UMkhonto weSizwe

uMkhonto weSizwe (Xhosa pronunciation: [um̩ˈkʰonto we ˈsizwe]; abbreviated MK; lit. 'Spear of the Nation') was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government to bring an end to its racist policies.

After warning the South African government in June 1961 of its intent to increase resistance if the government did not take steps toward constitutional reform and increase political rights, uMkhonto weSizwe launched its first attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. The group was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African government, and banned.

For a time it was headquartered in Rivonia, which was rural at that time but is now an affluent suburb of Johannesburg. On 11 July 1963, nineteen ANC and uMkhonto weSizwe leaders, including Arthur Goldreich, Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia. (The farm was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich and bought with South African Communist Party and ANC funds, as non-whites were unable to own a property in that area under the Group Areas Act.) The arrests were followed by the Rivonia Trial, in which ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 militant acts that the prosecution said were designed to "foment violent revolution". Wilton Mkwayi, chief of uMkhonto weSizwe at the time, escaped during the trial.

The organisation was formally disbanded in a ceremony at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Gauteng, on 16 December 1993, although its armed struggle had been suspended earlier, during the negotiations to end apartheid.