Genetic Afterlives: Black Jewish Indigeneity in South Africa

Abstract

defected to the better resourced ANC, and the PAC’s woes were exacerbated it was expelled from various countries where it had bases. Even so, when Mothopeng was released from ‘Sun City’ (to which he had been transferred from the Island a few years earlier) on the grounds of ill-health in 1988, there were signs of the PAC’s resuscitation. Its president, however, was beyond help. Although he continued to make speeches at home and abroad and to mentor the youth, from whom he earned the title ‘Lion of Azania’, he was suffering from terminal cancer. He opposed negotiations with the apartheid government, calling instead for an intensification of the struggle. Hlongwane alludes to the conflict within the PAC about participation in the negotiations, suggesting that things might have turned out differently had Mothopeng not passed away, consumed by cancer, just as the now unbanned PAC was preparing for its first congress inside the country. The PAC’s successes should not be forgotten. It is important to recognise the forms in which the organisation endured into the 1980s through parts of the labour movement, the Azanian National Youth Unity, of which Hlongwane was a member, and the African Women’s Organisation under the leadership of Urbania Bebe Mothopeng. Her achievements deserve more exploration. Hlongwane has paid eloquent tribute to Mothopeng’s 50 years of service, suffering, sacrifice, and ‘consistent soldiering’ (200), while persuasively arguing for a better understanding of the ‘Lion of Azania’ and the PAC’s role ‘in the ideas of struggle and national liberation’ (206).