Following the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) as an illegal organization in April 1960, the ANC operated underground. The ANC functioned internally as an underground organization and externally as an overseas organization. Oliver Tambo was sent overseas as the ANC acting president general and head of the external mission. External missions were opened in London, Accra, Cairo, and Dar-es-Salaam. Eventually the ANC had offices and representatives in 27 countries by 1990. The external missions worked to win support for the overthrow of apartheid by promoting the cause of the ANC and urging international economic pressure against the South African government. The Cuban Mission was established in 1978 with Alex La Guma as the Chief Representative.
The records of the ANC mission in Cuba contain little on the day to day operations of the mission. The records consist mostly of publications and files on anti-Apartheid and Communist organizations, as well as the history of the ANC.
The records are broken up into four series: Diaries, Publications, Subject Files, and Memorabilia.
The Diaries series (10 cm) consists of one datebook/calendar for the period March through September 1993. The series also contains two condolence books, one for Chris Hani and one for Oliver Tambo, with messages from various embassy officials and staff.
The Publications series consists of Anti-Apartheid publications, South African news publications, and Cuban publications, the bulk of which were published between 1990 and 1993. Many published speeches of Castro are included in this series and include a published version of his “History will Absolve Me” speech given in 1953 and published in 1959. Other Cuban publications of note include an interview with General Raul, as well as several works of literature by Cuban authors: Position One by Norberto Fuentes and Radio Aggression by Emilio Mediavilla.
ANC Publications include Horizon, The Rock, the book ANC Speaks, Newsbriefing, and other miscellaneous publications Have been removed to add to the ANC Special Collection. There is also a run of newsclippings from South Africa. Of interest is a book of poetry by S. Nkondo published by the Congress of South African Writers and Le Rona re Batho: An Account of the 1982 Maseru Massacre written by Phyllis Naidoo and signed by the author.
The Subject Files series consists of many files concerning Latin America, communist, socialist and anti-Imperialist documents and literature, as well as the anti-Apartheid movement. The majority of these files are from the period 1990-1993. The Photographs folder contains a large number of photographs most of which are unidentified. An envelope within this folder is titled “Visit to Cuba by Num. Officials and Handing Over of Donation of Tablets and $2,500 to Cuba from S.A.” and contains photographic documentation of this event. The Photographs folder also contains many prints from the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF). The Press Clippings folder contains copies of press clippings published by the ANC Mission for Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America.
The Memorabilia series (15 cm) consists of three artefacts: a large ANC flag and 2 small Communist Party USA flags.
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
The Collection is Open