Burchett visited sub-Saharan Africa a number of times in the 1970s to observe first-hand the liberation struggles taking place in many of the countries there. Southern Africa Stands Up reports on a number of these struggles. For many on the Left, in the second half of the century the region became a grand theatre where the shackles of colonialism were being cast off, and Burchett would have been sympathetic to this view. Superficially, many of the liberation movements achieved their aims in removing corrupt and elite European regimes, though the consequences have usually proved less benevolent than their supporters had hoped. In the 1970s, world attention was largely focused on the struggle for majority rule in Rhodesia and the removal of the white British administration of Ian Smith. In the light of recent events in Zimbabwe, Burchett's support for Robert Mugabe in this chapter may seem misguided, but Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo enjoyed support around the world and across the political spectrum at the time.

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For the first time in thirty-seven years of reporting, including covering innumerable international conferences, I wrote a gloomy first dispatch predicting the failure of a conference before it had even started. I am normally an optimist on such matters, and used to the protracted ups and downs of negotiations such as those at Panmunjom to settle the Korean War (two years), the 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina (three months), the Paris Peace Conference on Vietnam (four and a half years).