Ashby Peter Solomzi Mda

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Ashby Peter Solomzi Mda , also known as Ashby Peter Mda , Ashby Solomzi Mda and AP Mda , (born April 6, 1916 in the Herschel district , † August 7, 1993 in Bloemfontein ) was a South African teacher and politician. He was the second president of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

Life

Mda was born the son of a teacher and a foreman on a farm. He attended a Catholic school, although the family was Anglican , and continued his schooling in a Catholic college with Matatiele . After training as a teacher, he looked for a job in the Eastern Cape , where he eventually worked as a gardener and kitchen boy for a white family. In 1937 he went to Witwatersrand , where he was also unable to find employment and had various jobs until he was employed at a Catholic primary school in 1938.

In 1936 he took part in a meeting of the All African Convention (AAC), which he reported in a newspaper as "epoch-making". He became an avowed supporter of the AAC and defended it and its chairman Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu against attacks from within their own ranks, who complained about a weak stance against the Hertzog laws . At the end of 1936, however, Mda turned away from Jabavu, disappointed, and supported Alfred Bitini Xuma , the new President of the African National Congress (ANC). For him, the ANC became the only organization that could implement the idea of African nationalism . Because of his Catholic upbringing, Mda firmly rejected communist ideas and the CPSA , yet he read Das Kapital and Works by Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky .

In 1940 Mda supported the Transvaal African Teachers Association (TATA) in their protest for better pay and became chairman of the salary committee, although it was also a member of the Catholic African Teachers Union (CATU), which opposed the campaign. After Anton Muziwakhe Lembede's arrival in Johannesburg in 1943, Mda sought contact with his old friend; together with him and Jordan Ngubane he developed the founding idea and the manifesto of ANCYL. In 1947 he made his bachelor's degree at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in distance learning. After the sudden death of Lembede, he was elected President of ANCYL in 1947 and President in 1948. During his presidency, Mda focused on the Eastern Cape as a destination for the expansion of the league, and in 1948 a branch was established at Fort Hare University . He pushed the candidacy of Oliver Tambo , his deputy, for the chairmanship of the ANC in order to implement the program of action for the party; However, Tambo called on James Moroka , who was elected in 1949. In 1950 or 1951 Mda withdrew from the leadership of ANCYL, and Nelson Mandela was his successor . In 1959 Mda was one of the ANC members who founded the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

Mda fled to Basutoland (later Lesotho) in 1963 and opened a law firm there in Mafeteng .

Ashby Solomzi Mda 's son is the writer Zakes Mda (* 1948).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brief résumé Mdas (English, accessed on July 13, 2012)
  2. ↑ Interview with Mda 1970 (PDF file, English), accessed on July 10, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Mda, Ashby Peter Solomzi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mda, Ashby Peter; Mda, Ashby Solomzi; Mda, AP
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African teacher and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Herschel district
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1993
Place of death Bloemfontein