“Everything in Russia is ‘as of old’, at the top.
But there is also something new, at the bottom.”
Lenin, 1911

The most crucial factor overhanging any discussion of Southern Africa today is the imminent revolutionary war between blacks and whites in South Africa. The Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the suppression of the ANC and PAC forced upon the leaders of the liberation movement the conclusion that only the violence of the oppressed against the white regime will bring about freedom for the blacks. Sharpeville, therefore, marked a watershed in the liberation struggle, in that the leadership of the liberation organizations abandoned hope of a peaceful resolution of the racial problem. They then proceeded, abroad, to begin preparations for the armed struggle.