The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC)

The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress, emerging in response to the growing institutionalization of racial discrimination following the formation of the Union of South Africa. Its early leaders—drawn largely from the Black elite, including teachers, lawyers, and clergy—focused on peaceful protest, petitions, and appeals to the British Crown. During this period, the ANC sought to defend limited political and land rights for Black South Africans, especially in opposition to laws like the 1913 Natives Land Act, which severely restricted Black land ownership and laid a foundation for later apartheid policies.

The character of the ANC changed significantly in the 1940s and 1950s with the rise of mass politics and the influence of the ANC Youth League, whose leaders included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo. This generation pushed the organization toward more assertive forms of resistance, such as boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience, culminating in campaigns like the Defiance Campaign of 1952. After the apartheid government banned the ANC in 1960 following the Sharpeville Massacre, the movement went underground and into exile, eventually forming an armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, marking a strategic shift from nonviolence to armed struggle alongside continued diplomatic and international advocacy.

From the 1970s onward, the ANC gained increasing global support as anti-apartheid sentiment intensified worldwide, placing economic and political pressure on the South African state. Internal resistance, combined with international sanctions, weakened the apartheid system, leading to negotiations in the early 1990s. In 1994, after decades of struggle, the ANC led South Africa’s first multiracial democratic elections, bringing Nelson Mandela to the presidency. Since then, the ANC has remained a dominant force in South African politics, transitioning from a liberation movement to a governing party while facing ongoing challenges related to governance, inequality, and its historical legacy.