The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

merely that of the secretary (as Jane Gool described her), wordsmith and grammarian.
Sometimes she was the amanuensis, 83 and at others, the silent, unacknowledged co‐
author.
As a WPSA member, Taylor was charged with the task of providing administrative
assistance to Tabata in his full‐time political work in the AAC and other formations from
at least August 1941. Sometimes she performed other backstage administrative duties
such as the recording of special meetings and conferences. 84 She continued to give
lectures, particularly on literary subjects. 85 But for the most part, Taylor became
immersed with Tabata in the almost daily work of written composition as politics: letters
and telegrams to national and local leaders and activists inside and outside the
movement, letters to newspapers, political manifestos, reports of meetings, drafts of
written texts for the monthly pamphlet, The Voice of the All African Convention, articles for
The Torch and texts of conference speeches. Often this immersion also entailed assisting
Tabata with basic printing and roneoing of materials for distribution. 86
This joint work seemingly began with contemporary strategic editorial suggestions,
rewordings and reformulations made by Taylor to a draft of a letter in Tabata’s
83 This was the term used by Wycliffe Tsotsi to describe Dora Taylor’s position. See Wycliffe Tsotsi to
I.B. Tabata, 3 February 1950, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925. After sending his “warmest regards” to
Tabata’s “amanuensis”, Tsotsi bemoaned not having one himself to “bring a little order” into his
“chaotic existence”.
84 Among these was the special meeting of the NEF convened at the Stakesby Lewis Hostel on 28
February 1943 to strategise a political response to the proposed Coloured Affairs Council (seen as a
step en route to a Coloured Affairs Department – CAD – along the lines of the Native Affairs
Department). It was here that Tabata proposed the formation of an Anti‐CAD committee as a United
Front. Other gatherings where she was present and took notes at were the Anti‐CAD Conference held
in the Mowbray Town Hall on 27 March 1948 and the NEUM Conference held in the Woodstock Town
Hall on April 2‐3 1951. Notes of these gatherings in Taylor’s handwriting are to be found in the I.B.
Tabata Collection, BC 925.
85 Taylor gave a lecture at the first Teachers’ League of South Africa (TLSA) Spring School held in Red
Hill, Simonstown on 5 & 6 October 1950. As a white WPSA member, Dora Taylor participated in
public formations only as an invited lecturer with special expertise in the literary field.
86 See I.B. Tabata, Pocket Diary, entries for 21 February 1945; 27 March 1945, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC
925.
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