1961 - Umkhonto we Sizwe

The incident at Sharpeville only escalated violent efforts to end Apartheid. With the government imposed a state of emergency and detention of people without trial, black political organizations’ leaders went into exile or risked arrest. As the ANC went underground, their leaders and their white sympathizers concluded that Apartheid would never be defeated by peaceful means alone. So in 1961, Mandela became the head of the African National Congress’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), also known as M.K., which carried out numerous bombings of military, industrial, civilian and infrastructural sites as part of its campaign against the Apartheid government.