The author demonstrates the general tensions that dogged activists in the liberation struggle from the 1930s through the 1980s; how sport, church, education and beer hall recreation were used for different political outcomes. He shows how youth incrementally pushed the struggle to higher levels of intensity. There is a moment, about 1983-84, in We Can, when charismatic Cradock teacher-activist Matthew Goniwe managed to get African clergy, youth, and elite to transcend their differences. But a complex youth-based grassroots movement, in various communities guises, as well as a militarized response from the apartheid state, set the agenda for a new South Africa by this time. Tetelman's book adds significant value to South Africa's protest literature. It enhances our understanding of the complexity of struggle at local level, and it fleshes out our national narrative.
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