from the Transkei that "peasants/migrants
were trying to defend their
rights to land, their ownership of cattle and other resources, and their
ability to affect local political processes."62 Before 1939,
these were the
main forms of political expression for most Africans. Though their suc-
cesses were few and their links with national movements sporadic, they
exemplified the vitality of local political life and their deep-seated desire to
c~ntrol their lives.
Three political organizations strove to improve the lot of the subordi-
nated peoples on the national scale: a Coloured organization, the African
Political Organization
(APO), founded in 1902; an Indian organization, the
South African Indian Congress (SAIC), which was founded in 1923, and the
South African Native National Congress (later known as the African Na-
tional Congress, or ANC), founded in 19 I 2. 63
The leaders of those three organizations were Western-oriented middle-
class people, the products of the best schools available. They aimed to
realize the promise inherent in the Cape colonial tradition, first by gaining
full equality with Whites for the middle classes they represented, and later
by extending the benefits to the masses of their people. The precedent they