Archives of the Pan AfricanistCongress of Azania (PAC)
EXTENT: Approximately 50 linear meters of records grouped according to office of origin; 413 reel to reel tapes, 149 videotapes, 3 audio cassettes; x linear meters of publications; artifacts.
ACQUISITION: Records received by the University of Fort Hare between 1994 and 1996.
ACCESS: Open pending review by the PAC.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright retained by the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania.
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was formed on 6 April, 1959 by dissidents within the African National Congress (ANC). The events leading to the creation of the PAC were rooted in the Africanist movement that had been growing within the ANC since the early 1940s. The ANC was formed in 1912, initially as the South African Native National Congress, to provide a more permanent, organized union of Africans in the protest against the segregationist laws of the South African Union government. Initial measures taken by the ANC were ineffective on a large scale and by the 1930s the organization was virtually inactive.
In the 1940's, however, new policies were adopted by the ANC in an attempt to revitalize the 30-year-old organization and strengthen its political position. A new constitution was drafted that opened the membership to non-Africans and ties with other liberation organizations, such as the South African Communist Party, were formed. The ANC considered itself a nationalist movement and regarded unity with other resistance movements strategically as well as politically expedient.
Younger members of the ANC were increasingly involved in the reformation of the African National Congress. In 1944, Anton Lembede, Jordon Ngubane, Nelson Mandela and A.P. Mda established aYouth League. Lembede, the Youth League's first president was instrumental in the development of the League's philosophical direction. He encouraged Africans to take pride in their heritage and to build an African state independent of the white community and without the assistance of Europeans or other nationalist groups. Although Lembede died a few years after the formation of the Youth League, his African Nationalism teachings were embodied in the Youth League's basic policy, authored by his successor Mda, and served as the foundation for the Africanist movement within the ANC and the eventual formation of the Pan Africanist Congress. Lembede's teachings were also influential in the Unity Movement and the Black Consciousness Movement of later years.
Youth League members were instrumental in drafting and promoting the Programme of Action, a plan adopted by the national conference of the ANC in 1949 that committed the party to a much more aggressive strategy against the discriminatory laws of the South African government than previously employed. Additionally, the election of the Afrikaner Nationalist Party in 1948 under the slogan of apartheid brought the soon-to-be-realized threat of increasingly rigid segrationist policies. The Programme of Action called for national freedom for Africans and polictical independence from the white government. It also advocated the use of civil disobedience, strikes, stayaways and boycotts in open defiance of discriminatory laws. The tactics advocated in the Programme of Action were put into operation during the Defiance Campaign launched in 1952 to pressure the South African government for the repeal of the Pass Laws and Stock Limitation, the Group Areas Act, the Voters' Representation Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act. The Defiance Campaign was organized by the ANC in collaboration with the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured Peoples Organization, and the Congress of Democrats in an effort to build national support. During the campaign, Youth League members from the Eastern Cape, including A.P. Mda, T. T. Letlake, Robert Sobukwe, C.J. Fazzie, and J.N. Pokela, wrote and distributed pamphlets representing the position of the "Bureau of African Nationalism." The pamphlets were an effort on the part of the Youth Leaguers to assure that the objectives and methods of the Programme of Action were not subordinated to non-African interests The Youth League's efforts were significant in determining the direction and character of the ANC's resistance strategies and policies. Yet the adherence of the Youth League members to the Africanist doctrine of self-determination for Africans prompted their growing concern over the increasingly cooperative and inclusive actions of the ANC leadership towards other liberation organizations.
The Defiance Campaign resulted in over 8000 arrests of blacks and coloureds by the end of the year but was effectively ended by the South African government's retaliation methods of banning or imprisoning many of the organizers, and passing laws making civil disobedience a criminal offense with heavy penalties. The Africanists, however, continued their activities within the ANC in an attempt to capitalize on the nationalist forces that had emerged during the Defiance Campaign.
The focus of the Africanist activities was in Orlando, the largest African residental area southwest of Johannesburg. Potlako K. Leballo was an outspoken member of the Youth League in the Transvaal region in 1952-1954 and became Chairman of the Orlando East ANCYL in 1954. He developed a following among Youth League members and openly opposed what he saw as the ANC leadership's unwillingness to be "real Africans." Robert Mangoliso Sobukwe became associated with Leballo and the Orlando Africanists in 1954 when he took a position in African languages at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Sobukwe had been an active member of the Youth League at the University College of Ft. Hare when a branch was started there in 1948. He worked with Mda on an early draft of the Programme of Action and wrote for and eventually took over the editorship of "The Africanist," the newspaper started by the Orlando Africanists in 1954 under the editorship of Selby Themba Ngendane.
The growing concern of the Africanists over the racially inclusive policies of the African National Congress blossomed into open opposition when plans were initiated for the organization of a national Congress of the People of South Africa, an alliance between the ANC, the Congess of Democrats , the Indian Congress movement and the South African Coloured People's Organisation. The goal of the alliance was to produce a Freedom Charter, a list of demands and grievances against the South African government. The Africanists denounced the ANC's participation and its subsequent adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955.
Following the issuance of the Freedom Charter, many of the organizers of the Congress of the People were arrested on treason and conspiracy charges and enmeshed in the lengthy Treason Trial. This included many of the "charterist" ANC members, providing the Africanists with a more visible position within the ANC. The divisiveness within the organization came to a head in 1958 when Nelson Mandela, the ANC Transvaal President, expelled P.K. Leballo from the party. Due to a ban on political gatherings, the issue was not brought to the membership until a conference was convened in November of that year. The conference erupted in violence and the Africanist delegates were barred from entering the meeting. The Africanists subsequently decided to form their own political group that would promote African initiatives in the struggle against apartheid and the white South African government.
The inaugural conference of the Pan Africanist Congress was held in April, 1959. Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was elected President with P.K. Leballo Secretary-General. The National Executive Committee consisted of Sobukwe, Leballo, Zephaniah Mothupeng, Peter 'Molotsi, S.T. Ngendane, Peter Raboroko, N. D. Nyaose, A.B. Ngcobo, H.S. Ngcobo, H. Hlatswayo, E.A. Mfaxa, N.N. Mahomo, C.J. Fazzie and M.G. Maboza and Z.B. Molete.
Both the ANC and PAC held national conferences in December of 1959. The ANC called for single day anti-pass marches, with March 31, 1960, declared as a national day of action. The PAC, however, favored a sustained, continuing action and decided that the time was favorable to begin a national campaign against the Pass Laws. On 4 March, 1960, Sobukwe called upon the PAC membership to begin "one campaign leading onto another in a never-ending stream of unfolding positive action." Members were instructed to leave their passes at home on 21 March, present themselves at police stations, and invite arrest. The PAC's policy in this campaign was one of non-violence, and in a letter to the Commissioner of the South African Police informing him of the scheduled campaign, Sobukwe reiterated his instructions to participants against violent action and appealed to the police to also refrain from any action that might lead to violence. On the appointed day, crowds gathered in a number of places throughout the country. A large crowd walking to the police station in Sharpeville was fired on by the police, however, killing about 70 persons and wounding over 180, many of them women. The ANC, after originally denouncing the PAC's campaign plans, joined them in declaring a national day of mourning. Strikes, stay-aways and marches continued, and nine days later the government declared a state of emergency. Both parties were banned on 8 April and large numbers of ANC and PAC members were arrested. Most of the PAC leadership, including Mothupeng, Sobukwe and Leballo, were jailed and forced into hard labor. Others, such as Peter 'Molotsi, fled the country or went underground.
Within the next few years, the PAC set up offices outside of South Africa in Maseru, Dar es Salaam, London, Cairo, Accra and many other cities around the world where members established ties with other organizations and international bodies. Sustaining a directed, positive action campaign within South Africa, however, was difficult for the exiled organization with most of its leadership in prison. The PAC did hold a second national conference in December 1960 and at that time adopted a policy of armed insurrection. Violent incidents were occurring throughout South Africa, attributed to an offshoot group of the PAC called Poqo, a shortened version of Ama-Afrika Poqo (the real owners of Africa). The PAC was unable to supply arms to these militants, however, compromising the effectiveness of their actions.
After being released from jail in 1962, Leballo fled restriction and went to Maseru. He established the external headquarters of the PAC there and worked to provide centralized leadership as acting president as designated by Sobukwe. Sobukwe was never able to fulfill his role as president-elect. A few days before he was to be released at the end of his three year sentence, the government passed a law allowing the continuing imprisonment of a person convicted under the security laws if that person was considered likely to further the objectives of communism. Sobukwe was the only person imprisoned under this law and it became known as the Sobukwe clause. He was eventually released from Robben Island in 1970, but lived under heavy restriction in Kimberly until his death in 1978.
The external headquarters of the PAC was transferred to Dar es Salaam in 1964 where relationships had already been established with the Organisation of African Unity Liberation Committee. From Dar es Salaam attention could also be given to training recruits that would eventually form, in 1968, the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the external PAC. However, the history of the PAC in exile became one of dissension, conflict, and bloodshed. There were many accusations of mismanagement regarding the use of funds and resources, and disputes and open hostility over leadership and strategic policies.
A large portion of the conflict revolved around a struggle between Leballo and his supporters who favored self-reliant, revolutionary tactics, and other members of the PAC who favored reform by way of external pressure from such powers as the United Nations and other international bodies. The tension reached a state of crisis in 1967 when the supporters of reform tried to seize the PAC offices in Dar es Salaam. They were thwarted by the Tanzanian authorities and the OAU Liberation Committee. A conference of the PAC in September of 1967 resulted in the suspension of some members and also established a Revolutionary High Command that would provide the formalization of plans for armed revolution. The High Command moved to Lusaka to direct infiltration of armed personnel into South Africa. The reformists, opposed to a military-based policy, tried to take over the Lusaka office in April 1968, but were again stopped. The reformists, however, appealed to the Zambian authorities who arrested Leballo and expelled his supporters from the country.
Another coup was attempted in Dar es Salaam in 1968 when members of PAC's National Executive Committee voted to expel Leballo and four other members of the Revolutionary High Command. Leballo exercised his emergency powers as President and suspended the coup members.
By 1974, the PAC remained officially committed to armed struggle, but APLA had only about 70 trained guerrillas. However, the 1976 Soweto riots, fueled by Africanist movements within South Africa, provoked many people to leave the country and join the military wings of both the PAC and ANC. This new influx of militaristic membership concerned the reformist members, including David Sibeko, the PAC's permanent observer to the United Nations, who saw this as a threat to political dialogue with the South African government.
The leadership of PAC was pressured to adopt a political/diplomatic approach by the reformist faction, which was gaining international as well as African support. Leballo was elected Chairman of the PAC in 1978, but Sibeko's followers dominated the new Central Committee. When Leballo left Dar es Salaam for medical treatment in London, the Central Committee announced that he had resigned and that the council was in control. This led to increasing hostility between factions, culminating in the murder of Sibeko in Dar es Salaam in1979 by APLA members.
The years following Sibeko's murder saw continuing conflict and confusion over the leadership of the PAC. Vus Make, through the support of the Tanzanian government was made acting head of the PAC in Tanzania after Sibeko's death, but was soon replaced by J.N. Pokela after his release from Robben Island. Leballo left Tanzania and eventually went to London in 1982, where his supporters had taken over the office. Zephania Mothopeng also served as president of PAC after his release from prison in 1988 until his death in 1990.
In the mid-1980's, increasing violence, continuing political opposition and a failing economy were taking a toll on the South African government. In 1989, Prime Minister Botha was forced to step down and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk. Also in 1989, Africanists within South Africa decided to organize as the Pan Africanist Movement (PAM). At the initial congress, Clarence Makwetu, an early member of the ANC Youth League and an original member of PAC, was elected President. According to the membership, the Pan Africanist Movement was not organized to replace the PAC but to serve as the "aboveground" unit within the country. In 1990, when de Klerk announced the unbanning of the ANC, PAC and the South African Communist Party, PAM was renamed as the Pan Africanist Congress Internal and Makwetu elected president.
Consequently, the Pan Africanist Congress began the process of changing from an ex-patriot liberation organization to a political party within South Africa and its members began to be repatriated. The PAC received 1.3% of the vote in the 1994 democratic general election and holds 5 seats in Parliament.
The process of rebuilding a political party in South Africa involved closing many of the PAC international offices and missions that had been in existence since the PAC was banned. It was recognized that the records of these offices needed to be transferred to a location that would provide for their safe keeping as well as make them accessible for research and study. The National Executive Council of the PAC decided to create an archive and entered into negotiations with the University of Ft. Hare to act as the repository. On 26 October, 1992, Makwetu formally transferred the custodianship of the PAC archives to the University. The records of the PAC became part of the Liberation Movement Archive housed in the University's National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre.
The project started in 1992 to collect the materials from around the world was headed by a joint PAC-UFH committee, and spearheaded by the appointed Project Director and liaison to the National Heritage Cultural Studies Centre, Mfanasekaya Pearce Gqobose. Gqobose joined the African National Congress Youth League in 1946 and was a member of the Africanist Movement from 1953-1959. He was elected the first Regional Chairman of the PAC in the Eastern Cape and participated in the Positive Action Campaign against the Pass Laws. In 1962, he was appointed Acting Treasurer-General and served as a member of the Poqo planning committee. He was arrested in Lesotho in 1964 and after three years of imprisonment went to Tanzania where he served in many different capacities in the PAC external headquarters in Dar es Salaam. He returned to South Africa in 1992 and is a member of the National Executive Committee.
The joint PAC-UFH committee visited offices, interviewed members about existing records and documents and advised them on the types of materials to be collected and sent to Ft. Hare. Personal papers were not required to be included but were accepted on a voluntary basis. Currently in the PAC collection there are the records from the mission to the United Nations, the United Kingdom mission in London, the external headquarters in Dar es Salaam, and offices in Johannesburg and Harare, Zimbabwe. These represent only a small portion of the total number of offices and missions that were established by the PAC in exile. Limited funds and a lack of sufficient numbers of personnel to assist in this project have handicapped the process of identifying and retrieving documents from all over the globe.
The majority of the records in the collection date between 1975 and 1994. Included in the collection are administrative documents, such as policy statements, financial records and correspondence statements. There are also publications produced by the PAC or collected by them, photographs, and newspapers cuttings and a few artifacts, such as calendars, flags, posters and campaign pins. In addition, there are audio and videotapes produced by different offices and departments of the PAC.
The archivists at the University of Ft. Hare inventoried the records in this collection between 1994 and 1996. At that time, classification and arrangement of the records was started. The bulk of the processing work was performed between March and June of 1998 by archivists and students from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) in collaboration with the archivists and student employees at Ft. Hare. Records received from an office were maintained as a unit, except for publications and audio/visual materials, which were separated and shelved separately to provide more efficient access and preservation. Records from the offices, as well as the publications and audio andvideo materials, are described in detail and listed in separate documents:
Gerhart, Gail M., Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of Ideology, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
Horrell, Muriel, Action, Reaction and Counter-action; A Brief Review of Non-white Political Movements in South Africa, Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1971.
Karis, Thomas G. and Gail M.Gerhart, From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1990, Stanford, Calif., Hoover Institution Press [1972- ,vol. 1-4]; vol. 5, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
Leeman, Bernard, Lesotho and the Struggle for Azania Africanist Political Movements in Lesotho and Azania: The Origins and History of the Basutoland Congress Party and the Pan Africanist Congress, London.: University of Azania, 1985.
Lodge, Tom, Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945, London: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983.
Pogrund, Benjamin, How Can Man Die Better: Sobukwe and Apartheid, London: Peter Halban, 1990.
Worden, Nigel, The Making of Modern South Africa, 2nd ed., Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
http://www.paca.org.za/ -- the official home page of the Pan Africanist Congress.
Archives of the Pan Africanist
Congress of Azania (PAC)
Last updated 18 September 1998