Chief Albert Luthuli and the Bantustan Question

Abstract

Within the African National Congress (ANC), various political personalities claim to be the ideological heirs of Luthuli. However, the debates over Luthuli’s legacy also transcend personalities and political parties to influence broader philosophical debates. The politicisation of culture over the last decade has dramatically altered the context in which “traditional leadership” is viewed. Luthuli stands on the fault line of any debate concerning Zulu nationalism or traditional leadership because Luthuli was an anomaly: a democratically elected, local traditional leader of international stature. As such, he is claimed both by traditionalists and modernists. An example of the former, Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa, President of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, invoked Luthuli’s legacy to criticise the ANC’s continued faltering “on the question of traditional leadership”, arguing that ubukhosi (the institution of traditional leadership) “is here to stay”. There are obvious historiographical dangers in such claim-making. Holomisa’s statements could be perceived as a claim that Luthuli was a traditionalist who envisioned a retrograde action to Shakan and Shepstonian times rather than a modern democrat who struggled for a contemporary and progressive South Africa that was free from racial and ethnic divisions. Buthelezi’s repeated claims that Luthuli supported his leadership of the KwaZulu homeland government can be interpreted as an assertion that Luthuli believed that Apartheid could be fought by collaborating with or participating within white supremacist structures. In the context of this claim-making, how can we determine Luthuli’s position on traditional leadership and the bantustans under apartheid? In my view, a more accurate understanding of Luthuli’s political thought comes with recognising that his Christian faith influenced all other ingredients. More specifically, I would argue that it was Luthuli’s specific brand of Christian faith – Congregationalism – that represented values of egalitarianism, democracy, and unity, and determined his political philosophy – values which are antithetical to a world of ethnic bantustans. My starting point for investigating Luthuli’s relationship to traditional leadership is the eulogy Buthelezi delivered at Mthyiane’s funeral. This investigation relies on primary sources to document Luthuli’s views on the homelands framework. These sources reveal Luthuli’s views on chieftaincy, democracy, multiracialism, and available modes of resistance against the Apartheid regime.