Word: umkhonto
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Ironically, this newly gained stature comes at a time of deepening militancy on the A.N.C.'s part that would ordinarily discourage feelers from the West. Last January the A.N.C.'s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, in Xhosa), called for a full-scale "people's war" against the white rulers of South Africa. Having confined its guerrilla strikes in the past mainly to government buildings and military installations, the A.N.C. warned that now "civilians will get caught in the cross fire...
...During one such protest at Sharpeville near Johannesburg in 1960, police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding more than 100. The A.N.C. and the rival Pan Africanist Congress (P.A.C.), which organized the protest, were banned and went underground. The A.N.C.'s militant wing, known as Umkhonto We Sizwe (Zulu for Spear of the Nation) began to undertake increasingly bold acts of sabotage...