Dr Abdurahman, Mandela and the bold Young Turks
IT WAS a Thursday morning in Gordon’s Bay. Walking on Beach Road and browsing through some books in an old bookstore, I grabbed a pamphlet called The Mandela Document.
On the first page, was written “... it was during the years of the Second World War that a small group of young Africans, members of the ANC, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R Tambo, Ashby P Mda and Nelson Mandela. Their strategy, these Young Turks contended, rested on a misconception of the actual power relations in South African Society, consequently the tactics they had evolved failed to galvanise the masses of black oppressed.”
In fact, this was the ANC Youth League, founded in 1944. Mandela became the Youth League president in 1950. I have looked at many sources dating back to the 1950s and realised that the term “Young Turks” was quite popular at the time. It is even mentioned in De Klerk’s autobiography.
He clearly states that he encountered a Young Turk who was critical of the party’s proposals for consolidation to promote more effective implementation of the homelands policy.
Briefly, Africanism as an ideology in South Africa began in the 1940s, when a group of young South Africans of colour became dissatisfied with the moderate leadership of the ANC. So the question is, why did they call their organisation Young Turks?
Who are the Young Turks? The term “Young Turks” is derived from the Turkish term Jön Türkler, referring to a political reform movement in the early 20th century that favoured the replacement of the Ottoman Empire’s absolute monarchy with a constitutional government.
The Young Turks led a rebellion against the absolute rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. With this revolution, the Young Turks helped to establish the Second Constitutional Era in the same year, ushering in an era of multiparty democracy for the first time in the Ottoman Empire’s history.
The term Young Turks is now used to signify insurgent individuals trying to take control of a situation by force or by political manoeuvre, and various groups in different countries have been named as Young Turks because of their revolutionary nature.
Dr Abdullah Abdurahman (1872 – 1940)
When Dr Abdurahman travelled to England, his nephews Fuad and Rushdie Attaullah introduced him to some Turkish politicians in their circle. Interestingly, Dr Abdullah Abdurahman met prominent figures of the Turkish Young Turks organisation in London. This was reported in a local newspaper in South Africa in 1909:
The Colour Bar, Dr Abdurahman and the Young Turks
August 1909
Sir Charles Bruce, who has been Governor of British Guinea, Windward Islands and Mauritius respectively, in a letter to the “Morning Post” commenting on the South African Act of Union, says his experience convinces him that there will be enormous difficulty and danger in the use of such an indefinable term as of European descent. A public meeting was held in London this afternoon at which addresses were delivered by Young Turk leaders.
Among those present was Dr Abdurahman of Cape Town, who is watching the interests of the South African coloured people in connection with the Act of Union. Dr Abdurahman asked one of the Young Turks if colour barred anyone from sitting in the Turkish Parliament and received a reply in the negative. Dr Abdurahman then remarked that Turkey was more advanced than the Colonies of liberty-loving England. Instead of Lord Curzon lecturing the Turkish deputies someone had better go to Turkey and learn how people ought to be treated in a free country.
It is apparent from this news article that Dr Abdurahman was looking for a resolution for the black community in colonial South Africa, and perhaps received some ideas from the Young Turks in England.
Dr Abdurahman was probably the first South African figure to have a meeting with those Young Turks, who inspired many revolutionary movements worldwide.
The Youth League of South Africa was established in 1944 and referred to as Young Turks as a revolutionary organisation under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. At present, the Young Turks movement of 1908 in Turkiye remains as a fragment of history, but its impact and legacy are still living with us.
A luta continua …