Luthuli Detachment: OR Tambo Reacts to Luthuli’s Mysterious Death

Luthuli Detachment: OR Tambo Reacts to Luthuli’s Mysterious Death

On 22 July 1967, following a memorial service held for the late President-General of the African National Congress (ANC), Inkosi Albert Luthuli, in Lusaka, ANC leader, Oliver Tambo, was interviewed by a reporter of the Zambia Mail newspaper. Tambo maintained that there was some “mystery” surrounding the death of Inkosi Luthuli, as it was reported that he was struck by a goods train, the day before, on 21 July 1967. Luthuli, who was a partially deaf sixty-nine-year-old African man, who was also virtually blind in his left eye and partially sighted on his right, was crossing a railway bridge over the Umvoti River, north of Durban, when he was allegedly “struck by a goods train”.

After the interview, Tambo was taken by Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Commander Joe Modise to visit Dube’s Farm, west of Lusaka. At the Farm, there was a number of MK cadres, from various parts of Zambia and Tanzania, who were gathered there to listen to Tambo’s address. Before these cadres, Tambo praised Inkosi Albert Luthuli as a great fighter who died fighting for the rights of his people. He then mentioned that he had been phoning Stanger since 21 July, after getting the news of Luthuli’s passing on, without receiving any reply.

According to Tambo, the apartheid government was responsible for his death; and Luthuli’s passing would go down in history because immediately after his burial, the ANC’s army would invade Rhodesia and South Africa. Those cadres were at that moment regarded as Luthuli’s soldiers – the “Luthuli Detachment”. Tambo called on the cadres to stand and observe a moment of silence for two minutes, every day, at midday, for the following two weeks in honour of the Great Fighter, Inkosi Albert Luthuli.

It was appropriate for Tambo to refer to Luthuli as a great fighter, because following his election at the end of the ANC’s annual conference in 1952, Chief Luthuli’s was viewed by all as a new, more vigorous president for a new, more activist, era. Luthuli was one of a handful of ruling chiefs who were active in the ANC and had staunchly resisted the policies of the colonial and apartheid governments. He was a teacher, a devout Christian and a proud Zulu Chief, but he was even more firmly committed to the struggle against apartheid.

When the apartheid government issued him with an ultimatum to resign from the ANC or to relinquish his post as a Chief, Luthuli refused to resign from the ANC and the government dismissed him from his Chieftain post. Furthermore, he issued a statement of principles called “The Road to Freedom is via the Cross”, in which he reaffirmed his support for non-violent passive resistance and justified his choice with words that still echo nostalgically today: “Who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door?” Based on Nelson Mandela’s observations, Luthuli “was a man of patience and fortitude, who spoke slowly and clearly as though every word was of equal importance”.

Oliver Tambo described the new style of Luthuli’s leadership by comparing it with that of his two predecessors, Dr Xuma and Dr Moroka. According to Tambo, even after DF Malan’s government came to power in 1948, Xuma resisted direct action and insisted on the older strategy of lobbying and representation; Moroka sanctioned all actions and accepted all proposals almost without questioning them. Luthuli differed from both. Unlike Xuma he acted and knew what the masses wanted because he was with them. Like Moroka he allowed direct action. Unlike Moroka “he knew what he was doing in terms of the past, present and future…Luthuli entered the scene at a point prepared by Moroka…a point where unprecedented mass political activity in South Africa was drawing increasing international attention.”

In a statement he issued on 12 June 1964 when Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and six others were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial, Luthuli said: “The African National Congress never abandoned its method of militant, non-violent struggle…However, in the face of the uncompromising white refusal to abandon a policy which denies the African and other oppressed South Africans their rightful heritage freedom – no one can blame brave, just men for seeking justice by the use of violent methods; nor could they be blamed if they tried to create an organised force in order to establish ultimately peace and racial harmony.”

In a statement issued by the ANC following the news of his death, that ANC said “Inkosi albert Luthuli was a determined and courageous fighter, shaped and steeled in the various political and economic struggles that took place throughout the country. There were many bold and imaginative political and economic campaigns for demands envisaged both in the 1949 Programme of Action and in the Freedom Charter. Some of the campaigns were violent, bitter and grim. These usually took the form of national industrial stoppages of work and numerous stays-at- home.”

Furthermore, the ANC declared that “There is a wrong and unfortunate impression that Chief Luthuli was a pacifist, or some kind of an apostle of non-violence. This impression is incorrect and misleading. The policy of non-violence was formulated and adopted by national conferences of the African National Congress before he was elected President-General of the organisation. The policy was adopted in 1951 specially for the conduct of the ‘National Campaign for Defiance of Unjust Laws’ in 1952. What is correct, however, is that as a man of principle and as a leader of unquestionable integrity, Chief Luthuli defended the policy entrusted to him by his organisation and saw to it that it was implemented. When that policy was officially and constitutionally changed, he did not falter.”

Inkosi Albert Luthuli “was a profound thinker, a man of powerful logic with a keen sense of justice, a man of lofty principles, a bold and courageous fighter and a statesman. He was a true African nationalist and an unflinching patriot. Although he grew up under tribal conditions and surroundings, he was uncompromising against racialism, tribalism and all forms of racial and sectional exclusiveness. He believed in and fought for full political, economic and social opportunities for the oppressed people of South Africa regardless of colour, creed, nationality or racial origin. A staunch anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, he fought and obtained the co-operation of all anti-apartheid, anti-imperialist progressive movements and organisations in South Africa.”

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
Editorial, “Chief Albert John Mvumbi Lutuli: Isitwalandwe 1898 – 1967”, Sechaba, Vol. 1, No. 8, August 1967.
Gerald Pillay, “Albert Luthuli: Voices of Liberation”, Human Sciences Research Council, 2012.
The Nobel Prize, “Albert Luthuli: Biographical”, Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom”, Abacus, 1994.

Castro Khwela
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