Oliver Reginald Tambo
A Brief Biography
Born five years after the birth of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo spent most of his
life serving in the struggle against apartheid. 'O R', as he was popularly known by his
peers, was born on 27th October 1917 in a rural town, Mbizana, in eastern Mpondoland in
what was then the Cape Province (now Eastern Cape). His parents had converted to
Christianity shortly before he was born.
At the age of seven he began his formal education at the Ludeke Methodist School in the
Mbizana district and completed his primary education at the Holy Cross Mission. He then
transferred to Johannesburg to attend St Peters College, in Rossettenville, where he
completed his high school education.
From St Peters, Tambo went to study at the University College of Fort Hare, near Alice,
where he obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1941. It was at Fort Hare that he
first became involved in the politics of the national liberation movement. He led a
student class boycott in support of a demand to form a democratically elected Student's
Representative Council. As a consequence he was expelled from Fort Hare and was thus
unable to complete his Bachelor of Science honours degree.
In 1942, he returned to St Peters College as a science and mathematics teacher. At St
Peters he was to teach many who later were to, play prominent roles in the ANC. Among
these were Duma Nokwe who became the first black South African Advocate of the Supreme
Court and a Secretary-General of the ANC.
It was while he was in Johannesburg that Tambo threw himself body and soul into the
ANC. He was among the founding members of the ANC Youth League (ANC YL) in 1944 and became
its first National Secretary. He was elected President of the Transvaal ANCYL in 1948 and
national vice-president in 1949.
In the ANCYL, Tambo teamed up with Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Ashby Mda, Anton
Lembede, Dr William Nkomo, Dr C.M.Majombozi and others to bring a bold, new spirit of
militancy into the post-war ANC. In 1946 Tambo was elected onto the Transvaal Executive of
the ANC. In 1948 he, together with Walter Sisulu were elected onto the National Executive
Committee. This was of great significance to the ANCYL's efforts to change the ANC.
Instrumental in achieving this transformation was the Programme of Action, piloted by
the ANCYL from branch level to the 1949 national conference at Bloemfontein O.R. Tambo
served on the Committee that drew up the Programme of Action, which was adopted as
national policy in 1949.
The Programme of Action envisaged the transformation of the ANC from an organisation
that held public meetings and occasionally petitioned the government to a campaigning
movement that would draw in large numbers of people through mass actions, Involving civil
disobedience, strikes, boycotts and other forms of non-violent resistance. It was through
these means that the ANCYL hoped to change the ANC from an organisation addressing the
African elite to a movement of struggle involving the mass of uneducated and unskilled
Black workers.
Tambo left teaching soon after the adoption of the Programme of Action and set up a
legal partnership with Neslon Mandela. The firm soon became known as a champion of the
poor, victims of apartheid laws with little or no money to pay their legal costs.
During the Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws of 1952, Oliver Tambo was among the
numerous volunteers who courted imprisonment by deliberately breaking apartheid laws. His
law firm partner and colleague, Nelson Mandela was the National volunteer in chief.
The South African government's attempts to suppress the Defiance Campaign resulted in
one of the first mass trials in South African legal history. Though he himself was not
among the accused, Tambo was close to the trial. It resulted in the designation of Sisulu
and others found guilty of organising the Defiance Campaign as statutory
"Communists". (That is, though they were not Communists, in terms of the
violations of the Suppression of Communism Act they had committed, the judiciary declared
them "Communists" in terms of the statute.) One result was in 1955 Walter
Sisulu, Secretary General of the ANC was banned in terms of the Suppression of Communism
Act and ordered to resign his post as Secretary General.
Oliver Tambo was appointed to fill the post, pending ratification by the annual
conference.
Hounded by banning orders and other restrictions, many of Tambo's peers were unable to
attend the Congress of the People in June 1955.
Oliver Tambo was not only on the platform but also served on the National Action
Council which headed the mobilisation for the COP. It was because of this role that Tambo
found himself among the 156 accused in the marathon Treason Trial in 1956.
In 1958, Oliver Tambo left the post of Secretary General to become the Deputy President
of the ANC. The following year, 1959, he like many of his colleagues was served with five
year banning order. After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, Tambo was designated by the ANC
to travel abroad to set up the ANC's international mission and mobilise international
opinion in opposition to the apartheid system.
Working in conjunction with Dr
Yusuf Dadoo he was instrumental in the establishment of the South African
United Front, which brought together the external missions of the ANC, the PAC,
the SA Indian Congress and the South West African National Union (SWANU). As
a result of a very successful lobbying campaign the South African United Front
was able to secure the expulsion of South Africa from the Commonwealth in 1961.
After this initial success the SAUF broke up in July 1961.
Assisted by African government, Tambo was able to establish ANC mission in Egypt,
Ghana, Morocco and in London. From these small beginnings, under his stewardship the ANC
acquired missions in 27 countries by 1990. These include all the permanent members of the
UN Security Council, with the exception of China, two missions in Asia and one in
Australasia.
The suppression of the 1961 stay-at-home strike led to the ANC adopting the armed
struggle as part of its strategy. Tambo was again an important factor in securing the
co-operation of numerous African governments in providing training and camp facilities for
the ANC.
In 1965 Tanzania and Zambia gave the ANC camp facilities to house trained Umkhonto we
Sizwe (MK) combatants. In 1967, after the death of ANC President General Chief Albert J.
Luthuli, Tambo became Acting president until his appointment to the Presidency was
approved by the Morogoro Conference in 1969.
During the 1970s Oliver Tambo's international prestige rose immensely as he traversed
the world, addressing the United Nations and other international gatherings on the issue
of apartheid. He became the key figure in the ANC's Revolutionary Council (RC) which had
been set up at the Morogoro Conference to oversee the reconstruction of the ANC's internal
machinery and to improve its underground capacity.
When Portuguese colonialism collapsed in 1975, the ANC stood poised to take maximum
advantage of the geo-political changes. Angola offered camp and training facilities for
MK, and the long- standing relationship with Frelimo enabled the ANC to acquire diplomatic
facilities close to South Africa.
In 1985 Tambo was re-elected ANC President at the Kabwe Conference. In that capacity he
served also as the Head of the Politico-Military Council (PMC) of the ANC, and as
Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Among black South African leaders, Oliver Tambo was probably the most highly respected
on the African continent, in Europe, Asia and the Americas. During his stewardship of the
ANC he raised its international prestige and status to that of an alternative to the
Pretoria Government. He was received with the protocol reserved for Heads of State in many
parts of the world.
During his years in the ANC, Oliver Tambo played a major role in the growth and
development of the movement and its policies. He was among the generation of African
nationalist leaders who emerged after the Second World War who were instrumental in the
transformation of the ANC from a liberal-constitutionalist organisation into a radical
national liberation movement.
In 1989 Oliver Tambo suffered a stroke, and underwent extensive medical treatment.
He returned to South Africa in 1991, after over three decades in exile. At the ANC's
first legal national conference inside South Africa, held in Durban in July 1991, Tambo
was elected National Chairperson of the ANC. He was also chairperson of the ANC's
Emancipation Commission.
Oliver Reginald Tambo died from a stroke at 3.10am on 24 April, 1993.
Oliver Tambo: His Life and Legacy
1917 - 1993
by Luli Callinicos
0liver Reginald Tambo, leader of the
African National Congress in exile for thirty years, died on 23 April 1993. Yet his legacy
lives on. Comrade O.R. left us a significant and enduring heritage, one which enhanced our
new constitution, contributed to the inclusive and equitable policies of our
democratically elected government, and affirmed the abiding vision of the ANC itself.
The African National Congress has consistently produced leaders of the highest calibre.
But Oliver Tambo, thoughtful, wise and warm-hearted, was perhaps the most loved. His
simplicity, his nurturing style, his genuine respect for all people seemed to bring out
the best in them. Comrade O.R.'s life was remarkable for the profound influence he had on
the ANC during the difficult years of uncertainty, loneliness and homesickness in exile.
During his fifty years of political activity in the ANC, Comrade O.R., as he
affectionately came to be known, played a significant role in every key moment in the
history of the movement, until his death. Oliver Tambo was a founder member and secretary
of the ANC Youth League in 1944; the general secretary of the ANC from 1952; the mandated
leader of the ANC's Mission in Exile in 1960; the President of the ANC from 1977 until
1990; then National Chairperson until his death, in 1993.
What shaped the life of Oliver Tambo? What values and life skills enabled him to make
such an important and enduring impact on the history of the African National Congress and
on our new, democratic South Africa? Two major processes in Comrade O.R.'s early life
moulded his style in politics and leadership - his traditional rural roots; and the
expertise he acquired through education. Each experience was very different; yet O.R.
combined them creatively to develop an approach which was able to reach and empower a
broad mass of the people, both nationally and internationally.
On an early summer morning on 17 October, 1917, in the small village of Kantolo, about
20 kilometres. from Bizana, Pondoland, a son was born to Mzimeni, son of Tambo, and his
third wife, Julia.
Pondoland, known for its green, fertile and available land, had been the last chiefdom
in South Africa to remain independent.'1'he annexation of Pondoland had taken place within
Oliver Tambo's parents' lifetime. It was an act that completed the process of colonial
dispossession of South Africa. Tambo's father was acutely conscious of this British
assault on Pondoland., the naming of his son 'Kaizana', after Britain's enemy, the Kaizer
of Germany during World War One, was making a pointed statement.
The Tambo homestead was unusually large: 'a big kraal, as distinct from a two-hut home,
of which there were many', remembered O.R. The homestead consisted of the paternal
grandparents, their three sons, and their wives and children. Oliver's father, Mzimeni,
who was not a Christian, had four wives (though he married his youngest wife, Lena, only
after his second wife died in labour). It is a tribute to Mzimeni that family
relationships were harmonious. The wives had an excellent relationship, and the ten
children were very close. Mzimeni was comfortably, off. He owned at least 50 cattle at one
time, several fine horses and an ox-wagon. These resources led to trading and transport
opportunities. Mzimeni was not literate - 'my father had not seen the inside of a
classroom'. His prosperity was largely due to his own enterprise. Shrewd, creative and
quick to seize an opening, Mzimeni sought and gained employment as an assistant salesman
at the nearby trading store. This exposure to a more commercial economy taught Mzimeni a
number of skills and widened his world.
Two women in O.R.'s life, his own mother, and his father's third wife were Christians.
They also opened up new horizons. Oliver's mother was a sociable and energetic person who
could read and write. She established her home as the local headquarters of the Full
Gospel Church. Tambo recalled occasions when there were, large, bustling gatherings of
worship in his mother's hilt. Eventually, perhaps because of her influence, Mzimeni
himself converted to Christianity, and had all his dependants baptised.
In that somewhat large and busy homestead, Kaizana had an active, happy and traditional
childhood.
From as early as three or four years old, young Kaizana was learning the essential
skills of the rural economy, and the practical discipline that went along with it. Tambo
vividly recalled the duties of the small boys, describing their fairly heavy
responsibilities in tending the calves, and ensuring that the animals were permitted to
suckle only after milking. As the boys grew older and were able to accept more
responsibility, they were given the task of herding the cattle.
The young Tambo took pride in taking responsibility for more grown up tasks. He learnt
to plough; he mastered the difficult craft of spanning a team of oxen. He taught them to
obey commands 'in such a way as the whole team pulls together'.
The whole family contributed to the homestead economy. Work was practical and
rewarding. Unlike labour in industrial society, it was not separated from home or
community. Herding, like other productive activities, would be done in groups, and would
include social interaction and co-operation.
In a society where everyone knew almost everyone else, group pressure was a strong form
of discipline. The Amapondo, like many polities in southern Africa, had a consensus
approach to decision-making. Between headmen and the community, as well as between chiefs
and the people, there was a balance of power. In his autobiography, President Mandela
recalled how 'at a council meeting, or imbizo, everyone was heard: chief and
subject, warrior and medicine man, shopkeeper and farmer, landowner and labourer... It was
democracy in its purest form'.
After thorough discussion, the chief and his advisers would get the feel of the
meeting. Opponents of the plan were encouraged to speak out. Chiefs relied on their
councillors to prevent them from acting contrary to popular will. This very sound
practice, of never straying too far away from their constituencies - was to play a
profoundly important role in the ANC style of leadership of both Tambo and Mandela.
By the time little Kaizana was old enough to herd, a cash economy had already begun to
infiltrate the area. Regularly, young men from Kantolo would take the 25 kilometre trip to
Bizana, where there was a recruiting station for the coal mines in KwaZulu-Natal and the
gold mines in Gauteng, in order to earn money for taxes. All of Oliver's older brothers
became wage labourers, both the traditionalists, such as Willy and Zakele, and the younger
Christians such as Wilson and Alan. The migrant labour system was indeed an integral part
of the homestead economy, and became even more important when Mzimeni's fortunes began to
decline in the late 1920s.
Migrant labour also brought risk and adversity. The health of Wilson, Oliver's older
brother, was ruined when he contracted TB in the compounds of the sugar plantations and
had to return home, permanently unfit for strenuous work. In about 1929, the Tambo family
suffered a major tragedy: Oliver's uncle and his older brother Zakele were killed in an
underground fire in the Dannhauser coal mine. Aside from the heartbreak and personal
anguish, the deaths of two healthy and productive members of the homestead was a severe
economic blow, and further hastened the decline of Oliver's father's prosperity the tragic
loss remained deeply imprinted in Oliver Tambo's mind. Ultimately, Oliver Tambo was to
devote his life to overturning the system of racial capitalism that colonialism spawned.
Until the end of his life, Oliver Tambo remained deeply attached to his traditional
culture. But, thanks to the shrewd insight of his father, O.R. was also able to learn the
skills of the colonisers.
Although Mzimeni Tambo was a traditionalist, he also saw the value of western
education. Working in the trading store for many years, Mzimeni had been impressed by two
aspects of the white trader: that his learning enabled him to run an independent business
and keep its books; and that his relative wealth gave him power and status. As Comrade
O.R. observed:
'People went to him to buy. He had a car, horses - be was a reference point to the
community - and be had servants. In general he was a chief in his own right. He certainly
was something above the level of ordinary people. It was exactly this difference of levels
that my father was targeting, in insisting that his children should go to school'.
On his first day, young Kaizana was asked to come to school with a new, 'English' name.
After his mother and father discussed it at length that evening, the little boy took his
new name to his teacher. It was, he said, to be 'Oliver'. The school teacher turned out to
be very strict, and would beat the children for the slightest offences. Oliver began to
dread school, and would find any excuse not to take the long ten mile walk to school.
Mzimena was so determined that his children should persevere that he moved the children
several times to other schools. As he grew older, Oliver began to want to leave home.
'My age group, some of them, had left their homes, crossed the Umtamvuna and went to
Natal to work - some in the plantations. And some were coming back, big stout chaps
already. They were young men, and I was still going to this school. So I began to think in
terms of leaving, escaping to go and work there as a garden boy or even in the sugar
plantations. I would work there and bring back money to my parents - that's what everyone
else was doing.'
One day, when Oliver was about eleven years old, he met a lad who was in the debating
society of another school. He and his friends were deeply, impressed with the ease with
which this youngster spoke English. That experience changed Oliver's attitude to
education. He had discovered in himself a love of discussion and debate, and English
seemed to be the key, to skills, independence and power.
Not long afterwards, Oliver was given the opportunity, through a family friend, to
enrol at the missionary school at Flagstaff, called Holy Cross. By this time, Oliver's
father did not have money to pay the fees. But Oliver was so anxious to stay, that the
school itself managed to find two kind English sisters who sent the sum of £10 a year for
Oliver's schooling. His older brother, working as a migrant in faraway KwaZulu-Natal, also
sent an additional amount from his hard-earned wages to make up the shortfall in the fees.
From then onwards, Oliver never looked back. Really motivated to learn now, he starred
in class. After five years at Holy Cross, his teachers found him a place in the well-known
black school of St Peter's in Johannesburg. Many years later, Comrade O.R. linked the kind
deed of the English ladies to the international support 'for those engaged in the struggle
for liberation from oppression and the apartheid system in particular in the years to
come. .
'They were total strangers to us as we were to them. They intervened tirelessly to save
the careers of two unknown youngsters who but for their intervention, might have had to
say goodbye to Holy Cross and goodbye to education as well as goodbye to a future of
possible usefulness to humanity... They had stretched a couple of hands across the lands
and oceans to the south of the continent of Africa to give aid and support to two unknown
children. Two unknown African children.'
Oliver finished his schooling at St. Peter's in Johannesburg, a school which exposed
him for the first time to boys from other provinces, who spoke other African languages,
and also to fast-talking city youngsters. For the first time, in the streets of
Johannesburg, he was exposed to race prejudice and segregation but city life was to be his
future. Within a year, first his mother and then has father passed away - a the age of
sixteen, he was orphaned.
His parents did not live to delight in their son gaining top marks in matric. In those
days all scholars in the Transvaal, black and white, wrote the same examination. The black
press reported the achievement with great pride that this excellent scholar was from the
Transkei, the eastern Cape assembly of chiefs, the Bhunga, granted Oliver a bursary of
£30 a year to study at Fort Hare
Oliver decided to study science. There was an imbalance, he decided, in the black
professions there were too many B. A. candidates. Ideally, he had wanted to study
medicine; but at the time no university would accept black students. Three years later,
Oliver Tambo graduated with a B.Sc. degree in physics and maths. The following year he
enrolled for a diploma in higher education. O.R. had a calm and quiet disposition, but he
made an impact on his lecturers and his fellow students. He was deeply religious, yet he
was also an intellectual. His future friend, partner and comrade Nelson Mandela, recalled
his first impressions of Oliver:
'I became a member of the Students Christian Association and taught Bible classes on
Sundays in neighbouring villages. One of my comrades on these expeditions was a serious
young science scholar whom I had met on the soccer field. He came from Pondoland, in the
Transkei, and his name was Oliver Tambo. From the start. I saw that Oliver's intelligence
was diamond-edged; be was a keen debater and did not accept the platitudes that so many of
us automatically subscribed to. Oliver lived in Beda Hall, the Anglican hostel, and though
I did not have much contact with him at Fort Hare, it was easy to see that he was destined
for great things.' - Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
Oliver was elected chairperson of the students' representative council of his Anglican
residence, Beda Hall. But before his last year at Fort Hare was through, he was expelled
for organising a student protest on a point of principle. He then left the university and
went home to Kantolo, planning to look for a job - any job, for he had the younger members
of the homestead to support. But the news of his expulsion reached his old school, St
Peter's. They immediately offered him a post as maths master.
Once again, Oliver was in Johannesburg, and once again, he was in the news amongst the
black community. In downtown Johannesburg near Diagonal Street was an estate agent called
Walter Sisulu with an office which attracted the young black elite - the teachers,
lawyers, journalists and intellectuals who loved a good discussion on politics and life.
Sisulu was keen to meet Tambo, and in due course, friends brought the brilliant scholar
around. Tambo at once took to the slightly older man, who had not had much formal higher
education, but was seasoned in the hard knocks of city life and had acquired a wealth of
wisdom and political insights. Sisulu was interested in marshalling the abilities of the
young people who came to his office in the service of their community. At Sisulu's
office,Tambo met other like-minded young men - Anton Lembede, A. P Mda, Jordan Ngubane as
well as a fellow student whom he remembered from Fort Hare - Nelson Mandela.
These young men, including Walter Sisulu, began to visit regularly the Sophiatown home
of Dr Xuma, the medical doctor who was also the President of the African National
Congress. They were particularly attracted to the ANC because the organisation aimed to
unite all the black nations of South Africa, regardless of language or ethnicity. The
weakness of the ANC, they decided, was that it did not reach out to ordinary people. Its
members tended to consist of chiefs, professionals and elites like themselves.
Nevertheless, they agreed, the ANC was the organisation with a long tradition and any
honourable nationalist vision which they felt they could work with. The group decided on a
plan of action to revive Congress. Meeting regularly at the Bantu Men's Social Centre,
they decided to put a resolution to the next annual congress.
In 1944, the ANC Congress in Batho, Bloemfontein formally created the ANC Youth League,
as well as a Women's League. Anton Lembede was elected chairman, Oliver Tambo secretary
and Walter Sisulu treasurer of the new organisation.
AFRICA'S CAUSE MUST TRIUMPH, declared the Youth League manifesto. We believe that the
national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans themselves... We believe in
the unity of all Africans from the Mediterranean Sea in the North to the Indian and
Atlantic Oceans in the South... and that Africans must speak with one voice'.
The Youth League undertook to provide a three-year programme to mobilise the ordinary
black people of South Africa.
In the meantime,Tambo was making an enduring impact on his students at St Peters.
Dozens of his students remembered his distinctive, interactive and encouraging style of
teaching, using methods which were well ahead of their time. O.R. inspired many to take up
teaching too. After hours, he introduced the concepts of the Youth League to his senior
students. Some of them went on to join the movement and become prominent comrades. Amongst
them were Andrew Mlangeni, Henry Makgothi, Duma Nokwe, Joe Matthews, Vella Pillay and a
number of others - although another pupil took a different political direction - Lucas
Mangope.
In 1948, the National Party was voted into power by the white electorate. They
immediately set about extending and introducing a host of racially discriminating laws.
The existing pass laws were tightened up to control labour and the movement of black
people. These laws needed to be challenged and resisted. O.R. decided to study law by
correspondence, through Unisa, while continuing his teaching. After serving his articles
he qualified, then in 1952 joined Nelson Mandela to start an immensely successful firm of
attorneys, dedicated to assisting black people against the oppressive apartheid
legislation.
Chief Albert Luthuli was elected President of the ANC in 1953. The previous year, the
Defiance Campaign, which defied' Six Unjust Laws', had been successful in mobilising
thousands of people. It also resulted in a spate of banning orders for its leaders. After
Walter Sisulu was banned, Oliver Tambo became national secretary. He and Chief Luthuli,
highly respected for his refusal to be 'bought off' as a chief by the apartheid regime,
worked together on the ANC's programme of mass campaigns and policy during the remainder
of the decade. O.R. was deeply influenced by Luthuli's simplicity and integrity.
'The ANC is the parliament of the people', Luthuli declared. In 1955, the Congress of
the People presented to the nation the Freedom Charter, which reflected the grass roots
demands of a democratic South Africa. O.R. was a member of the National Action Committee,
which had drafted the clauses based on the popular vision. The following year, he,
Luthuli, Mandela, Sisulu and 152 others were arrested for High Treason. But after the
preliminary hearings, O.R. and Chief Luthuli were acquitted. In the meantime, with the
bulk of the ANC leadership still on trial,Tambo and Luthuli had to continue to lead the
struggle. During this period O.R. also updated the ANC constitution, presenting a more
detailed, enlightened and inclusive vision, based on the ANC's formal acceptance of the
Freedom Charter.
There were some Africanists, within the ANC though, who had a problem with this broader
all-encompassing definition of the nation. They were also unhappy with the formation of
the ANC Alliance, which consisted of the South African Indian Congress, the South African
Coloured People's Organisation, the tiny white Congress of Democrats and the South African
Congress of Trade Unions. They felt that the 'non-African' organisations might easily come
to dominate the ANC. Eventually, after a noisy confrontation at a regional meeting in
1959, chaired by Oliver Tambo, they broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress.
In 1957, Oliver had become engaged to Adelaide Tsukudu, a Youth League activist and
qualified nurse who worked at Baragwanath Hospital (now renamed the Baragwanath-Chris Hani
Hospital). The wedding date, set for December 1956, was nearly derailed, as the bridegroom
was arrested for High Treason. Fortunately, all the accused were granted bail, and the
marriage took place, followed by a joyous wedding reception - for who knew what the future
might bring! O.R. was destined to see very little of his family once he went into exile.
Adelaide Tambo became the breadwinner, working double shifts to provide for their
children, Thembi, Dan and Tselane. She also made her home a place of refuge for ANC
members arriving in the UK.
There is a danger in celebrating the lives of men, that we do not properly acknowledge
the central role of the women who maintained the household, raised the family and enabled
their husbands to play a leading role in the movement. The ANC, owes a great debt to them.
Historic events had taken place in the last couple of years. On 21 March, 1960, police
fired on a crowd of people who gathered outside the Sharpeville police station to protest
against passes. Sixty nine people died on that day. The event unleashed a storm of protest
both at home and abroad. Panicking, the apartheid government banned the ANC and the Pan
Africanist Congress, and declared a state of emergency, jailing thousands of activists.
Chief Luthuli, mandated by the ANC 's executive, then instructed Tambo to leave the
country to set up a Mission in Exile in order to gather international support for the
liberation movement.
Once they met O.R., the Scandinavian countries proved to be amongst the most supportive
(together with the Netherlands) of the western countries. But it was not always plain
sailing for the ANC. In the early period of the mission in exile, O.R. had to deal with
many different countries with conflicting ideologies and policies. The governments of most
western countries were unhappy with the ANC's willingness to work with the SACP and also
its turn to armed struggle in 1962.
In Africa, the movement's non-racial policy was seen as a drawback by many newly
independent countries which had fought against white colonialism. It was thanks to O.R.'s
obviously genuine commitment, his insight, understanding and his ability to articulate the
ANC vision, that negative images of the ANC were eventually dispelled.
In 1962 O.R. and Mandela were delighted to meet again. Mandela left South Africa
illegally to help O.R. and the mission to raise support for the movement, and to explain
the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the movement's armed wing to international supporters.
Mandela then returned home, to continue his struggle inside South Africa, underground.
O.R. campaigned ceaselessly for international sanctions against the apartheid regime.
The ANC's staunchest supporter was Father Trevor Huddleston, Oliver's old friend from St
Peter's days. Dr Dadoo, leader of the SACP, was also particularly responsive to this
economic weapon. The campaign grew to include the boycott of South African sports, arts,
academic and all cultural interaction as well as South African export products.
After the arrest of the bulk of the ANC leadership, including Mandela, following
Rivonia, the ANC was severely weakened internally. When Wilton Mkwayi was arrested and
imprisoned, the position of Supreme Commander of MK was passed to O.R., in exile. The ANC
set up its headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. That country's head of state, Julius
'Mwalimu' Nyerere generously donated land for the use of MK as well as any other
programmes necessary for the ANC.
It was at Morogoro, Tanzania, that the ANC was able to hold its first conference
outside South Africa, in 1969. The conference was sanctioned by the leadership on Robben
Island, and was O.R.'s constructive response to criticism by cadres who were itching to
return home to wage the armed struggle inside.
One of the leading protesters was Chris Hani, who had been jailed for two years in
Botswana following the ambitious military campaign to invade South Africa via the hostile
territory of Rhodesia, through Wankie.'I blew my top,' Chris Hani remembered. While much
of the leadership was furious with Hani's outburst and wanted to discipline him severely,
it was O.R. who was able to overlook the provocation, and really listen to the points Hani
was making. The outcome of the Morogoro conference was a significant step forward.
Conference agreed that in future political interest was to take precedence over the
military, and that a Revolutionary Council (RC) be formed to give direction. The
non-racial composition of the RC, though, proved to be a problem with a small, Africanist
group of middle level membership. After many discussions with O.R., they were unable to
come to terms with the inclusion of 'non-Africans' in the structures. Eventually, the
Group of Eight, as they were called, broke away.
It was to the credit of O.R., and the general esteem with which he was held, that the
split was contained, and did not spread further. Tambo was, as so many exiles have
confirmed, the 'glue' that held the movement together during the most difficult and
frustrating years in exile.
Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, was named in honour of the young cadre, 1976 MK 'intake'
who returned to South Africa, was apprehended in a shootout, and executed in Pretoria in
1977. The tragedy of June 16 1976 at Soweto, with the shooting of the schoolchildren and
its aftermath, impacted strongly on the ANC. Many hundreds of schoolchildren fled South
Africa and made their way to the liberation movements in exile, particularly to the ANC in
Dar es Salaam - they had heard of MK, and wanted to fight the apartheid system.
O.R. immediately began to raise funds from the international community to give these
children shelter and education. As a successful teacher himself, O.R. was most concerned
that these young exiles should first complete their schooling before joining the military
struggle. With the help of comrades, O.R. also initiated the Luthuli Foundation, which
allocated bursaries to serious students, placing them in friendly countries around the
world.
The massacre by the apartheid regime's South African Defence Force (SADF) in Maseru,
1982, resulted in the deaths of 42 men, women and children, including 12 Basotho
civilians. The bombing was part of a general destabilisation campaign on neighbouring
countries which lent support to the ANC. Particularly threatening to South Africa was the
sustenance the ANC received from socialist countries, including Cuba. The SADF embarked on
a series of invasions into Angola, with the encouragement of the USA. It aimed both to
drive out Cuban troops who had responded to the elected Angolan government's call for
assistance, as well as to smash the MK camps. A series of bombing attacks and pitched
battles occurred. At Cuito Cuanavale, MK helped to defeat the SADF. This was an enormous
psychological victory for MK. But from then onwards, the struggle began to escalate.
In response to the penetration of selected cadres into South Africa, the SADF unleashed
a series of raids on neighbouring countries. These included the bombing of civilian
as well as MK targets in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho. Despite the
very real threat to his life, O.R. unexpectedly appeared in Maseru - so dangerously close
to South Africa's borders - to attend the funeral, and to grieve along with the families
and comrades of those who were massacred.
The almost unbearable strain began to affect the movement. The apartheid government
sent an ultimatum to the neighbouring countries - expel the ANC, or more raids would
follow. The ANC was obliged to withdraw from some countries. It was becoming clear that
the liberation movement had been infiltrated by informers and askaris. Suspects were
questioned, and a number found guilty. In some camps, frustration and uncertainty
introduced a climate of suspicion, even paranoia. Prisoners took the brunt of the tension.
Eventually, the maltreatment of these prisoners came to the attention of O.R. . He
appointed a committee of investigation, and eventually the abuses were curtailed. The
committee was also instructed to formulate a Code of Conduct for both MK and the ANC. A
Bill of Rights followed, so that this appalling relapse into inhumanity might never occur
again.
O.R. was foremost amongst those who advocated rights for women in the movement. Today's
constitution is an acknowledgement of O.R.'s highlighting gender sensitivity in the ANC
nearly fifteen years earlier. Perhaps one of his most well known speeches is remembered
for its gentle humour as well as for the challenge it presented to both men and women in
the ANC:
'Women in the ANC should stop behaving as if there was no place for them above the
level of certain categories of involvement They have a duty to liberate us men from
antique concepts and attitudes about the place and role of women in society and the
development and direction of our revolutionary struggle. In fear of being a failure,
Comrade Lindiwe Mabuza cried and sobbed and ultimately collapsed on top of herself when
she learnt she had been appointed ANC Chief Representative to the Scandinavian countries.
But, looking at the record, could any man have done. better?' - O.R. Tambo's speech to
the Women's Section of the ANC, Luanda, Angola, 1981.
O.R. was always supremely aware of the value of spelling out clearly the policy of the
movement, both to conscientise its members as well as to provide clear guidelines to its
representatives in difficult situations. The ANC formally subscribed to the Geneva
protocols. It also again revised and updated its constitution. In the preparations for the
changes, O.R. made extensive contributions to the guidelines for the commission on the
constitution. In the ANC's Bill of Rights, O.R. was also instrumental in foregrounding
children's rights, and firmly declared a principled tolerance of sexual orientation.
Looking ahead, O.R. made a firm policy statement on the necessity for multi-party,
democracy, after liberation, in which there would be freedom of speech, of assembly, of
association, language and religion. This was an alternative to the one-party state model
adopted by many independent African countries.
As mass resistance to so-called apartheid 'reforms' inside South Africa escalated in
the 1980s, O.R. broadcast regularly on Radio Freedom. He called for a People's War against
apartheid. The democratic labour movement, civic organisations, the National Education
Crisis Committee, women's and youth groups and other anti-apartheid organisations banded
together to form the United Democratic Front. O.R. urged them to make the apartheid system
ungovernable. State violence rapidly increased in order to suppress popular resistance to
apartheid 'reforms' such as the tricameral parliament which consisted of whites, Coloureds
and Indians only, and the new dummy local councils in the townships. Assassinations,
tortures, deaths in detention, troops in the townships, and weekly funerals were met with
mounting anger.
At the ANC conference held in Kabwe in 1985, a sober assessment of the 'structural
violence of apartheid' led to a decision to step up the armed struggle. O.R. continued to
maintain the moral high ground, emphasising that civilian loss of life was still to be
avoided. But henceforth military personnel and military officials would no longer be
excluded in sabotage attempts. Nevertheless, O.R. did not attempt to deny, or 'sanitise'
mistakes. A car bomb aimed at a military target but which killed four civilians was
'inexcusably careless'. He pointed out though, that the violence of apartheid was the
cause of these incursions in the first place. At the Children's Conference held in Harare
in 1987, to gather evidence on the widespread imprisonment of children, O.R. denounced the
grisly method of necklacing. On behalf of the ANC leadership, he called on guerrillas to
set an example by avoiding civilian casualties.
The economic weapon continued to be a major campaign. O.R.'s years of patient diplomacy
and warm relations with anti-apartheid movements in western Europe and north America began
to pay off. Sanctions and divestment campaigns amongst students, the churches, the
African-American community, the trade unions and other progressive organisations in civil
society were widely publicised, putting pressure on conservative governments to act
against apartheid. Fund-raising campaigns and concerts reached a wide range of the
population. Almost reluctantly, the Reagan and the Thatcher governments in the USA and the
UK began to seek audience with the ANC leadership - they could no longer ignore the
powerful popular support that the ANC enjoyed in South Africa, or indeed the widespread
symbol that the movement had become, against the scourge of racism which existed
throughout the world.
Similarly at home, more and more groups of people - Afrikaner intellectuals, various
professionals, white trade unionists, sporting representatives and delegations from a
variety of organisations - began to make the pilgrimage to the ANC's headquarters in
Lusaka.
During the turbulent eighties, the war on many fronts also included the issue raised by
O.R. early in 1985 - that of talks with the enemy. He had outlined the necessary
conditions to enable negotiations to take place; firstly, he said, a clear mandate would
be necessary from the ANC inside the country; secondly, the agenda would need to begin
with talks on the dismantling of the apartheid system itself. At about this time, Mandela
was turning over in his mind the prospect of talks. But he also firmly and publicly
rejected PW Botha's offer, made in parliament, to release Mandela provided he renounced
violence. Lest there he doubts about his intentions, Madiba wrote a speech which his
daughter Zindzi read out to an excited public gathering at Jabulani stadium in Orlando,
Soweto:
'I am a member of the African National Congress. I have always been a member of the
African National Congress and I will remain a member of the African National Congress
until the day I die. Oliver Tambo is more than a brother to me. He is my greatest friend
and comrade for nearly fifty years. If there is one amongst you who cherishes my freedom,
Oliver Tambo cherishes it more, and I know that be would give his life to set me free.'
Echoing his comrade Oliver Tambo.'s sentiments, he went on:
'Let [Botha] renounce violence. Let him say that be will dismantle apartheid. Let him
unban the people's organisation, the African National Congress. Let him free all who have
been imprisoned, banished or exiled for their opposition to apartheid. Let him guarantee
free political activity so that people may decide who will govern them.'
Once the possibility of negotiations became more likely, it fell on the ANC in exile to
present the ANC's strategy for negotiations to its members and to the world. Under Tambo's
guidance, a team prepared the Harare Declaration-The schedule was gruelling. As always,
O.R. worked late into the night finalising the document, which required careful
explanation. In the previous few years, his health had been visibly taxing him. In 1982 he
had suffered a mild stroke, and his medical advisers pleaded with him to case up on his
work. Instead, he pledged to the movement that he would continue to work ceaselessly for
freedom until the day he died. On 9 August, 1989, as the delegation returned from its
intensive presentations of the Harare Declaration, O.R. collapsed. He was rushed by plane,
arranged by President Kenneth Kaunda, from Lusaka to London. He had suffered a severe
stroke.
While O.R. lay in hospital, events occurred in quick succession. Within a few months,
the ANC was unbanned and Mandela and other leading political prisoners released. As soon
as he could, Mandela journeyed to Sweden, where O.R. was recuperating, to meet his old
friend, after nearly thirty years' separation.
'Though we had been apart for all the years that I was in prison, Oliver was never far
from my thoughts. In many ways, even though we were separated, I kept up a life-long
conversation with him in my head.'
Their reunion was joyous.
'When we met we were like two young boys in the veld, who drew strength from our love
for each other.'
In December 1990, Tambo returned home. At the first Congress inside South Africa since
then banning of the ANC, he reported on the mission which he had been mandated to
undertake. He was able to deliver the ANC, united and successful. Many years had passed,
entailing much pain, sacrifice and the loss of many lives, but the movement's major
principles remained intact. At the congress, Mandela was elected President of the ANC,
with Oliver Tambo as National Chairman.
In his remaining three years back home, O.R. delighted in spending time at his sisters'
homestead in Kantolo, gazing at the mountains. Years earlier, in exile, he had longed to
see that faraway, ever-present landscape of his childhood again. The mountain range, he
said, had a special significance for him.
'Looking out from my home, the site of it commanded a wide view of the terrain as it
swept from the vicinity of my home and stretched away as far the eye could see - the
panorama bordered on a high range of mountains that were faced looking out from home. The
Engeli Mountains were a huge wall that rolls in the distance to mark the end of very
broken landscape, landscape of great variety and, looking back now, I would say of great
beauty. . But the nagging question was, what lay beyond the Engeli Mountains? Just exactly
what was there?... How far would one be able to walk over the mountains to Egoli,
Johannesburg? What sort of world would it be?... What did it conceal from my view? I saw
two worlds. The one in the vicinity of my home... This was my world. I understood it from
my mother's rondavel. . I was part of this world. There was obviously another one beyond
the Engele Mountains'.
In the early hours of 23 April 1993, Oliver Tambo suffered a massive, fatal stroke. His
death came a mere two weeks after the murder of one of his most talented apprentices,
Chris Hani. The shock of the assassination, as well as the very real threat of national
mayhem narrowly averted, may well have hastened his own demise.
Oliver Tambo was accorded a state funeral. Scores of friends and heads of state from
the international community - east, west and non-aligned - journeyed to bid him farewell.
Oliver Tambo, after many years of toil and conscientious care, had led his people, like
Moses, to the top of the mountain range. He did not live to see the other side.
Precisely a year after his death, the South African nation went to the polls in the
first ever democratic election. The African National Congress won an overwhelming victory.
The people of South Africa had cast their vote of confidence in the ANC, and in the legacy
that its leaders had imprinted on its vision. This was the moment for which Oliver Tambo
willingly gave his life.
The first, hectic five years of democratic government have tended to overshadow the
role of Oliver Tambo. Without him, and his close collaborator Nelson Mandela, the
revolution might well have gone ahead, but it would not have taken the form that it did.
Working closely with his comrades in exile, at home and on Robben Island, employing the
time-honoured style of consensus and collective ownership of decisions,Tambo became the
interpreter of the revolution - its teacher, its moral guide and its mediator. Oliver
Tambo's ideas live on in our constitution, in the democratic and co-operative values of
the African National Congress and in its vision for a just, inclusive and equitable
society. At a time when we are taking stock, and preparing for the next phase of our
history, it is important to reflect on our heritage and pay tribute to Oliver Tambo,
revolutionary thinker, humanist and mentor.
'It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a
country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and
united in diversity.'Oliver Tambo, 1990
See Also:
- A Short Biography
- Selected Articles, Papers, Speeches, Statements and Other
Documents, 1960-1993. Compilation edited by E S Reddy