South Africa belongs to us - Francis Meli

Francis Meli (Allan Welemtsha Madolwana) was born in 1942 in Cambridge Location, a suburb of East London, South Africa, and grew up under difficult conditions as an orphan. At school Meli became involved in ANC Youth politics and the African Students Association (ASA). In 1963, after a short spell at Fort Hare University College, he was instructed by the ANC to leave South Africa to study abroad. He studied in the German Democratic Republic and obtained a Ph.D. in History in 1973. In 1977, Meli was appointed the editor of Sechaba, the official organ of the ANC. At the 1985 Second ANC Consultative Conference, he was elected to the National Executive Committee.

Comprehensive and wide-ranging, South Africa Belongs to Us covers the contributing influences to the formation of the ANC, the debates during its early history, as well as the challenging issues facing the Movement today. The first half of the book is a fascinating account of the ANC up to 1949. The second half brings the Movement's history up to the 1980s. Exhaustive research and little-known information make this a crucial historical work.