Anton Muziwakhe Lembede

Anton Muziwakhe Lembede OLG (21 March 1914 – 30 July 1947) was a South African activist and founding president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). He has been described as "the principal architect of South Africa's first full-fledged ideology of African nationalism." Lembede had a strong influence on Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. Lembede was regarded as the progenitor of the "Programme of Action" that was adopted as a guiding document by the 1949 meeting of the African National Congress. He died in 1947, aged 33.

Early life

Anton Muziwakhe Lembede was born on 21 January 1914 on the farm of Frank Fell in Eston near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Anton was the eldest of seven children born to Mbazwana Martin and Martha Nora MaLuthuli Lembede. His father Mbazwana Martin was a farm labourer and his mother was a teacher. Anton was home-schooled by his mother, who taught him to read and write until grade four level. He was given the name "Anton" by a priest at Eston. It was only when Anton turned 13 that he started his formal education at the Catholic Inkanyezi School. which at the time, was one of the more prestigious "native" schools. The school saw students coming from central Africa to enrol. Lembede enrolled for the "Native Teachers Higher Primary Certificate". As a student he was noted for dedication, his brilliance with languages and his family's obvious poverty. The latter resulted in him being avoided by other students. Lembede's views at the time were more practical than political and he wrote about the need for education and self-reliance. This reflects the traditional view of his school that had been created by John Dube after hearing the ideas of the American Booker Washington. Lembede moved to Johannesburg after finishing his L.L.B and completed his articles at Pixley ka Isaka Seme's law firm. Seme had first proposed the idea of the ANC and he had been an unimpressive president of the organisation. Seme no longer enjoyed the success of his early career and he looked to Lembede to take over his firm when he retired. So in 1943 he led Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Jordan Ngubane, Ellen Kuzwayo, Albertina Sisulu, Lembede's friend A.P. Mda, Dan Tloome, and David Bopape to become the first elected general president of the ANC Youth League on 10 September 1944. The league wanted to reform the ANC, which they described as "a body of gentlemen with clean hands".

Lembede spent a lot of his time creating the organisation's Manifesto whilst also being elected to be the ANC's secretary in the Transvaal. The following year Lembede, Tambo and Sisulu went on the attack to defend their ideas of African nationalism and they almost succeeded in getting the communists thrown out of the congress in the Transvaal. Possibly as a result both the ANC's National Executive seconded him to help them. He had intestinal problems during the 1940s and he had abdominal surgery in both 1940 and 1941. Lembede had a funeral with many notable attendees. Mda took over the presidency on a temporary basis after Lembede died, but he was elected to the position in time.

Legacy After the publication of Lembede's collected works, one reviewer commented that the South African activist's "ideas achieved canonical status in 1978 with the publication of Gail Gerhart's Black Power in South Africa […] which accorded recognition to Lembede as a pioneering figure in an intellectual lineage that was later embodied in Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko." Be that as it may,

Lembede's legacy is probably the "Youth League manifesto" policy document that he, Mda, and Ngubane worked on for the Youth League. This document challenged the ANC to be more active and to set aside gentle debate. This document was to go on to be a leading policy of the ANC. The document recognized that race was an issue and that Africans needed to seize their inheritance. Lembede was inflexible and rejected the idea of welcoming sympathetic white supporters. He realised that the collaboration and cooperation with the patronising white leaders had only resulted in further discriminatory treatment. Mda said Lembede gave a "clear and pointed expression to the vaguely felt ideas of the age." Mda arranged for the document to be adopted with only small changes by the next conference in Port Elizabeth and Oliver Tambo arranged that the new president of the ANC, who would guide the 1949 ANC conference, would adopt the Programme of Action as their guiding document.

Work