Swinging between belligerence and servility : John Dube's struggle for freedom(s) in South Afrca

Abstract

John Langalibalele Mafukuzela Dube left an indelible legacy in South Africa’s political, educational and religious spheres. He was a church leader, veteran politician, journalist, philanthropist and educationist. He was the first President of the African National Congress (ANC) when it was formed in Bloemfontein on January 8, 1912 as the South African National Native Congress (SANNC). Dube was also the founder of the first Zulu newspaper ILanga laseNatali through which he published the experiences of African people under white rule. As the first president of what was to become Africa’s most influential political and liberation movement, Dube served as an ordained minister of the Congregational Church. This important connection helped Dube define church-state relations in colonial South Africa, thus forging the role that African clergy would later need to play in the struggle for South Africa’s freedom and democracy. Although his work influenced various aspects of African people’s lives such as the social, political, educational and economic, he firmly located himself in the church as a pastor and Christian activist whose vocation was to struggle for all the freedoms that were denied to his people, including freedom of religion. This study offers a brief profile of John Dube as a political theologian and highlights his contribution to the struggle of African people for the freedom from colonial and white rule.