A. B. Xuma: “Bridging the Gap between White and Black in South Africa”

Impact

The more important African leaders who attended the conference continued their protests against government policies, at least until 1948. D. D. T. Jabavu, a South African Native College professor, became a dominant figure in the 1935 All African Convention, while Z. K. Matthews, a lawyer who had earned a master's degree from Yale University, and Albert Luthuli became active in the African National Congress. Xuma continued promoting African-European cooperation and seemed to retain faith in the possible success of that cooperation in reducing discrimination in South African society. The loss of the vote in 1936 disillusioned him and contributed to his becoming a more forceful advocate for self-reliance. Xuma became an important leader in the 1940s, remaining relatively moderate but speaking out more forcefully against discrimination. One of the great ongoing frustrations for black South African leaders was that nothing they did made a difference: the white parliament continued to pass legislation against African interests through 1948, and the situation became much worse with the imposition of the apartheid system.

Sources discussing the 1930 conference do not identify the students who attended; consequently, historians are unable to determine in what ways the conference affected their lives and the degree to which they joined the antidiscrimination or antiapartheid struggles after graduation. The interracial nature of the conference probably affected the participants, but there is little evidence about a collective impact. Selected newspapers, such as Umteteli wa Bantu, reported on the conference, and the monthly publication South African Outlook included a day-to-day description of events and speeches. The entire proceedings were published as a book. Alexander Kerr, the chairman of the conference, notes in the introduction that it was the best example up to that time of an opportunity, “under Christian auspices, for … discussion of the racial situation and its implications in South Africa.” What was important to him was that this interracial conference actually occurred, and he lauds the “fervency of youth” as well as the “fellowship” and cooperative spirit—intangibles that have an impact on people's lives but are very difficult to measure (Christian Students and Modern South Africa, p. 7).