International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Born in Sabalele, Cofimvaba, in the former Transkei, South Africa, Martin Thembisile “Chris” Hani – a South African communist, nationalist, and popular military leader – was the fifth of six children, three of whom died in infancy. His father was a migrant mineworker and building worker, and his mother engaged in subsistence farming. As a child Hani was an eager student and an altar boy so committed to the Catholic Church that he hoped to become a priest; his father forbade this. In 1953, while Hani was at Matanzima Secondary School, Cala, the apartheid government introduced Bantu education, a system of separate and inferior education for Africans. Hani's anger at this laid the foundation for his political activism. In 1957 Hani entered Lovedale Institute, Alice, and joined the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. He matriculated from Lovedale the next year. From 1959 to 1961 he attended Fort Hare College, Alice, where he was a student activist and came into contact with Marxist ideas. He was influenced by Govan Mbeki, a member of the ANC's national executive committee and the contact person for the underground South African Communist Party (SACP) . Hani joined the SACP in 1961 and graduated from Rhodes University with a BA in Latin and English in 1962. Hani briefly considered a legal career, but in 1962 he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, MK), the armed ... log in or subscribe to read full text