Oliver Tambo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oliver Tambo (1981)
Oliver Tambo visits the GDR with an ANC delegation, 1978
Oliver Tambo together with the Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt , 1981

Oliver Reginald Tambo (born October 27, 1917 in Mbizana , Mpondoland , † April 24, 1993 in Johannesburg ) was a South African anti- apartheid politician and a key figure in the African National Congress (ANC).

Live and act

As a child, Oliver Tambo attended the regional Ludeke Methodist School in his home region. He later moved to the Anglican Holy Cross Mission School in Flagstaff . As a boarding school student, Tambo continued his education at St Peter's Secondary School in Johannesburg , where he passed his first class matric in 1938 .

After finishing school, Tambo enrolled at University College Fort Hare . For this he received a scholarship from the Transkeian Bunga and obtained a Bachelor of Sciences in 1941 . He then enrolled in a degree in education, but was unable to complete it. In 1942, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela were expelled from University College Fort Hare for their involvement in a student strike against the introduction of compulsory worship at this facility . Nevertheless, Oliver Tambo was considered a devout Christian. In 1942 he returned to Johannesburg as a science and math teacher at his former high school, St Peter's, where he taught until 1947. There he had a major influence on the development of political thinking among the students. This circle then included Duma Nokwe , Joe Molefi and Joe Matthews .

Oliver Tambo was in 1944, along with Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu , one of the founding members of the ANC Youth League and its first secretary. The Youth League proposed a change in tactics in the anti-apartheid movement. The ANC had previously tried to raise its concerns with actions such as petitions or demonstrations. The ANC Youth League found that these actions were not enough to achieve their goals and proposed their own program of action. This program advocated tactics such as boycotts , civil disobedience , strikes, and refusal to collaborate. In 1949, Oliver Tambo was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee . In December 1952 he founded the first black-run law firm in South Africa with Mandela in Johannesburg.

Between 1955 and 1958, Oliver Tambo served as Secretary General of the ANC. After Walter Sisulu was placed under house arrest by the South African government, he was elected Deputy President-General of the ANC, a position created by the action of apartheid laws due to Albert Luthuli's isolated position . In 1956, the Johannesburg bishop Ambrose Reeves proposed him as a candidate for ordination in the Anglican Church . However, this path did not take place because he was arrested in December. He was charged with treason along with 155 other defendants in the Treason Trial , but was released. In 1958 he became the deputy president of the ANC, before he too was banned from attending meetings for five years by the government with a second ban on him for five years.

When the ANC and other political organizations were declared "illegal" in 1960, Tambo left Cape Town for South Africa and first and foremost turned to Bechuanaland with Ronald Segal , editor of Africa South . Abroad, he organized an international opposition to apartheid on behalf of the ANC. He was involved in the formation of the South African United Front , a cooperation between the ANC, the South African Indian Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress , which in 1961 achieved the exclusion of South Africa from the Commonwealth of Nations .

In 1965 he stayed in Tanzania and a training center for ANC fighters was established in the Morogoro area with his significant participation . After all, this was where the military headquarters of his organization was located. After Albert Luthuli's death in 1967, Tambo took over the role of ANC President.

In 1985 he was re-elected as President of the ANC. In the same year he was present at the official opening act of the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania.

In August 1989, Tambo went to a hospital in London because of a faint attack, which resulted in a brain malfunction that adversely affected the mobility of the right half of his body. In January 1990 he traveled to Sweden for rehabilitation , where he went to the Erstagård Clinic, which specializes in such cases . However, it soon became clear that as a result of the health restrictions that had occurred, he was no longer able to cope with the burdens in the top office of the ANC. After 30 years in exile, he returned to South Africa on December 13, 1990 and was elected chairman of the ANC in July 1991. Nelson Mandela, however, took on the more active role in the ANC as his deputy. Oliver Tambo died of a second stroke in 1993 .

family

Oliver Tambo had been married to civil rights activist and nurse Adelaide Tambo , née Tsukudu, since 1956 . The marriage resulted in two daughters (Dudulani, Dalindlela) and a son (Tambi).

Honors

OR Tambos statue in the arrivals hall at Johannesburg International Airport
  • In 1992 the ANC recognized his commitment with the Isitwalandwe award .
  • In 1999 he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Southern Cross in gold.
  • A South African order created on December 6, 2002, with which the South African President honors foreigners who have rendered service to the country, is called the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo .
  • On October 27, 2006, Johannesburg Airport was renamed O. R. Tambo International Airport in commemoration and in recognition of Tambo's merits in the fight against apartheid .
  • On March 21, 2010, Oliver Tambo was posthumously awarded the second highest order of the Republic of Namibia as part of the 20th anniversary of Namibia's independence day. His son accepted the 1st class eagle order .
  • In 2012 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Mapungubwe by the South African government in platinum, the highest level.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Portrait on the ANC website ( Memento from March 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Shelagh Gastrow: Who's who in South African Politics, Number 3 . Johannesburg 1990, pp. 325-327, ISBN 0-86975-399-1
  3. ^ A b Ronald Segal: Political Africa. A Who's Who of Personalities and Parties . Frederick A. Praeger, New York 1961, pp. 257-258
  4. ↑ List of recipients of the order 1999 sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
  5. ^ Order of the Companions of OR Tambo . on www.thepresidency.gov.za (English)
  6. ^ Great reunion at the state banquet in Windhoek, Allgemeine Zeitung, March 24, 2010

Web links

Commons : Oliver Tambo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Tambo, Oliver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tambo, Oliver Reginald (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African civil rights activist and politician (ANC), chairman of the African National Congress
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Mbizana , Mpondoland
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1993
Place of death Johannesburg