Abstract
An African National Congress
(ANC) foreign policy or
international relations strategy
is as old as the movement itself: a
whopping 100 years! There are very
many ANC, South African Communist
Party (SACP) and South African Congress
of Trade Union (SACTU) leaders and
activists who played a critical role in
defending and promoting the theory
and practice of internationalism,
international solidarity, world peace,
African unity, African renaissance and an
African agenda. Let us in the year of the
centenary mention some of them. They
are: John Langalibalele Dube, Pixley ka
Seme, Z. K. Mathews, Inkhosi Albert
Luthuli, Walter Sisulu, Yusuf Dadoo,
Brian Bunting, Ray Simons, Joe Slovo,
Johnny Makhatini, Alfred Nzo, Kader
Asmal, M.P Naicker, Dennis Brutus, Alex
La Guma, O.R Tambo, Mark Shope,
Duma Nokwe, Gertrude Shope, Ruth
Mompathi, Nelson Mandela, Reginald
September, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob.G
Zuma, and others like Pan-African
Congress leaders Robert Sobukwe and
Black Conscious leader Steve Biko. The
white minority embarked on efforts
to create their “white state” in a black
land, which culminated in the elections
in September 1910 to consolidate
the Union of South Africa, with the
South African Party (SAP) winning
comfortably. The primary aim was to
seek reconciliation within the white
community between descendents
of the English and Dutch who
had engaged in the two Anglo-Boer
Wars of 1880 to 1881 and 1899
to 1902.