The ANC centenary celebrations offer an opportunity to reflect on its beginnings as an organisation which drew people from different backgrounds; workers, intellectuals, chiefs and others, despite limited resources. How did it navigate the challenging times? Did it adapt to the changing situations? What can be learnt from its evolution?
The ANC was established against the background of a range of setbacks experienced by the black peoples of South Africa, most immediately the conquest of all independent chiefdoms by the end of the 19th century, despite resistance by famous warriors. The intensification of seizure of land and taxation was linked to white farmers and the recently discovered diamond and gold mines complaining of labour shortages. While Africans could farm their own land, sometimes profitably, they did not consider it desirable to work on the mines or white farms
Military defeat had seen the rise of a new type of leadership. Earlier, Christian missionaries created a stratum of educated people who were to enter political activities and also interpret the biblical message in a manner that advanced equal rights. Some would also break away from white controlled churches and form
ed independent churches, one of the most significant being Ethiopianism, propagating a radical Africanist vision that was often manifested in mass activities
Conditions in the 19th century were not uniform, for while there was disenfranchisement in the boer republics and de facto disenfranchisement in the Natal colony, Africans in the Cape had access to a limited franchise based on property and educational qualifications, gradually eroded but nevertheless significant in some constituencies. Early African entry into the constitutional political arena was in seeking election or in supporting particular white liberal candidates. The universalist element of Cape liberalism would have continued influence in the development of the ANC
The 19th century also saw the rise of a range of African organisations which made the first claims for the rights of black people. Imbumba yama Afrika formed in 1883, called for unity of the African people: ’In fighting for national rights, we must fight together.’
But African organisations were primarily on the defensive. The defeat of the Boers in the South African war saw Britain appease the Boer republics by granting them self-government, meaning. unfettered control over the African population. The Act of Union which brought all the territories together with only limited and fragile rights for Africans in the Cape continued this trend, albeit in a new state.
The ‘national convention’ that led to the creation of the Act of Union, was countered by a South African Native Convention which met in Bloemfontein in 1909. Its pleas and subsequent petitions went unheeded by the local whites or the British.
In the same year Pixley ka Isaka Seme called for the establishment of a ‘native union’, that is an alternative union to the white Union of South Africa. His vision for the South African Native National Congress later to be known as the ANC was based on unity of all African peoples, in place of previous divisions, what would become a continuing ANC theme.
The methods adopted by the early ANC centred on deputations and petitions to the British King and Union government. The claims were couched in the language of loyalty to the Crown and claimed rights (denied by the Union Government) as British subjects. That these deputations were continually unsuccessful should not evoke ridicule. The ANC was born into a new terrain and used methods that accorded with what appeared potentially viable then. What is of significance for us today is their demand for constitutional rights and a desire for links of equality between all South Africans.
It is true that the A NC was not a mass organisation until much later and other organisations like the Industrial and Commercial Union (the ICU) established in 1919 showed that mass activities were possible, sometimes organising 100,000 people. The ANC was slow to adapt to new methods. In the presidency of JT Gumede links with mass activities and Communists was attempted, but he was replaced by Seme who was not willing to develop the organisation which practically ceased to exist in the 1930s.
In the late 1930s efforts were made to rebuild and the main credit for re-organising the ANC on a sound administrative basis and with a regulated membership base must go to Dr AB Xuma and Rev (later Canon) James Calata. Their spade work provided the organisational base on which the ANC Youth League led by Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela and others made possible transformation of the organisation into mass based structures. It was also during Xuma’s presidency that the ANC developed African Claims, a response to the Atlantic Charter, adapting its human rights pledges to apartheid South Africa.
The early ANC must be understood, then as an organisation exploring new and difficult conditions and creating conditions on which later generations could build.
The ANC YL, formed in 1944, described itself as the ‘powerhouse’ of the ANC. It developed a programme of action which was adopted by the organisation as a whole in 1949. Walter Sisulu was then elected to the key position of secretary general of the ANC.
This was shortly after the election of the National Party government, which led to the implementation of widespread apartheid dislocation and intensification of repressive legislation. This meant further attacks on the rights of black people and clamping down on all individuals and organisations campaigning against apartheid.
The banning of the Communist Party in 1950 led the ANC to take steps to prepare for underground, using the M-Plan named after Mandela to organize small groups who studied political material and were able to gather in small units without being noticed. Although this did not take off widely it was later an important element in the period when the ANC had to go underground. It should be noted, however, that restrictions imposed on many leaders meant that their continued political activities were in fact underground some time before the organisation was banned
But the main significance of the period was in public mass campaigns. In 1952 the ANC took the offensive with the Defiance campaign. There had been earlier acts of defiance by women at various times, by the ANC itself, by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), the Communist Party and in particular by the Indian Congresses from Gandhi’s time. This was a very significant moment for the ANC with the notion of defiance possibly questioning allegiance to the apartheid state. The terms in which the campaign was initiated, did not however break entirely with previous practices. In writing to the Prime Minister the organisation combined an ultimatum requiring the repeal of certain laws with a call for talks.
The Defiance campaign involved all population groups and thousands of ‘freedom volunteers’ went to jail. The campaign started symbolically on the day when many whites were celebrating the 300th anniversary of the arrival of van Riebeeck. It captured people’s imagination and ANC paid up membership rose from 7000 to 100,000. Walter Sisulu indicated the significance of the campaign in that volunteers were known as ‘defiers of death’ being willing to give their lives if necessary. He saw this as an embryonic revolutionary consciousness.
But where to from there? In 1953 Professor ZK Matthews proposed the idea of a Congress of the People to create a Freedom Charter. This was going beyond opposition, and advanced a vision of an alternative future. This led to volunteers gathering demands from all over the country voicing what people wanted in a future South Africa. These were consolidated into the Freedom Charter adopted at the Congress of People in June 1955. The Charter ‘provoked’ the state to charge 156 people with High Treason. The case hampered the activities of the organisation with leaders tied up in court for 4 ½ years before acquittal in 1961.
The 50s saw a range of other resistance campaigns in the cities and in the rural areas. Some were less successful than others. For example the campaign against Bantu Education was centred on boycotting the new education. But this placed parents in a difficult situation in that the Congress organisations were not able to provide viable alternative schooling. Consequently the campaign proved unrealistic and children drifted into the Bantu Education schools.
In the rural areas fierce battles were fought against the imposition of the Bantu authorities system, and attempts to impose unpopular chiefs and headmen on local communities in areas like Pondoland, Sekhukuneland and Zeerust. In Zeerust there was also a complex combination of women resisting passes acting together with chiefs. In the Dinokana village when Chief Moilwa was instructed to tell his wife to take out a pass, he replied, ‘who the hell is Verwoerd?’
The YL had been formed as an Africanist organisation, and was suspicious of cooperation with other population groups and also communists. The Xuma period had, however seen a pact between the Indian Congresses and the ANC. But it was during the 1950s that this was consolidated into the Congress alliance –involving the ANC, Indian congresses, Coloured Peoples Congress, Congress of Democrats for whites and the South African Congress of Trade Unions. The emerging women’s struggle led to the revival of the ANC Women’s league and the formation of the Federation of South Africa women, which had drawn up a women’s charter, some of whose demands found their way into the Freedom Charter. One of the high moments of women’s struggle was the march on the Union buildings by 20,000 women in 1956
The 1950s was both a period of increasing repression as apartheid broadened its impact but also one of broader resistance. The new decade would see a clamp down and the phase of illegality.
The ANC centenary celebrations offer an opportunity to reflect on its beginnings as an organisation which drew people from different backgrounds; workers, intellectuals, chiefs and others, despite limited resources. How did it navigate the challenging times? Did it adapt to the changing situations? What can be learnt from its evolution?
The ANC was established against the background of a range of setbacks experienced by the black peoples of South Africa, most immediately the conquest of all independent chiefdoms by the end of the 19th century, despite resistance by famous warriors. The intensification of seizure of land and taxation was linked to white farmers and the recently discovered diamond and gold mines complaining of labour shortages. While Africans could farm their own land, sometimes profitably, they did not consider it desirable to work on the mines or white farms
Military defeat had seen the rise of a new type of leadership. Earlier, Christian missionaries created a stratum of educated people who were to enter political activities and also interpret the biblical message in a manner that advanced equal rights. Some would also break away from white controlled churches and form
ed independent churches, one of the most significant being Ethiopianism, propagating a radical Africanist vision that was often manifested in mass activities
Conditions in the 19th century were not uniform, for while there was disenfranchisement in the boer republics and de facto disenfranchisement in the Natal colony, Africans in the Cape had access to a limited franchise based on property and educational qualifications, gradually eroded but nevertheless significant in some constituencies. Early African entry into the constitutional political arena was in seeking election or in supporting particular white liberal candidates. The universalist element of Cape liberalism would have continued influence in the development of the ANC
The 19th century also saw the rise of a range of African organisations which made the first claims for the rights of black people. Imbumba yama Afrika formed in 1883, called for unity of the African people: ’In fighting for national rights, we must fight together.’
But African organisations were primarily on the defensive. The defeat of the Boers in the South African war saw Britain appease the Boer republics by granting them self-government, meaning. unfettered control over the African population. The Act of Union which brought all the territories together with only limited and fragile rights for Africans in the Cape continued this trend, albeit in a new state.
The ‘national convention’ that led to the creation of the Act of Union, was countered by a South African Native Convention which met in Bloemfontein in 1909. Its pleas and subsequent petitions went unheeded by the local whites or the British.
In the same year Pixley ka Isaka Seme called for the establishment of a ‘native union’, that is an alternative union to the white Union of South Africa. His vision for the South African Native National Congress later to be known as the ANC was based on unity of all African peoples, in place of previous divisions, what would become a continuing ANC theme.
The methods adopted by the early ANC centred on deputations and petitions to the British King and Union government. The claims were couched in the language of loyalty to the Crown and claimed rights (denied by the Union Government) as British subjects. That these deputations were continually unsuccessful should not evoke ridicule. The ANC was born into a new terrain and used methods that accorded with what appeared potentially viable then. What is of significance for us today is their demand for constitutional rights and a desire for links of equality between all South Africans.
It is true that the A NC was not a mass organisation until much later and other organisations like the Industrial and Commercial Union (the ICU) established in 1919 showed that mass activities were possible, sometimes organising 100,000 people. The ANC was slow to adapt to new methods. In the presidency of JT Gumede links with mass activities and Communists was attempted, but he was replaced by Seme who was not willing to develop the organisation which practically ceased to exist in the 1930s.
In the late 1930s efforts were made to rebuild and the main credit for re-organising the ANC on a sound administrative basis and with a regulated membership base must go to Dr AB Xuma and Rev (later Canon) James Calata. Their spade work provided the organisational base on which the ANC Youth League led by Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela and others made possible transformation of the organisation into mass based structures. It was also during Xuma’s presidency that the ANC developed African Claims, a response to the Atlantic Charter, adapting its human rights pledges to apartheid South Africa.
The early ANC must be understood, then as an organisation exploring new and difficult conditions and creating conditions on which later generations could build.
