112 E. Morrison, ‘Reading Victoria’s Newspapers 1838–1901’, in D. Walker et al. (eds), Books, Readers, Reading (Geelong: Deakin University, 1992): 129.
113 K. Tomaselli, R. Tomaselli and J. Muller, ‘The Construction of News in the South African Media’, in K. Tomaselli and J. Muller (eds), The Press in South Africa (Bellville: Anthropos, 1989): 22–23.
114 See A. Curthoys, ‘Histories of Journalism’, in A. Curthoys and J. Schultz (eds), Journalism: Print, Politics and Popular Culture (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1999): 1–9.
115 B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983, 1991), 13–15, 137.
116 L. Sage, ‘Foreword’, in K. Campbell (ed.), Journalism, Literature and Modernity: From Hazlitt to Modernism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004): x.
117 To give one example, the first two issues of Ilanga were replete with mentions of ‘the people’ and even ‘the masses’ (W. C. Wilcox, ‘Correspondence to the Editor’, Ilanga 1, 10 April 1903; H. A., ‘Education of Body and Mind’, Ilanga 2, 17 April 1903).
118 ‘South African Native National Congress’, Tsala ea Batho, 10 May 1913, lists Naledi ea Batho, Molomo oa Batho, Abantu-batho, Tsala ea Batho and APO as ‘newspaper press organs’.
119 See Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: 9–15, and the authors discussed therein.
120 J. Nerone, ‘Genres of Journalism History’, in C. Robertson (ed.), Media History and the Archive (New York: Routledge, 2011): 26–27: in the United States early African American and radical papers, for example, were able to draw attention to themselves by this recirculation. Here I pay tribute to the World Newspaper Archive of the Center for Research Libraries/Readex, which has placed many such papers online.
121 L. Thompson, A History of South Africa, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996): 325, noting it was the editors of black papers who provided leadership to decide a strategy against discrimination.
122 Transvaal Native Congress Constitution, [c.1919], 9, copy in NASA, Pretoria, Secretary for Native Affairs (NTS) 7204 17/326, attached to 1217/14/110, S. M. Pritchard, DNL to SNA, 17 May 1919. It is not clear if this is the first version of the constitution, which was being discussed by 1915 (‘Transvaal Native Council’, Ilanga, 11 June 1915).
123 Opland, The Nation’s Bounty.
124 ‘Presidential Address to the National Congress at Bethlehem’, Abantu-Batho, 25 April, 9 May 1918.
125 Hughes, The First President: 195. The conflict cannot be ascribed purely to personal differences, but neither does it appear rooted in any deep gulf of political philosophy, as both were moderately inclined.
126 See Part II: Abantu-Batho, 4 July 1918, DNL 1441/D205.
127 B. Sundkler, Bantu Prophets in South Africa (London: Lutterworth, 1948): 35.
128 ‘ANC Secretary General’s Report’ [1930], in Karis and Carter, From Protest to Challenge, vol. 1: 306–8.
129 ‘Native Papers & Missionaries’, Tsala, 21 March 1914. Abantu-Batho sprang to his defence when attacked in Volkstem (‘I “Volkstem” No Mr. S. T. Plaatje’, Ilanga, 2 April 1915, repr. from Abantu-Batho).
130 Futa, ‘Imvo vs. the Natives and Their “Would-Be Leaders”’, Tsala, 29 November 1913: a reference to Jabavu’s claim that the Land Act had been accept by the people en masse via their Councils of Chiefs.
131 Skota, The African Yearly Register.
132 C. S. Mabaso to DNL, 16 February 1914, DNL 1329/14 D48, ‘Anglo German War: Native Newspapers: Abantu Batho’.
133 Benson, The African Patriots: 38.
134 Acting DNL to SNA, 16 February 1916, DNL 1329/14 D48.
135 As one of the delegates to Britain, he was introduced as ‘Managing Director, Abantu-Batho, Ltd’, probably assuming this role from Seme around 1916; see ‘Summary of Statements made to the African Telegraph by the South African Delegation …’, African Telegraph and Gold Coast Mirror, May–June 1919: 226.
136 Skota, The African Who’s Who: 53 has Selope Thema only as a ‘correspondent’.
137 Grendon to Ilanga, 19 November 1915, citing Msimang in Abantu-Batho, 5 December 1913, with this title.
138 R. V. Selope Thema, ‘How Congress Began’, in M. Mutloatse (ed.), Reconstruction: 90 Years of Black Historical Literature (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1981): 108–14; originally published in Drum, 25 July 1953: 41.
139 C. de. B. Webb and J. Wright (eds), The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples, vol. 5 (Scottsville: University of Natal Press, 2001): 269.
140 ‘The War News’, Abantu-Batho, 6 January 1916; see Part II. Crush, The Struggle for Swazi Labour: 161 refers to Seme publishing articles in 1913 on Swaziland, but these most likely would have been by Kunene.
141 DNL to editor, Abantu-Batho, 7 December 1914, DNL 1329/14 D48, ‘Anglo German War: Native Newspapers: Abantu Batho’.
142 Memorandum of Acting DNL to SNA reporting interview of Seme on 23 March 1916, DNL 1329/14 D48. An undated draft telegram by M. Carroll in the same file asserts Seme’s probable authorship in the interval between Kunene’s departure and Msane’s appointment as editor (Acting DNL to SNA, 24 March 1916, DNL 1329/14 D48).
143 ‘Sale in Execution’, Rand Daily Mail, 24 March 1916.
144 Abantu-Batho interviewed Seme in 1923 on his return from overseas on behalf of the Swazi monarchy, but recent research, if not conclusive, suggests he may also have joined his friend Locke to tour Egypt and apparently witness the opening of the tomb of King Tutankamen (Harris and Molesworth, Alain L. Locke: 79, 145 citing Locke, ‘Impressions of Luxor’, Howard Alumnus, vol. 2 May 1924. Cf. Chris Saunders’ chapter in this volume).
145 See ‘U Cleopas Kunene Kaseko!’, Ilanga, 20 April 1917: he died on 15 April of bowel flu, contracted in Swaziland where had been undertaking Abantu-Batho business. Thanks to Grant Christison for this.
146 Roux, Time Longer than Rope: 111. Letterhead, Cleopas Kunene to DNL, 16 July 1914, DNL 362/14 D80.
147 Webb and Wright, The James Stuart Archive, vol. 1: 273–74.
148 Tsala, 24 July 1915 suggested he would make a fine ‘Prisoners’ Vigilant’ on the SANNC executive.
149 ‘Ugqainyanga’, Ilanga, 18 February 1916; Acting DNL to SNA, 16 February 1916, in DNL 1329/14 D48, by which time ‘there was no Zulu editor as Cleopas Kunene had severed his connection’.
150 Christison, ‘African Jerusalem’: 778, citing ‘Sale in Execution’, Rand Daily Mail, 24 March 1916.
151 ‘Ezase Jozi’, Ilanga 14, 28 July 1916 and Christison, ‘African Jerusalem’: 790 ff., who points to intense rivalries between Kunene and Grendon over the editorship and other matters.
152 Josiah Mapumulo, ‘The Late Mr C. Kunene: An Appreciation’, Ilanga, 4 May 1917; ‘An Ex-Teacher’, ‘The Late Mr C. Kunene’s Successor’, Ilanga, 15 June 1917 also remarked on his role as chairperson of the Natal Teachers’ Conference at the same time as being editor of Abantu-Batho.
153 ‘South African Native National Congress’, Ilanga, 8 June 1917.
154 Selby Msimang, Hon. Sec. SANNC to Secretary, Aborigines Protection Society (APS), 13 October 1913, Rhodes House Library, Oxford University, in the Papers of the Anti-Slavery Society and APS Papers, Mss. Brit. Empire s.22 G203; Selope Thema to John Harris, London, 1 June 1921, Rhodes House Library, APS Papers, Mss. Brit. Empire s.23 H2/50.
155 ‘Call to the Native Workers’, International,