Inkundla ya Bantu played a significant role as an alternative newspaper in forging a new course for the African nationalist struggle in South Africa during the 1940s. The direction of African political discourse changed during this decade from petionary protest to non-violent resistance. Inkundla, for example, served to mediate the African nationalist movement, but the newspaper was a contradictory voice in the struggle to promote a counter-hegemonic discourse in South Africa. On the one hand, Inkundla sought to represent the subjugated African population in ordering a protest agenda that would unify the resistance movement, and it was also a medium used by the Congress Youth League to challenge the cautious and accomodationist ANC leadership. On the other hand, the newspaper framed a discourse of consensus for the African petty bourgeoisie. The CYL's perception of the African struggle was consistent with the reform within Congress. The CYL's main contribution to the African nationalist struggle was its Africanist rhetoric and its appeal for social action by linking resistance as the basis for mass action. The commitment to work within Congress, however, opened up the CYL to be influence by the ANC's more established moderate wing that espoused a non-racial South Africa. The debate over the CYL's relationship with oppositions groups outside Congress involved primarily the Communists. But the Nationalist Party victory in the 1948 election and the adoption of apartheid as official government policy overshadowed the CYL-Communists differences. By the eve of the Defiance of Campaign, they had successfully placed its members in leadership position within the ANC. The CYL, moreover, now accepted a material and class analysis of society and were willing to cooperate with the Communist and other protest groups.

• Publisher : Africa World Press, Inc. (August 15, 2005)
• Language : English
• Paperback : 232 pages
• ISBN-10 : 1592213324
• ISBN-13 : 978-1592213320
• Item Weight : 10.5 ounces
• Dimensions : 0.59 x 5.47 x 8.35 inches