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Black American Thought and African Political Attitudes in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

A. P. Walshe
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Extract

TheMultiracial society of South Africa is unique and fascinating. In addition to an African majority, it includes the Cape colored community, the Indians originally introduced as indentured labor on the Natal sugar estates, and a large and long-established European minority from within which Afrikaner nationalism has emerged as the predominant political power. These groups have been progressively integrated in a modern and dynamic economy and consequently subjected to the tensions of an industrial revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1970 , pp. 51 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1970

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References

* This paper, read at the African Studies Association meeting in Montreal (October, 1969), contains material from my forthcoming book, The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa.

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3 Formed as the South African Native National Congress, the name was changed to the African National Congress in 1925. For the roots of African nationalism see Walshe, A. P., “The Origins of African Political Consciousness in South Africa,” Journal of Modern African Studies, VII, No. 4 (12, 1969)Google Scholar.

4 Reverend W. Rubusana, who was to be President of the South African Native Convention of 1909 and a Vice-President of the African National Congress in 1912, had also argued for a South African university “after the fashion of Tuskegee in America.” South African Native Races Committee, The Natives of South Africa (London, 1901), p. 332Google Scholar.

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24 Report of the Native Affairs Commission for the Years 1925–1926 p. 72.

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26 Xuma Address at Bantu Social Centre upon his return from a visit to America and Britain, Umteteli, Dec. 10, 1938.

27 Xuma Papers: Mrs. Xuma, Bloemfontein Address, May 3, 1944, manuscript. Bantu World, Oct. 29, 1925, Ramohanoe address to Transvaal A. N. C. Luthuli, who visited the United States in 1948, is another personality who occasionally thought in terms of an American comparison. “Interview,” Bhengu, H. J., Durban, 1965Google Scholar.

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33 South African Outlook (hereafter S. A. O.) March, 1922.

34 Bantu World, Dec. 22, 29, 1951. Thema correctly judged that Kadalie had been neither an admirer nor a follower of Garvey. Kadalie's brief contact with American Negroes appears to have been with the Du Bois school. Kadalie, C., My Life and the I. C. U., p. 121Google Scholar, unpublished manuscript.

35 Skota, T. D. M., The African Yearly Register (Johannesburg, 1931), p. 272Google Scholar; Matthews, Z. K., “Professor James Thaele,” Imvo, 09 16, 1961Google Scholar; Benson, M., African Patriots (London, 1963), pp. 70–71Google Scholar.

36 Skota, , African Yearly Register, p. 272Google Scholar; Roux, , Time Longer Than Rope, pp. 112, 236–237Google Scholar; Benson, , African Patriots, pp. 70–72Google Scholar; Rand Daily Mail, Oct. 7, 1924; Cape Times, April 19, 1930.

37 Cape Times, Feb. 8, 1930.

38 Cape Times, May 12, 1930.

39 Kakaza, M., “A Cry to the Native South African Tribes,” Imvo, 07 16, 1929Google Scholar.

40 The A.N.C. conference which elected Gumede President-General in 1927 passed a resolution calling on the South-African Government to petition its United States counterpart for the release of Marcus Garvey who had been imprisoned on charges of fraud.

41 South African Worker, July 15, 1927; Dec. 31, 1929.

42 Abantu Batho, May 15, June 5, June 19, 1930; April 2, 1931. Makasibe's rejoinder reasserted his earlier position and extended his attack to the missionaries who “told us of peace and now we are like dogs in our house.”

43 Abantu Batho, May 1, 1930.

44 Ibid., May 15, 1930.

45 Ibid., May 8, 1930.

46 There were numerous occasions in the interwar years when African leaden exhorted their followers to seek status and influence through economic self-help: for example, Jabavu in his address to the All African Convention in 1936, Presidential Address to the All African Convention (Lovedale, 1936), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

47 By the late thirties the Party had dropped its emphasis on a Black Republic and once again emphasized the class struggle.

48 Xuma, , A.N.C. Presidential Addresses, 12, 1942, p. 3Google Scholar; 1941, p. 1; undated circular, “A. N. C. Conference, Dec. 14, 1941,” Xuma Papers.

49 A.N.C., African Claims in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1945)Google Scholar, Preface; A.N.C. Resolutions, December, 1946, Nos. 7, 8, 9; “Minimum Programme” as outlined by Xuma, , Bantu World, 04 5, 1947Google Scholar; undated manuscript of New York Speech, circa November, 1946, and undated clipping from Chicago Tribune interview, Xuma Papers.

50 Ferris, W. H., The African Abroad (New Haven, 1913), I, 437–439Google Scholar, being a reprint of “The Regeneration of Africa,” a speech delivered by Seme at Columbia University, April 5, 1906.

51 The Constitution of the South African Native National Congress, 1919, mimeo, pp. 55, 44. Author's italics.

52 Ibid., p. 1.

53 Trapido, S., A Preliminary Study of the Development of African Political Opinion, 1884–1955 (Johannesburg, 1959), p. 37Google Scholar. B. A. (Hons.) Dissertation. Skota intended inviting the following organizations: National Party of Egypt; National Party of Abyssinia; West African Congress; Progressive Association of Kenya; National Association of Nyasaland; Christian Associations of Northern and Southern Rhodesia; Lekgotla la Bafoof Basutoland; Chiefs of Swaziland and Bechuanaland; and all African organizations in the Union.

54 Verbatim Report of the Proceedings of the Native Representative Council held at Pretoria in December, 1942 (Pretoria, 1943), mimeoGoogle Scholar.

55 A.N.C. Presidential Address, December 1945, p. 3.

56 Xuma to Matinga, Nov. 11, 1943, Xuma Papers.

57 Xuma to J. R. Moeketsi, President, African Voters League, Salisbury, Nov. 6, 1945, Xuma Papers. A further indication of early concern with the African Continent was the practice of signing letters as James Calata did: “Yours very sincerely for Africa.” Calata to Xuma, Nov. 6, 1942, Xuma Papers.

58 African Claims, pp. 3, 5.

59 Ibid., p. 5.

60 Verbatim Report of the Proceedings of the Native Representative Council, November, 1945 (Pretoria, 1946), pp. 129–130Google Scholar, mimeo.

61 Congress Youth League Manifesto, March, 1944, p. 3, mimeo.

62 “Our Creed” was appended to the Manifesto, ibid., p. 6.

63 Congress Youth League Basic Policy (Johannesburg, 1945), pp. 1–2Google Scholar, undated typescript.

64 C.Y.L. Secretary to Secretary Progressive Youth Council, March 16, 1945, Xuma Papers. For a later and mystical vision of Africa see African Lodestar, June, 1950, “This the Mission” by V. T. Sifora, President G. Y. L. (Transvaal).

65 Abrahams to D. D. T. Jabavu, July 16, 1945, Xuma Papers.

66 Jabavu to Xuma, Aug. 16, 1945, ibid.

67 Xuma to Conference Organizer, Sept. 3, 1945, ibid.

68 Abrahams to Jabavu, July 16, 1945; Abrahams to Xuma, Sept. 24, 1945, ibid.

69 This, it was stated, was due to passport difficulties. Padmore, G. (edit.), History of the Pan-African Congress (London, 1963), p. 68Google Scholar.

70 Telegram A.N.C. to Pan-African Conference, September, 1945. (The date stamp in illegible.), Xuma Papers.

71 Bantu World, Nov. 29, 1947.