Community and conflict: the Alexandra rebellion of 1986

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper examines a short‐lived township insurrection. It is shown that it was amid the violent encounters between the police and the people in Alexandra during the first six months of 1986 that collective initiatives occurred. While the intention of many activists may well have been the desire to construct an alternative hegemony, the process by which ANC rhetoric and strategy resonated through the Alexandra community was more complex than the neatly delineated conspiracy propounded by both security policemen and ANC commentators alike. This begs the question of to what extent resistance politics which proceed through local oppositions actually addresses the issue of central authority, if at all. In the context of a liberation movement lacking national coherence, however, the image of a community in rebellion can be seen to provide a powerful political symbol. It is felt that in this sense the image of the township insurrections of the mid‐1980s may yet become more vital than the fact.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: