The Unlikely Secret Agent - Essay Example

Eleanor is commemorated today as a heroine in the fight of South African people against the apartheid system. This essay tries to analyze Eleanor’s involvement in the anti-apartheid movement, particularly the reasons she decided to take part in the struggle in the first place. Eleanor, as a Scottish-South African militant against the apartheid system, built ANC chambers in Scotland and criticized the UK government’s operations in Africa. In the 1960s, she met her husband after becoming a member of the ANC clandestine group.

She “shared his life on the run from the security forces and in exile in Britain” (Cape Times 5). She was imprisoned without due process. Imprisoned in 1963 she fled from imprisonment and left the country secretly. Eleanor was twenty-five when law enforcers started shooting and killing protesters demanding equality and justice for black South African people, in an event that was infamously called the Sharpeville Massacre. Shocked and revolted, Eleanor took part in the Congress of Democrats, which was affiliated with the ANC, and was one of the female pioneers of the Spear of the Nation (Cape Times 5).

Kasrils’s book is a heartwarming, but gripping tribute to his wife of enormous values, talent, and bravery. She was one of the very few white South Africans to secretly take part in the struggle at a time when the ANC had instigated a movement of, exactly, fiery opposition to the racially prejudiced apartheid system. Her opposition to this system and resistance to its violence and injustice were downright courageous. The tale of Eleanor, similar to the tale of the anti-apartheid campaign in general, is emotional, inspiring and remains significant.

As Eleanor’s extraordinary story begins in 1963, the White system is under attack and South Africa is facing an imminent disaster. On the 15th of August, the feared security