James Arthur Calata

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James Arthur Calata (born July 22, 1895 Debe Nek , Cape Colony , † June 16, 1983 in Cradock ) was a South African politician, Anglican clergyman and from 1936 to 1949 Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC).

Life

Calata was born into a poor farming family and educated at St. Matthews College , Grahamstown , England between 1911 and 1914 . Until 1918 he taught there as an assistant teacher . After his marriage in 1918, he completed a two-year apprenticeship as a pastor , at the end of which he was ordained a deacon . His first missions were in Port Elizabeth and Somerset East . After his ordination in 1928 Calata was sent to Cradock, where he stayed until his retirement and settled in a township . He was involved with the African Boy Scouts , supervised 30 lay priests and six schools, and regularly visited the mission's field stations.

In 1930 Calata joined the ANC and was elected regional president of the party in the Cape Province that same year . After his election as Secretary General of the ANC in 1936, he was politically involved in the election of Pixley ka Isaka Seme and the election of Zaccheus Richard Mahabane and finally of Alfred Bitini Xuma as President. In 1942 he was nominated Bishop of Transkei , but his election was prevented by white Anglicans. He tried relatively unsuccessfully to politicize clergy and took up an idea of Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu by founding the Cape Midlands Interdenominational African Ministers Association , an association that should be a mouthpiece vis-à-vis the government and unite the population groups of South Africa. With the end of Xuma’s presidency, Calata’s term as general secretary also ended.

In 1952 he was banned from political work as part of the Defiance Campaign ; He was able to continue his spiritual work with conditions. In 1956 he chaired the counter-conference to the Tomlinson Commission , in the same year he was indicted in the Rivonia trial , but later acquitted and again banned from working. In 1959 Calata was elected canon of Grahamstown Cathedral. Under the state of emergency he was the 1960 South African Police arrested again and lack of documentary evidence for possession of two photos of ANC leaders using the Suppression of Communism Act to six months imprisonment suspended sentence. In 1968 the ban on activity ended and Calata retired; he remained canon in Grahamstown. Over 5,000 people attended his funeral in June 1983.

Calata was the grandfather of Fort Calata , an anti- apartheid fighter who was murdered by South African security forces in 1985 (see also: Cradock Four ).

Awards

Web links

  • CV at South African History Online (English)
  • CV in the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are different details about his place of birth. According to South African History Online (accessed August 13, 2012, English) and the library of the Witwatersrand University (accessed August 13, 2012, English) he was born in Debe Nek , according to the Dictionary of African Christian Biography ( Memento from 10 May 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English) in Rabula near Keiskammahoek , according to the pages of the South African Presidential Office (English, accessed on April 16, 2018) in Nxarhumi .
  2. ↑ Jack Mawande: Struggle icon James Calata to be celebrated. ( Memento from April 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) The New Age (English; archive version)
  3. ↑ Fort Calata's CV at South African History Online , accessed August 13, 2012.
  4. ↑ Honor on the website of the South African Presidential Office (English), accessed on April 16, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Calata, James Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Calata James; Calata YES
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician; Secretary General of the AANC (1936–1949)
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Debe Nek , Eastern Cape
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1983
Place of death Cradock