Editing African National Congress (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the African National Congress}}

=== Origins ===
[[File:ANC1914.jpg|thumb|A South African Native National Congress delegation to England, June 1914. L–R: [[Thomas Mtobi Mapikela]], [[Walter Rubusana]], [[John Dube]], [[Saul Msane]], and [[Sol Plaatje]].|left]]

A successor of the [[Cape Colony]]'s Imbumba Yamanyama organisation, the ANC was founded as the South African Native National Congress in [[Bloemfontein]] on 8 January 1912, and was renamed the African National Congress in 1923. [[Pixley ka Isaka Seme]], [[Sol Plaatje]], [[John Dube]], and [[Walter Rubusana]] founded the organisation, who, like much of the ANC's early membership, were from the [[Conservatism|conservative]], educated, and religious professional classes of black South African society.<ref name="Lodge-1983">{{Cite book |last=Lodge |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AY5tmwEACAAJ |title=Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 |date=1983 |publisher=Ravan Press |isbn=978-0-86975-152-7 |pages=1–32 |language=en |chapter=Black protest before 1950 |access-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044524/https://books.google.com/books?id=AY5tmwEACAAJ |archive-date=31 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Butler-2012">{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHziM0wtGgkC |title=The Idea of the ANC |date=2012 |publisher=Jacana Media |isbn=978-1-4314-0578-7 |language=en |access-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044500/https://books.google.com/books?id=WHziM0wtGgkC |archive-date=31 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Although they would not take part, Xhosa chiefs would show huge support for the organisation; as a result, [[AbaThembu|King Jongilizwe]] donated 50 cows to it during its founding.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} Around 1920, in a partial shift away from its early focus on the "politics of petitioning",<ref name="Suttner-2012">{{Cite journal |last=Suttner |first=Raymond |date=2012 |title=The African National Congress centenary: a long and difficult journey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23255615 |url-status=live |journal=International Affairs |volume=88 |issue=4 |pages=719–738 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2346.2012.01098.x |issn=0020-5850 |jstor=23255615 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227212113/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23255615 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref> the ANC developed a programme of [[Nonviolent resistance|passive resistance]] directed primarily at the expansion and entrenchment of [[pass laws]].<ref name="Butler-2012" /><ref name="Clark-2016">{{Cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Nancy L. |title=South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid |last2=Worger |first2=William H. |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-138-12444-8 |edition=3rd |location=Abingdon, Oxon |language=English |oclc=883649263}}</ref> When [[Josiah Tshangana Gumede|Josiah Gumede]] took over as ANC president in 1927, he advocated for a strategy of mass mobilisation and cooperation with the [[Communist Party of South Africa|Communist Party]], but was voted out of office in 1930 and replaced with the traditionalist Seme, whose leadership saw the ANC's influence wane.<ref name="Lodge-1983" /><ref name="Suttner-2012" />

In the 1940s, [[Alfred Bitini Xuma]] revived some of Gumede's programmes, assisted by a surge in trade union activity and by the formation in 1944 of the left-wing [[African National Congress Youth League|ANC Youth League]] under a new generation of activists, among them [[Walter Sisulu]], [[Nelson Mandela]], and [[Oliver Tambo]].<ref name="Lodge-1983" /><ref name="Butler-2012" /> After the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] was elected into government in 1948 on a platform of [[apartheid]], entailing the further institutionalisation of [[racial segregation]], this new generation pushed for a Programme of Action which explicitly advocated [[African nationalism]] and led the ANC, for the first time, to the sustained use of mass mobilisation techniques like strikes, stay-aways, and boycotts.<ref name="Butler-2012" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=1949-12-17 |title=38th National Conference: Programme Of Action: Statement of Policy Adopted |url=https://www.anc1912.org.za/policy-documents-1949-38th-national-conference-programme-of-action-statement-of-policy-adopted/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227180035/https://www.anc1912.org.za/policy-documents-1949-38th-national-conference-programme-of-action-statement-of-policy-adopted/ |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=2021-12-27 |website=African National Congress |language=en-US}}</ref> This culminated in the 1952–53 [[Defiance Campaign]], a campaign of mass [[civil disobedience]] organised by the ANC, the [[South African Indian Congress|Indian Congress]], and the [[Coloureds|coloured]] Franchise Action Council in protest of six apartheid laws.<ref name="Lodge-1983a">{{Cite book |last=Lodge |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AY5tmwEACAAJ |title=Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 |date=1983 |publisher=Ravan Press |isbn=978-0-86975-152-7 |pages=33–66 |language=en |chapter=The creation of a mass movement: strikes and defiance, 1950-1952 |access-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044556/https://books.google.com/books?id=AY5tmwEACAAJ |archive-date=31 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The ANC's membership swelled.<ref name="Suttner-2012"/> In June 1955, it was one of the groups represented at the multi-racial [[Congress of the People (1955)|Congress of the People]] in [[Kliptown|Kliptown, Soweto]], which ratified the [[Freedom Charter]], from then onwards a fundamental document in the [[Internal resistance to apartheid|anti-apartheid struggle]].<ref name="Suttner-2012" /> The Charter was the basis of the enduring [[Congress Alliance]], but was also used as a pretext to prosecute hundreds of activists, among them most of the ANC's leadership, in the [[1956 Treason Trial|Treason Trial]].<ref name="Lodge-1983b">{{Cite book |last=Lodge |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AY5tmwEACAAJ |title=Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 |date=1983 |publisher=Ravan Press |isbn=978-0-86975-152-7 |pages=67–90 |language=en |chapter=African political organisations, 1953-1960}}</ref> Before the trial was concluded, the [[Sharpeville massacre]] occurred on 21 March 1960. In the aftermath, the ANC was banned by the South African government. It was not unbanned until February 1990, almost three decades later.

=== Exile in Lusaka ===
After its banning in April 1960, the ANC was driven underground, a process hastened by a barrage of government [[List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid|banning orders]], by an escalation of state repression, and by the imprisonment of senior ANC leaders pursuant to the [[Rivonia Trial|Rivonia trial]] and [[Little Rivonia Trial|Little Rivonia trial]].<ref name="Ellis-1991">{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Stephen |date=1991 |title=The ANC in Exile |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/722941 |url-status=live |journal=African Affairs |volume=90 |issue=360 |pages=439–447 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098442 |issn=0001-9909 |jstor=722941 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226235211/https://www.jstor.org/stable/722941 |archive-date=26 December 2021 |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref> From around 1963, the ANC effectively abandoned much of even its underground presence inside South Africa and operated almost entirely from its external mission, with headquarters first in [[Morogoro|Morogoro, Tanzania]], and later in [[Lusaka|Lusaka, Zambia]].<ref name="ANC-1997">{{Cite book |author=African National Congress |url=https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix%201 |title=Further submissions and responses by the African National Congress to questions raised by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation |publisher=Department of Justice |year=1997 |location=Pretoria |chapter=Appendix: ANC structures and personnel |access-date=26 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214114223/https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix%201 |archive-date=14 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> For the entirety of its time in exile, the ANC was led by Tambo – first ''de facto'', with president [[Albert Luthuli]] under house arrest in [[Zululand District Municipality|Zululand]]; then in an acting capacity, after Luthuli's death in 1967; and, finally, officially, after a leadership vote in 1985.<ref name="Ellis-2013">{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdlMAgAAQBAJ |title=External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960–1990 |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-933061-4 |language=en |access-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044551/https://books.google.com/books?id=YdlMAgAAQBAJ |archive-date=31 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Also notable about this period was the extremely close relationship between the ANC and the reconstituted [[South African Communist Party]] (SACP), which was also in exile.<ref name="Ellis-2013" />

===uMkhonto we Sizwe===
{{main|uMkhonto we Sizwe}}
In 1961, partly in response to the Sharpeville massacre, leaders of the SACP and the ANC formed a military body, [[Umkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK, ''Spear of the Nation''), as a vehicle for armed struggle against the apartheid state. Initially, MK was not an official ANC body, nor had it been directly established by the ANC National Executive: it was considered an autonomous organisation, until such time as the ANC formally recognised it as its armed wing in October 1962.<ref name="Stevens-2019">{{Cite journal |last=Stevens |first=Simon |date=2019-11-01 |title=The Turn to Sabotage by The Congress Movement in South Africa |journal=Past & Present |issue=245 |pages=221–255 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtz030 |issn=0031-2746 |doi-access=free |hdl=1814/75043 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Ellis-1991"/>

In the first half of the 1960s, MK was preoccupied with a campaign of [[sabotage]] attacks, especially bombings of unoccupied government installations.<ref name="Stevens-2019" /> As the ANC reduced its presence inside South Africa, however, MK cadres were increasingly confined to training camps in Tanzania and neighbouring countries – with such exceptions as the [[Operation Nickel|Wankie Campaign]], a momentous military failure.<ref name="Houston-2004">{{Cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Gregory |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273455254 |title=The Road to Democracy in South Africa |last2=Ralinala |first2=Rendani Moses |publisher=Zebra Press |year=2004 |volume=1 |pages=435–492 |chapter=The Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns |access-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044547/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273455254_The_Wankie_and_Sipolilo_Campaigns |archive-date=31 December 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1969, Tambo was compelled to call the landmark [[Morogoro Conference]] to address the grievances of the rank-and-file, articulated by [[Chris Hani]] in a memorandum which depicted MK's leadership as corrupt and complacent.<ref name="Macmillan-2009">{{Cite journal |last=Macmillan |first=Hugh |date=2009-09-01 |title=After Morogoro: the continuing crisis in the African National Congress (of South Africa) in Zambia, 1969–1971 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903076386 |url-status=live |journal=Social Dynamics |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=295–311 |doi=10.1080/02533950903076386 |issn=0253-3952 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044529/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533950903076386 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |access-date=26 December 2021 |s2cid=143455223}}</ref> Although MK's malaise persisted into the 1970s, conditions for armed struggle soon improved considerably, especially after the [[Soweto uprising]] of 1976 in South Africa saw thousands of students – inspired by [[Black Consciousness Movement|Black Consciousness]] ideas – cross the borders to seek military training.<ref name="Ellis-1994">{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Stephen |date=1994 |title=Mbokodo: Security in ANC Camps, 1961–1990 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/723845 |url-status=live |journal=African Affairs |volume=93 |issue=371 |pages=279–298 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098712 |issn=0001-9909 |jstor=723845 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227162526/https://www.jstor.org/stable/723845 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=27 December 2021|hdl=1887/9075 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> MK [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] activity inside South Africa increased steadily over this period, with one estimate recording an increase from 23 incidents in 1977 to 136 incidents in 1985.<ref name="Lodge-1987">{{Cite journal |last=Lodge |first=Tom |date=1987 |title=State of Exile: The African National Congress of South Africa, 1976–86 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3991845 |url-status=live |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1,282–310 |doi=10.1080/01436598708419960 |issn=0143-6597 |jstor=3991845 |pmid=12268882 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227113732/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3991845 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref> In the latter half of the 1980s, a number of South African civilians were killed in these attacks, a reversal of the ANC's earlier reluctance to incur civilian casualties.<ref name="Williams-2000">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Rocky |date=2000 |title=The other armies: A brief historical overview of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), 1961–1994 |url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol115rw.html |url-status=live |journal=Military History Journal |volume=11 |issue=5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004182018/http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol115rw.html |archive-date=4 October 2018 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref><ref name="Lodge-1987" /> Fatal attacks included the 1983 [[Church Street bombing]], the 1985 [[Amanzimtoti bombing]], the 1986 [[Durban beach-front bombing|Magoo's Bar bombing]], and the 1987 [[Johannesburg Magistrate's Court bombing]]. Partly in retaliation, the [[South African Defence Force]] increasingly crossed the border to target ANC members and ANC bases, as in the 1981 [[Operation Beanbag|raid on Maputo]], 1983 [[Operation Skerwe|raid on Maputo]], and 1985 [[raid on Gaborone]].<ref name="Ellis-2013" />[[File:Oliver Tambo (1981).jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Tambo]], ANC president in exile from 1967 to 1991.]]
During this period, MK activities led the governments of [[Margaret Thatcher]] and [[Ronald Reagan]] to condemn the ANC as a terrorist organisation.<ref name="Waxman-2018">{{Cite magazine |last=Waxman |first=Olivia B. |date=2018-07-18 |title=The U.S. Government Had Nelson Mandela on Terrorist Watch Lists Until 2008. Here's Why |url=https://time.com/5338569/nelson-mandela-terror-list/ |url-status=live |magazine=Time |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227113735/https://time.com/5338569/nelson-mandela-terror-list/ |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=2021-12-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McSmith |first=Andy |date=2013-12-10 |title=Margaret Thatcher branded ANC 'terrorist' while urging Nelson Mandela's release |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatcher-branded-anc-terrorist-while-urging-nelson-mandela-s-release-8994191.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227113733/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatcher-branded-anc-terrorist-while-urging-nelson-mandela-s-release-8994191.html |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=2021-12-27 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> In fact, neither the ANC nor Mandela were removed from the U.S. terror watch list until 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Windrem |first=Robert |date=2013-12-07 |title=US government considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist until 2008 |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-government-considered-nelson-mandela-terrorist-until-2008-flna2D11708787 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227113737/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-government-considered-nelson-mandela-terrorist-until-2008-flna2D11708787 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=2021-12-27 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> The animosity of Western regimes was partly explained by the [[Cold War]] context, and by the considerable amount of support – both financial and technical – that the ANC received from the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Shubin-1996">{{Cite journal |last=Shubin |first=Vladimir |date=1996 |title=The Soviet Union/Russian Federation's Relations with South Africa, with Special Reference to the Period since 1980 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/723723 |url-status=live |journal=African Affairs |volume=95 |issue=378 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007713 |issn=0001-9909 |jstor=723723 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227162524/https://www.jstor.org/stable/723723 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref><ref name="Ellis-2013" />

=== Negotiations to end apartheid ===
{{Main|Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa}}
From the mid-1980s, as international and internal opposition to apartheid mounted, elements of the ANC began to test the prospects for a [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|negotiated settlement]] with the South African government, although the prudence of abandoning armed struggle was an extremely controversial topic within the organisation.<ref name="Ellis-2013"/> Following preliminary contact between the ANC and representatives of the state, business, and civil society,<ref name="Lodge-1987" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brits |first=J. P. |date=2008 |title=Thabo Mbeki and the Afrikaners, 1986–2004 |url=http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0018-229X2008000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |url-status=live |journal=Historia |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=33–69 |issn=0018-229X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227161356/http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0018-229X2008000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |archive-date=27 December 2021 |access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref> President [[F. W. de Klerk]] announced in February 1990 that the government would unban the ANC and other banned political organisations, and that Mandela would be released from prison.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ottaway |first1=David |date=1990-02-03 |title=S. Africa Lifts Ban on ANC, Other Groups |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/s_africa/stories/anc020390.htm |access-date=1 July 2016}}</ref> Some ANC leaders returned to South Africa from exile for so-called "talks about talks", which led in 1990 and 1991 to a series of bilateral accords with the government establishing a mutual commitment to negotiations. Importantly, the [[Pretoria Minute]] of August 1990 included a commitment by the ANC to unilaterally suspend its armed struggle.<ref name="Simpson-2009">{{Cite journal |last=Simpson |first=Thula |date=2009 |title=Toyi-Toyi-ing to Freedom: The Endgame in the ANCs Armed Struggle, 1989–1990 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283245 |journal=Journal of Southern African Studies |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=507–521 |doi=10.1080/03057070902920015 |jstor=40283245 |hdl=2263/14707 |s2cid=145785746 |issn=0305-7070|hdl-access=free }}</ref> This made possible the multi-party [[Convention for a Democratic South Africa]] and later the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum, in which the ANC was regarded as the main representative of the interests of the anti-apartheid movement.

However, ongoing [[political violence]], which the ANC attributed to a state-sponsored [[Third Force (South Africa)|third force]], led to recurrent tensions. Most dramatically, after the [[Boipatong massacre]] of June 1992, the ANC announced that it was withdrawing from negotiations indefinitely.<ref name="Keller-1992">{{Cite news |last=Keller |first=Bill |date=1992-06-24 |title=Mandela, Stunned by Massacre, Pulls Out of Talks on Black Rule |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/mandela-stunned-by-massacre-pulls-out-of-talks-on-black-rule.html |access-date=2022-07-23 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It faced further casualties in the [[Bisho massacre]], the [[Shell House massacre]], and in other clashes with state forces and supporters of the [[Inkatha Freedom Party]] (IFP).<ref name="Van Baalen-2014">{{Cite journal |last=Van Baalen |first=Sebastian |date=2014 |title=The Microdynamics of Conflict Escalation : The Case of ANC-IFP Fighting in South Africa in 1990 |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324310 |url-status=live |journal=Pax et Bellum Journal |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=14–20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231044542/http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1109559&dswid=4294 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |access-date=28 December 2021}}</ref> However, once negotiations resumed, they resulted in November 1993 in an [[Interim Constitution (South Africa)|interim Constitution]], which governed South Africa's [[1994 South African general election|first democratic elections]] on 27 April 1994. In the elections, the ANC won an overwhelming 62.65% majority of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-06-28 |title=Elections '94 |url=http://www.elections.org.za/Elections94.asp |access-date=2022-07-23 |website=Independent Electoral Commission|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080628132254/http://www.elections.org.za/Elections94.asp |archive-date=28 June 2008 }}</ref> Mandela was elected [[President of South Africa|president]] and formed a coalition [[Cabinet of Nelson Mandela|Government of National Unity]], which, under the provisions of the interim Constitution, also included the National Party and IFP.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Drogin |first=Bob |date=1994-05-07 |title=Ex-Guerrillas, Exiles Named to Mandela Cabinet |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-07-mn-54878-story.html |access-date=2022-07-23 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> The ANC has controlled the [[Government of South Africa|national government]] since then.

=== Breakaways ===
In the post-apartheid era, several significant breakaway groups have been formed by former ANC members. The first is the [[Congress of the People (South African political party)|Congress of the People]], founded by [[Mosiuoa Lekota]] in 2008 in the aftermath of the [[52nd National Conference of the African National Congress|Polokwane elective conference]], when the ANC declined to re-elect [[Thabo Mbeki]] as its president and instead compelled his resignation from the national presidency. The second breakaway is the [[Economic Freedom Fighters]], founded in 2013 after youth leader [[Julius Malema]] was expelled from the ANC. Before these, the most important split in the ANC's history occurred in 1959, when [[Robert Sobukwe]] led a splinter faction of [[African nationalism|African nationalists]] to the new [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania|Pan Africanist Congress]].

[[uMkhonto we Sizwe (political party)|uMkhonto weSizwe]] rose to prominence in December 2023, when former president [[Jacob Zuma]] announced that, while planning to remain a lifelong member of the ANC, he would not be campaigning for the ANC in the [[2024 South African general election]], and would instead be voting for MK.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.polity.org.za/article/the-battle-for-the-soul-of-umkhonto-wesizwe-2023-12-18|title="The battle for the soul of uMkhonto weSizwe"}}</ref> In July 2024, Jacob Zuma was expelled from the ANC, because of campaigning for a rival party ([[UMkhonto weSizwe (political party)|MK party]]) in the 29 May general election.<ref>{{cite news |title=South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma expelled from ANC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr4kllkpwxo |work=www.bbc.com}}</ref>