership from the camps also ensured a weak response to these.