SUMMARY
The ANC (African National Congress) was a political party and nationalist armed group founded in 1912, initially under the name “South African Native National Congress” but renamed ANC in 1923. Its original objective was to protect the voting rights of the non-white populations in Cape Province, South Africa. However, this soon broadened to overthrowing the entire racially discriminating political system of apartheid as it became increasingly entrenched under the white-minority rule of the Government of South Africa. Despite pursuing its political struggle with non-violent forms of resistance, the ANC was banned from South Africa in 1960. Thereafter, it took up an armed struggle and actively fought against the government between 1981 and 1988 (see Government of South Africa – ANC for further information). Negotiations eventually led to the removal of the ban against the ANC in 1990 and an interim constitution that resolved all the ANC’s grievances being agreed in 1993. Following this, the ANC transitioned into a political party and won the democratic elections in 1994. It took over as Government of South Africa and as of 2018, it remained the ruling political party.
The ANC embraced an inclusive nationalist ideology founded upon democracy and equality for all, irrespective of skin color. This was evidenced by the opening phrase of the Freedom Charter, which declared that, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white”. This charter was adopted by the ANC, as did several other apartheid resistance groups, whilst at the “Congress of the People” held in 1955 and it became their manifesto.
Membership of the ANC was originally limited to only Africans and the black African elite, such as chiefs and community leaders, initially dominated the group. The ANC was a small organization compared to other civil or political organizations around at the time, up until the 1950s when the ANC became a leading organization for the anti-apartheid mass movement. More young people joined and the group reached approximately 100,000 members in 1952. However, prior to its banning in 1960, the group had approximately 50,000 members only. Nonetheless, the ANC continued to operate underground and in the 1970s, it opened up its membership to permit non-Africans as well. Membership increased in 1976 as many young people turned to the ANC and its armed wing specifically, after protests against discriminatory education conditions for black students turned lethal in Soweto.
The ANC operated with several different units such as the Women’s League and the Youth League. Established in 1944, the Youth League was revolutionary for the ANC because it galvanized the group into a mass movement by employing a strategic, non-violent resistance campaign during the 1950s. The MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe; Spear of the Nation) armed wing was established much later, in 1961, when the ANC began incorporating an armed resistance strategy against the government by sabotaging targets associated with the apartheid with its attacks. MK began initially as approximately 250 recruits organized into units of three or four, which were instructed by the Regional Command structure. However, the armed wing developed a complex operation with courses ranging from military training and nursing to literacy and advanced motor mechanics; over the years, thousands of recruits underwent MK training. The MK headquarters was based in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg until it was raided on 11 July 1963. The group then operated with a very limited capacity, through underground cells in South Africa whilst other ANC members operated from several different locations abroad. In 1983, following pressure by the states providing support to it, the ANC set up a formal MK headquarters in order to facilitate military cooperation. The headquarters – the Politico-Military Council (PMC) – was situated in Lusaka, Zambia, with local structures set up inside South Africa and in neighboring states. While the new structure decreased the coordination between the political and military branches of the ANC, it also increased the capacity for internal activity and for coordinating the ANC’s struggle with the internal mass movement, which proved important in the years to come.
John Langalibalele Dube founded and led the ANC as president from 1912 to 1917. He was an ethnic Zulu and intellectual but he was ousted from the presidency for seeming to compromise on the issue of segregation. Several different presidents then led the ANC: Sefako Makgatho (1917 – 1924), Zaccheus Mahabane (1924 – 1927 and 1930 – 1936), Josiah Gumede (1927 – 1930), Dr Pixley Seme (1930 – 1936), Dr Alfred Xuma (1940 – 1949), Dr James Moroka (1949 – 1952), Chief Albert Luthuli (1952 – 1967), Oliver Tambo (1967 – 1991) and Nelson Mandela (1991 – 1997). Amongst these, Chief Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela were some of the most notable. Luthuli was a teacher and Zulu chief, who led the ANC whilst it carried out its very public non-violent resistance campaign during the fifties. As a result, in 1960, Luthuli became the first person outside of Europe and America to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Similarly, Tambo and Mandela founded the ANC Youth League along with Anton Lambede, Ashby Mda and Walter Sisulu, which was the unit that created the mass movement for the non-violent resistance campaign. Tambo was a teacher and lawyer; as having a key role in the Youth League, Tambo served as both Secretary General and Deputy President before taking over the presidency after the death of Lithuli in 1967. Interestingly, Tambo spent most of his time in leadership directing the ANC from exile in the United Kingdom, where he lived between 1960 and 1990. Mandela was a lawyer and as well as the Youth League, he founded the ANC’s MK armed wing along with Joe Slovo from the South African Communist Party (SACP), which was another group that Mandela was a simultaneous member of secretly. Mandela served as Commander of the MK until being arrested in 1963, after which he was prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela remained involved in the ANC through frequent communications and held several negotiations whilst in prison. Following his release on 11 February 1990, Mandela was elected Deputy President before taking over the ANC presidency in July 1991. When the ANC won the national elections in 1994, Mandela became the first African President of the Government of South Africa.
Some ANC members, who labelled themselves “Africanists”, splintered to form PAC in 1959 because they opposed the Freedom Charter and the ANC’s cooperation with non-Africans and communists. On the other hand, the ANC collaborated with several other groups seeking to overthrow the apartheid political regime in South Africa such as the SACP and the South Africa Coloured People’s Organisation (SACPO), many of which were part of the Congress Alliance formed alongside the Freedom Charter in 1955. Between 1967 and 1968, MK held joint operations with ZAPU to try and find a route into South Africa through Zimbabwe but these were unsuccessful.
The ANC benefited from secondary support from several countries between 1981 and 1988. It received material and logistical support as well as limited funding consisting of a few hundred thousand US$ per year from the Soviet Union, with which it had good relations from the beginning of its armed struggle. Weaponry was also provided by the Soviet Union and Angola. Training and military expertise were given by the Soviet Union, East Germany, Angola and Cuba whilst Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania permitted the ANC to access and use their territories for example to transfer military supplies and operate bases for training or attacks.
