National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile makes a strong case for revisiting the history of the South African liberation war by focusing on the gendered and personal aspects of exile politics within the African National Congress (ANC). Rachel Sandwell grounds her analysis of national liberation in the anti-colonial thought of Frantz Fanon and Amílcar Cabral, especially in Fanon’s notion that the nation is not an expression of racial or ethnic identities but a political community forged in shared struggle (The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, 1963). Sandwell argues through the lens of this theoretical framework that the politics of exile, reproductive labour, and family governance, often treated as peripheral in conventional accounts of liberation struggles, were foundational practices through which national liberation was constructed and sustained.
The book draws attention to how much of the existing literature on African nationalism has often focused on the early decades of decolonization, particularly the 1950s and 1960s, as the primary period of women’s mobilization before their political marginalization. However, Sandwell takes a different perspective, focusing on the late 1970s and 1980s and arguing that women’s activism during these later stages of struggle remained both vibrant and politically consequential (54–57). In exile, South African women developed new strategies for organizing communities, sustaining political networks, and negotiating the social consequences of displacement (59–68). Their work reshaped the practical infrastructure of the liberation movement while also generating new debates about gender relations, authority, and social responsibility. In the opening chapter, Sandwell provides a rich historical account by tracing the origins of revolutionary childcare centers established by the ANC in exile during the late 1970s and 1980s. These centers emerged in response to the influx of young South Africans who fled the country following the Soweto Uprising. Many of these youths arrived in neighboring countries without parental support and sought refuge within ANC structures. Women within the ANC leadership assumed primary responsibility for organizing and maintaining childcare systems that could accommodate both the young exiles and mothers who later joined them through transnational solidarity networks. Operating under severe material constraints, the ANC sought to build what it envisioned as revolutionary childcare institutions to nurture future members of the liberation struggle. These childcare centers eventually served as a refuge for unmarried mothers who were sent there after giving birth (107–14). What had begun as a revolutionary welfare system now took on punitive dimensions, reflecting tensions between the ANC’s emancipatory rhetoric and its internal moral governance. Rather than framing these institutions as humanitarian reactions to relocation, Sandwell reveals how they operated as political spaces in which revolutionary principles were enacted, debated, and reproduced through the regulation of family life, motherhood, and social responsibility. Her analysis expands existing Fanonian interpretations by showing that nation-building depended not only on revolutionary violence and political mobilization but also on the everyday labor that sustained exile communities. The treatment given to these women later became public and was deliberated upon, as was the broader question of what responsibilities members owed the ANC and, on the other hand, what responsibilities the ANC owed its members (110–14).
Furthermore, Sandwell positions these developments within the broader ideological debates shaping the ANC during this period. The ANC faced questions about how it should define itself, whether as a movement representing Africans exclusively or as a multiracial coalition opposing apartheid in South Africa. It eventually embraced a multiracial vision to strengthen its international legitimacy and secure global support for the anti-apartheid struggle. This commitment helped distinguish the ANC’s political vision internationally and contributed to the consolidation of the broader Congress Alliance, which sought to unite multiple oppressed groups into a single movement (13–15). Yet this book carefully demonstrates that the emphasis on multiracial unity did not eliminate internal tensions within the ANC. Questions of racial representation, class privilege, and gender inequality persisted, often surfacing through the political work of women activists. Women’s organizations within the ANC sought to address these tensions by framing motherhood as a unifying political identity that could transcend racial and ideological divisions. Women activists sought to build solidarity across racial lines and to challenge apartheid’s social fragmentation (32–37). However, this maternal framework reinforced certain gendered expectations, positioning women solely as caregivers and moral guardians within the movement.
This reveals the paradox of maternal politics: how motherhood provided women with a platform for political participation but also constrained the scope of their authority. The ANC women progressively found themselves engaged in broader transnational networks of feminist and anti-imperialist activism. Organizations such as the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) connected South African activists to global campaigns against colonialism, imperialism, and racial oppression (36). Through conferences and international meetings, ANC women helped transform apartheid from a national issue into a global moral cause. Yet international visibility did not necessarily translate into institutional power within the ANC. While women frequently represented the movement internationally and mobilized financial and diplomatic support, the ANC continued to prioritize guerrilla warfare and male-dominated diplomatic leadership. Sandwell also draws on memoirs of ANC women who demonstrated resilience as they navigated the intersectional pressures of political struggle, economic hardship, and family separation (41–58). Their experiences challenge masculinist histories of liberation that focused primarily on armed resistance and political leadership and demonstrate that the politics of family, sexuality, and caregiving were not peripheral concerns but central arenas through which power and authority were negotiated.
Ultimately, the book makes a substantial contribution to scholarship on gender, nationalism, race, and anti-apartheid activism. Drawing on archival records, ANC documents, oral histories, and organizational correspondence, Sandwell reconstructs the everyday experiences of exile with remarkable depth. She challenges narratives that center military and diplomatic resistance by demonstrating the significance of reproductive labor, maternal symbolism, and domestic governance in sustaining the liberation struggle in South Africa. This book will be especially valuable to readers interested in southern African history, gender and feminist scholarship, political sociology, nationalism, and liberation movements.
