rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Dear Comrade President
    sub title: Oliver Tambo and the foundations of South Africa's constitution
  name:
    name part: Odendaal, Andre
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: sa
    date issued: 2022
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: xxii, 441 pages, [24] pages of plates (some color) : illustrations ; 24 cm.
  abstract: In his annual presidential address on 8 January 1986, ANC president Oliver Tambo called on South Africans to make apartheid ungovernable through armed action. But unknown to the world, the quiet-spoken mathematics teacher and aspirant priest turned reluctant revolutionary had also on that very day set up a secret think tank in Lusaka, which he named the Constitution Committee, giving it an 'ad hoc unique exercise' that had 'no precedent in the history of the movement.' Knowing that all wars end at a negotiating table and judging the balance of forces to be moving in favor of the liberation movement, he wanted the ANC to be prepared and to be holding the initiative after the political collapse of apartheid. Guided by a brilliant analysis by Pallo Jordan, Tambo instructed his new think tank to prepare a constitutional framework for a liberated, non-racial, democratic South Africa. Their task was to formulate the principles and draft the outlines of a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk in the fledgling days of freedom and democracy. The seven-member team, including Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal and Zola Skweyiya, started deliberating and reporting to Tambo. In correspondence, they typically addressed him as 'Dear Comrade President.' Drawing on the personal archives of participants, Dear Comrade President explains how this process, which fundamentally influenced the history of contemporary South Africa, unfolded. Why and how did it happen? What were the first written words? When and where were they put on paper? By whom? What values did they espouse? And how did the committee's work fit into the broader struggle? This book answers these questions in ways that have not been done before and provides paradigm-changing insights into the purposeful first steps taken in the making of South Africa's Constitution.
  table of contents: Terrible but cleansing fires. The 'council of war' at Kabwe -- 'Will comrade King Sabata please come to the microphone' -- A new dimension of strategy and analysis -- The backroom think tank on the frontline. A historic gathering in a builder's yard off a sanitary lane in Lusaka -- 'KK'; 'OR' and comrade Jack -- The quartet in Sheki-Sheki Road: the core of the Constitution Committee -- The two insiders from outside Lusaka -- Translating the vision of the Freedom Charter into a constitutional document -- The skeleton -- Building the foundations of government. Joe Slovo's misgivings -- A call for clear political guidance -- Confidential and urgent: opening up channels with lawyers from home -- The dilemma -- "The foundations of government' -- The leadership has its say -- Oliver Tambo meets Mikhail Gorbachev -- The chief checks in and Skweyiya presses ahead -- Designing the platform for a new kind of politics: broad-front strategies and the finalisation of the Constitutional Guidelines. 'How do you speak to an archbishop?' -- Encounters in Dakar -- Assassination in Swaziland -- Harare, Arusha, Amsterdam -- NADEL broadens the anti-racist legal front -- Constitution Committee plans in cold storage -- NEC debate: to negotiate or not to negotiate? -- Tambo's special Christmas gift -- The SG calls the cadres to Lusaka -- 'For your unconstrained appraisal': the in-house seminar -- The Constitutional Guidelines and talks about 'Talks about talks'. Cuito Cuanavale -- Murder in Paris and a car bomb in Maputo -- 'Only free men can negotiate' -- The Consgold talks and the Constitutional Guidelines: round one -- The Consgold talks and the Constitutional Guidelines: round two -- The Guidelines move to centre stage, 1989 -- 'The Rendez Vous with destiny'. Taking charge of 'what needs to be done in our country' -- The Harare Declaration -- A revolution within the revolution -- 'Eight is not enough!': the final push and an unexpected announcement -- Coming home. Return of the first e…
  note: Andre Odendaal with editorial contributions by Albie Sachs.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    geographic code: f-sa---
  subject:
    name:
      name part: Tambo, Oliver
      name part: 1917-1993
  subject:
    name:
      name part: African National Congress
    topic: History
  subject:
    topic: Constitutional amendments
    geographic: South Africa
  subject:
    topic: South Africa
    topic: Politics and government
    temporal: 20th century
  classification: DT1945 .O34 2022
  classification: 342.029 ODE
  identifier: 9781776096688
  identifier: 1776096681
  identifier: 2023418233
  record info:
    record content source: DLC
    record creation date: 230501
    record change date: 20260615195411.6
    record identifier: in00004749479