than editorialising. In July 1918 it reported that a meeting of the Congress committee handling the idea of a strike had agreed to let representatives elected by mine labourers accompany a delegation of ten elected by Congress, although the labourers would be under direction of the ten.19 At other times, the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column spoke for democracy. In 1931 correspondent L. S. Motsepe used it to assert that ANC leaders had neglected his Pretoria branch and Seme, who had ridden roughshod over inner-party democracy, was plotting to undermine Abantu-Batho. F. Bryn of the same branch echoed these comments and the branch pledged ‘emphatically our allegiance to the Independent African National Congress’.20
A host of local correspondents gave insights into regional politics. They boosted local subscriptions and reported a wide range of events. In 1920 Moses Ngqase reported from Sterkstroom on local politics and other affairs from the Bhunga to Smuts. The same issue had reports on the Newcastle branch of Congress and by Rev. E. L. Mkize of Roberts Heights, Pretoria; Joseph Kgaphola of Premier Mine; S. J. Chuthlane of the Vryburg branch of Congress, and various other accounts from as far afield as Bloemfontein and Sophiatown. Correspondents included Thema, C. S. Mabaso, Henry Reed Ngcayiya, Thipe Ditshego, J. T. Gumede and Johannes Nkosi.21 From the paper, we learn of an ANC branch active in Alexandra in 1923 presided over by John Mophosho (Mposho) with T. S. Mngadi as general secretary, but driven, perhaps, by the chameleon-like E. P. Mart Zulu. And we also hear of local parties and advisory board politics in Evaton.22
ANC coverage was not limited to the Transvaal. For example, Abantu-Batho reported Orange Free State (OFS) Congress news, where by 1917 changes in leadership led to a ‘heated dispute’ about credentials, which was ‘finally amicably settled’. It also covered discussions on justice and legal discrimination at the April 1918 conference in Waaihoek.23
The various papers soon became embroiled in internecine scuffles. By 1914 there were rumblings of turf battles around Dube’s presidency.24 At first, relations were cordial. All lacked ready access to expensive news agencies (see the Introduction and chapter 11 in this volume) and tended to reprint stories from one another. Abantu-Batho, commenting on Eastern Cape elections, was careful to mention ‘the venerable IMVO’ (Imvo Zabantsundu), whose editor promptly reprinted the article.25 Ilanga regularly reported the comings and goings of the editors of its Rand sister paper, while an Abantu-Batho article discussed the complex politics of the SANNC and Natal Native Congress (NNC).26 When Ilanga turned its guns on mission paper Izwi la Kiti, which ‘bears by baptism a Bantu name but in spirit is not Bantu at all’, for it maintains ‘disunion amongst natives’, it complimented its sister paper for criticising Izwi: ‘Many thanks to you of the “Abantu-Batho” for this action.’27
Eventually, however, political rivalries, especially between Saul Msane and Dube, but also between the provincial Congresses and their effective organs, began to take their toll. Abantu-Batho aired deep-seated antagonisms between the two men focused on the alleged mismanagement of the funds of the delegation to Britain. An article by Msane attacking Dube provoked a unanimous resolution in support of the latter at an NNC meeting of April 1916, reported in Ilanga,28 which also printed a trenchant open letter to Abantu-Batho by Thema cautioning the editors from giving vent to divisive views. Unity, he urged, was more important than ‘the proving of Mafukuzela’s [Dube’s] or Mayimayi’s [Msane’s] innocence …. But alas! the “Voice of the Native Races of South Africa” has only one mouth and therefore cannot speak for all the people’. As Christison shows in his chapter, there was also ‘bad blood’ between Grendon and Thema, with the latter aiming his barbs against the former, who as English editor was leading this attack ‘in the language with which the large majority of the people are not acquainted’. Thema’s claim that Abantu-Batho was responsible for divisions was a case of shooting the messenger, but his comment that it had ‘become a party paper’ was accurate under its TNC constitutional ambit. In the eventual spill two months later, Msane and Grendon were dismissed (possibly by Seme) as editors, and Dube lost the presidency.29 In these jousts, Abantu-Batho would often – as it did in 1920 – question whether Natal ‘was playing its part towards Africanism’.30
In all this, press lobbying by Rand-based Zulus was a factor. At first cordial relations prevailed. The Ikomiti lamaZulu ase Goli held a meeting at the Abantu-Batho offices just before Christmas 1916. In late 1917 Abantu-Batho was careful to report that a special meeting of the SANNC executive in Bloemfontein took cognisance not just of TNC protests against the Native Affairs Administration Bill, but also the ‘forceful and straightforward speaking’ of NNC members at Ladysmith, Pietermaritzburg and Durban, as also the protests of Zulu chiefs in Vryheid.31
But when Msane was pilloried by Abantu-Batho in 1918, NNC members on the Rand such as A. W. G. Champion came to his defence, criticising Abantu-Batho for being used by Makgatho’s Transvaal group in factionalism against Dube (and Natal).32 Msane gave his own view of events in a letter sent to Abantu-Batho, but published just before his death in Ilanga in May 1919.33
The shifting maelstrom of Transvaal politics would see Makgatho soon make a similar accusation against the paper. Some years later Champion would come full circle to defend Abantu-Batho. For his part, Seme gave up on Abantu-Batho, started the Eshowe-based Ikwezi le Afrika in 1928, and used the pages of Ilanga in 1929 to launch his drive for ANC power.34 The press was therefore an essential cog of any political machine. Without more evidence it is hard to claim which faction or its paper was telling the truth, but we may follow Foucault in emphasising the development of a certain ‘free-spokenness’.35
Accounting for this factionalism is not easy. La Hausse de Lalouvière points to some evidence that ‘Zulu’ influence was on the wane in the TNC by then. I tend to agree with Lowe that most Abantu-Batho actors had never had much to do with the NNC.36 Later, Gumede made use of the rival Natal African Congress to boost his national political profile, just as Seme would turn his back on Abantu-Batho and found his rival Ikwezi, for the same purpose. Abantu-Batho may have become the meat in the political sandwich, or equally it seems to have been an active player in the eventual triumph of TNC forces in the ANC.
But we can discover much more than rivalry in this journal. We can chart the formation of Eastern Cape ANC bodies. While writers assume this region was the seedbed of African nationalism, this truism does not always extend to the detail of ANC politics. Walter Rubusana, Meshach Pelem, E. P. B. Koti and E. J. Mqoboli were early (notional) executive members of the SANNC for the Eastern Cape but they did not do a great deal in the body.37 And the national Congress lacked a solid foothold there until April 1918, when its representatives Richard Msimang and Levi Mvabaza accepted an invitation to address a meeting of chiefs and other leaders in Mthatha.38 The Congressmen advised the meeting ‘on many intricate points’ and, ‘on their advice, it was agreed to establish an association for the Transkeian Territories’, ‘by the inauguration of a local association’. This served to establish ‘a link with the northern movement’ on ‘a more secure and connected foundation’. Office holders elected ‘for the Territory between Umtata and the Umzimkulu’ were Rev. Jonathan Mazwi, J. Xakekile and E. Tshongwana.39 Msimang and Mvabaza then attended a meeting in Queenstown that resolved to support the formation of SANNC branches,40 before returning to the Rand, where Abantu-Batho greeted the ‘northern emissaries’, who declared ‘the Cape is ripe for Congress’ and in need of leaders ‘who will infuse a spirit of NATIONALISM and individual assertion’.41 However, Mazwi soon joined up with Pelem to fold this new Native Convention of the Transkei into the Bantu Union,42 which quickly moved away from the orbit of Congress. It would not be until 1925 that an ‘ANC-Transkeian Territories’ finally joined the ANC.
One effect of Seme’s 1930 victory as ANC president was greater attention by Abantu-Batho, now led by his rival Gumede, was greater Abantu-Batho attention to more radical provincial branches. It gave detailed coverage of the 1930 police killings of Western Province ANC members.43 Resolutions of the 1930 Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and Griqualand West Province conference were carried in great detail, as were speeches by Z. R. Mahabane, Conan Doyle Modiakgotla and J. S. Likhing. The Sesotho columns of the same issue carried stories on the Communist