Mbeki, Govan
1910–2001, anti-apartheid activist, politician, and writer. Mbeki was
an influential leader of the African National Congress, the
underground South African Communist Party, and their armed wing, Umkhonto we
Sizwe. An intellectual, political theorist, and teacher, Mbeki was a dynamic
writer and espoused both African nationalist and Marxistpolitical views. He produced a
notable set of prison writings and an influential study of peasants and
rural protest. The apartheidgovernment imprisoned him on Robben Island in 1964,
along with Nelson Mandelaand others,
where he continued to write. Released in 1987, he became a Deputy President
of the South African Senate from 1994 to 1997 and then he served in the
National Council of Provinces from 1997 to 1999. He is the father of Thabo
Mbeki.
See J. Cherry, Spear of the Nation: Umkhonto weSizwe (2012); C.
Bundy, Govan Mbeki (2013); P. S. Landau, Spear:
Mandela and the Revolutionaries (2022).
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