Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Umkhonto weSizwe (MK)
Parallel form(s) of name
- Spear of the Nation
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- MK
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Umkhonto weSizwe, meaning ‘spear of the nation’, was founded in 1961 and is commonly known by the abbreviation MK. Nelson Mandela was its first commander-in-chief. It became the military wing of the ANC. On the eve of the 1994 elections MK was disbanded and its soldiers incorporated into the newly formed South African National Defence Force (SANDF) with soldiers from the apartheid South African Defence Force, Bantustan defence forces, IFP’s self-protection units and Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), the military wing of the PAC.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
ZA-COM-00143
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Final