Military training and camps of the Pan Africanist Congress of South Africa,1961-1981

Abstract

This article focuses on two aspects of the exile history of the Pan Africanist Congress of South Africa (PAC) that have thus far been poorly researched, namely its military training and its military camps. The article seeks to demonstrate the impact of the leadership of the PAC on the type of training provided to recruits in South Africa and in other countries, and secondly, on life and conditions in it most significant military camps in exile. It is argued that the leadership of the PAC, and in particular the conflicts that characterised its history for most of the exile period, were largely responsible for the limited attention given to military training and operations, and for insufficient support from the international community for the PAC's armed struggle and military camps.