Anton Lembede

Lembede was regarded as the progenitor of the "Programme of Action" that was adopted as a guiding document by the 1949 meeting of the African National Congress.

Anton Muziwakhe Lembede was born on 21 January 1914 on the farm of Frank Fell in Eston near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

This reflects the traditional view of his school that had been created by John Dube after hearing the ideas of the American Booker Washington.

[3] In 1936 after graduation by Adams College, he not only took up teaching posts but he also pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in his spare time.

His 1945 thesis was entitled "The Conception of God as Expounded by, or as it Emerges from the Writings of Philosophers- from Descartes to the Present Day".

[5] Lembede moved to Johannesburg after finishing his L.L.B and completed his articles at Pixley ka Isaka Seme's law firm.

During this time he regularly met with Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo (who went on to establish their black South African law firm), discussing how they must win their freedom.

Mda, Dan Tloome, and David Bopape to become the first elected general president of the ANC Youth League on 10 September 1944.

[9] Lembede spent a lot of his time creating the organisation's Manifesto whilst also being elected to be the ANC's secretary in the Transvaal.

The following year Lembede, Tambo and Sisulu went on the attack to defend their ideas of African nationalism and they almost succeeded in getting the communists thrown out of the congress in the Transvaal.

[11] After the publication of Lembede's collected works, one reviewer commented that the South African activist's "ideas achieved canonical status in 1978 with the publication of Gail Gerhart's Black Power in South Africa […] which accorded recognition to Lembede as a pioneering figure in an intellectual lineage that was later embodied in Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko.

As his editors concede, much of his thought was influenced by the biological determinism that was such a staple ingredient in the scientific racism that accompanied totalitarian nationalism.

[14] Nelson Mandela wrote, "One night in 1943 I met Anton Lembede, who held master of arts and bachelor of law degrees, and A.P.

From the moment I heard Lembede speak, I knew I was seeing a magnetic personality who thought in original and often startling ways.