The ANC Youth League. Clive Glaser

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      In the traditional struggle narrative, the story of the ANCYL ends with its internal victory in 1949. But the 1950s are equally significant, historically. Without its most prominent leaders at the helm, and without the central task of ratifying the Programme of Action within the ANC, the Youth League struggled to find an identity for itself. The mainstream of the organisation saw its role primarily as establishing a mass base among the youth. But a significant Africanist faction, still loyal to the ideas of Lembede and Mda, continued to agitate against the senior body and eventually broke away in 1958 to form the Pan Africanist Congress. The ANC Youth League was thus the incubator of both the modern ANC and the PAC.

      Between 1949 and 1951 the Youth Leaguers succeeded in transforming the ANC into a more assertive African nationalist movement. The new leadership was able to bring most of the party along with it, especially once it became clear that the era of Smuts paternalism was over. Even in Natal, probably the most conservative branch of the ANC, the Youth League helped to unseat A.W.G. Champion from the provincial presidency and replace him with Albert Luthuli, a widely respected Christian-liberal, dissent­ing chief who supported the Programme of Action. Moroka, unlike Xuma, was never a very assertive president. Based near Bloemfontein, he travelled only rarely to Johannesburg and left most of the day-to-day running of the ANC to the Johannesburg-based executive committee. Sisulu’s role became pivotal.

      Following its dramatic success in Bloemfontein, the Youth League was, ironically, stripped of its leadership. Lembede was dead. Mda largely withdrew from politics for over a year because of ill health, and for much of the late 1940s and early 1950s he was also studying privately towards a law degree. In 1948 he returned to his home in Herschel district, where he was based, far from the centre of political action, for much of the 1950s. Tambo and Mandela turned down the presidency of the ANCYL in 1949 because they were devoting a lot of time to their legal studies. Sisulu had his hands full as ANC secretary-general. Pitje became a kind of caretaker Youth League president for most of 1950 until Mandela accepted the position at the December 1950 conference. But, even if they did not cut their ties entirely, for key figures like Mandela, Tambo, Sisulu and Pitje work in the senior executive was a greater priority by then. Another rising star of the ANCYL, Robert Sobukwe, was forced to take up a teaching position in sleepy Standerton, far away from the action.

      All of these activists had to balance their personal and political lives carefully. The party did not have the resources to provide a living. Even Sisulu, as a full-time organiser, had to make massive material sacrifices and live on a tiny stipend. Teachers had to go where work was available. They also had the additional difficulty of being, in effect, state employees. Even mission-run schools usually depended on state subsidies to pay the salaries of their teachers. This meant that teachers had to take considerable personal risks in order to involve themselves in politics. African doctors and lawyers did at least have the advantage of being self-employed. Law was prestigious not only because it offered greater professional status and potentially greater financial rewards, but, importantly, because it offered a measure of independence from the state. This explains why many African teachers in the 1940s and 1950s aspired to become lawyers. Lembede, Mda, Tambo, Pitje and many others followed this route. As busy professionals, it was difficult enough for them to find the time and commitment to work in the senior ANC. Though these senior figures remained influential, the ANCYL had to find a new generation of leadership in the 1950s. Probably the outstanding figure in the mid-1950s was Duma Nokwe, a graduate of St Peter’s (where he became a member of the Young Communist League), who returned to the southern Transvaal as a teacher and later began to study law. He was generally regarded as a left-winger. After serving as the secretary of the ANCYL in 1954, he quickly rose through the ranks of the senior ANC to become secretary-general in 1958.