Sandwell wins prize for book on South African anti-apartheid movement

Rachel Sandwell, assistant professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, has won the Joel Gregory Book Prize from the Canadian Association of African Studies for "National Liberation and the Political Life of Exile: Sex, Gender, and Nation in the Struggle against Apartheid" (Ohio University Press, 2025).

The study reveals how women in exile shaped South Africa's antiapartheid movement. Sandwell explores the role of women in the country's liberation movements, particularly within the African National Congress (ANC) during its years in exile from 1960 to 1990.

Women played a major role in debates within the party during this period centered around "a future where men and women, Black and white, were equal and liberated to live well," as well as debates about ending apartheid racism, Sandwell said in an interview about the book. "I look at how the ANC in exile tried to define itself as representing and including all South Africans, and I argue that women helped shape conversations around defining who South Africans were."

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.