Key dates in the history of the liberation movement as it celebrates
its centenary
David Smith in Johannesburg
Saturday December 31 2011
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/30/african-national-congress-timeline
1902 Second Boer war ends.
1910 Union of South Africa formed, handing power to Afrikaners at the
expense of the black majority.
1912 A meeting of chiefs, churchmen and lawyers at the Waaihoek
methodist church in Bloemfontein on 8 January heralds the birth of the
South African Native National Congress. John Langalibalele Dube
[http://www.anc.org.za/list_by.php?by=John%20Dube" title="] is the
first president.
1913 Natives Land Act effectively gives 80% of land to white people,
who make up less than 20% of the population. It helps secure cheap
labour for white-owned mines.
1914 National party founded by Afrikaner nationalists in Bloemfontein.
1918 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela born in Mvezo in the Transkei on 18
July.
1923 The SANNC is renamed the African National Congress (ANC).
1944 ANC youth league [http://www.ancyl.org.za" title="] founded with
leaders including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu [http://www.anc.org.za/
list_by.php?by=Walter%20Sisulu" title="] and Oliver Tambo [http://
www.anc.org.za/list_by.php?by=Oliver%20Tambo" title="].
1948 National party elected and introduces apartheid, a legal system
of racial segregation. It will be described by prime minister Hendrik
Verwoerd as a "policy of good neighbourliness".
1952 ANC launches defiance campaign. Mandela is arrested.
1955 Freedom Charter [http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=72" title="]
adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown. It declares "that
South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that
no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the
will of all the people ? The people shall govern!"
1956 Mandela is arrested and joins 155 others on trial for treason.
The trial [http://www.anc.org.za/events.php?t=Treason%20trial"
title="] lasts four-and-a-half years.
1959 Africanists who object to the ANC's growing co-operation with
white and Indian people break away to form the Pan Africanist Congress
(PAC).
1960 Police open fire on an unarmed crowd at a PAC demonstration
against pass laws in Sharpeville [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/
mar/19/south-africa-sharpeville-massacre-anniversary" title="],
killing 69. A state of emergency is declared and the ANC and PAC are
banned. The ANC president chief, Albert Luthuli [http://www.anc.org.za/
list_by.php?by=Albert%20Luthuli" title="], becomes the first African
to win the Nobel peace prize.
1961 ANC launches armed struggle with Mandela as commander-in-chief of
its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which means "Spear of the
Nation". In 18 months MK carries out 200 acts of sabotage.
1962 Mandela is arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for
incitement and leaving the country illegally.
1963 Police raid the secret headquarters of MK at Liliesleaf farm
[http://www.liliesleaf.co.za" title="] in Rivonia, arresting the
leadership.
1964 MK leaders, including Mandela, are sentenced to life imprisonment
at the Rivonia trial. Mandela tells the court: "I have cherished the
ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live
together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which
I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die [http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/
pub_view.asp?pg=item&ItemID=NMS010&txtstr=prepared%20to%20die"
title="]."
1966 Verwoerd assassinated in parliament.
1976 Student uprising [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/14/
southafrica.gideonmendel" title="] in Soweto leaves about 600 dead.
1990 Ban lifted on the ANC and Mandela released [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/jun/05/guardian190-mandela-is-freed"
title="], on 11 February, after 27 years in prison.
1993 Mandela and FW De Klerk, the last apartheid president, are
jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize.
1994 ANC wins South Africa's first democratic elections, making
Mandela the country's first black president.
1999 Mandela steps down after one term. ANC wins second democratic
election with Thabo Mbeki as president. MP Patricia de Lille presents
a dossier containing numerous allegations of bribery relating to a
70bn rand (?5.44bn) arms deal. [http://mg.co.za/tag/arms-deal"
title="]
2000 Mbeki is criticised for a speech that appears to underplay the
threat of HIV [http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/news/durbspmbeki.htm"
title="]. Campaigners will accuse Mbeki of Aids "denialism" [http://
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html?_r=1&hp"
title="">Aids "denialism] that costs hundreds of thousands of lives.
2003 Winnie Mandela convicted of theft and fraud.
2004 ANC re-elected.
2008 Mbeki ousted at Polokwane conference and replaced by Kgalema
Motlanthe as caretaker president.
2009 Corruption allegations are dropped against Jacob Zuma. ANC re-
elected with Zuma as president.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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