ROAD TO FREEDOM, THE : Inkundla Ya Bantu as a Mirror and Mediator if the African Struggle in South Africa, 1938-61

Ime Ukpanah

ISBN 10: 1592213324 / ISBN 13: 9781592213320

Published by AFRICA WORLD PRESS, 2005

About this Item

2005. paperback. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781592213320

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ROAD TO FREEDOM, THE : Inkundla Ya Bantu as a Mirror and Mediator if the African Struggle in South Africa, 1938-61
• Publisher: AFRICA WORLD PRESS
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592213324
• ISBN 13: 9781592213320
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Inkundla ya Bantu played a significant role as an alternative newspaper in forging a new course for the African nationalist struggle in South Africa during the 1940s. The direction of African political discourse changed during this decade from petionary protest to non-violent resistance. Inkundla, for example, served to mediate the African nationalist movement, but the newspaper was a contradictory voice in the struggle to promote a counter-hegemonic discourse in South Africa. On the one hand, Inkundla sought to represent the subjugated African population in ordering a protest agenda that would unify the resistance movement, and it was also a medium used by the Congress Youth League to challenge the cautious and accomodationist ANC leadership. On the other hand, the newspaper framed a discourse of consensus for the African petty bourgeoisie. The CYL's perception of the African struggle was consistent with the reform within Congress. The CYL's main contribution to the African nationalist struggle was its Africanist rhetoric and its appeal for social action by linking resistance as the basis for mass action. The commitment to work within Congress, however, opened up the CYL to be influence by the ANC's more established moderate wing that espoused a non-racial South Africa. The debate over the CYL's relationship with oppositions groups outside Congress involved primarily the Communists. But the Nationalist Party victory in the 1948 election and the adoption of apartheid as official government policy overshadowed the CYL-Communists differences. By the eve of the Defiance of Campaign, they had successfully placed its members in leadership position within the ANC. The CYL, moreover, now accepted a material and class analysis of society and were willing to cooperate with the Communist and other protest groups.

About the Author

Ime Ukpanah is Assistant Professor at Arizona State University.