The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Likewise, concepts of strategic value that were used in ‘The Boycott’ such as ‘policeman‐
chief’ and ‘policeman‐intellectual’ would have “the effect of not only crystallising in the
minds of the people certain aspects in the new development, but also of forearming
them”. They would enable to people to scrutinise “every action of the intellectual”,
Tabata suggested. 37
Another educational dimension of the federal structure of the AAC and the Unity
Movement was one precisely concerned with issues of generational transition and
throughput, and the preparation of young people for eventual leadership. Educational
fellowships and Youth structures served as training grounds to ensure that the long‐
term leadership needs of the movement were met, and that young people and new
recruits were inculcated into the political principles and practices of the movement. This
was the core area of work of the NEF when it was formed by underground WPSA
activists in 1937, and was also the reason for the formation of SOYA in 1951. By the early
1950s, internal political tensions had started to manifest themselves and Tabata and his
colleagues began to see the NEF as inadequate for the needs of political education. NEF
member, Joe Rassool, has suggested that SOYA had been formed “secretively without
the participation or knowledge of the rest of the movement”. Tabata had apparently
argued that “the NEF was too advanced for young Africans”, and that what was needed
was a structure that could facilitate “a more elementary grounding in the ideas of the
movement”. 38
In any event, SOYA was formed “on a Union‐wide scale” as an affiliate of the AAC,
whereas the NEF had been Cape Town‐based. 39 Dora Taylor explained in 1965 that
SOYA had been formed to cater “for those young ones [who had] to grow in
understanding, read the literature, and be drawn into [the] movement”. Whereas the
formation of the ANCYL had involved “a clash” with the ANC, SOYA had been created
37 I.B. Tabata to Leo Sihlali, 2 May 1953, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925.
38 Joe Rassool, ‘Notes on the History of the Non‐European Unity Movement in South Africa, and the role
of Hosea Jaffe’. See also Ciraj Rassool, Interview with Joe Rassool, Reading, UK, 1 March 1992.
39 I.B. Tabata to the President, TLSA, 15 November 1957, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925.
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