Mbeki, Govan 1910–2001, anti-apartheid activist, politician, and writer. Mbeki was an influential leader of the African National Congress, the underground South African Communist Party, and their armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. An intellectual, political theorist, and teacher, Mbeki was a dynamic writer and espoused both African nationalist and Marxistpolitical views. He produced a notable set of prison writings and an influential study of peasants and rural protest. The apartheidgovernment imprisoned him on Robben Island in 1964, along with Nelson Mandelaand others, where he continued to write. Released in 1987, he became a Deputy President of the South African Senate from 1994 to 1997 and then he served in the National Council of Provinces from 1997 to 1999. He is the father of Thabo Mbeki.
See J. Cherry, Spear of the Nation: Umkhonto weSizwe (2012); C. Bundy, Govan Mbeki (2013); P. S. Landau, Spear: Mandela and the Revolutionaries (2022).
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