African National Congress
Founded on 8 January 1912 by John Langalibalele Dube in Bloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), its primary mission was to give voting rights to black and mixed-race Africans and, from the 1940s, to end apartheid. The ANC originally attempted to use nonviolent protests to end apartheid, however, the Sharpeville massacre resulted in the deaths of 69 black Africans and contributed to deteriorating relations with the South African government. On 8 April 1960, the administration of Charles Robberts Swart, banned the ANC and forced the party to leave South Africa. After the ban, the ANC formed the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) to fight against apartheid utilizing guerrilla warfare and sabotage. On 3 February 1990, State President F. W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and released Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990. On 17 March 1992, the apartheid referendum was passed by the voters removing apartheid and allowing the ANC to run in the 1994 election. Since the 1994 election the ANC has performed better than 60% in all general elections, including the most recent 2014 election.
Music in the movement against apartheid
There was significant resistance to this system, both within and outside South Africa. Opposition outside the country often took the form of boycotts of South Africa. Within the country, resistance ranged from loosely organised groups to tightly knit ones, and from non-violent protests to armed opposition from the African National Congress. Through this entire process, music played a large role in the resistance. Music had been used in South Africa to protest racial segregation before apartheid began in 1948. The ANC had been founded in 1912, and would begin and end its meetings with its anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", an early example of music in the resistance to racial segregation. Another such example was "iLand Act" by R. T. Caluza, which protested the Native Land Act, and was also adopted as an anthem by the ANC. Commentator Michela Vershbow has written that the music of the movement against apartheid and racial segregation "reflected [the] widening gap" between different racial groups and was also an attempt "to communicate across it". Music in South Africa had begun to have explicitly political overtones in the 1930s, as musicians tried to include African elements in their recordings and performances to make political statements. In the 1940s, artists had begun to use music to criticise the state, not directly in response to racial segregation, but as a response to persecution of artists. Artists did not see their music as being directly political: Miriam Makeba would state "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth".