When the story of the founding of the Congress Youth League (CYL) – the forerunner of the ANC Youth League – is told, usually only Anton Lembede, AP Mda and a few others are mentioned. Some of the other founding members are rarely brought up and the omission of their names is the silencing of their intellectual prowess and political contribution to the creation of CYL.
Jordanian Khush Ngubane is one of the voices that have been discarded. He was marginalized when the story of CYL was told. Perhaps political fluidity and how he left the ANC in the 1950s is the reason why we don’t hear much about him. Few people match him as an intellectual and programmatic politician. As a journalist, his record remains unparalleled.
Who Cares?
Ngubane was born near Ladysmith, in a small village called Nkwebebe, on November 15, 1917. In 1933, he attended Adams College and matriculated in 1937. While at Adams he began studying journalism through correspondence and contributed several articles to Iso Lomuzi , student. magazine.
Because of the bond between Adams, the scholars of Natal and the public in general, his talent was able to attract the attention of Ngazana Luthuli, his uncle Albert Luthuli and the editor of Ilanga (1915 to 1943), who offered him a job in Ilanga after Natal. Ilanga was founded by John Langalibalele Dube in 1903 when it was the first African-owned newspaper in the early 19th century.
Nguban was famous in Ilanga as Jo the Cow, in Gleanings from Life, a satirical column he wrote from 1938 to 1943. He also wrote a column under the pseudonym Mkhaba Kawukheti. Mkhaba is a fun person who presents serious political issues in an accessible and funny way. These are the pillars that attract the attention of many people to the brilliance of Nguban. He is an important part of Ilanga and its readers, contributing more than 376 articles.
In 1943, Ngubane left Ilanga to join Bantu World as assistant editor of Richard Victor Selope Thema. When he arrived on March 27, 1943, he was received by RRR editor Dhlomo. In Bantu World, Ngubane writes the same column as in Ilanga — Izindaba Zokuma Komhlaba (World Affairs) which covers international politics. While there, he rubbed intellectual shoulders with the likes of Dhlomo, Dompet Vilakazi and Walter and MB Nhlapho.
Established the Congress Youth League in 1944
Establishing the CYL in April 1944 at the Bantu Pria Social Center was an important moment for Ngubane. In 1939, together with Manasseh T Moerane, ANC member and secretary of the Natal Bantu Teachers Association, he founded a short-lived youth organization called the National Union of African Youth. Thus, the foundation of CYL five years later for Nubane is the fulfillment of an idea that he and Moerane have long envisioned.
CYL commissioned Ngubane, Lembede, its first president, and Mda to write the league’s manifesto. According to Mda, Ngubane and Lembede only contributed a few words. “It’s all written down”, said Mda. Therefore, no proper history of the ANC youth movement would be complete without mentioning the role of Ngubane, Moerane and the African Youth National Union. And of course, there would be no proper history of the CYL manifesto without its main writer, Ngubane.
Shortly after the founding of CYL, Ngubane left Bantu World citing a restrictive editorial policy that did not allow words such as “oppression” and others. He returned to Durban to become editor (1944 to 1951) of Inkundla ya Bantu (formerly). Territorial Magazine), published in Verulam.
He had been a contributor to Inkundla since June 1942 under the pseudonyms Khanyisa and Twana. The move to Inkundla also proved to be important for CYL. It now has a mouthpiece, edited by the founding members and architects of the manifesto. A letter from Mda to Godfrey M Pitje (CYL Fort Hare Leader) shows how the three connived to have Inkundla as the mouthpiece of CYL.
Mda then suggested that the paper was not his mouthpiece, but he encouraged youth leaguers to subscribe because of African ownership. Even if Mda was telling the truth, he was speaking from a place of hatred because he did not agree with Nubane in 1948.
For Ngubane Inkundla is an important part of CYL. When life began to fail and he had moved from Durban to live in Rosetta, near Escourt, he offered to give CYL a place on the board of directors of Inkundla to make sure that the editorial policy remained friendly to CYL activities.
He is a politician
On 4 September 1948, at the Durban Bantu Men’s Social Centre, Nubane was elected president of the Natal branch of the CYL, with Harry Gwala as vice-president. This election follows several attempts by different committees to establish CYL. As president of the CYL in Natal, Ngubane influenced the election of Luthuli in 1951 as president of the ANC in Natal, replacing Juara AWG, who had been in charge since 1945.
Ngubane supported Luthuli as he claimed he understood the meaning of “new Africa”, which Juara did not. This is important to Ngubane, who has long believed Luthuli has the potential to become ANC leader. Luthuli and Ngubane have known each other since the days of Adam and often meet at Ilanga’s office in Durban. Sometimes Luthuli stayed at Ngubane’s house to discuss politics.
However, relations fell apart in 1955-56 when Nubane accused Luthuli of being a weak president, being used by the communists. Writing in Opini India, for which he worked as an assistant editor (1952 to 1957), Ngubane accused Luthuli of taking the congress to Moscow. In essence, he claimed that Luthuli was controlled by members of the South African Communist Party. This accusation caused Luthuli and other ANC leaders including Mandela and Ruth First to attack Ngubane. Luthuli’s anger towards Ngubane made him never mention Ngubane’s name, including in his autobiography, Ayo Umatku.
After the Luthuli incident, Ngubane left the ANC to join the South African Liberal Party and became deputy president. He traveled throughout South Africa preaching the politics of non-racism while campaigning for the party. In 1958, he was part of the South African delegation to the All African People’s Conference in Ghana, Accra. Nomination as a delegate to this conference is a vote of confidence and an acknowledgment of commitment to the liberation of Africans.
When political organizations were banned in 1960, Ngubane received a letter dated August 30 from the Mbata Congress, which proposed a meeting of African leaders. Mbata said: “Your contribution to the development of the African people and the improvement of their condition is well known.” A follow-up committee was formed from Mbata’s efforts but Nubane later withdrew from it due to communist influence.
However, his activities in the committee were not abandoned by the government. Along with Duma Nokwe, Paul Mosaka, Mbeki, Marks Shope and others, he was prosecuted under the Suppression of Communism Act. Joe Slovo of the South African Communist Party represented him in court. Nubane was eventually sentenced to 12 months in prison but appealed the decision and was released pending appeal.
In 1962, while appealing against his sentence, hearing that the police were looking for him, he fled to Mbabane, Swaziland, now Eswatini, assisted by Lencelort P Msomi, a politician from northern Natal. There, he published his first book UShaba: The Hurtle to Blood River (1963). Six years later, in 1969, he received a Ford Foundation Grant to continue at Howard University in the United States, where he was called to teach about South African apartheid.
He continued his writing career and worked with Three Continents Press, a publishing company in Washington, to see the publication of several other works, including An African Explains Apartheid (1964), which was banned by the apartheid government.
While in the US, he became close to Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and met him regularly in Washington. Through Buthelezi’s efforts, Ngubane returned to South Africa to join the Inkatha Freedom Party but was unable to make a significant impact. He died on September 17, 1985.
A true son of Africa without political boundaries
Ngubane sees himself as an African nationalist and a liberal, as defined by Mda. His whole life was dedicated to the unity of the African people. He claimed to be Seme Man, referring to the principles of Pixley ka Isaka Seme which influenced the founding of the ANC in 1912. He campaigned for a non-racial society based on the ideal of individual freedom. He believed that the race problem in South Africa was a conflict of minds that hindered individual progress and that the conflict was Ushaba (proliferation of problems), which could lead black and white to another River of Blood.
He was the first person to be famous in South Africa about the concept of ubuntu and the theory about it in one of his writings. Ngubane’s life was extraordinary, but he remained on the fringes, his words and activities thrown out by political inflexibility that has been misconstrued out of context as inconsistency.
He was an intellectual and endlessly controversial politician, he was fluid in his political commitments but firm in his ideas of a non-racial society.