Askari

2 ideas

1. Comrade September's abduction and turning

   Glory Sedibe, known as 'Comrade September,' was a senior Umkhonto we Sizwe commander in Swaziland in the 1980s. In 1986 South African security police abducted him from a Swazi jail and brought him to South Africa. There he became an askari, and his insider knowledge of MK's networks helped the police track down and eliminate former comrades.

2. Collaboration as history, not morality tale

   Treating a collaborator as simply a traitor ends inquiry at the verdict. Examining the pressures, choices, torture, loyalties and institutional failures around the act instead turns collaboration into evidence about how both the movement and the state actually worked. Refusing an easy verdict is not excusing the betrayal. It is a way of making the betrayal explain something.

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