Askari
Subtitle: a story of collaboration and betrayal in the anti-apartheid struggle
By: Jacob Dlamini
Publisher: Jacana
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Auckland Park, South Africa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 307
ISBN-13: 9781431409754
Subjects: Collaborationists; Anti-apartheid activists; African National Congress; Apartheid; Assassination; Betrayal; Biography; Umkhonto we Sizwe (South Africa)
Description: "In 1986 'Comrade September', a charismatic ANC operative and popular MK commander, was abducted from Swaziland by the apartheid security police and taken across the border. After torture and interrogation, September was 'turned'  and before long the police had extracted enough information to hunt down and kill some of his former comrades. September underwent changes that marked him for the rest of his life:  from resister to collaborator,  insurgent to counter-insurgent,  revolutionary to counter-revolutionary and,  to his former comrades,  hero to traitor. Askari is the story of these changes in an individual's life  and of the larger,  neglected history of betrayal and collaboration in the struggle against apartheid. It seeks to understand why September made the choices he did - collaborating with his captors,  turning against the ANC,  and then hunting down his comrades -  without excusing those choices. It looks beyond the black-and-white that still  dominates South Africa's  political canvas,  to examine the grey zones in which South Africans -  combatants and non- combatants - lived." -- Publisher: http://www.jacana.co.za/37-frontpage/mainarticle-frontpage/2197-jacob-dlamini-s-askari
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.