ANC PHYSICAL ESTABLISHMENTS:
A PLACE TO call HOME
Oliver Tambo and Joshua Nkomo at the UNIP conference in Zambia,1978. Tambo travelled extensively abroad ignoring the travel ban imposed on ANC members. In his travels, he established headquarters for the ANC who banned and its leaders scattered.
This image is a close up of the memorial to Oliver Tambo and his wife Adelaide in a park in London, near where he lived. Tambo lived in London for 30 years where he worked alongside the United Nations and travelled worldwide gathering support for the ANC.
|
Oliver Tambo was a key figure on the ANC’s Revolutionary Council where he organized the overseeing of the ANC’s internal machinery and the expansion of its underground capacity at the Morogoro Conference. In 1958, Tambo was elected as the Deputy General of the ANC and in the 1960’s Tambo was sent abroad to gather international opinion on apartheid and to establish ANC missions. With the aid of neighboring African governments, Tambo was able to install missions in Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, and London. Under Tambo’s supervision, 27 ANC missions were established by 1990 with the exception of China, two missions in Asia and Australasia.
The ANC threatened to collapse as internal fighting and the dispersal of leaders took its toll. However, Oliver Tambo’s achievement of establishing ANC headquarters, enabled the ANC to continue to proficiently function while in exile. In creating international headquarters, the ANC had a place to meet and host events while it also provided the ANC with legitimacy as an important organization. The ANC now seen as a notable organization, gives Tambo the political power to petition other nations to make sanctions against South Africa to create strain on the South African economy and by omission the government. |