Drum Magazine social history photographs, South Africa edition 2015

South Africa, 1961. Fourteen Hundred Delegates From All Over South Africa Went To Maritzburg, Where They Sounded A New And Powerful Call For Unity – Nelson Mandela. The odds were all against success, and yet the outcome was a triumph, an indication of a new spirit of resolve which has emerged among the African people. Few meetings can have been preceded by so many unfavourable omens as the All-In-Africa Conference at Maritzburg. There was a ban on the two main political organisations, the round ups and the imprisonment of leaders, the last minute withdrawal of some Liberal Party and Ex-PAC men, the difficulty of finding accommodation for delegates, the problems with transport. There was the decision to change the hall after tape recording wires were reported to have been found in the original venue. Yet despite all this, 1 4000 delegates from all over the Union got to Maritzburg and many of them slept out in the veld because there was no other place for them to stay. Mr Mandela who was able to attend only because a ban on him had been lifted ten days earlier, paid tribute to role played last year by the banned African organisation.