The ANC between Home and Exile. Reflections on the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in Italy and Southern Africa

The ANC between Home and Exile is a collection of essays by South African and Italian scholars and activists originally presented at a conference held in Naples in November 2012 to commemorate the ANC centenary. One of its aims is to reflect historically on the different experiences of the ANC and the struggle against apartheid both in South Africa and in exile, particularly in the Italian context that has been under-represented in the historiography. This imbalance projects the erroneous impression that a country like Italy played only a marginal role in supporting the peoples of southern Africa in their connected struggles against colonialism, white minority rule and apartheid oppression and exploitation. The book thus seeks to accord a more central place to Italy, both as a site from where the ANC operated in exile, and as a key centre of international solidarity. The chapters in the book cover a number of themes in the history of the liberation struggle that span the Italian, South African and African contexts, the relationship between apartheid, exile and artistic creation, and some of the individual experiences of the Italian solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle. Rather than viewing these as discrete topics, the anthology attempts to bring these various contexts into dialogue by viewing them as part of the same continuum. The book is directed at scholars of southern African history and politics, political commentators, and activists and a broader readership with an interest in South Africa’s liberation struggle.