African National Congress

The African National Congress is a South African political party founded in 1912. It led the struggle against apartheid and governed South Africa from 1994 until losing its parliamentary majority in 2024.

South African Native National Congress: The name used by the African National Congress from its founding in 1912 until 1923. This was the organization’s original name before it became the ANC.
Freedom Charter: A 1955 statement of principles for a democratic South Africa, including equal rights and shared national resources. It became a defining political program for the ANC and its allied movements.
Albert Luthuli: An ANC president from 1952 to 1967 and the first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. His leadership linked the ANC’s mass campaigns with international advocacy for nonviolence.
1994 South African general election: South Africa’s first national election based on universal adult suffrage, held in April 1994. The ANC’s victory brought it to power in the first democratic national government.
John Langalibalele Dube: A South African educator, minister, and political leader who became the ANC’s first president. Dube helped establish the organization and served as its inaugural president.
Umkhonto we Sizwe: The armed wing established by the ANC and South African Communist Party in 1961 to resist apartheid. Its sabotage campaign extended the ANC’s resistance beyond nonviolent protest.
Nelson Mandela: A South African anti-apartheid leader, ANC president, and the country’s first Black president. Mandela became the ANC’s most internationally recognized leader and its first president of democratic South Africa.
Constitution of South Africa: South Africa’s supreme law, adopted in its final form in 1996, establishing a democratic constitutional order. The ANC participated in the negotiations and institutions that produced the post-apartheid constitution.
African Claims: A 1943 ANC document calling for equal rights and political representation for Black South Africans. It set out the ANC’s demands before the postwar campaign of mass resistance.
Rivonia Trial: The 1963–1964 trial in which Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial exposed the ANC’s leadership and armed resistance to international attention.

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