Alfred Bitini Xuma

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Bitini Xuma [ ˈkǁuma ] (born March 8, 1893 in Manzana Village , Engcobo parish , † January 27, 1962 in Johannesburg ) was a South African medic and chairman of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a second married to Madie Beatrice Hall , who served as the first president of the ANC Women's League .

Life

Xuma's house in Sophiatown

Xuma was born into an influential family in the Transkei region. He received his early school education from the age of seven in the Wesleyan Mission School of Manzana, a missionary institution of the Anglican Church . He then took up teacher training at the Pietermaritzburg Training Institute . Xuma's first academic training was in the United States , where he arrived in 1913. He first studied at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and graduated with a degree in agriculture . He then went to the State University of Minnesota , where he earned a bachelor's degree. The medical school began Xuma at the University of Milwaukee , he put it at the Northwestern University in Chicago on. To expand his medical knowledge, Xuma went to Europe and specialized in gynecology , obstetrics and surgery . His path initially led to Austria and Hungary .

Further degrees were obtained in Scotland with a license from the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (LRCS) at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons (LRFPS) at the University of Glasgow .

In 1927 or 1928 he returned to South Africa, founded a surgical practice in Sophiatown , called Empilweni , and came into contact with his first political activities. Xuma married the Liberian Priscilla Mason in Johannesburg in 1931 . This marriage resulted in two children. His first wife died three years after the marriage. After her death, he went abroad again, where he completed a degree in public health care at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and obtained a Ph.D. completed. In 1935 he was elected Vice President of the All African Convention (AAC). Within this political organization, which campaigned for improvements in living conditions among the black population of South Africa, he met with leading figures in this field. For example, Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu , President of the AAC, and Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews , both professors at Fort Hare College . Internal conflicts in the AAC led to the transfer of important members to the ANC .

In 1946, as part of an unofficial delegation, Xuma paid a visit to the United Nations in New York in order to speak out against the plans of the then South African government, which intended to annex the area of South West Africa, with a statement on January 22 .

Xuma was President of the ANC from 1940 to 1949. Under his leadership, the ANC summarized previous political experiences and successes in position papers. Xuma's work is shaped by a constitutional reformist style. With the programmatic paper "African Claims in South Africa", the ANC decided at its annual conference in 1943 a far-reaching theses program with the character of a government declaration. However, the then Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts ignored these positions and did not move on to dialogue. Another document, called the Bill of Rights, called for equal basic rights for black people in South Africa and called for the abolition of discriminatory laws. The demands included equal educational opportunities, the right to vote and freedom of the press, fair access to raw materials and land ownership, equal opportunities in the exercise of the profession, the establishment of collective bargaining rights and the granting of freedom of trade, as well as adequate health care. In questions of discrimination, it was demanded that the state apparatus should refrain from “impolite, raw and inconsiderate treatment” of blacks and that the constitution and legislature should “lift racial barriers”.

His liberal stance came under fire and led to a change of course in this organization. During his term of office, however, there were successful efforts to revitalize the activities and structures of the ANC and develop it into a mass organization.

On Xuma's initiative, the internal structures were reformed in 1943 by means of a new statute, whereby the basis of membership was significantly changed. These changes were called the Xuma Constitution . In future, membership was tied to a regulated financial contribution, women were given the same membership rights as men and people from all South African population groups could be accepted, and the privileged "House of Chiefs" was abolished. In addition, various contacts arose with other protest groups within the anti-apartheid movement during his tenure . This particularly affected the cooperation with the South African Indian Congress (SAIC). A similar agreement reached Xuma on March 9, 1947 with Gagathura Mohambry Naicker of the Natal Indian Congress and with Yusuf Dadoo of the Transvaal Indian Congress . Xuma's merit in this context is the joint finding of position between important political organizations of the black and Indian populations during the worsening apartheid situation in South Africa. Conservative ANC members viewed this course critically because they feared that the partner organizations of the Indian population within the ANC would have too much influence. As a result of this development, pressure from radical positions on Xuma increased, some of them coming from the ANC youth organization , which led to increased cooperation between the youth organization and the South African Communist Party . A growing internal opposition formed against him , the demands of which ultimately led to his resignation as ANC president. In this office he was followed in 1949 by James Sebe Moroka . The political opponents included the young activists Nelson Mandela , Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo . Together they campaigned for a more offensive action against the growing racial segregation policy in South Africa.

Xuma died in 1962 in a hospital in the Soweto district of Johannesburg.

Appreciations and honors

  • Xuma has been at the Cornell University in the list of Alpha Phi Alpha - fraternity among the group reform and social service added.
  • In Durban, Dr AB Xuma Street was named after him.
  • The Sophiatown Museum was built in the former home of Xuma in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg . The building was granted national monument status in 1998. The museum was founded on the initiative of the City of Johannesburg and the Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Center (THMC).
  • Dr AB Xuma Memorial Lecture at the University of Oxford , e.g. by Vusi Madonsela ( Director General, Department of Social Development, South Africa )
  • Reburial and “special state funeral” on March 8, 2020 in Ngcobo

further reading

  • Steven D. Gish: Alfred B. Xuma. African, American, South African. New York University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8147-3134-1 .
  • Peter Joyce: A concise dictionary of South African biography. Francolin Publishers, Cape Town 1999, ISBN 1-86859-037-2 .
  • Jürgen Schadeberg , Bob Gosani et al .: The Fifties people of South Africa: the lives of some ninety-five people who were influential in South Africa during the fifties, a period which saw the first stirrings of the coming revolution . Bailey's African Photo Archives, 1987, ISBN 0-620-10529-1 .
  • Estate documents in the library of the Witwatersrand University .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entry 1940 - 1949: Alfred Bitini Xuma . Short biography on the website of the Heinrich Böll Foundation , accessed on August 9, 2012.
  2. ↑ South Africa reburies Dr. Alfred Bathini Xuma, dead 58 years ago on January 27, 1962. todaynewsafrica.com of March 8, 2020, accessed on March 8, 2020
  3. ↑ a b Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma Timeline 1893-1998. Retrieved January 18, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Short biography on www.anc.org.za ( Memento from October 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  5. ↑ Afzal Sharieff (Ed.), Masood Ali Khan (Ed.), A. Balakishan (Ed.): Encyclopaedia of World Geography , Vol. 17: The Geography of South Africa . New Delhi (Sarup & Sons), 2007, pp. 299-300, ISBN 81-7625-773-7
  6. ↑ Short biography at www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  7. ↑ Entry All-African Convention (English)
  8. ^ Message from Dr. AB Xuma, President-General of ANC, to the United Nations opposing South Africa`s proposal for incorporation of South West Africa Text of the statement on www.anc.org.za ( Memento from June 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  9. ^ Informationsstelle Südliches Afrika eV (Ed.): Documents of the South African liberation movement - from 1943 to 1976 . Bonn 1977, pp. 6-19
  10. ↑ ALFRED BITINI XUMA. biographical entry on www.kituochakatiba.org (English)
  11. ↑ Joe Gaobakwe Matthews. In: THE ROAD TO DEMOCRACY: South Africans telling their stories . PDF p. 2, footnote 4. on www.sadet.co.za (English)
  12. ^ DR AB Xuma Street on the pages of durban.gov.za , accessed on August 9, 2012 (English).
  13. ↑ Makoena Pabale: Sophiatown Museum to open soon . www.joburg.org.za, 2008 ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  14. ↑ City buys Xuma's Sophiatown house . www.joburg.org.za, 2007 ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  15. ↑ Ramaphosa reaffirms land reform plan at AB Xuma funeral. ewn.co.za on March 8, 2020, accessed March 8, 2020
  16. ^ The AB Xuma Papers , The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
personal data
SURNAME Xuma, Alfred Bitini
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician and chairman of the ANC
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Manzana Village
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1962
Place of death Johannesburg