THE LIFE OF OLIVER TAMBO
"Some of us don’t like violence at all. I have an abhorrence of violence – I even take insects out of the bath. But we are forced into violence. I, for example, won’t hunt to kill because I do not like to kill."
-OLIVER TAMBO, gEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, JANUARY 27, 1987
Oliver Tambo addresses a crowd outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, London.
Oliver Tambo and his wife Adelaide on their wedding day in 1956.
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Oliver Tambo was born on October 17, 1917 in Mzibana, in eastern Mpondoland in what is now the Eastern Cape. Tambo’s parents were converted Christians that enrolled Tambo in the Ludeke Methodist School in Mzibana when he was seven years old. He continued his primary school education at the Holy Cross Mission and finished high school at St.Peter’s in Johannesburg. Tambo received a scholarship to the University College of Fort Hare and received his bachelors degree in science and mathematics. He was unable to get his bachelors associates degree when he was expelled from Fort Hare for holding a boycott against classes demanding democratically elected Student Representatives.
After he was expelled, he returned to St.Peter’s where he got a job as a science and mathematics teacher for five years. It was during this time that Tambo became apart of the network of the “young elite in Johannesburg”. Tambo later attended the University of South Africa and qualified as a law attorney in 1951. Nelson Mandela and Tambo together opened the first black law firm in South Africa. It became very well known and people travelled from all over for their legal services. After Mandela was banned by the South African government, Tambo took on most of the legal legwork of the firm. Tambo joined the ANC in the 1940’s and created the ANC Youth League with Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Anton Lembede. The ANC was banned by the government in the 1960’s and many of the ANC leaders were arrested and/or imprisoned. Tambo worked with the ANC while in exile and remained in a powerful position in the ANC. He became President of the ANC after the death of Albert Luthuli and as well as while Mandela was imprisoned. Tambo was also assigned to travel abroad to set up the ANC international mission and stimulate international opinion on the apartheid. Tambo lived in London for many years while in exile and during his mission abroad working for the ANC. In 1989 Tambo suffered a stroke and had to receive extensive medical care but returned to the ANC as the national chairperson of the ANC. Tambo suffered a stroke and died on April 24, 1933 but did live to see the end of the apartheid rule. |