ANC is short for African National Congress. It is a political party in South Africa. For a long time Black people there could not vote and were not treated as equals. The ANC began as a group that fought for those political rights. The government then made the ANC illegal, and its leaders were put in prison or had to live in other countries. The most famous leader was Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison. Later the ban was lifted. The ANC became a legal party, won elections, and led the government after that unfair system ended. In news and history, people usually just say “the ANC,” quite plainly, as the name of that party. Though actually, the same three letters can mean other things in other jobs — in a hospital, ANC may be a blood test — but if the sentence is about South Africa or Mandela, it is this party.