When the South African National Congress was outlawed in 1960, it transferred its headquarters abroad and opened what it termed an External Mission. Voted into office in 1994, the ANC today regards its armed struggle as the central plank of its legitimacy. This study of the ANC in exile reveals that the decision to create a guerrilla army known as Umkhonto we Sizwe, which later became the ANC's armed wing, was made not by the ANC but by its allies in the South African Communist Party, after negotiations with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Many of the strategic decisions made and many of the political issues that arose during the course of the armed struggle had a lasting effect on South Africa. [ASC Leiden abstract]

http://www.bdlive.co.za/life/books/2012/11/20/book-review-external-mission