The African National Congress in the Western Transvaal/Northern Cape Platteland, c. 1910-1964: Patterns of Diffusion and Support for Congress in a Rural Setting

This article examines the nature and trajectory of ANC engagement with the predominantly rural inhabitants of the former western Transvaal/northern Cape, the region of the present-day North-West province. Even before the formal launching of the ANC, a number of influential figures in the region, in particular members of the Molema family in Mafikeng, provided an intellectual framework for the founding of an African nationalist movement. From its inception then the organisation gained significant support in the rural districts, both because the Molema’s were an important chiefly family, and because the Batswana rural elites saw in the ANC an instrument for countering the impact of the 1913 Native Land Act. In the 1920s the ANC was able to sustain its initial success by the formation of ANC branches in most of the small dorps (towns) in the western Transvaal platteland. By the end of the decade however, the ANC’s influence waned, and the South African Communist Party and the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (ICU), were able to mobilise African political opinion and activity more effectively. The situation began to change in the 1950s as the state began increasingly to direct its attention to controlling the lives of rural Africans and taking control of traditional authorities. The 1957 ‘Hurutshe Revolt’ was the catalyst for a wider regional resistance to the carrying of passes for women specifically, and state intervention in general. The article traces the genesis of this resistance, and through the recent availability of source materials, the role of the ANC in the affair. Support for the ANC quickened after this, and the Zeerust became to key to ANC strategy as the period of exile began.