Nelson Mandela, the South African Communist Party and the origins of Umkhonto we Sizwe

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to James Sanders and to three anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft of this article, as well as to Sue Onslow for help with publication.

Notes

¹ “Statement of the South African Communist Party on Nelson Mandela,” 6 December 2013, http://www.workers.org/articles/2013/12/06/statement-south-african-communist-party-nelson-mandela/

² African National Congress, “Nelson Mandela: The Large African Baobab Has Fallen,” 5 December 2013, Statement by the Secretary General’s Office, http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=10658

³ Stephen Ellis, “The Genesis of the ANC’s Armed Struggle in South Africa, 1948–1961,” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 4 (2011): 666–8; Irina Filatova and Apollon Davidson, The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era (Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2013), 300–301.

⁴ Irina Filatova, “Mandela and the SACP: Time to Close the Debate?”, 24 June 2015, http://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/mandela-and-the-sacp-time-to-close-the-debate?utm_source=Politicsweb+Daily+Headlines&utm_campaign=9fff469745-DHN_June_25_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a86f25db99-9fff469745-130052781

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ellis, “The Genesis of the ANC’s Armed Struggle.”

⁷ Moses Kotane, “Notes on Some Aspects of the Political Situation in the Republic of South Africa,” 9 November 1961, para. 14: Kasrils papers, A.6.1.4.2., University of the Witwatersrand Historical Papers, Cullen Library.

⁸ The idea that black identity might encompass Coloured and Indian South Africans did not become widespread until the 1970s, and has today once more gone out of general use.

⁹ Filatova and Davidson, The Hidden Thread, 236–46.

¹⁰ Interview with Gail Gerhart, 1 January 1970, http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.gerhart0016

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Elinor Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (Claremont: David Philip, 2002), 112; Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (London: Abacus, 1995[1994]), 184–5.

¹³ The prison memoir is available at nelsonmandela.org (http://www.nelsonmandela.org/images/uploads/ LWOM.pdf) (Robben Island autobiography). On its composition, see Karen Allen, “How a Secret Manuscript Became a Global Bestseller,” 2 November 2011, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15422179. Crucial passages of the prison memoir differ significantly from the published version.

¹⁴ Robben Island autobiography, p. 328. The corresponding, but shorter, published version is in Long Walk to Freedom, 255–56.

¹⁵ Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 205. The article, “In Our Lifetime,” was published in Liberation no.19 (June 1956), 4–8.

¹⁶ Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 206.

¹⁷ Wits University Historical Papers, ANC papers AD 2186, Ga79-1-01: Luthuli to secretary-general ANC, 19 March 1956.

¹⁸ Rusty Bernstein, Memory against Forgetting: Memoirs from a Life in South African Politics, 1938–1964 (New York: Viking, 1999), 149.

¹⁹ Michael Harmel, “Some Notes on the Communist Party in South Africa,” p.11, n. d. [1960]: Wits University Historical Papers, Kasrils papers A 3345, file A6.1.4.1.

²⁰ Ruth First, ed., No Easy Walk to Freedom: Articles, Speeches and Trial Addresses of Nelson Mandela (London: Heinemann, 1965), 55–60. The title of the article was changed to “Freedom in Our Lifetime”, reproducing a slogan invented by the Youth League founder, Anton Lembede. The ANC website reproduces First’s edition of Mandela’s article and not the version actually penned by Mandela in 1956: http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=2603.

²¹ Anthony Sampson, Mandela: The Authorised Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 95.

²² James Myburgh, “Mandela and the Communist Party,” 25 February 2015, http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=984690&sn=Detail&pid=71616.

²³ Interview with Gail Gerhart, 1 January 1970.

²⁴ University of Cape Town, University library, Simons papers, BC1081, file O.5: Jack Simons to John Pule Motshabi, 20 January 1986.

²⁵ University of the Western Cape, Mayibuye Centre, ANC London papers, box 13: note of SACP central committee meeting, London, 12 January 1967.

²⁶ Harmel, “Some Notes on the Communist Party,” 11.

²⁷ Bob Hepple, Young Man with a Red Tie: A Memoir of Mandela and the Failed Revolution, 1960–1963 (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2013), 30.

²⁸ Wits University Historical papers, ANC papers, box 5, Fa61: The ANC’s foreign policy, typescript, 2pp., undated [1956].

²⁹ See, e.g., Nelson Mandela’s critique of US policy, “A New Menace in Africa,” Liberation, 30 (March 1958): 22–6.

³⁰ Hepple, Young Man, 28.

³¹ Paul Trewhela, “Mandela: A Nationalist and a Marxist,” Mail & Guardian, 24 January 2014.

³² Ronnie Kasrils, “Armed and Dangerous”: My Undercover Struggle Against Apartheid (Oxford: Heinemann, 1993), 37.

³³ Email from Paul Trewhela, 1 November 2011. Cf. Brian Bunting, The Rise of the South African Reich (London: Penguin, 1964).

³⁴ Paul S. Landau, “The ANC, MK, and the ‘Turn to Violence’ (1960–1962),” South African Historical Journal 64, no. 3 (2012): 560.

³⁵ Robben Island autobiography, 100.

³⁶ Ibid., 101.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Ibid., 6

³⁹ Cf. Tom Lodge, Sharpeville: An Apartheid Massacre and Its Consequences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

⁴⁰ Filatova and Davidson, The Hidden Thread, 219–20.

⁴¹ Yusuf Dadoo and Vella Pillay, “The Situation in the South African Communist Party,” 14 July 1960, p.1: Kasrils papers, A.6.1.4.2.

⁴² Moses Kotane, “Notes on Some Aspect of the Political Situation in the Republic of South Africa,” 9 November 1961, para.15: Kasrils papers, A.6.1.4.2.

⁴³ Filatova and Davidson, The Hidden Thread, 304–305.

⁴⁴ Vladimir Shubin, ANC: A View from Moscow 2nd rev. ed. (Auckland Park, Jacana, 2008), 26–29.

⁴⁵ Ellis, “The Genesis of the ANC’s Armed Struggle,” 662.

⁴⁶ R.W. Johnson, interview with Rowley Arenstein, London Review of Books 13, no. 4 (21 February 1991).

⁴⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁸ According to Bob Hepple, who organised the rental of the venue: Hepple, Young Man, 36.

⁴⁹ The text of the resolution may be found in an undated memorandum by Michael Harmel in the Kasrils papers, A6.1.4.1.

⁵⁰ Hepple, Young Man, 106.

⁵¹ Ibid.,106–107. At least eight senior members of the SACP from that time have written, stated or hinted that Mandela was a SACP member.

⁵² Wits Historical papers, Sylvia Neame Papers, A2929, Folder E1: Interview with Brian Bunting, London, 14 May 1986. I am grateful to Tom Lodge for this reference.

⁵³ Simons papers, BC1081, 07-2: Minutes of Africa Group meeting, 13 May 1982.

⁵⁴ Quoted in Benjamin Pogrund, “Generosity of Spirit,” in Peter Magubane, ed., Man of the People: A Photographic Tribute to Nelson Mandela (Johannesburg: PanMacmillan & Mutloatse Arts Heritage Trust, 2008), 22.

⁵⁵ Harmel, “Some Notes on the Communist Party,” 10. Joe Slovo, on p. 130 of his eponymous autobiography Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1997) also describes the ultra-secretive method of election to the central committee.

⁵⁶ Reader’s letter from Sir Bob Hepple, London Review of Books 36, no. 2 (23 January 2014).

⁵⁷ Trewhela, “Mandela.”

⁵⁸ Initially by Bernard Magubane et al., “The Turn to Armed Struggle,” in South African Democracy Education Trust, The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2010), 76–77.

⁵⁹ Hepple, Young Man, 105.

⁶⁰ David James Smith, Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years (New York: Little, Brown, 2010), 252–3.

⁶¹ Published eye-witness accounts of the meeting are in Hepple, Young Man, 104–108; Bernstein, Memory against Forgetting, 225–6; Ben Turok, Nothing But the Truth: Behind the ANC’s Struggle Politics (Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2003), 122–3.

⁶² Also implied in Magubane et al., “The Turn to Armed Struggle,” first published in 2004.

⁶³ Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 313.

⁶⁴ Hepple, Young Man, 37.

⁶⁵ Smith, Young Mandela, 248, deduces that the meetings were in early July. Hepple, Young Man, 107, recalls the date as June 1961.

⁶⁶ Scott Everett Couper, Albert Luthuli: Bound by Faith (Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2012). Luthuli’s reaction to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe is described on pp. 111–22.

⁶⁷ Slovo, Slovo, 172.

⁶⁸ “Statement by Chief Albert J. Luthuli,” 12 June 1964, in The United Nations and Apartheid, 1948–1994 (New York: United Nations, 1994), 282.

⁶⁹ “100 Brave Cold to Greet Luthuli,” Rand Daily Mail, 12 December 1961, quoted in Scott Everett Couper, “Emasculating Agency: An Unambiguous Assessment of Albert Luthuli’s Stance on Violence,” South African Historical Journal 64, no. 3 (2012): 4.

⁷⁰ Mandela’s account of this awkward juxtaposition is in Long Walk to Freedom, 338.

⁷¹ Ibid., 353.

⁷² Ibid., 325.

⁷³ Ibid. See also Joe Slovo, “The Three Longest Minutes in My Life,” Dawn, journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe, souvenir issue (1986): 7–9.

⁷⁴ Joe Modise, “The Happiest Moment in My Life,” Dawn, souvenir issue (1986): 10–13.

⁷⁵ Howard Barrell’s interview with Mac Maharaj, 19 November 1990, http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03996/05lv04006/06lv04007.htm

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ Hepple, Young Man, p.107.

⁷⁸ Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, unclassified: letter from Mandela to the Department of Justice, stamped 23 October 1967.

⁷⁹ Undated memorandum in the Kasrils papers, A6.1.4.1: internal evidence suggests it was written in late 1962 or early 1963.

⁸⁰ Source: Michael Harmel.

⁸¹ Ibid.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Couper, Albert Luthuli, 146.

⁸⁴ Karel Sieber and Peter Zidek, Ceskoslovensko a subsaharska Afrika, 1948–1989 [“Czechoslovakia and Sub-Saharan Africa, 1948–1989”] (Prague: Institute of International Relations, 2007), 105. The reference and translation were kindly provided by Dr Milan Oralek.

⁸⁵ Padraig O’Malley’s interview with Hilda Bernstein, 25 August 2004, http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv00017/04lv00344/05lv01461/06lv01476.htm

⁸⁶ Shubin, ANC, 16.

⁸⁷ Kasrils papers, A6.1.4.1.

⁸⁸ Howard Barrell, MK: The ANC’s Armed Struggle (London: Penguin, 1990), 7.

⁸⁹ Quoted in Smith, Young Mandela, 330.

⁹⁰ Turok, Nothing but the Truth, 49.

⁹¹ Filatova and Davidson, The Hidden Thread, 301.

⁹² Bernstein, Memory against Forgetting, 98, n. 3.

⁹³ Interview with Gail Gerhart, 1 January 1970.

⁹⁴ Myburgh, “Mandela and the Communist Party”.

⁹⁵ Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, 122.

⁹⁶ Howard Barrell’s interview with Mac Maharaj, 19 November 1990, http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03996/05lv04006/06lv04007.htm

⁹⁷ Wits University Historical Papers, Everatt papers, A2521, G1b: Jack Simons to David Everatt, 30 October 1990.

⁹⁸ Howard Barrell’s interview with Mac Maharaj, 19 November 1990.

⁹⁹ Myburgh, “Mandela and the Communist Party.”

¹⁰⁰ Cf. Zolani Ngwane, “Mandela and Tradition,” in Rita Barnard, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Nelson Mandela (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 117–22.

¹⁰¹ Personal communications by Paul Trewhela and Flo Duncan. On the period at Kodesh’s flat, Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp.328–29.

¹⁰² Tom Lodge, Mandela: A Critical Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 97–100.

¹⁰³ Hepple, Young Man, 52.

¹⁰⁴ Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 342, unconvincingly claims that Luthuli’s memory was poor and that he subsequently failed to recall the discussions held in mid-1961.

¹⁰⁵ Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, 122.

¹⁰⁶ Remarks from the floor by Tom Lodge, “Mandela: Myth and Reality conference,” Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, 5 December 2014.

¹⁰⁷ Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 86; Sampson, Mandela, 136.

¹⁰⁸ Ben Turok, With My Head Above the Parapet: An Insider Account of the ANC in Power (Auckland Park: Jacana, 2014), 198.

¹⁰⁹ Couper, “Emasculating Agency,” 564–86.

¹¹⁰ Prince Mashele and Mzukisi Qobo, The Fall of the ANC: What Next? (Johannesburg: Picador Africa, 2014), 80.

¹¹¹ Ibid., 81.

¹¹² Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, The Other Side of History: An Anecdotal Reflection on Political Transition in South Africa (Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2006), 15.