Albert Luthuli
Albert John Luthuli was a South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader, and politician who served as the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his murder in 1967.
Luthuli was born to a Zulu family in 1898 at a Seventh-day Adventist mission in Bulawayo, Rhodesia. In 1908 he moved to Groutville, where his parents and grandparents had lived, to attend school under the care of his uncle. After graduating from high school with a teaching degree, Luthuli became principal of a small school in Natal where he was the sole teacher. He accepted a government bursary to study for the Higher Teacher's Diploma at Adams College. After the completion of his studies in 1922, he accepted a teaching position at Adams College where he was one of the first African teachers. In 1928, he became the secretary of the Natal Native Teachers' Association, then its president in 1933.
Luthuli's entered South African politics and the anti-apartheid movement in 1935, when he was elected chief of the Umvoti River Reserve in Groutville. As chief, he was exposed to the injustices facing many Africans due to the South African government's increasingly segregationist policies. This segregation would later evolve into apartheid, a form of institutionalized racial segregation, following the National Party's election victory in 1948. Luthuli joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was elected the provincial president of the Natal branch in 1951. A year later in 1952, Luthuli led the Defiance Campaign to protest the pass laws and other laws of apartheid. As a result, the government removed him from his chief position as he refused to choose between being a member of the ANC or a chief at Groutville. In the same year, he was elected President-General of the ANC. After the Sharpeville massacre, where sixty-nine Africans were killed, leaders within the ANC such as Nelson Mandela believed the organisation should take up armed resistance against the government. Luthuli was initially against the use of violence. He later gradually came to accept it, but stayed committed to nonviolence on a personal level. Following four banning orders, the imprisonment and exile of his political allies, and the banning of the ANC, Luthuli's power as President-General gradually waned. The subsequent creation of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's paramilitary wing, marked the anti-apartheid movement's shift from nonviolence to an armed struggle.
Inspired by his Christian faith and the nonviolent methods used by Gandhi, Luthuli was praised for his dedication to nonviolent resistance against apartheid as well as his vision of a non-racial South African society. In 1961, Luthuli was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in leading the nonviolent anti-apartheid movement. Luthuli's supporters brand him as a global icon of peace similar to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, the latter of whom was a follower and admirer of Luthuli. He formed multi-racial alliances with the South African Indian Congress and the white Congress of Democrats, frequently drawing a backlash from Africanists in the ANC. The Africanist bloc believed that Africans should not ally themselves with other races, since Africans were the most disadvantaged race under apartheid. This schism led to the creation of the Pan-Africanist Congress.
Early life
Albert John Luthuli was born at the Solusi Mission Station, a Seventh-day Adventist missionary station, in 1898 to John and Mtonya Luthuli who had settled in the Bulawayo area of Rhodesia. He was the youngest of three children and had two brothers, Mpangwa, who died at birth, and Alfred Nsusana. Luthuli's father died when he was about six months old, and Luthuli had no recollection of him. His father's death led to him being mainly raised by his mother Mtonya, who had spent her childhood in the royal household of King Cetshwayo in Zululand.Mtonya had converted to Christianity and lived with the American Board Mission prior to her marriage to John Luthuli. During her stay, she learned how to read and became a dedicated reader of the Bible until her death. Despite being able to read, Mtonya never learned how to write. After their marriage, Luthuli's father left Natal and went to Rhodesia during the Second Matabele War to serve with the Rhodesian forces. When the war ended, John stayed in Rhodesia with a Seventh-day Adventist mission near Bulawayo and worked as an interpreter and evangelist. Mtonya and Alfred then travelled to Rhodesia to reunite with John, and Luthuli was born there soon after.
Luthuli's paternal grandparents, Ntaba ka Madunjini and Titsi Mthethwa, were born in the early nineteenth century and had fought against potential annexation from Shaka's Zulu Kingdom. They were also among the first converts of Aldin Grout, a missionary from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which was based near the Umvoti River north of Durban. The abasemakholweni, a converted Christian community within the Umvoti Mission Station, elected Ntaba as their chief in 1860. This marked the start of a family tradition, as Ntaba's brother, son Martin, and grandson Albert were also subsequently elected as chiefs.
Youth
Around 1908 or 1909, the Seventh-day Adventists expressed their interest in beginning missionary work in Natal and requested the services of Luthuli's brother, Alfred, to work as an interpreter. Luthuli and his mother followed, and departed Rhodesia to return to South Africa. Luthuli's family settled in the Vryheid district of Northern Natal, and resided on the farm of a Seventh-day Adventist. During this time, Luthuli was responsible for tending to the missionary's mules as educational opportunities were not available. Luthuli's mother recognised his need for a formal education and sent him to live in Groutville under the care of his uncle. Groutville was a small village inhabited predominantly by poor Christian farmers who were affiliated with the nearby mission station run by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The ABM, which commenced operations in Southern Africa in 1834, was a Congregationalist organisation responsible for setting up the Umvoti Mission Station. After the death of ABM missionary Aldin Grout in 1894, the town surrounding the mission station was renamed Groutville.Luthuli resided in the home of his uncle, Chief Martin Luthuli, and his family. Martin was the first democratically elected chief of Groutville. In 1901, Martin founded the Natal Native Congress, which would later become the Natal branch of the African National Congress. Luthuli had a pleasant childhood as his uncle Martin was guardian over many children in Groutville, which led to Luthuli having many friends of his own age. In Martin's traditional Zulu household, Luthuli completed chores expected of a Zulu boy his age such as fetching water, herding, and building fires. Additionally, he attended school for the first time. Under Martin's care, Luthuli was also provided with an early knowledge of traditional African politics and affairs, which aided him in his future career as a traditional chief.
Education
Luthuli's mother, Mtonya, returned to Groutville and Luthuli returned to her care. They lived in a brand-new house built by his brother, Alfred, on the site where their grandfather, Ntaba, had once lived. In order to be able to send her son to boarding school, Mtonya worked long hours in the fields of the land she owned. She also took in laundry from European families in the township of Stanger to earn the necessary money for school. Luthuli was educated at a local ABM mission school until 1914, and then transferred to the Ohlange Institute.Ohlange was founded by John Dube, who was the school principal at the time Luthuli attended. Dube was educated in America but returned to South Africa to open the Ohlange Institute to provide an education to black children. He was the first President-General of the South African Native National Congress and founded the first Zulu-language newspaper, Ilanga lase Natal. Luthuli joined the ANC in 1944, partially out of respect to his former school principal.
Luthuli describes his experience at the Ohlange Institute as "rough-and-tumble." The outbreak of World War I led to rationing and a scarcity of food among the African population. After attending Ohlange for only two terms, Luthuli was transferred to Edendale, a Methodist school near Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal. It was at Edendale that Luthuli participated in his first act of civil disobedience. He joined a protest against a punishment which made boys carry large stones long distances, damaging their uniforms, and leaving many unable to afford replacements. The demonstration failed and Luthuli along with the rest of the strikers were punished by the school. At Edendale, Luthuli developed a passion for teaching and went on to graduate with a teaching degree in 1917.
Teaching
Around the age of nineteen years old, Luthuli's first job after graduation came as a principal at a rural intermediate school in Blaauwbosch, located in the Natal midlands. The school was small, and Luthuli was the sole teacher working there. While teaching at Blaauwbosch, Luthuli lived with a Methodist's family. As there were no Congregational churches around him, he became the student of a local Methodist minister, the Reverend Mthembu. He was confirmed in the Methodist church and later became a lay preacher.Luthuli proved himself to be a good teacher and the Natal Department of Education offered him a bursary in 1920 to study for a Higher Teacher's Diploma at Adams College. Following the completion of his two years of study, he was offered another bursary, this time to study at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape. He refused, as he wanted to earn a salary to take care of his ageing mother. This led him to accept a teaching position at Adams College, where he and Z. K. Matthews were among the first African teachers at the school. Luthuli taught Zulu history, music, and literature, and during his time as a teacher, he met his future wife, Nokukhanya Bhengu. She was also a teacher at Adams and the granddaughter of a Zulu chief. Luthuli was committed to providing quality education to African children and led the Teachers' College at Adams where he trained aspiring teachers and travelled to different institutions to teach students.