hello and welcome grade 11s to the history crew channel in this video we will be covering the rise of african nationalism so what is nationalism nationalism is defined as having a sense of belonging to and identifying with a nation this includes being linked to people you do not know and also include civil rights such as the right to vote and to own land african nationalism started developing in the early 1900s prior to the 1900s africans did fight for their freedom but it was during the 1900s that they began to develop ideas of nationalism some africans began wanting to be free and to have a say in this land in comparison to the whites some people thought that a nationalist movement should include all south africans equally but others felt that this was not possible under a white government that supported segregation policies they believed that black south africans should develop their own sense of african nationalist pride african nationalism in south africa started as a form of resistance to colonialism and segregation many black south africans had supported britain in the south african war between the british and africanas because they hoped that this would ensure better economic and political conditions such as an end to the past laws and the right to vote but after the war it soon became clear that the union of south africa would be based on white political control at the expense of black south africans a new government was going to be formed but it was not going to include the non-whites then in all four colonies native congresses were formed the four colonies were the cape colony natal which were originally british colonies whilst the orange free state and transvaal were once africana territories in 1906 the transvaal native congress wrote to the british parliament to complain about the pass laws but their letter was ignored this was not a successful start in the fight for nationalism in 1909 three african newspaper editors walter rubusana jt jabar vu and john duber called together a meeting the south african native national convention in bloomfontaine the meeting demanded the vote for all males and an end to racial discrimination in 1909 a delegation then went to london to ask the british government to intervene but the british government ignored the delegation and this was another failure for them they were opposed to the formation of a government because they knew that they would not receive the same political rights as the whites in may 1910 the union of south africa was formed in which only white men had all the political power the new government consisting of africanas immediately passed laws which favored the whites only white males could vote and only whites could own land in south africa this meant that the non-whites were not regarded as citizens africans could not say that they belonged to the land of their ancestors anymore this was a huge setback for african nationalism the first major step then in the rise of african nationalism in south africa was the formation of the south african native national congress in january of 1912. the reverend john duber was elected as its first president the aims of the south african native national congress were to unite africans by overcoming ethnic regional and linguistic differences which basically meant trying to unite the zulu the pedi the indebala and so on as one secondly they also wanted to encourage united action thirdly they wanted to oppose discrimination and prejudice and to win political rights for all they were very moderate or safe in their actions and used letters and appeals as their form of protest action during this time there were no thoughts of marching in the streets and other radical forms of protests protest action was dignified and very calm one of the first actions which they took was to send another delegation to london to protest against the 1913 land act this act effectively took away ownership of all the land from africans ownership of land was now exclusively for the whites only in 1919 the sannc sent yet another delegation overseas to paris where the peace conference after the first world war was being held they hoped to gain support from the british government for self-determination for black people in south africa again without success self-determination means wanting to form their own government and to control their own lives the early anc was a moderate organization which relied on peaceful petitions letters and appeals to the authorities rather than militant action many of the leaders were educated black men which included ministers lawyers teachers newspaper editors and businessmen their supporters were mainly educated middle-class urban blacks they did not pay much attention to the needs of the black workers and poor people living in the rural reserves it does seem to some historians that the sannc was specifically helping those blacks who were educated and had money however another organization emerged which gained more support of the working class or workers this was the industrial and commercial workers union which was formed in 1919 as a trade union amongst cape town dock workers during the 1920s it played a leading role in organizing protests against the policies of the government and had branches throughout southern africa mainly in rural areas however by the end of the 1920s it had begun to decline during this period the icu had mass support but the anc did not have mass support it was seen by many as only helping educated wealthy urban blacks rather than the masses and was regarded as being too cautious or moderate in its approach some felt that the anc was too slow and too polite it was in 1923 that the south african native national congress officially became known as the african national congress during the 1930s the anc worked with other organizations to protest against further segregation laws once more without success after this black political organizations became frustrated with the moderate or safe approach and began calling for a more determined form of african nationalism this means that some members were tired of the old ways of protesting which was not achieving any success in 1940 dr alfred zuma became president of the anc and he gave it a new sense of purpose through his strong active style of leadership he wanted to cooperate with colored and indian leaders and to present a united front against discrimination in 1943 the anc under zuma drew up a document called african claims in south africa which called for votes for all adults a fair distribution of land the right for africans to own land in urban areas and an end to discrimination in the workplace in 1943 younger members of the anc formed the congress youth league cyl with anton lambert day as its first president and nelson mandela walter sicily and oliver tambo as members you make a note that the congress youth league would become the anc youth league these young leaders accused older anc leaders of representing the elite and wealthy and not assisting the masses who were poor simply put these new young leaders felt that the old leaders of the anc did not do enough to bring about change as well as they did not change the anc into a political organization that represented most of the people who were actually poor they wanted to overcome the conservative old-fashioned attitudes of the older members of the anc and turn it into a more active nationalist organization which would take the lead in bringing about change for south africans of all classes and races during the 1940s a minority group within the anc calling themselves africanists who felt that black africans should organize separately the africanist view was strongly supported by anton lemberg day after world war ii a more determined form of nationalism emerged within the anc especially after the national party came to power in 1948 and implemented apartheid the new apartheid government began to immediately more harsh laws to protect white interests and to enforce segregation of the races the anc leadership knew that they would have to resist these apartheid laws and discrimination at the 1949 anc conference members of the cyl were elected to positions of leadership in the anc the leadership of the anc had now changed the young energetic members from the early 1940s such as sicily tambo and mandela were now in charge they were determined to turn the anc into an activist organization with mass support they were prepared to take radical action and turn the anc into a radical organization whereas in the past the anc was just took moderate action in 1949 the anc adopted a program of action proposed by the congress youth league which accepted the use of boycotts strikes stay at homes civil disobedience and non-cooperation they were now going to move away from the old-fashioned ways of protesting such as writing letters and deliberately break apartheid laws they would be arrested but then the police would have to arrest hundreds of them at once they knew that the government and the police would not be able to cope with this because the jails would be filled however you must take note that they were not going to use violence even if they were attacked by the police or the army the defiance campaign would involve thousands of people but there would be no violence looting vandalism etc during the 1950s this was carried out in the defiance campaign launched by the anc in 1952 to protest against unjust apartheid laws for example new bantu education schools were boycotted and african women refused to carry passes on the 9th of august 1956. another important achievement in the fight for african nationalism was the freedom charter which was delivered in an address to a large crowd in clip town soweto in 1955. in the early 1950s the anc sent out 50 000 volunteers into the townships and the countryside to collect freedom demands from the people of south africa after collecting these demands a document was drawn up this became known as the freedom charter the charter was a document which contained a vision for what a free and fair south africa should be this was a direct response to the apartheid system that was implemented in 1948 which was not free and fair to all south africans it was supported by the south african indian congress the south african colored people's organizations in the south african congress of democrats one of the most important proclamations in the freedom charter were the words south africa belongs to all who live in it some members of the anc who did not support this idea left the anc in the form the pan-africanist congress they felt that only africans should lead the resistance movement and they opposed the idea of working alongside non-african political activists from this point on we now have two forms of african nationalism firstly there is charterism a view held by those who believed in the non-racialism of the freedom charter and africanist pan-africanism was a view held by those whose slogan was government of africans by africans for africans in other words pan-africanists believe that black african interests had to come first and there should be no power sharing with other races in response to the defiance campaign of the 1950s the apartheid government responded with more violence and more harsh laws 1960 the anc and the pac were banned by the apartheid government but the nationalist movement did not collapse in response to the repression of the apartheid government the armed wing of the anc called um konto were sees where or mk was formed lead by mandela and would now physically fight against the apartheid regime this was the first time that they took up arms in their fight for nationalism leaders of both organizations went into exile and continued to lead the movement from there during this period the fight for nationalism began to decline during the 1970s the black consciousness movement led by steve bico reignited the spark for african nationalism and used some of the same arguments as the africanists they also adopted the term black to identify themselves with however the bcm did accept indians and coloreds in the fight for nationalism provided that they see themselves as blacks too the bcm was especially influential amongst the youth and inspired them to continue the fight for nationalism however the anc in exile continued to confirm its support for non-racialism during the 1980s when the anc was still banned the united democratic front made up of people of all races continued to fight for a non-racial and democratic south africa following the charterist position south africa belongs to all who live in it in 1985 the congress of south african trade unions was formed which mobilized the workers into a stronger force against apartheid in the fight for nationalism by the end of the 1980s the apartheid regime was collapsing and the government began to negotiate with the anc in 1990 the anc and pac were unbanned and nelson mandela was released from jail after four years of intense negotiations the first democratic election was held on the 27th of april 1994. the anc under mandela's leadership went on to win the election and a new constitution was drawn up for south africa the bill of rights in the new constitution echoed the ideas of non-racialism that had been expressed in the freedom charter finally after many decades african nationalism had been achieved thank you for watching this video and please do not forget to subscribe to the history crew channel