The Socio-Political Impact of Trauma as Experienced by the African National Congress’s Political Activists in the Free State Province, 1970-1994

Abstract

During the apartheid era in South Africa, there were significant activities and events taking place within and outside the country in as far as the liberation struggle was concerned. The banning of the liberation movements in 1960 and the subsequent launch of an armed struggle led to dramatic change in the lives of millions of South Africans. Participants in the sabotage campaign and other underground activities, exile, military training and action, imprisonment, death in detention, banishment, torture, imprisonments without trial, house arrests, constant surveillance and harassment, and general involvement in the struggle against apartheid characterised the psychological and physical traumatic experiences of the political activists in the Free State Province.The traumatic experiences of the political activists in the Free State forms part of the tapestry of South Africa’s liberation history.The article gives a reflection of the political activists’ memory against the state of forgetting.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p568