ANC

Home > History > Asia and Africa > Southern African History

ANC (African National Congress) This was established in 1923 through the renaming of the South African Native National Congress, itself founded in 1912 as the first national native African political organization. Until the 1940s, it was led by an elite of highly educated Christian Blacks who hoped by persuasion and lobbying to make the White political elite reduce discrimination against Blacks. When the introduction of successive racial laws and the increase of Afrikaner nationalism exposed the ineffectiveness of the ANC's moderation, a new generation including Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo formed the ANC Youth League in 1944, which aimed to secure equality not through the charity of Whites but through the strength of the Blacks. It began to cooperate with the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) in 1947, its militancy increasing further with the start of Malan's apartheid regime in 1948.

The defiance campaign launched in 1952, in which the ANC and the SAIC called for a boycott of identity cards, bantustans, and other expressions of apartheid, provided the ANC for the first time with a mass membership. None the less, under Luthuli's leadership it remained too moderate for its more radical members, who broke away under Sobukwe to form the PAC. The latter organized a march against identity cards which led to the Sharpeville Massacre, whereupon the ANC was banned (8 April 1960). In response, Mandela and others continued the struggle through the establishment of a military wing together with the South African Communist Party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), which for two years led a campaign of bombing state property. Its leaders, including Mandela, were soon arrested, and for the next decade morale was low.

An exodus of several thousand young Blacks, most of whom had been recruited as fighters by the ANC in Zambia and Mozambique, was triggered by the Soweto riots. More importantly, under its president, Tambo, the ANC gradually built up an international anti-apartheid campaign which, together with the vociferous protests of leaders such as Winnie Mandela and Desmond Tutu in South Africa itself, increased South Africa's international isolation and emphasized the leading role of the ANC in the struggle.

The ANC was legalized as part of de Klerk's drive for a solution to South Africa's racial problems in February 1990, to coincide with Nelson Mandela's release from prison. Under the latter's effective leadership, it rapidly became the most authoritative movement representing South African Blacks, a position which was confirmed in the 1994 elections, when it gained over 60 per cent of the popular vote. Despite its strong links with the Communist Party, which had matured in common resistance to the regime since the 1940s, after 1990 the ANC became extremely pragmatic, accepting the need for capitalism and foreign investment. Although from the 1990s the ANC's unity and moderation were guaranteed by the unquestioned authority of its leaders, it faced continuous challenges by radical supporters in Black townships who demanded immediate economic betterment. Under Mbeki's leadership from 1998, the ANC tried to internalize dissent by entering a coalition with the Inkhata Freedom Party. It also promoted government spending on health and education, as well as improving the conditions in townships. It increased its share of the vote to 66 per cent in 1998, but this was due not just to its own strengths but also to the weakness of the other parties.

http://www.anc.org.za

ANC • abbr. African National Congress.