Josiah Tshangana Gumede

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Josiah Tshangana Gumede (born October 9, 1867 in Healdtown Village near Fort Beaufort , † November 6, 1946 , also known as JT Gumede ), was a South African politician, anti- apartheid fighter and from 1927 to 1930 President of the African National Congress ( ANC).

Life

education and profession

Gumede was born to Methodist Christians from the Qwabe Zulu tribe. His father was the chief of the tribe. Little is known about his childhood and youth; he had a younger brother and three or four sisters. After his school days in 1882 or 1883 Gumede went to a sister college of St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown , which was called the Kaffir Institute because of its admission by blacks . He was trained as a teacher there and then taught in Somerset East and Natal , where he quickly rose to become an advisor ( Induna ) to the young King Dinuzulu . Gumede was a sharp opponent of the British Protectorate over Zululand and the claims of the Orange Free State against the Zulu.

After the quickly suppressed uprising of the Zulu against the Boers in 1887, he went to Bergville and taught at Adams College, where Albert John Luthuli and John Langalibalele Dube were also active. A visit to the Virginia Jubilee Singers resulted in Gumede forming a Zulu choir with others , which quickly became famous in the area and toured the UK . During the trip the choir fell out, Gumede returned impoverished to South Africa and settled in Rookdale near Bergville. In June 1894 he married Margareth Rachel Sithole, and in 1895 he was appointed advisor and spokesman to Chief Ncwadi. In that capacity, he had a tough argument with David Giles, an administrative officer who Gumede believed was violating Native Administration principles .

As an ANC politician

In the Second Boer War , Gumede fought as the leader of a group of Basotho scouts on the British side in the hope that a British victory would have a positive effect on the black population of Natal. When hope was not fulfilled, he founded the Natal Native Congress (NNC) together with Dube and others in June 1900 , the goals of which were to raise political awareness and collect complaints. He served intermittently as secretary and vice-president of Congress. From 1905 to 1919 he worked as a real estate agent in a law firm and supported the land claims of two Basotho tribes against the Orange Free State. He traveled to London with the chiefs to present a petition that was rejected. On his return in 1907 he was arrested for illegally leaving the country and fined ten pounds . In the same year he joined the organization Iliso Lesizwe Esimnyama ( Eye of the Black Nation ), which wanted to unite the black population and raise their standard of living.

The draft constitution of the South African Union in 1909 strengthened Gumede's political views and activities, as it hardly took into account the status and rights of the black population. From 1910 he became increasingly involved in the NNC with the aim of uniting the two associations in Pietermaritzburg and Durban , which in 1912 led to the founding of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in Bloemfontein . Gumede was elected to the executive council and in 1913 was a member of a deputation to inspect black schools. In 1919 he was a SANNC deputy for the Versailles Conference and with Sol Plaatje at the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George , the Archbishop of Canterbury and the House of Commons . The complaints they brought up did not lead to the desired success, Lloyd George attested Louis Botha a "noble character" and only agreed to talk to Jan Christiaan Smuts about whom the SANNC could bring his complaints to. Gumede stayed in Great Britain until 1922 and made contact with various parties and organizations, including the Independent Labor Party and the pacifist Union of Democratic Control .

In 1923 the SANNC was renamed the African National Congress (ANC), Sefako Mapogo Makgatho remained president . There were disputes between Dube and Gumede over the direction of the NNC. While Dube preferred an independent party in contrast to the ANC, Gumede favored a connection to the ANC and founded the Natal African Congress (NAC). After Dube and his two sympathizers were not re-elected in 1924, Gumede became president of the NNC and publicly and strongly criticized the racial segregation laws of the Hertzog government . Together with James La Guma from the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, later SACP), he was a delegate of the ANC in 1927 at the first international conference of the League against imperialism and colonial oppression in Brussels . From there he visited Berlin at the invitation of the Communist Party of Germany . In July 1927 he was elected President of the ANC in place of Zaccheus Richard Mahabane . In this capacity he traveled to the Soviet Union and met Josef Stalin . Although Gumede was liberal, he was enthusiastic about communism and recognized its importance for the freedom struggle in South Africa. When he returned in February 1928, a mass event was held in Cape Town by the ANC and the CPSA, who now wanted to fight together for "African liberation". He expanded contact and cooperation with communist groups; Following the example of the Soviet Union, he relied on mass events and public rallies. In 1929 Gumede was elected chairman of the League Against Imperialism in South Africa and the newly formed League of African Rights ; in the same year he bought the newspaper Abantu Batho for the ANC .

Deselected as President of the ANC

Gumede was not without controversy within the party; he was accused of preoccupying himself with communism rather than the party, neglecting finances and being a bad administrator. The rifts led to the resignation of the entire executive committee of the ANC in early 1930. Thomas Mapikela became the interim president and in the April 1930 election Gumede lost to Pixley ka Isaka Seme . After being voted out of office, he continued to work as the editor of the ANC newspaper and was elected delegate to the Conference of Black Workers in London in May 1930, but was unable to attend because he was refused entry. In 1932 the Natal African Congress (NAC) elected him president, and he stepped up his fight against the Hertzog government by calling on the All African Convention (AAC) to reject the laws and become more militant in 1935 . The appeal failed and the AAC decided to participate in the Native Representative Council to change the system from within. Gumede was nominated but not elected; In 1942 he was no longer nominated. At the ANC's annual conference in 1943, the party named him honorary lifelong president. Shortly before his death in 1946, Gumede saw the ANC decide to take a more radical course.

As part of its 100th anniversary celebration, the ANC made April 2012 the month of remembrance of Gumede. Also in April 2012 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in gold.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zuma to honor late ANC president, Josiah Gumede ( Memento of April 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: SABC News from April 19, 2012, accessed on May 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ Xolani Mbanjwa: Peter Mokaba gets national order (overview of the religious ceremonies in 2012) . In: City Press of April 23, 2012, accessed on August 7, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Gumede, Josiah Tshangana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gumede, JT
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician, anti-apartheid fighter, President of the ANC
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Healdtown Village at Fort Beaufort
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1946