History of The African National Congress - Opposition To Apartheid

Opposition To Apartheid

The return of an Afrikaner-led National Party government by the overwhelmingly white electorate in 1948 signaled the advent of the policy of Apartheid. During the 1950s, non-whites were removed from electoral rolls, residence and mobility laws were tightened and political activities restricted.

The successful increase of awareness outside of South Africa achieved in the Indians' movement under the leadership of Gandhi inspired blacks in South Africa to resist the racism and inequality that they, and all other non-whites, were experiencing. The two racial groups began working together, forcing themselves to accept one another and bash their own personal prejudices against one another. This required effort: education supporting the other race and their achievements, and constantly reminding themselves that they needed one another to combat the oppression they were facing. They began collaborating, even jointly campaigning for their struggle to be managed by the United Nations (although in this time, western society was not practising equality for all people either).

The ANC also found its role model in the initial movement by the Indian political parties. They realized that they would need a fervent leader, like Gandhi was for the Indians, who was, in the words of Nelson Mandela, "willing to violate the law and if necessary go to prison for their beliefs as Gandhi had". In 1949 the ANC saw a jump in their membership, which previously lingered around five-thousand, and began to establish a firm presence in South African society.

In June 1952, the ANC joined with other anti-Apartheid organizations in a Defiance Campaign against the restriction of political, labour and residential rights, during which protesters deliberately violated oppressive laws, following the example of Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance in KwaZulu-Natal and in India. The campaign was called off in April 1953 after new laws prohibiting protest meetings were passed.

In June 1955 the Congress of the People, organised by the ANC and Indian, Coloured and White organizations at Kliptown near Johannesburg, adopted the Freedom Charter, henceforth the fundamental document of the anti-Apartheid struggle with its demand for equal rights for all regardless of race. As opposition to the regime's policies continued, 156 leading members of the ANC and allied organisations were arrested in 1956; the resulting "Treason Trial" ended with their acquittal five years later.

The ANC first called for an academic boycott of South Africa in protest of its Apartheid policies in 1958 in Ghana. The call was repeated the following year in London.

In 1959 a number of members broke away from the ANC because they objected to the ANC's reorientation from African nationalist policies. They formed the rival Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe.