The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Nine that the AAC and Unity Movement were not known. It was also driven by the
need to influence the academic archive of South African resistance history, as
represented by the requests made by Gwendolen Carter and Tom Karis. In addition,
Taylor’s biographical work was also directed at publicising lives of persecution, as she
sought to document the repression experienced by members of the Unity Movement. 97
From about April 1965, with the continued denial of OAU recognition and with delays
in securing support promised by Kwame Nkrumah, the efforts at securing material and
financial support for the AAC and Unity Movement became connected to the solidarity
work of the Alexander Defense Committee. 98 Just a few weeks before, Tabata and his
colleagues had challenged the “attempts” to “dissociate” Neville Alexander “from the
Unity Movement” and insisted that the “well‐known” facts of the political affiliations of
Alexander and his colleagues be made known. 99
In 1965, Dora Taylor was instrumental in facilitating the Unity Movement’s connection
with the New York ADC. She began to supply the ADC with key documents of the
movement, and she visited its New York headquarters for meetings and to give lectures.
She also prepared brochures for use by the ADC. She provided research materials to the
newly formed Canadian ADC. She kept in touch with Tabata about the progress of her
work, about movement publications, and about plans for him to undertake a U.S.
97 See Dora Taylor to Fenner Brockway, 27 November 1964; ‘Defend victims of apartheid persecution’
(draft brochure for Alexander Defense Committee, Canada), Many 1965, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925;
‘In Verwoerd’s South Africa: A tale of persecution’, Issued by the Head Office Abroad of The All‐
African Convention and Unity Movement of South Africa, 8 March 1965, Carter‐Karis Microfilm
Collection, 2:DA13:84/10. Taylor continued work on the “stories” of Leo Sihlali, Louis Mtshizana and
Livingstone Mqotsi. See Dora Taylor, Pocket Diary, entries for 23‐26 March 1965, I.B. Tabata Collection
BC 925.
98 The ADC’s head office in New York had just presented a memorandum to the United Nations
Special Committee on Apartheid, which Tabata suggested was “unchallengeable and cogent”. See
‘Memorandum Dated 8 March 1965 from the Alexander Defense Committee, New York’, 16 March
1965; I.B. Tabata to Berta Green, Corresponding Secretary, ADC, 2 April 1965, I.B. Tabata Collection,
BC 925.
99 ‘The Animosity of the S.A. Press’, Statement issued by the Lusaka Office of the All‐African
Convention and UMSA, 1965 Carter‐Karis Microfilm Collection, 2:XA5:92. This document was also
incorporated into the last four pages of ‘In Verwoerd’s South Africa: A Tale of Persecution’, Issued by
the Head Office Abroad of The All‐African Convention and Unity Movement of South Africa, 8 March
1965, Carter‐Karis Microfilm Collection, 2:DA13:84/10.
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