History and Government Form 3 Notes : African Nationalism

African Nationalism

Its roots trace back to the 17^th century with the first Boer occupation of South Africa. Africans strongly resisted interference with their political freedom and economic resources. This resistance took the form of the Xhosa and Ndebele wars of the 17^th century and the Zulu wars of the 1870s led by Cetewayo.

In 1906, a Zulu chief named Bambata staged another African uprising, this time against the British who had annexed Zululand in 1887.

From 1910, when the Union of South Africa was created and the Afrikaners gained political control, Africans lost all the political privileges they had previously enjoyed, such as the ability to vote and contest parliamentary seats.

Africans founded independent churches and formed organizations like the Orange River Organization.

Factors for the Growth of African Nationalism in South Africa

1. The role of the Christian religion, whose ideals encouraged Africans to fight for equality, as all people were equal before God. The Boers, however, treated Africans with contempt.
2. The exposure of Africans to severe economic exploitation, such as land alienation and forced labour on Afrikaner farms. The Native Land Act of 1913 denied Africans the right to purchase land outside the areas set aside for them.
3. The influence of Pan-Africanism in South Africa as early as the 19^th century, when people like Rev. Dube founded the Ohlange Institute to educate fellow Africans.
4. The introduction of racial discrimination enshrined in the apartheid law of 1948 convinced Africans that only freedom could save them. All the best hotels, restaurants, schools, recreational centres, and most fertile soils were reserved for whites only.
5. The acquisition of Western education by many Africans like Rev. Dube, Walter Sisulu, and Nelson Mandela enabled them to articulate their grievances more forcefully. They became pioneers of early African political parties.
6. The return of ex-servicemen after the Second World War exposed the myth of white supremacy and made Africans ready to fight. The war also exposed them to democratic ideals elsewhere.
7. The great exploitation of African labour through labour regulations and laws. For example, the Mines and Works Act of 1911 effectively excluded Africans from all skilled occupations, confining them to manual labour in mines and farms.
8. The development of large urban centres created an enabling environment for Africans to forge close inter-ethnic relations that helped counter Afrikaner racist policies.

Formation of the African National Congress, 1912

Opposition to the Natives Land Act led to the formation of the South African Native National Congress (renamed the African National Congress [ANC] in 1923) by South Africa’s educated African elite in a meeting at Bloemfontein on January 8, 1912.

• The founding president was John L. Dube, a minister and schoolteacher.
• Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, a lawyer, was appointed treasurer.
• Solomon T. Plaatje, a court translator, became secretary general.
• Other members included Thomas Mapikela, Walter Robusana, Solomon Plaatje, and Sam Makgatho.

The congress was moderate in composition, tone, and practice. However, in the 1940s, a militant form of nationalism emerged under the ANC Youth League formed in 1943, led by Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo, emphasizing the inalienable right of Africans to the African continent.

As a result of the League’s activities, violent confrontations between the ANC and the government broke out in 1952 in Witwatersrand, Kimberley, and Eastern Cape.

The Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter

In 1952, Albert Sisulu became the president of the organization and presided over the ‘Congress of the People,’ which adopted the Freedom Charter on June 25 and 26, 1955.

The congress drew 3,000 delegates from:

• The black community (the ANC).
• The white community (the Congress of Democrats).
• Indian and coloured communities (the South African Coloured People’s Congress).
• The multiracial South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).

The Freedom Charter emphasized that South Africa should be a non-racial society with no particular group having special rights or privileges.

After the adoption of the charter, in 1956 the police arrested 156 leaders, including Luthuli, Mandela, Tambo, Sisulu, and others, and put them on trial for treason in a court case that lasted five years.

The Pan-Africanist Congress and Sharpeville

The Africanists, led by Robert Sobukwe, criticized the ANC for allowing itself to be dominated by “liberal-left-multi-racialists.” They formed their own organization, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), in 1959. In March 1960, the PAC began a national campaign against the pass laws. During a demonstration outside the police station at Sharpeville, the police fired on the demonstrators, killing at least 76 and wounding 186. Approximately 18,000 demonstrators were arrested, including leaders of the ANC and PAC, and both organizations were outlawed.

The ANC and the PAC Turn to Violence

Prohibited from operating openly, both the ANC and the PAC established underground organizations in 1961. The militant wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), targeted strategic places such as police stations and power plants. Poqo (Blacks Only), the militant wing of the PAC, engaged in a campaign of terror, targeting African chiefs and headmen believed to be collaborators with the government and killing them.

Seventeen Umkhonto leaders, including Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Rivonia farmhouse. Along with Nelson Mandela, they were tried for treason. Albert Luthuli was confined by the government to his rural home in Zululand until his death in 1967. Tambo escaped from South Africa and became president of the ANC in exile. Robert Sobukwe of Poqo was jailed on Robben Island until 1969 and then placed under house arrest in Kimberley until his death in 1978. The Johannesburg railway station bomber, John Harris, was hanged.

The Black Consciousness Movement – Soweto, 1976

In the absence of other forms of political expression, young people sought alternative means to express their political aspirations. African university students, disappointed with the multiracial National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), established the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) in 1969 with Steve Biko, an African medical student at the University of Natal, as president.

In 1972, a Black allied workers’ union and the Black Peoples’ Convention (BPC) were set up to act as political umbrella organizations for adherents of black consciousness. In 1972, SASO organized strikes on university campuses resulting in the arrest of more than 600 students. On June 16, 1976, hundreds of high-school students in Soweto marched in protest against the use of Afrikaans as a language of instruction. Over 360 African schoolchildren were killed.

On September 12, 1977, Steve Biko, who had been held in indefinite detention, died from massive head injuries sustained during police interrogation. In October 1977, SASO, the BPC, and all black consciousness organizations were banned.

The Peak of African Nationalism in South Africa

In 1983, P.W. Botha’s government proposed the establishment of separate houses of parliament for each racial group. In place of the single House of Parliament were:

• A 50-member (all-white) House of Assembly.
• A 25-member (coloured) House of Representatives.
• A 13-member (Indian) House of Delegates.

Implications and Results

The United Democratic Front (UDF), formed in late 1983, and the National Front (NF) aimed to use nonviolent means to persuade the government to withdraw its constitutional proposals and abolish apartheid. The UDF membership included Bishop Desmond Tutu and Reverend Allan Boesak, who emerged as its prime spokesmen.

Black trade unions resorted to economic and political protests. For example, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), formed in 1983 by Cyril Ramaphosa, successfully brought work in mines to a stop in a dispute over wage increases. By the end of 1985, 879 fatalities and 8,000 arrests were linked to political unrest. The ANC and UDF were banned.

Meanwhile, supporters of the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the banned ANC clashed in an upsurge of “black-on-black” violence that caused as many as 10,000 deaths by 1994.

President Botha resigned under pressure on August 14, 1989. The Electoral College named de Klerk to succeed him in a five-year term as president. In October 1989, De Klerk released Walter Sisulu and others except Mandela. He announced on February 2, 1990, the impending release of Mandela, the unbanning of the ANC, PAC, and SACP, and the removal of restrictions on the UDF and other legal political organizations.

Mandela was released on February 11, 1990, at age 71 after 27 years in prison. ANC officials elected Mandela deputy president in March 1990, under ailing president Oliver Tambo. Between June 5 and June 17, 1991, the government repealed the pillars of apartheid: the Land Act of 1913, the Group Areas Act of 1950, and the Population Registration Act of 1950 (which had authorized the registration by race of newborn babies and immigrants). Most international sanctions were lifted soon after these acts were repealed.

In mid-1992, escalating violence by IFP supporters against ANC sympathizers in Boipatong delayed the process of negotiation for elections. On March 5, 1993, Chris Hani, the popular general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was murdered, threatening the process again.

On April 12, 1994, a team headed by former British foreign secretary Lord Carrington and former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger attempted in vain to break the logjam that was keeping the IFP out of the elections. However, on April 19, Buthelezi—under intense pressure from trusted local and international figures, including Kenyan diplomat Professor Washington Okumu—relented and agreed to allow the IFP to be placed on the ballot. When the elections finally took place on schedule, beginning April 26, 1994, the ANC won 62.6 percent of the vote; the NP, 20.4 percent; and the IFP, 10.5 percent. Mandela was unanimously elected president by the National Assembly on May 9, 1994, in Cape Town. He was inaugurated on May 10 at ceremonies in Pretoria.

Key South African Nationalists

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Umtata, to a Thembu royal family of Transkei. His forename Rolihlahla means “troublemaker.” Later he was given a clan name, Mandiba. His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a local chief and councillor to the monarch. In 1926, Gadla was sacked for corruption. Nelson’s mother was Gadla’s third wife, Nosekeni Fanny, a member of the amaMpemvu clan of Xhosa.

At a local Methodist school when he was about seven, he was baptized and given the English forename “Nelson.” His father died of an undiagnosed ailment when he was nine. At age 16, he underwent circumcision.

Mandela joined Clarkebury Boarding Institute in Engcobo, the best secondary school for black Africans in Thembuland. In 1937, he moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort, where he took an interest in boxing and running. Mandela joined Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo, a longtime friend. He was studying for a Bachelor of Arts but was expelled in his first year for being involved in a Students’ Representative Council boycott against university policies. Mandela relocated to Johannesburg, fearing early forced marriage, where he met his friend and mentor, Walter Sisulu.

After 1948, Mandela began actively participating in politics. He led the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign as Secretary General of the Youth League. Mandela and 150 other participants in the Freedom Charter adoption were arrested on December 5, 1956, and charged with treason. In 1961, Mandela became leader of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). He coordinated sabotage campaigns against military and government targets. On August 5, 1962, Mandela was arrested and imprisoned in Johannesburg Fort. On July 11, 1963, police arrested other prominent ANC leaders at Rivonia, north of Johannesburg.

Together with Mandela, they were charged with capital crimes of sabotage at the Rivonia Trial. All were sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964, on Robben Island. Mandela remained there for the next 18 of his 27 years in prison. In March 1982, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison, along with other senior ANC leaders. In 1988, Mandela was moved to Victor Verster Prison, where he remained until his release on February 11, 1990.

Mandela returned to the leadership of the ANC and led the party in the multi-party negotiations that led to the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994. Mandela and President F. W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated on May 10, 1994, as the country’s first black president after the May 27, 1994 elections.

As president from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid. He helped resolve the long-running dispute between Libya on one hand, and the US and Britain, over bringing to trial the two Libyans indicted for the Lockerbie bombing on December 21, 1988.

Mandela decided not to stand for a second term and retired in 1999, succeeded by Thabo Mbeki. In July 2001, Mandela was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. In June 2004, at age 85, Mandela announced that he would be retiring from public life.

On December 8, 2012, Mandela was hospitalized at a military hospital near Pretoria suffering from a recurring lung infection. On December 15, Mandela had surgery to have gallstones removed. He was released from the hospital on December 26, 2012.

Until July 2008, Mandela and ANC party members were barred from entering the United States—except to visit the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan—without a special waiver from the US Secretary of State, because of their South African apartheid-era designation as terrorists.

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

Sobukwe was born in Graaff-Reinet in the Cape Province on December 5, 1924. He attended a Methodist college at Healdtown and later Fort Hare University, where he joined the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in 1948. In 1949, Sobukwe was elected president of the Fort Hare Students’ Representative Council.

In 1950, Sobukwe was appointed as a teacher at a high school in Standerton. In 1954, Sobukwe became a lecturer of African Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. He identified with the Africanists within the African National Congress. He edited The Africanist newspaper in 1957, criticizing the ANC for allowing itself to be dominated by “liberal-left-multi-racialists.” He later left the ANC to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). He became its first president in 1959. On March 21, 1960, Sobukwe led a march of PAC supporters to the local police station at Orlando, Soweto, to openly defy the Pass laws. In a similar protest in Sharpeville, police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 in the Sharpeville Massacre. Sobukwe was arrested, convicted of incitement, sentenced to three years in prison, and later interned on Robben Island. Sobukwe was released in 1969 and allowed to live in Kimberley with his family under house arrest. He died on February 27, 1978, due to lung cancer and was buried in Graaff-Reinet on March 11, 1978.

Albert Luthuli

Albert Luthuli was born near Bulawayo, Rhodesia, around 1898 to Seventh-day Adventist missionary John Bunyan Luthuli and Mtonya Gumede. When his father died, his mother returned to her ancestral home, Groutville in Stanger, Natal, South Africa, to stay with his uncle, Martin Luthuli.

On completing a teaching course at Edendale, Luthuli became principal and only teacher at a primary school in rural Blaauwbosch, Natal. Here he also became a lay preacher. In 1920, he declined a scholarship to the University of Fort Hare to provide financial support for his mother. In 1928, he became secretary of the African Teacher’s Association and in 1933 its president. He was also active in missionary work. He became chief in 1936 until removed from this office by the government in 1952 due to what colonial authorities called a conflict of interest.

In 1944, Luthuli joined the African National Congress (ANC). In 1945, he was elected to the Committee of the KwaZulu Province Provincial Division of the ANC. A month later, Luthuli was elected president-general of the ANC. In 1955, he attended an ANC conference only to be arrested and charged with treason a few months later, along with 155 others. In December 1957, Luthuli was released and the charges against him dropped.

Luthuli’s leadership of the ANC covered the period of violent disputes between the party’s “Africanist” and “Charterist” wings.

In 1962, he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow by the students, serving until 1965.

In 1962, he published an autobiography titled Let My People Go.

In July 1967, at the age of 69, he was fatally injured in an accident near his home in Stanger.

Methods Used by Nationalists in South Africa in Their Struggle for Liberation from White Minority Rule

1. They used force to fight for their independence.
2. Africans used mass media to articulate their grievances, spread propaganda, and mobilize the masses.
3. Riots, e.g., the Soweto riots of 1976 against the proposal to make Afrikaans the medium of instruction in all schools.
4. Demonstrations against Press Laws in 1960 at Sharpeville, leading to massacres.
5. Guerrilla fighters trained in Algeria, Ghana, etc., carried out acts of sabotage like bombing strategic installations and power plants.
6. The role of the clergy, e.g., Desmond Tutu, who campaigned worldwide against apartheid.
7. Use of diplomacy and negotiations to convince whites about the futility of apartheid policy.
8. Use of slogans such as the Freedom Charter (1955), which proclaimed South Africa belonged to all races and called for political, social, and economic equality.
9. They sent petitions and delegations to international forums.
10. They formed political parties, e.g., ANC, PAC, UDF, and trade union activism to pressure the government to change.
11. They used job boycotts and strikes.
12. They organized defiance campaigns and demonstrations in the streets to provoke police arrests.
13. They formed underground movements after the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
14. Youth groups, e.g., Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement, used organized strikes as a weapon to counter oppression.
15. Africans serving jail terms organized hunger strikes.

Problems Encountered by African Nationalists in South Africa

1. The colonial government banned political organizations as a means of frustrating the struggle for independence, e.g., ANC, PAC, and CP, restricting their activities.
2. Nationalists were harassed, arrested, detained, or jailed by the authorities, e.g., Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Sisulu, Sobukwe, etc.
3. Many were forced into exile or fled the country in search of political asylum and freedom.
4. Violence was unleashed on them, including the killing of many nationalists and Africans such as Steve Biko and the 1960 Sharpeville massacre of schoolchildren, spreading fear.
5. The deliberate policy of divide and rule was employed to weaken African unity, e.g., establishment of black homelands or Bantustans, which eventually brewed conflict between the ANC and IFP of Buthelezi.
6. The racist regime used emergency powers to harass and frustrate nationalist leaders.
7. Nationalists faced the problem of lack of money and other resources, which slowed the struggle.
8. Nationalists were denied access to state-owned radio and other media outlets, which were instead used as propaganda against them.
9. Banning of trade unions also frustrated nationalist activities. Where allowed, they were monitored by the police.
10. Nationalists faced movement restrictions through pass laws.
11. African journalists were harassed and their newspapers proscribed by the government.