If You're Listening Growing up fighting apartheid
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Apr 6, 2026 Sisonke Msimang, writer and podcaster who grew up in exile as the child of an ANC freedom fighter. She discusses the international boycott campaign against apartheid. She recounts her father’s revolutionary life, training abroad and life in Lusaka. She reflects on growing up amid global revolutionary communities and later migration to Canada and Australia.
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Raised In A Proud Edendale Community
- Sisonke Msimang describes her father Mavuso born in 1941 into Edendale, a rare Black landowning Christian community that fostered dignity and pride.
- He attended Fort Hare University, the regional elite alma mater also attended by Nelson Mandela, giving him an exceptional education before apartheid deepened.
Sharpeville Pushed Movements Toward Armed Struggle
- The Sharpeville massacre radicalised South African movements, shifting the ANC and PAC from non-violence to armed struggle and exile.
- After police opened fire in 1960 killing dozens, leaders concluded peaceful methods weren’t stopping apartheid and chose underground organisation.
ANC Cadres Trained In The Soviet Union
- Mavuso was sent from Tanzania to the USSR for nine months to train in guerrilla warfare with World War II veterans as instructors.
- Training covered topography, reconnaissance and Morse code, preparing cadres to disrupt infrastructure inside South Africa.