Azanian People's Liberation Army
Azanian People's Liberation Army | |
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Leaders | Black Nationalism Pan Africanist Congress |
Opponents | South Africa |
Part of a series on |
Apartheid |
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The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), formerly known as Poqo,
After attacks on and the murder of several white families the APLA was subsequently classified as a
APLA was disbanded and integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in June 1994.[5]
Etymology
In 1968 the "Azanian People's Liberation Army" (or APLA) replaced the defunct name "Poqo", which means pure in Xhosa, a local South African language, as the armed wing of the PAC.[6] Its new name was derived from Azania, the ancient Greek name for Southern Africa.
The name Azania has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa.[7] In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym referred to a portion of the Southeast African coast extending from Kenya,[8] to perhaps as far south as Tanzania.
History
Formation and early resistance
Poqo was founded in 1961 following the
Members of Poqo targeted the town of Paarl in the Western Cape on 22 November 1962, when a crowd of over 200 people armed with axes, pangas and other home-made weapons marched from the Mbekweni township into Paarl and attacked the police station, homes and shops.[9] Two white residents, Frans Richard and Rencia Vermeulen were killed.[9] This attack was followed by the murder of a family camping at Bashee River in the Transkei on 4 February 1963. Norman and Elizabeth Grobbelaar, their teenage daughters Edna and Dawn, together with Mr Derek Thompson, were hacked to death in their caravans.[10]
Leballo had planned a massive revolt for 8 April 1963, but Basotholand police managed to track down and raid the PAC's headquarters, seizing a complete list of Poqo members. In the following government crackdown, nearly 2000 Poqo members were sent to prison, almost wiping out the entire organization. Consequently Poqo ceased to be an important participant in the anti-Apartheid struggle during the remainder of the 1960s.[3]
In 1968, the Poqo was renamed APLA and unsuccessfully attempted to form diplomatic and political ties to foreign states and movements. It received some support from China, which attempted to shift the group toward Maoism. PAC leaders, who had been vehemently anti-communist, nevertheless accepted the aid by attempting to rationalize it as being due to the fact that the Chinese were "non-white" and that their value system had not been "tainted by European thought" as they deemed the South African Communist Party to have been. The result was the formation of a small Maoist faction within the APLA that contrasted the strong anti-communist currents within the PAC as a whole. However, the organization's ties with China were short-lived and the pro-Chinese members were soon after purged from the group.[3]
Leadership struggles in exile
After the
Attacks on white civilians
After 1986, APLA rejected the MR faction's concept of the guerrilla as a social reformer and instead adopted an ultimately disastrous rallying cry of "
Operation Great Storm
In 1991 APLA launched Operation Great Storm,[15] a violent paramilitary campaign aimed at displacing white farmers to reclaim land for black Africans and obtaining arms and funding.[16][17][18] Initially APLA attacked and robbed farmsteads in the Free State and Eastern Cape provinces resulting in a number of farm deaths.[15][19][20] Attacks would later expand to urban civilian targets such as churches, hotels and drinking establishments. The APLA’s chief commander, Sabelo Phama, declared that he "would aim his guns at children - to hurt whites where it hurts most."[21]
Phama proclaimed 1993 as "The Year of the Great Storm"[17] and sanctioned the following attacks on civilians:
- King William's Town Golf Club on 28 November 1992, killing four people.[22]
- Highgate Hotel in East London on 1 May 1993, killing five people.[22]
- Saint James Church massacre in Kenilworth on 25 July 1993, killing 11 people during a church service.[21]
- Heidelberg Tavern Massacre in Observatory on 31 December 1993, killing four.[21]
- Mdantsane on 11 March 1994, killing three Iranians at a Baha'i Faith meeting for being 'white'. APLA took responsibility for the attacks, stating that: "The men were shot to show there is no role in the new South Africa for any one of the race that invented apartheid or suppressed the black masses."[23]
In total thirty-two applications were received for attacks on civilians. In these incidents, 24 people were killed and 122 seriously injured.[24]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the PAC-sanctioned action directed towards white South Africans were "gross violations of human rights for which the PAC and APLA leadership are held to be morally and politically responsible and accountable".[25]
End of the armed struggle
In April 1992, PAC President
Post-1994
In 1994, APLA was disbanded and absorbed into the new
Awards
- Star for Bravery (Gold) (GSB)
- Operational Medal for Southern Africa
- Bravery Star (Silver) (BSS)
- Medal for Merit (Silver) (SSM)
- Decoration for Merit (Gold) (GDM)
- Medal for Merit (Bronze) (BMM)
- Service Medal (Gold)
- Service Medal (Silver) (SSM)
- Service Medal (Bronze)
See also
- Military history of South Africa
- Nelson Mandela
- African National Congress
- Umkhonto we Sizwe
- Internal resistance to apartheid
Further reading
- Leeman, Lieutenant-General Bernard “The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania” in Africa Today, A Multi-Disciplinary Snapshot of the Continent in 1995 Edited by Peter F. Alexander, Ruth Hutchison and Deryck Schreuder The Humanities Research Centre The ISBN 0-7315-2491-8
References
- ^ a b "TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION". www.justice.gov.za. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ "South Africa - Political Parties". countrystudies.us. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ a b c "Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) - The O'Malley Archives". omalley.nelsonmandela.org. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ "The African National Congress website - Umkhonto we Sizwe". Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Pan Africanist Congress timeline 1959-2011". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Azanian People'S Liberation Army (APLA) - The O'Malley Archives". www.nelsonmandela.org. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Collins & Pisarevsky (2004). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews.
- ^ Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, (Lalibela House: 1961), p.21
- ^ a b "Violence erupts in Paarl". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Poqo". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-081-087-982-9.
- ISBN 978-1-86888-406-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-905758-12-2.
- ^ "Potlako Leballo". MEMIM Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^ a b "Truth Commission - Special Report - APLA attacksEpisode 41, Section 2, Time 01:00". sabctrc.saha.org.za. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ "SAPA - 29 Aug 97 - PAC'S GREAT STORM RETURNS TO HAUNT IT". www.justice.gov.za. 1997. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ ISSN 2412-4265– via Scientific Electronic Library Online.
- ^ "APLA burns down farm house in Fouriesburg | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ "Truth Commission - Special Report - Transcript of episode 57, section 4, starting at: 21:24". sabctrc.saha.org.za. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ "SAPA - 27 Aug 97 - APLA MEMBERS CLAIM AMNESTY UNDER PAC'S "OPERATION GREAT STORM"". www.justice.gov.za. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ a b c "Truth Commission - Special Report - TRC Final Report - Volume 2, Section 1, Chapter". sabctrc.saha.org.za. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ a b "TRC final report - Volume 2 Chapter 7 Subsection 37". SABC. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- S2CID 148456512– via academia.edu.
- ^ TRC Final Report, 6:5:5 Archived 2015-11-22 at the Wayback Machine, as presented by the SABC and the South African History Archive. (SAHA)
- ^ "Truth Commission - Special Report - TRC Final Report - Volume 2, Section 1, Chapter". sabctrc.saha.org.za. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
- ^ "Pan Africanist Congress timeline 1959-2011". South African History Online. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ "SA has moved backwards, says PAC stalwart Makwetu". Mail and Guardian. 24 April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.