Anthony Butler is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Previously, he was Chair in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. Butler was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He writes a weekly column for Johannesburg’s Business Day newspaper and is the author or editor of six other books, including Cyril Ramaphosa and Contemporary South Africa.
Listed in: African Studies · South Africa · Africa · African History
The Idea of the ANC
By Anthony Butler
The African National Congress (ANC) is Africa’s most famous liberation movement. It has recently celebrated its centenary, a milestone that has prompted partisans to detail a century of unparalleled achievement in the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. Critics paint a less flattering portrait of the historical ANC as a communist puppet, a moribund dinosaur, or an elitist political parasite.
