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South Africa’s apartheid violence in the 80’ forced young men and women to sacrifice their youth to join military training in exile. Organisations like African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress had set-up military bases in countries like Zambia, Angola, Tanzania etc. This was in preparation for an armed struggle to liberate their country. In the township of KwaMashu many young people had become politicaly active and had been joining their elder brothers in exile. In 1994 when a government of transition was put in place military wings were disbanded and most of these youth were left with no skill and a desire to make it out of poverty where they had been returned to after more than 4 years in exile, training in far away camps. Forgotten Guerrillas tells the story of this forgotten generation. Focusing in the L Section of KwaMashu where terrible acts of violence erupted between 1992-1996 where heavy machine guns where used in a very small urban area. This documentary traces the history of this violence through the section with the largest number of these trained young fighters who were fit to be guerrilla fighters but not fit to be drafted into the national military as soldiers. Phumlani Mhlongo is one of these young men, still fighting social hardships without education.
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Piece Description
South Africa’s apartheid violence in the 80’ forced young men and women to sacrifice their youth to join military training in exile. Organisations like African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress had set-up military bases in countries like Zambia, Angola, Tanzania etc. This was in preparation for an armed struggle to liberate their country. In the township of KwaMashu many young people had become politicaly active and had been joining their elder brothers in exile. In 1994 when a government of transition was put in place military wings were disbanded and most of these youth were left with no skill and a desire to make it out of poverty where they had been returned to after more than 4 years in exile, training in far away camps. Forgotten Guerrillas tells the story of this forgotten generation. Focusing in the L Section of KwaMashu where terrible acts of violence erupted between 1992-1996 where heavy machine guns where used in a very small urban area. This documentary traces the history of this violence through the section with the largest number of these trained young fighters who were fit to be guerrilla fighters but not fit to be drafted into the national military as soldiers. Phumlani Mhlongo is one of these young men, still fighting social hardships without education.
