For the Fallen: Honouring the Unsung Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle

Description

While South Africa as many stories about the struggle years, there are many more still untold. For the Fallen: Honouring the Unsung Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle was inspired by a radio interview with the late Govan Mbeki. In that interview Mbeki emphasised the need for South Africans to tell their stories and spread knowledge. It took a while for Ndlele to heed those words and tell his story in this book.

This book is as much about the author’s concerns that a generation who have only known freedom will forget or never even understand the great price it took top gain our freedom, as it is about the men and women, the often forgotten heroes and heroines who showed their ultimate commitment to their ideals.

The book chronicles the author’s journey from Bedford in the Eastern Cape as a young boy, fearful and yet defiant of the police who harassed him and his friends, to the young militant who became an MK soldier whose exile took him to Lesotho, Zambia, Angola and Swaziland. He describes the inspiration he gained from the heroes and heroines that he had encountered on this journey, such as the primary school teacher who encouraged parents to broaden their thinking, the radical high school teacher who defied the ‘system’ and the school curriculum to teach real ‘current’ history and the man of God who was required to save souls in more ways than one.