The ANC Youth League. Clive Glaser

he travelled only rarely to Johannesburg and left most of the day-to-day running of the ANC to the Johannesburg-based executive committee. Sisulu’s role became pivotal.

      Following its dramatic success in Bloemfontein, the Youth League was, ironically, stripped of its leadership. Lembede was dead. Mda largely withdrew from politics for over a year because of ill health, and for much of the late 1940s and early 1950s he was also studying privately towards a law degree. In 1948 he returned to his home in Herschel district, where he was based, far from the centre of political action, for much of the 1950s. Tambo and Mandela turned down the presidency of the ANCYL in 1949 because they were devoting a lot of time to their legal studies. Sisulu had his hands full as ANC secretary-general. Pitje became a kind of caretaker Youth League president for most of 1950 until Mandela accepted the position at the December 1950 conference. But, even if they did not cut their ties entirely, for key figures like Mandela, Tambo, Sisulu and Pitje work in the senior executive was a greater priority by then. Another rising star of the ANCYL, Robert Sobukwe, was forced to take up a teaching position in sleepy Standerton, far away from the action.

      All of these activists had to balance their personal and political lives carefully. The party did not have the resources to provide a living. Even Sisulu, as a full-time organiser, had to make massive material sacrifices and live on a tiny stipend. Teachers had to go where work was available. They also had the additional difficulty of being, in effect, state employees. Even mission-run schools usually depended on state subsidies to pay the salaries of their teachers. This meant that teachers had to take considerable personal risks in order to involve themselves in politics. African doctors and lawyers did at least have the advantage of being self-employed. Law was prestigious not only because it offered greater professional status and potentially greater financial rewards, but, importantly, because it offered a measure of independence from the state. This explains why many African teachers in the 1940s and 1950s aspired to become lawyers. Lembede, Mda, Tambo, Pitje and many others followed this route. As busy professionals, it was difficult enough for them to find the time and commitment to work in the senior ANC. Though these senior figures remained influential, the ANCYL had to find a new generation of leadership in the 1950s. Probably the outstanding figure in the mid-1950s was Duma Nokwe, a graduate of St Peter’s (where he became a member of the Young Communist League), who returned to the southern Transvaal as a teacher and later began to study law. He was generally regarded as a left-winger. After serving as the secretary of the ANCYL in 1954, he quickly rose through the ranks of the senior ANC to become secretary-general in 1958.