Book excerpt: In 1969, the Swedish parliament endorsed a policy of direct assistance to the liberation movements in Southern Africa. Sweden thus became the first Western country to enter into a relationship with organizations that elsewhere in the West were shunned as "Communist" or "terrorist." This book-the first in a two-volume study on Sweden & the regional struggles for majority rule & national independence-traces the background to the relationship. Presenting the actors & factors behind the support to MPLA of Angola, FRELIMO of Mozambique, SWAPO of Namibia, ZANU & ZAPU of Zimbabwe, & ANC of South Africa, it addresses the question why Sweden established close relations with the very movements that eventually would assume state power in their respective countries. The second volume (later this year) will discuss how the support was expressed, covering the period from 1970 until the democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.