" . . . Meli combines the insights of an insider with sound scholarship." —Patrick O'Meara"Meli's book is a welcome addition to the literature on South Africa." —L. E. Meyer, Choice" . . . the book is written in a sober, matter-of-fact style with a minimum of invective and rhetoric. Packed with quotations and thoroughly annotated, it appeals to reason more than the emotions and deserves to be taken seriously as history rather than dismissed as propaganda or myth making." —The New York Review of Books"This book is clearly the most important one written on South Africa during the last decade." —Nature, Society, and Thought" . . . made the case for the ANC's central role as South Africa's historic movement for economic justice as well as racial and political democracy." —Journal of African HistoryIn this history of the African National Congress, Francis Meli demonstrates that the party is central to the future of South Africa. British, American, and other Western governments have finally recognized that no South African settlement is possible without dealing with the ANC.