Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli

Biography

Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli was born around 1898 at a Seventh-day Adventist mission in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, into a Zulu family with deep roots in Groutville, Natal. After his father died, Luthuli moved to Groutville in 1908 to live with his uncle and attend school there. He completed high school with a teaching qualification and received a government scholarship to study for a Higher Teacher's Diploma at Adams College. After finishing his studies in 1922, he joined the faculty at Adams College as one of the first African teachers there, a job he held for about 20 years. During this time, he also became secretary of the Natal Native Teachers' Association in 1928 and its president in 1933, becoming known as a voice for African professional growth.

Luthuli's political career began in 1935 when he was elected chief of the Umvoti River Reserve in Groutville. In this role, he saw firsthand the developing system of racial discrimination the South African government imposed on Black Africans, which officially became apartheid after the National Party won the election in 1948. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was elected president of the ANC's Natal provincial branch in 1951. The next year, he helped lead the Defiance Campaign, a nonviolent protest against pass laws and other apartheid legislation.

The government reacted to his activism by demanding he resign from either the ANC or his chieftaincy. Luthuli refused to leave either position, issuing a statement titled 'The Road to Freedom Is via the Cross,' which outlined his commitment to nonviolent resistance and African rights. The authorities then removed him from his chieftaincy, but the ANC elected him President-General later in 1952, a position he held until he died. His leadership covered some of the most challenging years of the anti-apartheid fight, including the Treason Trial of 1956, where he was one of 156 activists charged with high treason, but the charges were eventually dropped.

In 1960, after the Sharpeville massacre where sixty-nine Africans were killed by police, the government declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC. Luthuli publicly burned his passbook in protest. That same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first African to receive it. Norwegian authorities had to negotiate with the South African government to let him travel to Oslo to accept the award, as he faced restrictions on his movement and speech. In his Nobel lecture, he condemned apartheid and called on the international community to support African freedom through nonviolent means.

Luthuli spent much of the rest of his life under bans confining him to the Groutville area. He wrote his autobiography, Let My People Go, published in 1962, which is still a key personal account of resistance to apartheid. He died on 21 July 1967 in KwaDukuza after being hit by a train near his home. The details of his death were never fully clarified, and many have questioned whether it was an accident. He was married to Nokukhanya Bhengu, who also faced the difficulties of his activism. In 1968, he was posthumously awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.