A
B Xuma
Autobiography
and Selected Works
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Dr A B Xuma, ca.
1930 |
Edited by
Peter Limb ISBN 978–0–9814264–3–3 Peter Limb is
Adjunct Associate Professor of History and Africana Bibliographer at Peter Limb's
interview on "Africa Past and Present": at http://afripod.aodl.or
http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/is-motlanthe-the-new-ab-xuma-1.1437788#.UMhWJnmuKyA |
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Alfred Bitini
Xuma (1893-1962) is best known as the president who
revived the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1940s and was then
defeated for office by the Congress Youth League. Less known is his important
public career as a medical doctor and social reformer, or the continuity of
his thought over three decades of writings and speeches, in which he
articulated a consistent critique of white domination, inequality and state
policies of segregation and apartheid. Xuma’s
ongoing concerns with national liberation, health, and black identity lend
his works a curious resonance with today’s burning issues. This volume brings
together for the first time the works of this major African political and
social leader of the mid-twentieth century, combining his previously
unpublished autobiography with a careful selection of his prodigious output
of letters, speeches, pamphlets, and submissions to government commissions. |
The subjects he treats range
across politics, health and medicine, the pass laws, gender, beer, taxation,
housing, education, crime, trade unions, conditions in Alexandra,
international affairs and the onset of apartheid. He narrates his own life and
that of comrades and friends such as Charlotte Maxeke
and the great Xhosa poet S.E.K. Mqhayi. The book
opens up new perspectives on Xuma’s life and times,
and on related themes of medical, social, and ANC history. |
II.3.ii To The World
‘Dr. Xuma’s
Letter Congress Would Not Read’. 28 January 1956.
…Many who
dare to criticise the hierarchy have been expelled or
‘liquidated’ individually or en masse without a democratic hearing. This
attitude is foreign to Congress as a democratic movement and smacks of
totalitarianism or authoritarianism which a movement like Congress cannot
countenance and still claim to be fighting for freedom from domination and
suppression. d) The Congress leadership seems to have turned their backs
against the African National Congress Nation-building Programme
of the 1940s and have even forgotten the Congress Charter of Human Rights ‘The
Africans’ Claims’ in South Africa of December 16, 1945, which can only be
superseded by the Charter of Human Rights of the United Nations instead of
other vague, inconclusive so-called charters, which merely defer and confuse
the Africans’ just and immediate claims. Congress agreed in 1946 to co-operate
with other non-European fellow nationals on all points of common interest but
insisted that the respective national organisations
must maintain their identity as integrated regiments in the struggle for common
citizenship. This was intended to make each organisation
play its full part in the struggle and bear the necessary sacrifices. It was to
avoid the danger of sections using others without making sacrifices themselves.
Many of the
delegates are new in Congress. To them I say: Ask the old stalwarts with whom I
have struggled in the forties where we stood then. Above all, ask my
‘Kindergarten Boys’ [A derisory
reference to ANCYL leaders such as Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.] of the African National Congress Youth League whose
foundation representatives met with me in my library at home and were baptised and established by me and the late Mr. R.V. Selope Thema at the BMSC in
Johannesburg as the African National Congress Youth League, what they stood
for. To them I say remember the 1940s, Remember Africa!
e) By
acting on the principle ‘of action for action’s sake and for propaganda
reasons’ instead of aiming at achieving results, Congress, through the Defiance
Campaign, the Western Areas Removal Scheme and the School Boycott, the Congress
aroused vain hopes in the breasts of the struggling Africans and made promises
of ‘secret weapons’ and ‘provision of services’ for which no preparations were
made. It will be wise for Congress not to embark on revolutionary tactics
unless the leaders with the rank are prepared to pay the price. If leaders
arouse the masses and the leaders then fail the masses in the testing hour the
loyalty and faith of the masses is shaken in the leadership, and what is worse,
in the Organisation itself. Such actions, under the
circumstances, tended to set the clock of our progress back many years. I
appeal to the Annual Conference to rescind its resolution of School Boycott.
With no
effective alternative system of education, the boycott of schools with its
interference with children and teachers, is bound to
be worse for African progress than Bantu Education; in fact, it is not only negative
but harmful in that in the long run, it will cause the African people to turn
against the ANC.
I must
appeal to all delegates to make this Conference one of the most constructive
conferences, for examination and re-assessment of our methods, policies and
attitudes. One and all must realise no one else will
ever free the Africans but the Africans themselves. Their genuine friends can
help them, but the Africans themselves must rely on themselves. We must learn
to do things for ourselves in order to grow, to plan our programme
and campaigns and rely upon our own leadership. Until we can do that, have
faith in ourselves as well as self-reliance, depend upon our inner strength, we
do not deserve freedom and could not maintain it if it were offered us on a
platter. Let us re-organise our people, re-integrate
the African National Congress as the mouthpiece of the African people. We must organise ourselves not against other nationals, or to gain
anything at anyone else’s expense, but only that we must gain strength in our
unity because ‘charity begins at home’ and there can be no internationalism
without nationalism. Leadership means service for and not domination over
others. True and genuine leaders serve the cause of the people and do not
expect the cause to serve them or become a source of profit and honour for them.
‘Right not might, freedom not serfdom’.
Yours for the cause, A.B. Xuma.