Milton Apollo Obote was the first Prime Minister of Uganda from the time of its independence in 1962 until 1966 when he became President of the Republic of Uganda. In 1967 Obote gave a speech on language and nation building at a conference on national … Read More(1967) Milton Obote, “Language and National Identification”
In 1966 Julius Kambarage Nyerere was President of the Republic of Tanzania. When President Kenneth Kaunda of neighboring Zambia became the first Chancellor of the University of Zambia when it was inaugurated on July 13, 1966 he invited Nyerere, also the Chancellor of the University … Read More(1966) Julius Nyerere, “The Dilemma of the Pan-Africanist”
On May 25, 1963 the Organization for African Unity (OAU) was established with a permanent headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, was selected as the first President of the OAU. His acceptance speech appears below. This is indeed a momentous and … Read More(1963) Haile Selassie, “Towards African Unity”
In 1963 Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was selected as the first President of Nigeria. The following year he gave a public lecture on the benefits of tribalism in forging national unity in the Princess Alexandra Auditorium at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His lecture delivered on … Read More(1964) Nnamdi Azikiwe, “Tribalism: A Pragmatic Instrument for National Unity”
By 1962 Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1996) was a well-known independence leader in Nigeria. As President of the Nigerian Senate he was one of the most powerful individuals in the government of the young nation. Azikiwe, like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, and Jomo … Read More(1962) Nnamdi Azikiwe, “The Future of Pan Africanism”
In a speech before the Scandinavian Institute for African Affairs, Uppsala, Sweden, in December, 1972, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, then the Chief Executive Officer of the KwaZulu Territorial Authority, describes his cooperation with South African leaders despite his opposition to the country’s apartheid system. The speech … Read More(1972) M. Gatsha Buthelezi, “My Role Within Separate Development Politics”
In 1973 attorney K.M.N. Guzana was leader of the opposition Democratic Party in the national legislature of the theoretically independent nation of Transkei, one of the former homelands created by South Africa to contain the black population and thus reduce their “majority” status in the … Read More(1973) K.M.N. Guzana, “On Being a South African”
By the early 1970s South African cleric Desmond Mpilo Tutu had not yet achieved worldwide fame as an opponent of Apartheid. Nonetheless, in a July 1973 paper delivered to the National Conference of the South African Council of Churches, Tutu explained to his audience the … Read More(1973) Desmond Tutu, “God-given Dignity and the Quest for Liberation”
By the 1970s Lucy Mvubelo had become a powerful force in the black South African Labor Union Movement. Born in Johannesburg in 1920 she first joined the Garment Workers Union in 1946 and eventually became the first black woman on the National Executive Council of … Read More(1973) Lucy Mvubelo, “My Plea to the International Labor Organization”
Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi emerged in the 1970s as one of the moderate black leaders in South Africa’s anti-apartheid campaign. In 1970 he was appointed leader of the KwaZulu Territorial Authority and in 1975 he created the Inkatha Freedom Party which drew its support primarily from … Read More(1974) M. Gatsha Buthelezi, “Towards Black Fulfillment”
