History of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania

This article covers the history of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, once a South African liberation movement and now a minor political party.

A large cause of these differences was the multi-racial personality of the establishment: the Africanists did not think that collaborating with Indians, Coloureds and whites would help the indigenous inhabitants (i.e., black people) acquire political command of South Africa.

A statement in the Charter's preamble refers to "we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers", and the Africanists were displeased with this notion.

The date for the PAC's campaign was finally set for March 21, 1960 and the weekend was spent handing out brochures and activating people.

The protest erupted in tragedy when nervy police opened fire on a group of protestors in Sharpeville, killing 69 people and injuring 186, many being shot from behind.

Sobukwe was imprisoned at Robben Island for many years and was thought to be so "dangerous" and charismatic by the apartheid government that he was kept not only in solitary confinement, but in a one-man jail.

The assassination of Sibeko in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 12 June 1979 and the death of Leballo in January 1986 inaugurated the demise of the PAC.

[2] Although founded by ANC members who were in profound opposition to the policies of the South African Communist Party, in the 1960s a prominent section of the PAC's leadership adopted a Maoist position.

Despite its organisational weaknesses, the PAC's Africanism did much to inform the student uprisings of the late 1970s and inspired the formation of the Black Consciousness Movement under the leadership of Steve Biko.

It now only has one member in Parliament after the deputy parliamentary leader, Themba Godi, left to form his own party, the African Peoples' Convention, in 2007.

In February 2022, the PAC and the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) announced a new unity pact with the intention to contest elections together.

He joined the Government of National Unity as Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development after the ruling ANC lost its outright majority in parliament.