The ANC Youth League

Notes

160 become influential figures in the ANC. Gigaba has always tacked carefully to the mainstream of the ANC; Mbalula had a reputation as a hot-head but, unlike Malema, already shows signs of toning down his rhetoric and adopting greater pragmatism. It could be argued that Youth League leaders who go far in the ANC are precisely those able to adapt to the dominant ideology and the consensus-building ethos of the mother body. The Youth League will continue to be a nursery of ANC leadership but, as has become apparent, only so long as it recognises its limitations. * * * Notes 1 Matthews writing in Spark 1952, quoted in robert edgar, ‘Changing the Old Guard: A.P. Mda and the ANC Youth League, 1944-1949’ in Saul Dubow and Alan Jeeves (eds.), South Africa’s 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities (Cape Town: Double Storey, 2005), p. 149. 2 edgar,‘Changing the Old Guard’, p. 150. 3 Interview with Gwendolyn Carter (19 February 1964) in the Carter-Karis Collection, microfilmed copy at the Historical Papers division of the William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand (UWHPL). 4 Copy of draft manifesto available in Carter-Karis Collection, UWHPL. 5 Constitution of the ANCYL, reprinted in Thomas Karis (ed.), From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa. Volume 2: Hope and Challenge 1935–1952 (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973), 161 Document 50. 6 See discussion in Chris Giffard, ‘“The Hour of the Youth Has Struck”: The African National Congress Youth League and the Struggle for a Mass Base, 1943–1952’ (BA Hons dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1984), pp. 31–37. 7 edgar,‘Changing the Old Guard’, p. 160. 8 See Luli Callinicos, Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains (Cape Town: David Philip, 2004), p. 152. 9 Callinicos, Oliver Tambo, pp. 164–165. 10 William M. Gumede, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2007), p. 46. 11 See Clive Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935– 1976 (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000), p. 29. 12 Clive Glaser,‘Students, Tsotsis and the Congress Youth League, 1944–1955’ (BA Honours dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986), p. 88. 13 See Treason Trial exhibits, UWHPL, File ea3: ‘Letter to Youth Leaguers’ issued by Duma Nokwe, 18 January 1954; ‘Boycott Bulletin’ issued by the Benoni Youth League, 1955. 14 Gail Gerhart, Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), especially pp. 124–172, provides the most detailed analysis of this growing division, and this section is heavily indebted to her work. See also Tom Lodge’s overview of the PAC split in Black Politics in South Africa (Johannesburg, ravan, 1983). 15 See discussion in Gerhart, Black Power, p. 133. 16 Gerhart, Black Power, pp. 138–139. 17 For a fascinating account of Leballo’s early career, see J. Bolnick, ‘Potlako Leballo: The Man Who Hurried to Meet His Destiny’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 29, 3 (1991). 18 ‘The Nature of the Struggle Today’, Africanist, December 1957. 19 Tunisia, Libya and Morocco gained independence in the early 1950s. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan country to shake off colonial rule in 1957. Guinea followed in 1958. The Algerian anti-colonial war also captured the imagination of Africanists throughout the late 1950s. 20 To see why the PAC was strong in the Vaal Triangle, see Lodge’s discussion on the Sharpeville massacre in Black Politics. 162 21 For accounts of the Sharpeville massacre,see Philip Frankel,An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and Its Massacre (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2001) and Tom Lodge, Sharpeville: An Apartheid Massacre and Its Consequences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). 22 Note that it was called simply the African Student Movement (ASM) until 1971. It changed its name to emphasise its aspiration to become a national movement. 23 Nomi Nkondlo, interview with raphaël Botiveau, quoted in r. Botiveau, The A.N.C. Youth League, or the Invention of a South African Youth Organisation (Johannesburg: IFAS Working Papers, 2007), p. 18. 24 Note that the UDF, after a similar negotiation with the ANC, disbanded itself in August 1991. I would suggest, however, that, in comparison with SAYCO, far less of the UDF’s original character was retained after the merger. The external movement, for the most part, prevailed in terms of structure and leadership. 25 For more detail on the merger...