Seekings

Thus Jeremy Seekings entitled his book on youth politics Heroes and Villains.

'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005

Seekings is generous in his praise of this shift in the UDF's strategic thinking.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Seekings is well aware that there is much more to be told.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Writing a history of the UDF, as Seekings is well aware, presents challenges.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Seekings emphasises the rapid urbanisation that had occurred in the preceding decades.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

This is a deliberate choice, and it is fair enough, but, as Seekings is quick to acknowledge, it has its own limitations.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

However, I think that Seekings, for whatever reason, falls short of his own earlier insights into the key 1985-6 "people's power" period.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Seekings quotes from the theoretical journal of the UDF, Isizwe:

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Seekings is generous and, I think, generally fair in his estimation of this.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003

Seekings celebrates the UDF's strategic popularisation of grass-roots-up people's power, but somehow does not recognise the reality and its subsequent legacy in our struggle.

"THE UDF - A HISTORY OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC FRONT IN SOUTH AFRICA 1983-1991" 2003